Anqi Xu

About

Anqi Xu is a leading researcher in human-robot interaction, with a particular focus on trust dynamics and intuitive control interfaces. His most significant contribution is the development of OPTIMo, an Online Probabilistic Trust Inference Model that uses Dynamic Bayesian Networks to quantify a human supervisor's moment-to-moment trust in an autonomous robot—a framework that has garnered 145 citations and reshaped how researchers approach human-robot collaboration. Xu also pioneered optimal terrain coverage algorithms for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (128 citations), enabling efficient, obstacle-aware flight paths that minimize repetition. His work extends to gesture-based control systems for underwater robots, where he developed visual programming languages that allow operators to command vehicles through natural hand movements. Notably, his trust-driven navigation models and Trust-Aware Conservative Control (TACtiC) framework demonstrate how robots can actively sense and adapt to changing human trust states to maintain efficient collaboration. Xu's research also explores social dynamics in multi-robot missions, including collective path planning from multiple human inputs and the effects of implicit gender bias in robot voice design. With over 470 total citations across his publications, Xu's work bridges computational modeling with real-world robotic applications, offering foundational tools for building more responsive, trustworthy autonomous systems.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   OPTIMo

   145 citations · 2015
2. 2
   Optimal complete terrain coverage using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

   128 citations · 2011
3. 3
   A Visual Language for Robot Control and Programming: A Human-Interface Study

   64 citations · 2007
4. 4
   Trust-driven interactive visual navigation for autonomous robots

   32 citations · 2012
5. 5
   Towards Modeling Real-Time Trust in Asymmetric Human–Robot Collaborations

   28 citations · 2016
6. 6
   A natural gesture interface for operating robotic systems

   25 citations · 2008
7. 7
   Maintaining efficient collaboration with trust-seeking robots

   21 citations · 2016
8. 8
   Underwater multi-robot convoying using visual tracking by detection

   12 citations · 2017
9. 9
   Socially-Driven Collective Path Planning for Robot Missions

   10 citations · 2012
10. 10
    Investigating Trust Factors in Human-Robot Shared Control: Implicit Gender Bias Around Robot Voice

    8 citations · 2019

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links