Huazhong University of Science and Technology

Can Gong 龚灿

Undergraduate · Naval Architecture & Ocean Engineering

I am an undergraduate at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), with a background in naval architecture and ocean engineering and hands-on experience in robotics.

My interests center on robot manipulation, visuotactile perception, and human–robot interaction. My projects span imitation-learning data collection, tactile simulation, assistive navigation, and household robotics.

Illustrated anime avatar
Can Gong / 龚灿

Research experience

01 / RESEARCH

Learning how robots perceive contact and act in the physical world.

Tactile simulation for physical interaction

Research group of Assoc. Prof. Yiqun Li · HUST

Investigated tactile simulators and data collection for robot manipulation, including TactiSim. Studied MuJoCo and compared hydroelastic, Flex, rigid-body contact, and data-driven approaches to contact simulation.

  • Tactile sensing
  • MuJoCo
  • Contact simulation

Visuotactile learning for robotic grasping

Research group of Assoc. Prof. Yiqun Li · HUST

Helped build an imitation-learning data collection system integrating a RealMan arm, two depth cameras, tactile skin, and an electric gripper. Collected over 400 grasping demonstrations and investigated visual encoders, UMI-style handheld collection, and manipulation dataset conventions.

  • Imitation learning
  • Visuotactile perception
  • Data collection

Selected projects

02 / PROJECTS
白喉莺Nov 2024 – Aug 2025

Wearable multimodal navigation assistant

Project lead

An edge–cloud robotic assistant for people with visual impairments. I designed the robot structure and hardware, developed the ROS 2 control framework, and integrated indoor mapping, route planning, and multimodal interaction.

↳ National Second Prize · Chinese Collegiate Computing Competition

  • ROS 2
  • RTAB-Map
  • Human–robot interaction
More about this project

The project combined long- and short-range navigation with RTAB-Map indoor mapping, semantic understanding, and vibration feedback. We developed four hardware iterations and collaborated with the Wuhan Disabled Persons’ Federation and assistive-technology partners.

蜂鸟管家Nov 2024 – Aug 2025

Hummingbird: a household object assistant

System design & development

A household robot for personalized object registration and management. I worked on its mechanical design, hardware integration, and upper-level system using ROS 2, behavior trees, FoundationPose, and Qwen2.5-VL.

↳ National Second Prize · China Collegiate Intelligent Robot Creative Competition

  • Vision–language models
  • FoundationPose
  • Behavior trees
More about this project

Developed an object-recognition and spatial-localization pipeline using Qwen2.5-VL and YOLOv8. The project progressed through four physical prototypes and was recognized as a provincial undergraduate innovation project.

FMT / MarineSIMSep – Nov 2024

From flight control to an unmanned surface vessel

Undergraduate project lead

Adapted the FMT open-source flight-control workflow for an unmanned boat model at HUST’s Underwater Robotics Laboratory, connecting mechanical design, simulation, and control development.

↳ Experimental platform development · Underwater Robotics Laboratory, HUST

  • Control systems
  • MATLAB
  • Mechanical design
More about this project

Contributed to boat measurements and simulation definitions, test-bench connectors, MATLAB visual logic modules, control-algorithm adaptation, and debugging. Wrote deployment and operating instructions for the MarineSIM experimental documentation.

Education & recognition

03 / BACKGROUND

Huazhong University of Science and Technology

Undergraduate, School of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering

Excellence Program · 卓越班

Selected honors

  • National Second PrizeChinese Collegiate Computing Competition
  • National Second PrizeChina Collegiate Intelligent Robot Creative Competition
  • National Third PrizeChina Robot and Artificial Intelligence Competition
  • Two National Second Prizes · A1National Marine Vehicle Design and Construction Competition, 13th & 14th editions
  • University scholarships & recognitionMerit Student Scholarship (2024); Outstanding Student Leader (2025)

Technical toolkit

Programming
Python · C++ · MATLAB · MJCF
Robotics & simulation
ROS 2 · MuJoCo · FMT · Arduino
Design & engineering
SolidWorks · AutoCAD · ANSYS

Beyond research

Served as a class academic representative and led student publicity and academic-development activities. Contributed 144 hours of volunteer service.