ROJAS Juan
Research Assistant Professor
jrojas@mae.cuhk.edu.hk
TEL: 852 - 3943 3022
Room 102, 1/F, Academic Building No.1
www.JuanRojas.net






Dr. Juan Rojas studied Electrical and Computer Engineering at Vanderbilt University from 1998 to 2002, and studied the same major for his Master’s and Ph.D. degrees also at Vanderbilt University from 2002-2004, and 2004-2009 respectively. His post-graduate research was sponsored by NASA and guided by Richard Alan Peters II. It consisted in learning how to team up teams of heterogeneous robots to autonomously assemble structures that could potentially be built in space. After his Ph.D. Dr. Rojas took a temporary fellowship in China before continuing his post-doctoral fellowship at Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in Tsukuba, Japan. He formed part of the Vision and Manipulation group under the supervision of Dr. Kensuke Harada where Dr. Rojas developed controllers for complex assembly tasks characterized by elastic forces. Furthermore, Dr. Rojas developed introspection methods to help the robot better understand its actions. Dr. Rojas then took an Assistant Professor position with the Department of Computer Science at the Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou China where he continued his robot introspection research, particularly for complex and dynamic contact tasks. Dr. Rojas participated in the 2015 DARPA Robotics competition as part of the Hong Kong University team led by Wyatt Newman. Dr. Rojas was in charge of teaching ATLAS to drive the car. During this time Dr. Rojas developed popular ROS courses and MOOCs in China and led the translation of two ROS textbooks ROS-By-Example by Patrick Goebel. Dr. Rojas later took a Research Associate Professor at the Guangdong University of Technology where he led the Intelligent Manipulation Lab at the Biomimetics and Intelligent Robotics Group. Dr. Rojas further studied sought to model humans and objects to better inform robot actions, including in failure scenarios. He was named an IEEE Senior member in 2018. In August 2020, Dr. Rojas joined the Chinese University of Hong Kong as a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering. He is part of the CUHK T Stone Robotics Institute where he serves under Prof. Liu Yun Hui. Dr. Rojas will continue to study how to encode intelligence by learning to extract and represent meaningful abstractions from the world, humans, and a robot’s internal working so as to solve more challenging dexterous manipulation problems.
Dr. Rojas has published more than 50 peer-reviewed publications in leading Journals, Conferences, and Workshops. Dr. Rojas serves or has served as an Associate Editor of leading Journals and Conferences including the Advanced Robotics journal, the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), the IEEE International Conference on Robots and Systems (IROS), the IEEE-RAS Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids), the IEEE Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO), and the IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN). Dr. Rojas also serves in the IEEE Medal for Environmental and Safety Technologies Committee and previously served as a board member of the Robotics and Automation Special Interest Group on Humanitarian Technology (RAS-SIGHT).
ORCID: 0000-0002-6552-4572
Google Scholar [scholar.google.com/citations?user=SA0aHKYAAAAJ]
Research Interests
Intelligent Dexterous Manipulation
Decision Making in Robotics
Deep Reinforcement Learning

Current Projects
Physical Human Robot Interaction via Deep Mimicked Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning, NSFC, 203,300 RMB, 2020-21.
Research and Application of Key Technologies of Human-Robot Interaction and Multi-Robot Collaboration Based on Deep Reinforcement Learning. Guangdong Science and Technology Projects – International Scientific Cooperation, 1,000,000 RMB, 2019-2021.
Predicting Human Behavior for Efficient Physical Human-Robot Interaction, NSFC, 320,000 RMB, 2018-2019.
Production Line for 3C Industry Collaboration, Robot R&D, and Industrialization; Guangdong Science & Technology Special Fund: Cutting-Edge Key Tech & Innovation, 1,000,000 RMB, 2015-2019.
Precise Robot Perception, Recognition and Integration of Complex Information Technology and its Applications; Guangdong Science & Tech Special Fund: The forefront of Technology and Innovation, 1,000,000 RMB, 2015-2018




Teaching by Years
2020/21
MAEG 3080 Fundamentals of Machine Intelligence
MAEG 5755 Robotics





Publications
Journal Papers (in the recent five years)Yijiong Lin, Jiancong Huang, Matthieu Zimmer, Yisheng Guan, Juan Rojas, and Paul Weng, Invariant Transform Experience Replay: Data Augmentation for Deep Reinforcement Learning, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RAL), Vol. 5, No. 4, p. 6615-6622, Oct. 2020.
