Yuki Shirai

Yuki Shirai
  • Position:
    Research / Technical Staff

    Postdoctoral Research Fellow
  • Education:
    Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, 2024
  • Research Areas:
  • External Links:
Yuki's Quick Links

  • Biography

    Yuki's research focuses on planning, estimation, and control for contact-rich manipulation and locomotion, from spanning free-climbing robots to robotic tool manipulation. In particular, he has been working on contact-implicit trajectory optimization, stochastic optimization, contact modeling, and contact estimation using tactile sensing. His current research interests lie in the intersection of optimization and learning.

  • Awards

    •  AWARD    MERL Researchers Win Best Workshop Poster Award at the 2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
      Date: June 2, 2023
      Awarded to: Yuki Shirai, Devesh Jha, Arvind Raghunathan and Dennis Hong
      MERL Contacts: Devesh K. Jha; Arvind Raghunathan; Yuki Shirai
      Research Areas: Artificial Intelligence, Optimization, Robotics
      Brief
      • MERL's paper titled: "Closed-Loop Tactile Controller for Tool Manipulation" Won the Best Poster Award in the workshop on "Embracing contacts : Making robots physically interact with our world". First author and MERL intern, Yuki Shirai, was presented with the award at a ceremony held at ICRA in London. MERL researchers Devesh Jha, Principal Research Scientist, and Arvind Raghunathan, Senior Principal Research Scientist and Senior Team Leader as well as Prof. Dennis Hong of University of California, Los Angeles are also coauthors.

        The paper presents a technique to manipulate an object using a tool in a closed-loop fashion using vision-based tactile sensors. More information about the workshop and the various speakers can be found here https://sites.google.com/view/icra2023embracingcontacts/home.
    •  
    See All Awards for MERL

  • MERL Publications

    •  Shirai, Y., Jha, D.K., Raghunathan, A., Romeres, D., "Chance-Constrained Optimization for Contact-rich Systems using Mixed Integer Programming", Nonlinear Analysis: Hybrid Systems, DOI: 10.1016/​j.nahs.2024.101466, Vol. 52, December 2024.
      BibTeX TR2024-008 PDF
      • @article{Shirai2024dec,
      • author = {Shirai, Yuki and Jha, Devesh K. and Raghunathan, Arvind and Romeres, Diego},
      • title = {Chance-Constrained Optimization for Contact-rich Systems using Mixed Integer Programming},
      • journal = {Nonlinear Analysis: Hybrid Systems},
      • year = 2024,
      • volume = 52,
      • month = dec,
      • doi = {10.1016/j.nahs.2024.101466},
      • issn = {1751-570X},
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2024-008}
      • }
    •  Shirai, Y., Jha, D.K., Raghunathan, A., "Robust Pivoting Manipulation using Contact Implicit Bilevel Optimization", IEEE Transactions on Robotics, DOI: 10.1109/​TRO.2024.3422053, pp. 3425-3444, July 2024.
      BibTeX TR2024-096 PDF Video
      • @article{Shirai2024jul,
      • author = {{Shirai, Yuki and Jha, Devesh K. and Raghunathan, Arvind}},
      • title = {Robust Pivoting Manipulation using Contact Implicit Bilevel Optimization},
      • journal = {IEEE Transactions on Robotics},
      • year = 2024,
      • pages = {3425--3444},
      • month = jul,
      • doi = {10.1109/TRO.2024.3422053},
      • issn = {1941-0468},
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2024-096}
      • }
    •  Shirai, Y., Jha, D.K., Raghunathan, A., "Contact-Aware Covariance Control of Stochastic Contact-Rich Systems", IROS 2023 Workshop on Leveraging Models for Contact-Rich Manipulation, September 2023.
      BibTeX TR2023-120 PDF
      • @inproceedings{Shirai2023sep,
      • author = {Shirai, Yuki and Jha, Devesh K. and Raghunathan, Arvind},
      • title = {Contact-Aware Covariance Control of Stochastic Contact-Rich Systems},
      • booktitle = {IROS 2023 Workshop on Leveraging Models for Contact-Rich Manipulation},
      • year = 2023,
      • month = sep,
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2023-120}
      • }
    •  Shirai, Y., Jha, D.K., Raghunathan, A., Romeres, D., "Chance-Constrained Optimization in Contact-rich Systems", American Control Conference (ACC), DOI: 10.23919/​ACC55779.2023.10156516, May 2023, pp. 14-21.
      BibTeX TR2023-061 PDF
      • @inproceedings{Shirai2023may4,
      • author = {Shirai, Yuki and Jha, Devesh K. and Raghunathan, Arvind and Romeres, Diego},
      • title = {Chance-Constrained Optimization in Contact-rich Systems},
      • booktitle = {American Control Conference (ACC)},
      • year = 2023,
      • pages = {14--21},
      • month = may,
      • publisher = {IEEE},
      • doi = {10.23919/ACC55779.2023.10156516},
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2023-061}
      • }
    •  Shirai, Y., Jha, D.K., Raghunathan, A., "Covariance Steering for Uncertain Contact-Rich Systems", IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), DOI: 10.1109/​ICRA48891.2023.10160249, May 2023, pp. 7923-7929.
      BibTeX TR2023-024 PDF
      • @inproceedings{Shirai2023may3,
      • author = {Shirai, Yuki and Jha, Devesh K. and Raghunathan, Arvind},
      • title = {Covariance Steering for Uncertain Contact-Rich Systems},
      • booktitle = {IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)},
      • year = 2023,
      • pages = {7923--7929},
      • month = may,
      • publisher = {IEEE},
      • doi = {10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10160249},
      • isbn = {979-8-3503-2365-8},
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2023-024}
      • }
    See All MERL Publications for Yuki

