Yuki Shirai

Yuki Shirai
  • Position:
    Research / Technical Staff

    Postdoctoral Research Fellow
  • Education:
    Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, 2024
  • Research Areas:
  • External Links:
Yuki's Quick Links

  • Biography

    Yuki's research focuses on planning, estimation, and control for contact-rich manipulation and locomotion, from spanning free-climbing robots to robotic tool manipulation. In particular, he has been working on contact-implicit trajectory optimization, stochastic optimization, contact modeling, and contact estimation using tactile sensing. His current research interests lie in the intersection of optimization and learning.

  • Recent News & Events

    •  NEWS    MERL contributes to ICRA 2025
      Date: May 19, 2025 - May 23, 2025
      Where: IEEE ICRA
      MERL Contacts: Stefano Di Cairano; Jianlin Guo; Chiori Hori; Siddarth Jain; Devesh K. Jha; Toshiaki Koike-Akino; Philip V. Orlik; Arvind Raghunathan; Diego Romeres; Yuki Shirai; Abraham P. Vinod; Yebin Wang
      Research Areas: Artificial Intelligence, Computer Vision, Control, Dynamical Systems, Machine Learning, Optimization, Robotics, Human-Computer Interaction
      Brief
      • MERL made significant contributions to both the organization and the technical program of the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2025, which was held in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, from May 19th to May 23rd.

        MERL was a Bronze sponsor of the conference, and MERL researchers chaired four sessions in the areas of Manipulation Planning, Human-Robot Collaboration, Diffusion Policy, and Learning for Robot Control.

        MERL researchers presented four papers in the main conference on the topics of contact-implicit trajectory optimization, proactive robotic assistance in human-robot collaboration, diffusion policy with human preferences, and dynamic and model learning of robotic manipulators. In addition, five more papers were presented in the workshops: “Structured Learning for Efficient, Reliable, and Transparent Robots,” “Safely Leveraging Vision-Language Foundation Models in Robotics: Challenges and Opportunities,” “Long-term Human Motion Prediction,” and “The Future of Intelligent Manufacturing: From Innovation to Implementation.”

        MERL researcher Diego Romeres delivered an invited talk titled “Dexterous Robotics: From Multimodal Sensing to Real-World Physical Interactions.”

        MERL also collaborated with the University of Padua on one of the conference’s challenges: the “3rd AI Olympics with RealAIGym” (https://ai-olympics.dfki-bremen.de).

        During the conference, MERL researchers received the IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering Best New Application Paper Award for their paper titled “Smart Actuation for End-Edge Industrial Control Systems.”

        About ICRA

        The IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) is the flagship conference of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society and the world’s largest and most comprehensive technical conference focused on research advances and the latest technological developments in robotics. The event attracts over 7,000 participants, 143 partners and exhibitors, and receives more than 4,000 paper submissions.
    •  
    •  NEWS    Yuki Shirai appointed as an Associate Editor for IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L).
      Date: March 4, 2025
      Where: IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS)
      MERL Contact: Yuki Shirai
      Research Areas: Artificial Intelligence, Optimization, Robotics
      Brief
      • MERL researcher, Yuki Shirai, has been appointed to the editorial board of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L) as an Associate Editor. IEEE RA-L publishes peer-reviewed articles in the areas of robotics and automation which can also be presented at the annual flagship conferences of IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS), including IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) and International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS).
    •  

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  • Awards

    •  AWARD    MERL Researchers Win Best Workshop Poster Award at the 2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
      Date: June 2, 2023
      Awarded to: Yuki Shirai, Devesh Jha, Arvind Raghunathan and Dennis Hong
      MERL Contacts: Devesh K. Jha; Arvind Raghunathan; Yuki Shirai
      Research Areas: Artificial Intelligence, Optimization, Robotics
      Brief
      • MERL's paper titled: "Closed-Loop Tactile Controller for Tool Manipulation" Won the Best Poster Award in the workshop on "Embracing contacts : Making robots physically interact with our world". First author and MERL intern, Yuki Shirai, was presented with the award at a ceremony held at ICRA in London. MERL researchers Devesh Jha, Principal Research Scientist, and Arvind Raghunathan, Senior Principal Research Scientist and Senior Team Leader as well as Prof. Dennis Hong of University of California, Los Angeles are also coauthors.

