Yikuan Xia

UC San Diego Health System, University of California San Diego

Papers

Total Citations

395

H-Index

About

Yikuan Xia is a leading researcher at the intersection of computer vision, robotics, and embodied AI, best known for pioneering simulation environments that bridge the gap between virtual training and real-world robot deployment. His landmark work, "SAPIEN: A SimulAted Part-Based Interactive ENvironment" (2020), has accumulated nearly 400 citations, establishing it as a foundational resource for the community. SAPIEN provides physically realistic simulation, a vast library of articulated objects, and seamless transferability to physical robots—directly addressing the long-standing challenge of building home assistant robots. By enabling researchers to train and test manipulation policies in a high-fidelity, part-based interactive environment, Xia’s contribution has accelerated progress in robotic grasping, assembly, and household task execution. His work is widely recognized for its practical impact, offering a scalable platform that reduces the gap between simulation and reality. For students and researchers entering embodied AI, SAPIEN remains an essential toolkit, and Xia’s vision continues to shape how we develop robots that can interact meaningfully with the human world.