  • Other Publications

    •  Yusuke Tanaka, Yuki Shirai, Xuan Lin, Alexander Schperberg, Hayato Kato, Alexander Swerdlow, Naoya Kumagai and Dennis Hong, "SCALER: A Tough Versatile Quadruped Free-Climber Robot", 2022 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2022, pp. 5632-5639.
      BibTeX
      • @Inproceedings{9981555,
      • author = {Tanaka, Yusuke and Shirai, Yuki and Lin, Xuan and Schperberg, Alexander and Kato, Hayato and Swerdlow, Alexander and Kumagai, Naoya and Hong, Dennis},
      • title = {SCALER: A Tough Versatile Quadruped Free-Climber Robot},
      • booktitle = {2022 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)},
      • year = 2022,
      • pages = {5632--5639}
      • }
    •  Yuki Shirai, Xuan Lin, Alexander Schperberg, Yusuke Tanaka, Hayato Kato, Varit Vichathorn and Dennis Hong, "Simultaneous Contact-Rich Grasping and Locomotion via Distributed Optimization Enabling Free-Climbing for Multi-Limbed Robots", 2022 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2022, pp. 13563-13570.
      BibTeX
      • @Inproceedings{9981579,
      • author = {Shirai, Yuki and Lin, Xuan and Schperberg, Alexander and Tanaka, Yusuke and Kato, Hayato and Vichathorn, Varit and Hong, Dennis},
      • title = {Simultaneous Contact-Rich Grasping and Locomotion via Distributed Optimization Enabling Free-Climbing for Multi-Limbed Robots},
      • booktitle = {2022 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)},
      • year = 2022,
      • pages = {13563--13570}
      • }
    •  Yuki Shirai, Xuan Lin, Ankur Mehta and Dennis Hong, "LTO: Lazy Trajectory Optimization with Graph-Search Planning for High DOF Robots in Cluttered Environments", 2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2021, pp. 7533-7539.
      BibTeX
      • @Inproceedings{9561502,
      • author = {Shirai, Yuki and Lin, Xuan and Mehta, Ankur and Hong, Dennis},
      • title = {LTO: Lazy Trajectory Optimization with Graph-Search Planning for High DOF Robots in Cluttered Environments},
      • booktitle = {2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)},
      • year = 2021,
      • pages = {7533--7539}
      • }
    •  Yuki Shirai, Xuan Lin, Yusuke Tanaka, Ankur Mehta and Dennis Hong, "Risk-Aware Motion Planning for a Limbed Robot with Stochastic Gripping Forces Using Nonlinear Programming", IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 4994-5001, 2020.
      BibTeX
      • @Article{9113247,
      • author = {Shirai, Yuki and Lin, Xuan and Tanaka, Yusuke and Mehta, Ankur and Hong, Dennis},
      • title = {Risk-Aware Motion Planning for a Limbed Robot with Stochastic Gripping Forces Using Nonlinear Programming},
      • journal = {IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters},
      • year = 2020,
      • volume = 5,
      • number = 4,
      • pages = {4994--5001}
      • }
    •  Kenji Nagaoka, Hayato Minote, Kyohei Maruya, Yuki Shirai, Kazuya Yoshida, Takeshi Hakamada, Hirotaka Sawada and Takashi Kubota, "Passive Spine Gripper for Free-Climbing Robot in Extreme Terrain", IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 1765-1770, 2018.
      BibTeX
      • @Article{8260908,
      • author = {Nagaoka, Kenji and Minote, Hayato and Maruya, Kyohei and Shirai, Yuki and Yoshida, Kazuya and Hakamada, Takeshi and Sawada, Hirotaka and Kubota, Takashi},
      • title = {Passive Spine Gripper for Free-Climbing Robot in Extreme Terrain},
      • journal = {IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters},
      • year = 2018,
      • volume = 3,
      • number = 3,
      • pages = {1765--1770}
      • }