About me

I am Zhongkai Zhang (张忠恺), and I am working in MIRoC lab at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) as a Research Assistant advised by Prof. Zhongliang Jiang. Prior to this, I received my Master’s degree from the Robotics Institute, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), where I was supervised by Prof. Chungang Zhuang.

I will join the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) in August 2026 as a full-time Ph.D. student, co-advised by Prof. Ka-Wai Kwok and Prof. Zhongliang Jiang. My research interests lie at the intersection of robot manipulation, perception, and medical robotics. Currently, I am working on visual perception, reinforcement learning and imitation learning for enabling life-long robot learning capabilities.

I am always open for collaboration, so please feel free to contact me via email if you are interested!

Education

• Sept. 2023 - Mar. 2026, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, M. Eng. in Mechanical Engineering
• Sept. 2019 - June 2023, Harbin Institute of Technology, B. Sc. in Mechanical Engineering

Research & Publications

In my past research, I primarily focused on:

1. robot modeling, calibration & identification;
2. residual motion/torque error compensation;
3. robot motion & force control.

The overview of my previous works is shown in the following figure.

Published & accepted:

• Z. Zhang, H. Hu, P. Zha, C. Zhuang, “Unified Gravitational and Elasto-Geometrical Calibration for an Industrial Robot Using Closed-Form Formulation,” IEEE Robotics & Automation Letters, vol. 10, no. 7, pp. 7619–7626, July 2025.
• Z. Zhang, Y. Lu, H. Hu, Z. Shen, C. Zhuang, “A Hybrid Elasto-geometrical Calibration Method for Industrial Robot using Only Position Measurement,” The 17-th International Conference on Intelligent Robotics and Applications (ICIRA), 2024.
• H. Hu, Z. Zhang, C. Zhuang, “Modeling and Compensation of Backlash-Induced Dynamic Errors in Industrial Robots with a PINN-Based Approach,” IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, Early Access.
• H. Hu, Z. Zhang, P. Zha, C. Zhuang, “A Physics-informed Neural Network-based Momentum Observer Considering Velocity Effects for Contact Force Estimation in Industrial Robots,” The 18th International Conference on Intelligent Robotics and Applications (ICIRA), 2025.
• Y. Lu, Z. Zhang, P. Zha, H. Hu, C. Zhuang, “Dual-Channel Adaptive Impedance Algorithm with Leveling Module in Dual-Arm Collaborative Robots,” The 18th International Conference on Intelligent Robotics and Applications (ICIRA), 2025.
• W. Hu, H. Hu, Z. Zhang, C. Zhuang, “Dynamics Modeling and Vibration Suppression of Industrial Robots Handling Flexible Payloads,” The 18th International Conference on Intelligent Robotics and Applications (ICIRA), 2025.

Award & Honors

• Outstanding Master’s Thesis (Top 15%), Shanghai Jiao Tong University (2026)
• Outstanding Graduate, Shanghai Jiao Tong University (2026)
• Graduate Scholarship, Shanghai Jiao Tong University (2023, 2024)
• Outstanding Undergraduate Thesis (Top 5%), Harbin Institute of Technology (2023)
• Undergraduate Scholarship, Harbin Institute of Technology (2021, 2022, 2023)
• National 1st Prize in 10th National Undergraduate Mechanical Innovational Competition (2022)
• National 2nd Prize in 20th ABU Asia-Pacific Robot Contest (2021)
• National Excellent Prize in 13rd Zhou Peiyuan Undergraduate Mechanics Competition (2021)
• Excellent Student Award, Harbin Institute of Technology (2019, 2020)