[ieee][arxiv][video]
Hongmin Wu, Yisheng Guan, and Juan Rojas. Analysis of multimodal Bayesian nonparametric autoregressive hidden Markov models for process monitoring in robotic contact tasks, International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems 16.2 (2019).
[paper][bibtex]
Hongmin Wu, Yisheng Guan, and Juan Rojas, A Latent State-based Multimodal Execution Monitor with Anomaly Detection and Classification for Robot Introspection,?Appl. Sci.?2019,?9(6), 1072; doi:?10.3390/app9061072.
[paper][bibtex]
Hongmin Wu, Yisheng Guan and Juan Rojas, Robot Introspection for Process Monitoring in Robotic Contact Tasks through Bayesian Nonparametric Autoregressive Hidden Markov Models, International Journal of Advanced Robotics Systems, 2018 (IF 0.952).
[paper][bibtex]
Peihao Shi, Kensuke Harada, Weiwei Wan, Juan Rojas, Hiromu Onda, Ixchel G. Ramirez-Alpizara, Nobuchika Sakata, EstimatingOptimizing the Motion for Robotic Snap Assembly, Journal of Robotics Networking and Artificial Life (JRNAL), Vol. 5, No. 2, pg. 105-109, 2018.
[paper][bibtex]
Kensuke Harada, Kazuyuki Nagata, Juan Rojas, Ixchel G. Ramirez-Alpizara, Weiwei Wana, Hiromu Onda, and Tokuo Tsuji, Proposal of a Shape Adaptive Gripper for Robotic Assembly Tasks, Journal of Advanced Robotics, 30.17-18, p. 1186-1198, Jul 22, 2016 (SCI).
[paper][bibtex]
Conference Proceedings (Peer-Reviewed)Yanting Liu and Juan Rojas, Evaluation of the ROOT Robot System and Curriculum to Improve Computational Thinking in Young Children, 2019 Do Good Robotics Symposium (DGRS), Maryland, USA, Oct. 3-4 2019.
[paper][poster]
Yanting Liu and Juan Rojas, Evaluation of the ROOT Robot System and Curriculum to Improve Computational Thinking in Young Children, IEEE Region 10 Humanitarian Technology Conference (HTC), Depok, Indonesia Nov. 12-14 2019.
[paper][bib]
Shuangda Duan, Longxin Chen, Yaxiang Wang, Xuan Zhao, and Juan Rojas, Dynamic Interaction Probabilistic Movement Primitives, IEEE International Conference on Real-Time Computing and Robotics (RCAR), p. 89-105, Irkutsk, Russia, Aug. 5-10, 2019.
[arxiv][paper][bib][video]
Juan Rojas. Plastic Waste is Exponentially Filling Our Oceans, but Where are the Robots? IEEE Region 10 Humanitarian Technology Conference (R10-HTC), p. 1-6, Colombo, Sri Lanka, Dec. 6-8, 2018.
[arxiv][paper][bibtex]
Hongmin Wu, Dong Liu, Shuangda Duan, Yisheng Guan, and Juan Rojas, Multimodal Sparse Representation for Anomaly Classification?in A Robot Introspection System, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO), p. 1594-1600, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Dec. 12-15, 2018.
[paper][bib]
Xuan Zhao, Sakmongkon Chumkamon, Shuanda Duan, Juan Rojas, and Jia Pan, Collaborative Human-Robot Motion Generation using LSTM-RNN, IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robotics (Humanoids), p. 1-9, Beijing, China, Nov. 6-9, 2018.
[paper][bibtex][video]
Shuangqi Luo, Hongmin Wu, Hongbin Lin, Shuangda Duan, Yisheng Guan, and Juan Rojas,? Fast, Robust, and Versatile Event Detection through HMM Belief State Gradient Measures, IEEE International Conference on?Robots?Man?and Systems?Interactions?Conference (RO-MAN), Nanjing, China,?August 27-31, 2018.
[arxiv][paper][bibtex]
Hongmin Wu, Hongbin Lin, Shuangqi Luo, Shuangda Duan, Yisheng Guan, and Juan Rojas, Recovering from External Disturbances in Online Manipulation through State-Dependent Revertive Recovery Policies, IEEE Robots Man Systems Interactions Conference (RO-MAN), p. 166-173, Nanjing, China, Aug. 27-31, 2018.
