publications

publications by categories in reversed chronological order. generated by jekyll-scholar.

2026

  1. mjorbit.png
    mjorbit: A Simulation Framework for Space Robotics
    John Z. Zhang, Joris Verhagen, Fausto Vega, Patrick McKeen, and Zachary Manchester
    In IEEE International Conference on Space Robotics (iSpaRo), 2026
    Code Website
  2. sumo.gif
    Sumo: Dynamic and Generalizable Whole-Body Loco-Manipulation
    John Z. Zhang, Maks Sorokin, Jan Brüdigam, Brandon Hung, Stephen Phillips, Dmitry Yershov, Farzad Niroui, Tong Zhao, Leonor Fermoselle, Xinghao Zhu, Chao Cao, Duy Ta, Tao Pang, Jiuguang Wang, Preston Culbertson, Zachary Manchester, and Simon Le Cléac’h
    IEEE Transactions on Robot Learning, 2026
    Conditionally accepted
    arXiv PDF Code Website Video Demo
  3. trajectory_bundle_method.png
    The Trajectory Bundle Method: Unifying Sequential-Convex Programming and Sampling-Based Trajectory Optimization
    Kevin Tracy, John Z. Zhang, Jon Arrizabalaga, Stefan Schaal, Yuval Tassa, Tom Erez, and Zachary Manchester
    In IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2026
    arXiv PDF
  4. quadruped_handstand.gif
    Whole-Body Model-Predictive Control of Legged Robots with MuJoCo
    John Z. Zhang, Taylor A. Howell, Zeji Yi, Chaoyi Pan, Guanya Shi, Guannan Qu, Tom Erez, Yuval Tassa, and Zachary Manchester
    In IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2026
    arXiv PDF Website
  5. judo.gif
    Judo: A User-Friendly Open-Source Package for Sampling-Based Model Predictive Control
    Albert H. Li, John Zhang, Jan Brüdigam, Brandon Hung, Aaron D. Ames, Jiuguang Wang, Simon Le Cleac’h, and Preston Culbertson
    In IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2026
    Code Website
  6. Hybrid Feedback Sampling for Sample-Efficient Model Predictive Control
    Chaoyi Pan, Zeji Yi, John Z. Zhang, Zachary Manchester, Guannan Qu, and Guanya Shi
    arXiv, 2026
    Under review
    arXiv PDF

2025

  1. rai_sampling_blog.png
    Combining Sampling and Learning for Dynamic Whole-Body Manipulation
    RAI Institute Team
    2025
    Blog YouTube X LinkedIn
  2. A Fast and Differentiable Interior-Point Solver for GPUs
    John Z. Zhang, and Zachary Manchester
    In Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS) Workshop on Fast Motion Planning and Control in the Era of Parallelism, 2025
    PDF
  3. wallbounce.png
    Wallbounce : Push wall to navigate with Contact-Implicit MPC
    Xiaohan Liu, Cunxi Dai, John Z. Zhang, Arun Bishop, Zachary Manchester, and Ralph Hollis
    In IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2025
    arXiv PDF Website
  4. mppi.png
    Real-Time Whole-Body Control of Legged Robots with Model-Predictive Path Integral Control
    Juan Alvarez-Padilla, John Z. Zhang, Sofia Kwok, John M. Dolan, and Zachary Manchester
    In IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2025
    arXiv PDF Website
  5. attitude.png
    Robots with Attitude: Singularity-Free Quaternion-Based Model-Predictive Control for Agile Legged Robots
    Zixin Zhang, John Z. Zhang, Shuo Yang, and Zachary Manchester
    In IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2025
    arXiv PDF
  6. leg_odometry.jpg
    Multi-IMU Sensor Fusion for Legged Robots
    Shuo Yang, Zixin Zhang, John Z. Zhang, Ibrahima Sow, and Zachary Manchester
    arXiv, 2025
    arXiv PDF Code

2024

  1. push_recovery_cropped.gif
    ReLU-QP: A GPU-Accelerated Quadratic Programming Solver for Model-Predictive Control
    Arun L. Bishop*, John Z. Zhang*, Swaminathan Gurumurthy, Kevin Tracy, and Zachary Manchester
    In IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (*equal contribution), 2024
    PDF Code Video
  2. robust_trotting_lq.gif
    Fast Contact Implicit Model Predictive Control
    Simon Le Cleac’h*, Taylor Howell*, Shuo Yang, Chiyen Lee, John Z. Zhang, Arun Bishop, Mac Schwager, and Zachary Manchester
    In IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 2024
    PDF Code
  3. hetnet.jpg
    Heterogeneous Policy Networks for Composite Robot Team Communication and Coordination
    Esmaeil Seraj, Rohan Paleja, Luis Pimentel, Kin Man Lee, Zheyuan Wang, Daniel Martin, Matthew Sklar, John Z. Zhang, Zahi Kakish, and Matthew Gombolay
    In IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 2024
    PDF Code
  4. Advancing Legged Robot Agility: from Video Imitation to GPU Acceleration
    John Z. Zhang
    Carnegie Mellon University, 2024
    PDF Video

2023

  1. dog_reach_compiled.gif
    SLoMo: A General System for Legged Robot Motion Imitation from Casual Videos
    John Z. Zhang, Shuo Yang, Gengshan Yang, Arun Bishop, Swaminathan Gurumurthy, Deva Ramanan, and Zachary Manchester
    In IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2023
    PDF Code Website Video
  2. ppr_3d_prints.png
    PPR: Physically Plausible Reconstruction from Monocular Videos
    Gengshan Yang, Shuo Yang, John Z. Zhang, Zachary Manchester, and Deva Ramanan
    In IEEE/CVF International Conference on Computer Vision (Oral), 2023
    PDF Code Website

2021

  1. cc_cito.png
    Mediating between Contact Feasibility and Robustness of Trajectory Optimization through Chance Complementarity Constraints
    Luke Drnach*, John Z. Zhang*, and Ye Zhao
    In Frontiers in Robotics and AI (*equal contribution), 2021
    PDF Code