Zhenlong Fang

Ph.D. Student, Mechanical Engineering

University of California, Berkeley

Berkeley, CA, USA

About Me

I am a Ph.D. student in Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, advised by Prof. Negar Mehr. My research centers on humanoid loco-manipulation and robot generalization: building robots that adapt to diverse tasks and operate robustly in complex real-world environments.

Previously, I was a research assistant in robotics at Carnegie Mellon University, working with Prof. Ding Zhao, and I obtained my B.A. in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, where I worked with Prof. Yue Yu. That training shapes how I approach robotics today, combining rigorous algorithmic thinking with data-driven learning.

Before turning to humanoids, I was fortunate to work with collaborators at Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and the University of Minnesota.

Research Interests

Humanoid loco-manipulation: whole-body control that couples locomotion and manipulation for dynamic, contact-rich tasks.
Robot generalization: policies that transfer across tasks, embodiments, and environments, and stay robust when deployed in the real world.

selected publications

IROS

Learning Versatile Humanoid Manipulation with Touch Dreaming

Yaru Niu, Zhenlong Fang, Binghong Chen, and 8 more authors

In IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2026

Accepted

arXiv Bib Video Code Website

@inproceedings{niu2026touchdream,
  title = {Learning Versatile Humanoid Manipulation with Touch Dreaming},
  author = {Niu, Yaru and Fang, Zhenlong and Chen, Binghong and Zhou, Shuai and Senthilkumaran, Revanth Krishna and Zhang, Hao and Chen, Bingqing and Qiu, Chen and Tseng, H. Eric and Francis, Jonathan and Zhao, Ding},
  booktitle = {IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)},
  year = {2026},
  note = {Accepted},
}

RSS-W

Egocentric Cross-Embodiment Manipulation with Embodiment Dreaming

Binghong Chen^*, Yaru Niu^*, Changwei Yao^*, and 12 more authors

In 4th RSS Workshop on Dexterous Manipulation: Scalable Learning for Human-Level Skills, 2026

Bib PDF Website

@inproceedings{chen2026egox,
  title = {Egocentric Cross-Embodiment Manipulation with Embodiment Dreaming},
  author = {Chen, Binghong and Niu, Yaru and Yao, Changwei and Fang, Zhenlong and Li, Shangtao and Senthilkumaran, Revanth Krishna and Zhou, Shuai and Mao, Yuemin and Zhang, Hao and Chen, Bingqing and Qiu, Chen and Tseng, Eric H. and Liu, Changliu and Francis, Jonathan and Zhao, Ding},
  booktitle = {4th RSS Workshop on Dexterous Manipulation: Scalable Learning for Human-Level Skills},
  year = {2026},
}

ICRA

Efficient and Versatile Quadrupedal Skating: Optimal Co-design via Reinforcement Learning and Bayesian Optimization

Hanwen Wang^*, Zhenlong Fang^*, Josiah Hanna, and 1 more author

In IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2026

Under review

arXiv Bib PDF Video

@inproceedings{fang2026skating,
  title = {Efficient and Versatile Quadrupedal Skating: Optimal Co-design via Reinforcement Learning and Bayesian Optimization},
  author = {Wang, Hanwen and Fang, Zhenlong and Hanna, Josiah and Xiong, Xiaobin},
  booktitle = {IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)},
  year = {2026},
  note = {Under review},
}

MRS

Bounded Sub-optimal Algorithms for Teamwise Cooperative Multi-Agent Path Finding

Zhenlong Fang, Yilin Cai, and Zhongqiang Ren

In Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Multi-Robot & Multi-Agent Systems (MRS), 2025

Accepted

Bib PDF Video

@inproceedings{fang2025tcmrs,
  title = {Bounded Sub-optimal Algorithms for Teamwise Cooperative Multi-Agent Path Finding},
  author = {Fang, Zhenlong and Cai, Yilin and Ren, Zhongqiang},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Multi-Robot \& Multi-Agent Systems (MRS)},
  year = {2025},
  note = {Accepted},
}