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About

Yidong Xu is an emerging robotics researcher whose work sits at the intersection of bioinspired design, underwater locomotion, and autonomous control systems. Drawing inspiration from nature's most agile aquatic creatures — including mantis shrimp, beavers, and marine iguanas — Xu has established a distinctive research program centered on developing sophisticated biomimetic underwater robots capable of navigating complex and constrained environments. Among his most significant contributions is the design of a bionic mantis shrimp robot featuring ten rigid-flexible swimming pleopods and a rope-driven spine, a platform that has attracted 46 citations and spawned multiple follow-on studies exploring dynamic modeling, depth control, and closed-loop central pattern generator-based target tracking. His neural network-based motion modeling framework for water-actuated soft robotic fish (40 citations) addresses a fundamental challenge in soft robotics: accurately characterizing complex, nonlinear deformation for reliable control. Complementary work on beaver-like amphibious robots and underwater visual SLAM further demonstrates the breadth of his contributions. Collectively accumulating nearly 200 citations across a compact publication timeline, Xu's research is making a measurable impact on the field of bio-inspired underwater robotics, with promising applications spanning ocean exploration, environmental monitoring, and military sensing deployment.