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Changda Tian

Changda Tian

PhD Fellow · Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (RAICAM)

FORTH & University of Crete · Heraklion, Greece · dada@ics.forth.gr

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Research Interests

Modular Legged Robots · Robot Design & Control · Reinforcement Learning · Sim-to-Real Transfer

Education

  1. 2023 – present

    PhD, Robotics & Computer Science

    FORTH & University of Crete, Greece

    Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions fellow (RAICAM), CVRL-FORTH

  2. 2020 – 2023

    M.Eng., Control Engineering

    Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China

    RL2 Lab, AI Institute (advisor Prof. Yue Gao)

  3. 2016 – 2020

    B.Eng., Automation

    Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China

    Zhiyuan College Honors Program of Engineering (top 5%)

Positions

  1. 2023 – present

    Teaching Assistant

    Department of Computer Science, University of Crete

  2. before 2023

    Informatics Competition Coach (part-time)

    Shanghai Jiao Long Academy

    Taught classical algorithms and Python/C++ programming to middle-school students preparing for informatics competitions.

Publications

  1. Changda Tian, Panos Trahanias — Role-Based Reward Decomposition for Legged Locomotion Reinforcement Learning.

    IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) — Accepted, 2026.

  2. Changda Tian, Hamidreza Raei, Arash Ajoudani, Panos Trahanias — Sim-to-Real Reinforcement Learning for Ball-Balancing Locomotion on Quadruped Robots.

    2026 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics (AIM), 2026.

  3. Alperen Kenan, Sahar Sadeghi Kordkheili, Juan Jose Garcia Cardenas, Valentina Guidali, Alessandro Melone, Changda Tian, Enes Ulas Dincer, Haichuan Li, Hamidreza Raei, Sasanka Kuruppu Arachchige, Yifeng Tang, Adriana Tapus, Anibal Ollero, Antonio Gonzalez-Morgado, Arash Ajudani, Begona C. Arrue, Cristina Piazza, Dimitrios Papageorgiou, Gerhard Neumann, Joni-Kristian Kamarainen, Jukka Heikkonen, Luis Figueredo, Manuel Giuliani, Panos Trahanias, Paul Bremner, Saeed Rafee Nekoo, Simon Watson, Tomi Westerlund — Lessons learned from the RAICAM doctoral network research sprints and field demonstrations.

    Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 2026.

  4. Sasanka Kuruppu Arachchige, Juan Jose Garcia, Changda Tian, Lauri Suomela, Panos Trahanias, Adriana Tapus, Joni-Kristian Kamarainen — AgiPIX: Bridging Simulation and Reality in Indoor Aerial Inspection.

    2026 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS), 2026.

  5. Changda Tian, Sasanka Kuruppu Arachchige, Haichuan Li, Juan Jose Garcia Cardenas, Hamidreza Raei, Enes Dincer, Alperen Kenan, Paul Bremner, Manuel Giuliani, Gerhard Neumann, Arash Ajoudani, Adriana Tapus, Tomi Westerlund, Joni-Kristian Kamarainen, Luis Figueredo, Simon Watson, Panos Trahanias — Low-Cost Rapid-Development Air-Ground Robotic Solution for Nuclear Power Plant Inspection.

    2025 IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics (SSRR), 2025.

  6. Juan Jose Garcia Cardenas, Changda Tian, Panos Trahanias, Adriana Tapus — Multimodal Assessment of Human Trust and Cognitive Load in Legged Robot Interaction.

    Social Robotics + AI (ICSR+AI 2025), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2025.

  7. Alperen Kenan, Sahar Sadeghi Kordkheili, Juan Jose Garcia Cardenas, Alessandro Melone, Changda Tian, Haichuan Li, Hamidreza Raei, Sasanka Kuruppu Arachchige, Yifeng Tang, Adriana Tapus, Anibal Ollero, Arash Ajudani, Begona C. Arrue, Dimitrios Papageorgiou, Joni-Kristian Kamarainen, Jukka Heikkonen, Luis Figueredo, Manuel Giuliani, Panos Trahanias, Paul Bremner, Saeed Rafee Nekoo, Simon Watson, Tomi Westerlund — Lessons Learned from the RAICAM Doctoral Network Research Sprints.

    Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems (TAROS 2025), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2025.

  8. Ziqi Ma, Changda Tian, Yue Gao — Manipulate as Human: Learning Task-oriented Manipulation Skills by Adversarial Motion Priors.

    Robotica, 2025.

  9. Despina-Ekaterini Argiropoulos, Michael Maravgakis, Changda Tian, Dimitrios Papageorgiou, Panos Trahanias — Optimal Torque Distribution via Dynamic Adaptation for Quadrupedal Locomotion on Slippery Terrains.

    2025 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2025.

  10. Yue Gao, Changda Tian, Yang Zhang — Learning Capability to Enhance Locomotion Control and Planning for Legged Robots.

    2024 IEEE International Conference on Real-time Computing and Robotics (RCAR), 2024.

  11. Changda Tian, Yue Gao — CapPlanner: Adaptable to Various Topology and Locomotion Capability for Hexapod Robots.

    2022 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO), 2022. Best Paper in Biomimetics — Finalist.

  12. Chenyu Yang, Yue Gao, Changda Tian, QingShan Yao — Sim-to-Real: Designing Locomotion Controller for Six-Legged Robot.

    2019 IEEE 9th Annual International Conference on CYBER Technology in Automation, Control, and Intelligent Systems (CYBER), 2019.

Honors & Awards

  1. Sep 2023

    Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions PhD Fellowship (RAICAM)

  2. Dec 2022

    Best Paper in Biomimetics — Finalist, IEEE ROBIO

  3. 2020 – 2022

    Graduate Student Academic Scholarship (×3)

  4. Aug 2019

    Second Prize, East China NXP Smart Car Competition

  5. Apr 2019

    H Prize, Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM)

  6. Oct 2018

    CASC Aerospace Science and Technology Award (top 5%)

  7. Oct 2017

    National Scholarship (top 1%)

  8. 2016 – 2019

    Zhiyuan Excellent Scholarship (×4, top 10%)

Skills

Programming
Python · C/C++ · Verilog HDL
Robotics
ROS · MuJoCo · CoppeliaSim · Whole-Body Control
Machine Learning
PyTorch · Reinforcement Learning · Imitation Learning
Engineering
SolidWorks · MATLAB · Mathematica · FPGA (Quartus II)