[arXiv][paper][bibtex]
Peihao Shi, Kensuke Harada, Weiwei Wan, Ixchel G. Ramirez, Juan Rojas, and Hiromu Onda, Motion Selection for 3D Robotic Snap Assembly, International Conference on Artificial Life and Robotics (ICAROB), Oitta, Japan, Feb. 1-4, 2018.
[paper][bibtex]
Shichao Gu, Manjia Su, Haifei Zhu, Yisheng Guan, Juan Rojas, and Hong Zhang. Efficient pole detection and grasping for autonomous biped climbing robots, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO), pp. 246-251. IEEE, 2017.
[arXiv][paper][bibtex]
Ruotao He, Juan Rojas, Yisheng Guan, A 3D Object Detection and Pose Estimation Pipeline Using RGB-D Images, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO), p. 1527-1532, Macau, Dec. 5-8, 2017 (SCI/EI).
[arXiv][paper][bibtex]
Chen Longxin, Juan Rojas, and Yisheng Guan, Fusion of Muscle Activity with Interaction Movement Models for Learning Human-Robot Collaboration Insights, IEEE International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids), p. 491-496, Birmingham, England, Nov. 15-17, 2017.
[arXiv][paper][bibtex]
Hongmin Wu, Juan Rojas, Hongbin Lin, and Kensuke Harada, Robot Introspection with Bayesian Nonparametric Vector Autoregressive Hidden Markov Models,IEEE International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids), p. 882-888, Birmingham, England, Nov. 15-17, 2017.
[arxiv][paper][bibtex]
Juan Rojas, Shuangqi Luo, Dingqiao Zhu, Yunlong Du, Hongbin Lin, Zhengjie Huang, Wenwei Kuang, and Kensuke Harada, Online Robot Introspection via Wrench-based Action Grammars, IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), p. 5429-5436, Vancouver, Canada, Sep.24-28, 2017?(SCI,EI),
[bibtex][arXiv][paper]
Kewei Lin, Juan Rojas, and Yisheng Guan, A Vision-based Scheme for Kinematic Model Construction of Re-configurable Modular Robots, IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS),? p. 2751-2757, Vancouver, Canada, Sep.24-28, 2017?(SCI,EI).
[bibtex][arXiv][paper]
Juan Rojas,ZhenJie Huang, Kensuke Harada , Robot Contact Task State Estimation via Action Grammars, IEEE International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids), p. 249-255, Cancun, Mexico, Nov. 15-17 2016.
[bibtex] [arXiv] [paper]
Juan Rojas, Wyatt Newman, Huangzhen Jie and Qiming Liu, A Steering Wheel Manipulation Scheme by an Anthropomorphic Humanoid Robot in a Constrained Vehicle Environment, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO), p. 1566-1571, Zhuhai, China, Dec 6 – Dec 9, 2015 (SCI,EI).
[bibtex] [paper]
BooksZhou, Xuefeng and Wu, Hongmin and Rojas, Juan and Xu, Zhihao and Li, Shuai; Nonparametric Bayesian Learning for Collaborative Robot Multimodal Introspection, Springer 2020.
[link][bib]
R. Patrick Goebel, ROS By Example Indigo – Volume 1, Translated by: J. Rojas, Yaxia Wang, Liu Zhen Dong, Li Zi Ran, Huang Zhen Jie, Guo Li Wei, Chen Ya Xue, Luo Sheng, Lin Chen Yu, Cheng Yang Pu. SYSU Publisher, 2019.
[link][link]
Patrick Goebel, ROS By Example INDIGO – Volume 2, Translated by: J. Rojas, Liu Zhen Dong, Li Zi Ran, Huang Zhen Jie, Guo Li Wei, Chen Ya Xue, Luo Sheng, Lin Chen Yu, Cheng Yang Pu. SYSU Publisher, 2017.
[link][link][link]
R. Patrick Goebel, ROS By Example HYDRO – Volume 1, Translated by J. Rojas, PengYeYi, HuangLingLing, Liu KeShan, Liu Zhendong, Li JiaNeng. SYSU Publisher, 2015.
