Wenzhe Tong

wenzhet [at] umich [dot] edu


I'm a 4-th year robotics PhD student at UMich advised by Prof. Xiaonan Huang and Prof. Maani Ghaffari. I earned my M.S.E in ECE at UMich advised by Prof. Maani Ghaffari. Previously I exchanged at UC Berkeley advised by Prof. Koushil Sreenath. I worked on leash-leaded robotic guide dog in Hybrid Robotics Lab.

I love snowboarding 🏂 and film photography 📷 in my free time.

CV  |   GitHub  |   Google Scholar  |   LinkedIn

profile photo

News

  • June 2026: GelFoot paper has been accepted by IROS 2026.
  • Apr. 2026: Tensegrity robot graph RL locomotion paper has been accepted by IEEE RA-L.
  • Jan. 2026: Sym-HGNN paper has been accepted by RoboSoft 2026.
More ↓Less ↑
  • June 2025: Tensegrity robot design paper has been accepted by IEEE RA-L.
  • Jan. 2025: Tensegrity robot state estimation paper has been accepted by IEEE RA-L
  • May. 2024: I advanced to Robotics Ph.D. candidate.
  • Sept. 2023: I've joined HDR Lab at UMich.
  • Apr. 2023: I earned ECE M.S.E. degree at UMich.


Research

* denotes equal contribution

GelFoot: Scalable Open-Source Visuotactile Sensor for 6-Axis Contact Wrench Estimation in Tensegrity Robots


Wenzhe Tong*, Jonathan Mi*, Xili Yi, Nima Fazeli, Xiaonan Huang
IROS 2026

Paper | Video | Code 

Morphology-Aware Graph Reinforcement Learning for Tensegrity Robot Locomotion


Chi Zhang, Mingrui Li, Wenzhe Tong, Xiaonan Huang
RA-L 2026

Project page | Paper | Code 

Tensegrity Robot Endcap-Ground Contact Estimation with Symmetry-aware Heterogeneous Graph Neural Network.


Wenzhe Tong*, Yicheng Jiang*, Chi Zhang, Maani Ghaffari, Xiaonan Huang
RoboSoft 2025

Paper | Code 

Design of a Variable Stiffness Quasi-Direct Drive Cable-Actuated Tensegrity Robot


Jonathan Mi, Wenzhe Tong, Yilin Ma, Xiaonan Huang
RA-L 2025

Paper | Video

Tensegrity Robot Proprioceptive State Estimation with Geometric Constraints


Wenzhe Tong, Tzu-Yuan Lin, Jonathan Mi, Yicheng Jiang, Maani Ghaffari, Xiaonan Huang
RA-L 2025

Paper | Video | Code 

Proprioceptive Invariant Robot State Estimation


Tzu-Yuan Lin, Tingjun Li, Wenzhe Tong, Maani Ghaffari
ArXiv 2023

Project page | Paper | Video

Fully Proprioceptive Slip-Velocity-Aware State Estimation for Mobile Robots via Invariant Kalman Filtering and Disturbance Observer


Xihang Yu, Sangli Teng, Theodor Chakhachiro, Wenzhe Tong, Tingjun Li, Tzu-Yuan Lin, Sarah Koehler, Manuel Ahumada, Jeffrey M. Walls, Maani Ghaffari
IROS 2024

Paper | Video

Robotic Guide Dog: Leading a Human with Leash-Guided Hybrid Physical Interaction


Anxing Xiao*, Wenzhe Tong*, Lizhi Yang*, Jun Zeng, Zhongyu Li, Koushil Sreenath
ICRA 2021 | ICRA Best Paper Award Finalist for Service Robotics

Paper | Video




Course Projects

RRT path planning for PR2 robot


EECS498-Introduction to Algorithmic Robotics(Fall 2021)

Using RRT-connect algorithm to search feasiable path, then shorten and smoothen the path to the target point.

Control, RL, Grasp planning for 7-DOF Baxter robot


EECS106B-Robotic manipulator and interaction(Spring 2020)

Project page | Video

Based on 7-DOF robot Baxter, we designed workspace position, joint angle and joint torque controller for the robot; then using reinforcement learning to get parameters for our controller. Also designed grasping algorithms for bi-finger gripper.

Camera rig offline extrinsic self-calibration


CS294-Geometry and Learning for 3D Vision(Spring 2020)

We proposed an extrinsic calibration framework for camera rig(binocular camera). Utilizing the hard constraints of cameras' relative pose to design the optimization problem for extrinsic parameter calibration.

Automatic book scanner


ME102B-Mechatronics Design(Fall 2019)

Video

Compelete 3D model design in SolidWorks; manufactured parts of the scanner by 3D printing and laser cutting. Integrated electronics components with proper specifications in the scanner; implemented controller in ROS with camera image processing.

Auto-aiming pellet launcher quadcopter


Robomaster Robotics Competetion(2019)

Designed and analyzed the light-weight quadcopter structures. Integrated electronical control systems for the payload gimbal. Developed target aiming algorithm framework, including detection and tracking with OpenCV.





Last update: September, 2026

source code       credits