        The paper presents a technique to manipulate an object using a tool in a closed-loop fashion using vision-based tactile sensors. More information about the workshop and the various speakers can be found here https://sites.google.com/view/icra2023embracingcontacts/home.
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  • MERL Publications

    •  Shirai, Y., Raghunathan, A., Jha, D.K., "Hierarchical Contact-Rich Trajectory Optimization for Multi-Modal Manipulation using Tight Convex Relaxations", IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), May 2025.
      BibTeX TR2025-052 PDF
      • @inproceedings{Shirai2025may,
      • author = {Shirai, Yuki and Raghunathan, Arvind and Jha, Devesh K.},
      • title = {{Hierarchical Contact-Rich Trajectory Optimization for Multi-Modal Manipulation using Tight Convex Relaxations}},
      • booktitle = {IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)},
      • year = 2025,
      • month = may,
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2025-052}
      • }
    •  Shirai, Y., Jha, D.K., Raghunathan, A., Romeres, D., "Chance-Constrained Optimization for Contact-rich Systems using Mixed Integer Programming", Nonlinear Analysis: Hybrid Systems, DOI: 10.1016/​j.nahs.2024.101466, Vol. 52, December 2024.
      BibTeX TR2024-008 PDF
      • @article{Shirai2024dec,
      • author = {Shirai, Yuki and Jha, Devesh K. and Raghunathan, Arvind and Romeres, Diego},
      • title = {{Chance-Constrained Optimization for Contact-rich Systems using Mixed Integer Programming}},
      • journal = {Nonlinear Analysis: Hybrid Systems},
      • year = 2024,
      • volume = 52,
      • month = dec,
      • doi = {10.1016/j.nahs.2024.101466},
      • issn = {1751-570X},
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2024-008}
      • }
    •  Shirai, Y., Jha, D.K., Raghunathan, A., "Robust Pivoting Manipulation using Contact Implicit Bilevel Optimization", IEEE Transactions on Robotics, DOI: 10.1109/​TRO.2024.3422053, pp. 3425-3444, July 2024.
      BibTeX TR2024-096 PDF Video
      • @article{Shirai2024jul,
      • author = {Shirai, Yuki and Jha, Devesh K. and Raghunathan, Arvind},
      • title = {{Robust Pivoting Manipulation using Contact Implicit Bilevel Optimization}},
      • journal = {IEEE Transactions on Robotics},
      • year = 2024,
      • pages = {3425--3444},
      • month = jul,
      • doi = {10.1109/TRO.2024.3422053},
      • issn = {1941-0468},
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2024-096}
      • }
    •  Shirai, Y., Jha, D.K., Raghunathan, A., "Contact-Aware Covariance Control of Stochastic Contact-Rich Systems", IROS 2023 Workshop on Leveraging Models for Contact-Rich Manipulation, September 2023.
      BibTeX TR2023-120 PDF
      • @inproceedings{Shirai2023sep,
      • author = {Shirai, Yuki and Jha, Devesh K. and Raghunathan, Arvind},
      • title = {{Contact-Aware Covariance Control of Stochastic Contact-Rich Systems}},
      • booktitle = {IROS 2023 Workshop on Leveraging Models for Contact-Rich Manipulation},
      • year = 2023,
      • month = sep,
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2023-120}
      • }
    •  Shirai, Y., Jha, D.K., Raghunathan, A., Romeres, D., "Chance-Constrained Optimization in Contact-rich Systems", American Control Conference (ACC), DOI: 10.23919/​ACC55779.2023.10156516, May 2023, pp. 14-21.
      BibTeX TR2023-061 PDF
      • @inproceedings{Shirai2023may4,
      • author = {Shirai, Yuki and Jha, Devesh K. and Raghunathan, Arvind and Romeres, Diego},
      • title = {{Chance-Constrained Optimization in Contact-rich Systems}},
      • booktitle = {American Control Conference (ACC)},
      • year = 2023,
      • pages = {14--21},
      • month = may,
      • publisher = {IEEE},
      • doi = {10.23919/ACC55779.2023.10156516},
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2023-061}
      • }
    See All MERL Publications for Yuki

