VLDB 2026 Research / reviewers in the wild / expert
Yishuai Cai
dblp:260/2559
· DBLP profile ↗
11ranked-venue papers
4as first author
11since 2021 · last 2026
0000-0001-7471-7301ORCID · corroborated
Domains — the database's venue-derived domains; a paper can count in several
Artificial intelligence and machine learning · 10 · 4 first-author · 10 since 2021Graphics, computer vision, multimedia, augmented reality and games · 5 · 2 first-author · 5 since 2021Systems, architecture and hardware · 3 · 2 first-author · 3 since 2021
| Year | Publication | Venue | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | CABTO: Context-Aware Behavior Tree Grounding for Robot Manipulation
Yishuai Cai, Xinglin Chen, Yunxin Mao, Minglong Li |
AAAI | 1 |
| 2026 | Conflict-Aware Memory for Embodied Agents: Enhancing Vector Data Quality via Detection RulesabstractEmbodied agents have successfully leveraged large language models (LLMs) to better transform human instructions and images into executable task plans.Furthermore, memories of agents can be leveraged to achieve continual self-learning and optimization.However, vector data quality problems emerge in memories when they are projected into vector space, especially in discerning contextually similar but semantically conflicting sentences and highly similar images.This is particularly detrimental to embodied AI as it potentially distorts the robot's actions.To address this challenge, we propose Conflict Detection Rules (CDRs) to identify and manage data quality issues in vector knowledge bases, which assist in correcting the index structure and further improving the answer quality.Experimental results show that planners with CDRs exceed the basic LLM planner by 15.25% and 14.25% in grammatical accuracy (GA) and interpretation accuracy (IA) on average, respectively.Moreover, the entire workflow has been successfully integrated into various scenarios, demonstrating its practical applicability and robustness in the real world 1 . Kexin Ma 0008, Haotian Wang 0001, Shenglin Chen, Yishuai Cai, Ruochun Jin |
ACL (1) | 4 |
| 2025 | MRBTP: Efficient Multi-Robot Behavior Tree Planning and CollaborationabstractMulti-robot task planning and collaboration are critical challenges in robotics. While Behavior Trees (BTs) have been established as a popular control architecture and are plannable for a single robot, the development of effective multi-robot BT planning algorithms remains challenging due to the complexity of coordinating diverse action spaces. We propose the Multi-Robot Behavior Tree Planning (MRBTP) algorithm, with theoretical guarantees of both soundness and completeness. MRBTP features cross-tree expansion to coordinate heterogeneous actions across different BTs to achieve the team's goal. For homogeneous actions, we retain backup structures among BTs to ensure robustness and prevent redundant execution through intention sharing. While MRBTP is capable of generating BTs for both homogeneous and heterogeneous robot teams, its efficiency can be further improved. We then propose an optional plugin for MRBTP when Large Language Models (LLMs) are available to reason goal-related actions for each robot. These relevant actions can be pre-planned to form long-horizon subtrees, significantly enhancing the planning speed and collaboration efficiency of MRBTP. We evaluate our algorithm in warehouse management and everyday service scenarios. Results demonstrate MRBTP's robustness and execution efficiency under varying settings, as well as the ability of the pre-trained LLM to generate effective task-specific subtrees for MRBTP. Yishuai Cai, Xinglin Chen, Zhongxuan Cai, Yunxin Mao, Minglong Li, Wenjing Yang 0002, Ji Wang 0001 |
AAAI | 1 |
| 2025 | Automated Exposure Mapping for Networked InterferenceabstractBy characterizing interactions and influences across individuals, networked interference aims to estimate cross-individual treatment effects. For each individual, one of the central components of existing approaches is to manually design an exposure mapping from their neighboring covariates (including their own ones) to different exposure conditions. However, handcraft neighboring structures defined by such manual schemes struggle to capture the complex and flexible structures exhibited by real-world social networks. To bridge this gap, we propose an Automated Exposure Mapping Network (AEMNet) by capturing networked interference conditions automatically with Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) and achieving mapping with deep embedded clustering. The learned representations between individuals in the graph structure reveal patterns and structures hidden behind data, facilitating application on large-scale, relationally complex networked data. We conducted extensive experiments demonstrating that our approach outperforms the baselines in both quality and flexibility, underscoring its ability to better characterize the interference relationships. Yunxin Mao, Haotian Wang 0001, Yishuai Cai, Minglong Li, Ji Wang 0001, Wenjing Yang 0002 |