[link]
PreprintsZhijun Liang, Junfa Liu, Yisheng Guan, and Juan Rojas, Pose-based Modular Network for Human-Object Interaction Detection.
[arxiv]
Hongming Wu, Shuangqi Luo, and Juan Rojas, Responding to External Disturbances in Manipulation through Adaptive and Revertive Recoveries
[arxiv]
Zhijun Liang, Junfa Liu, Yisheng Guan, and Juan Rojas, Visual-Semantic Graph Attention Network for Human-Object Interaction Detection.
[arxiv][video][bib]
Junfa Liu, Yihui Li, Zhijun Liang, Zhaolong Zhang, Kaifu Zhang, Yisheng Guan, Juan Rojas, GAST-Net: Graph Attention Spatio-temporal Convolutional Networks for 3D Human Pose Estimation in Video.
[arxiv][video]
Yusuke Hayami, Weiwei Wan, Keisuke Koyama, Peihao Shi, Kensuke Harada, Error Identification and Recovery in Robotic Snap Assembly.
Workshops, Tutorials & Late Breaking ResultsHongmin Wu, Hongbin Lin, Shuangqi Luo, Shuangda Duan, Chen Xiang, Bo Zhao, and Juan Rojas,?Learning Robot Introspection Dynamics for Error Learning and Prevention, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Systems (IROS) Workshop on?Introspective Methods for Reliable Autonomy, Vancouver, Canada, Sept. 24-28, 2017.
[paper][poster]
Sakmongkon Chumkamon, Eiji Hayashi and Juan Rojas, Robot Sharing Human Emotion for Improving Relationship base on Facial Expression Recognition, Proceedings of Robotics, Science, and Systems (RSS) Workshop: Morality and Social Trust in Autonomy, Boston, July 12-16, 2017.
[paper][poster]
Juan Rojas, Shuangqi Luo, Hongmin Wu, Hongbin Lin, Dingqiao Zhu, Online Decision Making, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) Workshop: AI in Automation, Singapore, Jun. 2, 2017.
[presentation]
Juan Rojas, Zhengjie Huang, Dingqiao Zhu, Shuangqi Luo, and Kensuke Harada, Robot Introspection, IEEE International Conference on Robots and Systems (IROS) Workshop: See, Touch and Hear: 2nd Workshop on Multimodal Sensor-based Robot Control for HRI and Soft Manipulation, Daejeon, S. Korea, Oct. 10, 2016.
[presentation]
Juan Rojas and Zhengjie Huang; Behavior, Task, and Skill Characterization for Contact Manipulation Tasks, Robotics Science, and Systems, Ann Arbor, USA, June 18-22, 2016.
[Abstract][Poster]
Juan Rojas Kensuke Harada; Contact Guided Assemblies, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Stockholm, Sweden, May 16-21, 2016.
[Abstract] [Poster]
Juan Rojas, Wen Wei Kuang, Kensuke Harada, A High-Level State Estimation and Verification Scheme for Dual Armed Humanoids performing Assembly Tasks, IEEE Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) Late Breaking Results, Hamburg Germany, Sept 28 – Oct 2, 2015.
[Program] [Poster]
Kensuke Harada, Kazuyuki Nagata, Juan Luis Rojas, Natsuki Yamanobe, Hiromu Onda, Tokuo Tsuji, Universal Hand for Parts Assembly Based on Granular Jamming, IEEE Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) Late Breaking Results Session, Seattle, USA, May 26-30, 2015.
[Program] [Abstract]
Honours and Awards
IEEE Int’l Conf. Realtime Computing & Robotics Best Student Paper Finalist, July 2019
2018 IEEE Senior Member Award
TalksLearning Robust Manipulation Skills, University of Hong Kong, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Seminar, April 16, 2020.
Getting Started with RL and ROS, CFAIR, April 29, 2019.
Probabilistic Robotics, ROS Summer School: Tsinghua University, April 2018.
Robot Introspection in ROS, ROS Summer School: East China Normal University, July 26, 2017.
[Presentation]
Online Decision Making via Robot Introspection, Nanjing Tech University, June 19, 2017.
Manipulation in ROS, ROS Training Day, Guangdong University of Technology, June 14, 2016.
[Presentation]
ROS Overview, ROS Training Day, Shanghai Jiaotong University, November 24, 2013. [
[Presentation]