Papers
3
Total Citations
17
H-Index
3
About
Derun Li is a pioneering researcher at the intersection of surgical innovation and embodied AI, whose work spans minimally invasive urological reconstruction and intelligent robotic navigation. In urology, Li developed the minimally invasive lingual mucosal graft ureteroplasty (LMGU) for complex ureteral strictures, demonstrating exceptional safety and efficacy in a prospective study (2024, 10 citations) while pioneering the use of patient-reported outcomes to validate surgical quality. This work has established a new standard for reconstructive urology, offering patients reduced morbidity without compromising functional results. Simultaneously, Li is advancing quadruped robot autonomy through vision-language models (VLMs). Their VR-Robo framework (2025, 4 citations) introduces a real-to-sim-to-real pipeline that bridges the sim-to-real gap by training locomotion policies in visually realistic simulated environments, enabling seamless deployment. With SARO (2025, 3 citations), Li created the first space-aware VLM system for terrain crossing, allowing robots to reason about 3D geometry and navigate complex outdoor environments. By integrating surgical precision with robotic intelligence, Li exemplifies a rare dual-expertise—translating clinical insights into robotic systems and vice versa—with a growing citation impact that signals transformative contributions to both medicine and robotics.
Research Focus
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