ICASSP | 3 |
| 2025 | HBTP: Heuristic Behavior Tree Planning with Large Language Model ReasoningabstractBehavior Trees (BTs) are increasingly becoming a popular control structure in robotics due to their modularity, reactivity, and robustness. In terms of BT generation methods, BT planning shows promise for generating reliable BTs. However, the scalability of BT planning is often constrained by prolonged planning times in complex scenarios, largely due to a lack of domain knowledge. In contrast, pre-trained Large Language Models (LLMs) have demonstrated task reasoning capabilities across various domains, though the correctness and safety of their planning remain uncertain. This paper proposes integrating BT planning with LLM reasoning, introducing Heuristic Behavior Tree Planning (HBTP)-a reliable and efficient framework for BT generation. The key idea in HBTP is to leverage LLMs for task-specific reasoning to generate a heuristic path, which BT planning can then follow to expand efficiently. We first introduce the heuristic BT expansion process, along with two heuristic variants designed for optimal planning and satisficing planning, respectively. Then, we propose methods to address the inaccuracies of LLM reasoning, including action space pruning and reflective feedback, to further enhance both reasoning accuracy and planning efficiency. Experiments demonstrate the theoretical bounds of HBTP, and results from four datasets confirm its practical effectiveness in everyday service robot applications. Yishuai Cai, Xinglin Chen, Yunxin Mao, Minglong Li, Shaowu Yang, Wenjing Yang 0002, Ji Wang 0001 |
ICRA | 1 |
| 2025 | BTPG: A Platform and Benchmark for Behavior Tree Planning in Everyday Service RobotsabstractBehavior Trees (BTs) are a widely used control architecture in robotics, renowned for their robustness and safety, which are especially crucial for everyday service robots. Recently, several methods have been proposed to automatically plan BTs to accomplish specific tasks. However, existing research in BT planning lacks two main aspects: (1) the absence of a standard platform for modeling and planning BTs, along with testing benchmarks; and (2) insufficient metrics for a comprehensive evaluation of BT planning algorithms. In this paper, we propose Behavior Tree Planning Gym (BTPG), the first platform and benchmark for BT planning in everyday service robots. In BTPG, behavior nodes are represented by predicate logic, and objects are categorized to better define the predicate domains and action models. The BT planning problem is then formulated in the STRIPS style. We support four environments and three simulators with different action models, which cover most of the needs of everyday service activities. We design a dataset generator for each environment and test three state-of-the-art BT planning algorithms, as well as one proposed by us, using various common metrics. In addition, we design three advanced metrics, planning progress, region distance, and execution robustness, to gain deeper insights into these BT planning algorithms. With a standard test benchmark, we hope BTPG can inspire and accelerate progress in the field of BT planning. Our codes are available at https://github.com/DIDS-EI/BTPG. Xinglin Chen, Yishuai Cai, Minglong Li, Yunxin Mao, Wenjing Yang 0002, Ji Wang 0001 |
IJCAI | 2 |
| 2025 | DexFlyWheel: A Scalable and Self-improving Data Generation Framework for Dexterous ManipulationabstractDexterous manipulation is critical for advancing robot capabilities in real-world applications, yet diverse and high-quality datasets remain scarce. Existing data collection methods either rely on human teleoperation or require significant human engineering, or generate data with limited diversity, which restricts their scalability and generalization. In this paper, we introduce DexFlyWheel, a scalable data generation framework that employs a self-improving cycle to continuously enrich data diversity. Starting from efficient seed demonstrations warmup, DexFlyWheel expands the dataset through iterative cycles. Each cycle follows a closed-loop pipeline that integrates Imitation Learning (IL), residual