  • Other Publications

    •  Yusuke Tanaka, Yuki Shirai, Xuan Lin, Alexander Schperberg, Hayato Kato, Alexander Swerdlow, Naoya Kumagai and Dennis Hong, "SCALER: A Tough Versatile Quadruped Free-Climber Robot", 2022 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2022, pp. 5632-5639.
      BibTeX
      • @Inproceedings{9981555,
      • author = {Tanaka, Yusuke and Shirai, Yuki and Lin, Xuan and Schperberg, Alexander and Kato, Hayato and Swerdlow, Alexander and Kumagai, Naoya and Hong, Dennis},
      • title = {SCALER: A Tough Versatile Quadruped Free-Climber Robot},
      • booktitle = {2022 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)},
      • year = 2022,
      • pages = {5632--5639}
      • }
    •  Yuki Shirai, Xuan Lin, Alexander Schperberg, Yusuke Tanaka, Hayato Kato, Varit Vichathorn and Dennis Hong, "Simultaneous Contact-Rich Grasping and Locomotion via Distributed Optimization Enabling Free-Climbing for Multi-Limbed Robots", 2022 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2022, pp. 13563-13570.
      BibTeX
      • @Inproceedings{9981579,
      • author = {Shirai, Yuki and Lin, Xuan and Schperberg, Alexander and Tanaka, Yusuke and Kato, Hayato and Vichathorn, Varit and Hong, Dennis},
      • title = {Simultaneous Contact-Rich Grasping and Locomotion via Distributed Optimization Enabling Free-Climbing for Multi-Limbed Robots},
      • booktitle = {2022 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)},
      • year = 2022,
      • pages = {13563--13570}
      • }
    •  Yuki Shirai, Xuan Lin, Ankur Mehta and Dennis Hong, "LTO: Lazy Trajectory Optimization with Graph-Search Planning for High DOF Robots in Cluttered Environments", 2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2021, pp. 7533-7539.
      BibTeX
      • @Inproceedings{9561502,
      • author = {Shirai, Yuki and Lin, Xuan and Mehta, Ankur and Hong, Dennis},
      • title = {LTO: Lazy Trajectory Optimization with Graph-Search Planning for High DOF Robots in Cluttered Environments},
      • booktitle = {2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)},
      • year = 2021,
      • pages = {7533--7539}
      • }
    •  Yuki Shirai, Xuan Lin, Yusuke Tanaka, Ankur Mehta and Dennis Hong, "Risk-Aware Motion Planning for a Limbed Robot with Stochastic Gripping Forces Using Nonlinear Programming", IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 4994-5001, 2020.
      BibTeX
      • @Article{9113247,
      • author = {Shirai, Yuki and Lin, Xuan and Tanaka, Yusuke and Mehta, Ankur and Hong, Dennis},
      • title = {Risk-Aware Motion Planning for a Limbed Robot with Stochastic Gripping Forces Using Nonlinear Programming},
      • journal = {IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters},
      • year = 2020,
      • volume = 5,
      • number = 4,
      • pages = {4994--5001}
      • }
    •  Kenji Nagaoka, Hayato Minote, Kyohei Maruya, Yuki Shirai, Kazuya Yoshida, Takeshi Hakamada, Hirotaka Sawada and Takashi Kubota, "Passive Spine Gripper for Free-Climbing Robot in Extreme Terrain", IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 1765-1770, 2018.
      BibTeX
      • @Article{8260908,
      • author = {Nagaoka, Kenji and Minote, Hayato and Maruya, Kyohei and Shirai, Yuki and Yoshida, Kazuya and Hakamada, Takeshi and Sawada, Hirotaka and Kubota, Takashi},
      • title = {Passive Spine Gripper for Free-Climbing Robot in Extreme Terrain},
      • journal = {IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters},
      • year = 2018,
      • volume = 3,
      • number = 3,
      • pages = {1765--1770}
      • }