Reinforcement Learning (RL), rollout trajectory collection, and data augmentation. Specifically, IL extracts human-like behaviors from demonstrations, and residual RL enhances policy generalization. The learned policy is then used to generate trajectories in simulation, which are further augmented across diverse environments and spatial configurations before being fed back into the next cycle. Over successive iterations, a self-improving data flywheel effect emerges, producing datasets that cover diverse scenarios and thereby scaling policy performance. Experimental results demonstrate that DexFlyWheel generates over 2,000 diverse demonstrations across four challenging tasks. Policies trained on our dataset achieve an average success rate of 81.9\% on the challenge test sets and successfully transfer to the real world through digital twin, achieving a 78.3\% success rate on dual-arm lift tasks. Kefei Zhu, Fengshuo Bai, YuanHao Xiang, Yishuai Cai, Xinglin Chen, Ruochong Li, Hao Dong 0003, Yaodong Yang 0001, Xiaopeng Fan 0001, Yuanpei Chen |
NeurIPS | 4 |
| 2024 | Integrating Intent Understanding and Optimal Behavior Planning for Behavior Tree Generation from Human Instructions
Xinglin Chen, Yishuai Cai, Yunxin Mao, Minglong Li, Wenjing Yang 0002, Ji Wang 0001 |
IJCAI | 2 |
| 2023 | Task2Morph: Differentiable Task-Inspired Framework for Contact-Aware Robot DesignabstractOptimizing the morphologies and the controllers that adapt to various tasks is a critical issue in the field of robot design, aka. embodied intelligence. Previous works typically model it as a joint optimization problem and use search-based methods to find the optimal solution in the morphology space. However, they ignore the implicit knowledge of task-to-morphology mapping which can directly inspire robot design. For example, flipping heavier boxes tends to require more muscular robot arms. This paper proposes a novel and general differentiable task-inspired framework for contact-aware robot design called Task2Morph. We abstract task features highly related to task performance and use them to build a task-to-morphology mapping. Further, we embed the mapping into a differentiable robot design process, where the gradient information is leveraged for both the mapping learning and the whole optimization. The experiments are conducted on three scenarios, and the results validate that Task2Morph outperforms DiffHand, which lacks a task-inspired morphology module, in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. Yishuai Cai, Shaowu Yang, Minglong Li, Xinglin Chen, Yunxin Mao, Xiaodong Yi 0002, Wenjing Yang 0002 |
IROS | 1 |
| 2023 | Evolving Physical Instinct for Morphology and Control Co-AdaptionabstractThe capability of a robot to perform tasks depends not only on precise motion control, but also on a well-suited body morphology. Adapting both morphology and control of robots to improve their task performance has been a widely studied and long-standing issue. While the bio-inspired bi-level optimization framework has gained popularity in recent years, it suffers from high computation complexity due to the time-consuming and inefficient learning process for each morphology. In fact, in nature, besides the adaptive morphology and the intelligent brain, animals also possess an important gift, which is physical instinct. These instincts allow animals to respond quickly to their surroundings in the neonatal period, facilitating skills acquisition. Inspired by this, we propose an evolvable instinct controller to enhance the morphology-control co-adaption. The instinct controller suggests rough motion inclinations, which require minimal domain knowledge and entail less sophisticated design. Its purpose is to assist the main controller in learning fine-grained and robust control efficiently. We implemented this idea in the context of legged locomotion and designed the instinct controller using phase-based FSMs. We propose the instinct-based co-adaption algorithm and construct GPU parallel simulation experiments on different morphology prototypes. The results indicate that combining the co-adaption process with instinct evolution leads to the development of superior morphologies and robust controllers compared with the conventional co-adaption approach, with minimal additional time cost. Xinglin Chen, Minglong Li, Yishuai Cai, Zhuoer Wen, Zhongxuan Cai, Wenjing Yang 0002 |
IROS | 4 |
| 2021 | Dynamic multi-stage failure-specific cooperative recourse strategy for logistics with simultaneous pickup and delivery
Wenyu Zhang 0001, Shuai Zhang 0002, Yishuai Cai |
Soft Comput. | 4 |