Kuan Xu is currently a Postdoc at the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE), Nanyang Technological University (NTU). He is a long-term collaborator of the SAIR Lab. His research interests cover Visual SLAM and Vision-Language Navigation.

Experience

Ph.D. in Engineering
- Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore
- Apr. 2022 - Aug. 2025
Master of Engineering
- Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China
- Sep. 2016 - June 2018
Bachelor of Engineering
- Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China
- Sep. 2012 - June 2016

Emails

Work Email: kuan.xu@ntu.edu.sg
School Email: kuan.xu@ntu.edu.sg

Publications

Enhancing Scene Coordinate Regression with Efficient Keypoint Detection and Sequential Information.
Kuan Xu, Zeyu Jiang, Haozhi Cao, Shenghai Yuan, Chen Wang, Lihua Xie.
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), vol. 10, no. 10, pp. 9932–9939, 2025.
```
@article{xu2025enhancing,
  title = {Enhancing Scene Coordinate Regression with Efficient Keypoint Detection and Sequential Information},
  author = {Xu, Kuan and Jiang, Zeyu and Cao, Haozhi and Yuan, Shenghai and Wang, Chen and Xie, Lihua},
  journal = {IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L)},
  year = {2025},
  volume = {10},
  number = {10},
  pages = {9932-9939},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.06488},
  code = {https://github.com/sair-lab/SeqACE},
  video = {https://youtu.be/5OcR5KeO5nc},
  cover = {/img/pubs/SeqACE.png}
}
```
```
Xu, Kuan and Jiang, Zeyu and Cao, Haozhi and Yuan, Shenghai and Wang, Chen and Xie, Lihua, "Enhancing Scene Coordinate Regression with Efficient Keypoint Detection and Sequential Information," IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), 2025.
```
AirSLAM: An Efficient and Illumination-Robust Point-Line Visual SLAM System.
Kuan Xu, Yuefan Hao, Shenghai Yuan, Chen Wang, Lihua Xie.
IEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO), vol. 41, pp. 1673–1692, 2025.

Real-time visual SLAM at 70Hz with superior accuracy
```
@article{xu2025airslam,
  title = {{AirSLAM}: An Efficient and Illumination-Robust Point-Line Visual SLAM System},
  author = {Xu, Kuan and Hao, Yuefan and Yuan, Shenghai and Wang, Chen and Xie, Lihua},
  journal = {IEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO)},
  year = {2025},
  volume = {41},
  pages = {1673-1692},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.03520},
  code = {https://github.com/sair-lab/AirSLAM},
  video = {https://youtu.be/5OcR5KeO5nc},
  website = {https://sairlab.org/airslam},
  cover = {/img/posts/2024-08-15-airslam/AirSLAM.mp4},
  addendum = {Real-time visual SLAM at 70Hz with superior accuracy}
}
```
```
Xu, Kuan and Hao, Yuefan and Yuan, Shenghai and Wang, Chen and Xie, Lihua, "AirSLAM: An Efficient and Illumination-Robust Point-Line Visual SLAM System," IEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO), 2025.
```
GroundSLAM: A Robust Visual SLAM System for Warehouse Robots Using Ground Textures.
Kuan Xu, Zheng Yang, Lihua Xie, Chen Wang.
arXiv preprint arXiv:1710.05502, 2025.

Deployment-ready localization system with superior robustness
```
@article{xu2025groundslam,
  title = {GroundSLAM: A Robust Visual SLAM System for Warehouse Robots Using Ground Textures},
  author = {Xu, Kuan and Yang, Zheng and Xie, Lihua and Wang, Chen},
  journal = {arXiv preprint arXiv:1710.05502},
  year = {2025},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.05502},
  video = {https://youtu.be/PjpNHrHARsI},
  code = {https://github.com/sair-lab/GroundSLAM},
  website = {https://sairlab.org/groundslam/},
  cover = {/img/posts/2025-04-12-groundslam/cover_image.gif},
  addendum = {Deployment-ready localization system with superior robustness}
}
```
```
Xu, Kuan and Yang, Zheng and Xie, Lihua and Wang, Chen, "GroundSLAM: A Robust Visual SLAM System for Warehouse Robots Using Ground Textures," arXiv preprint arXiv:1710.05502, 2025.
```
PyPose v0.6: The Imperative Programming Interface for Robotics.
Zitong Zhan, Xiangfu Li, Qihang Li, Haonan He, Abhinav Pandey, Haitao Xiao, Yangmengfei Xu, Xiangyu Chen, Kuan Xu, Kun Cao, Zhipeng Zhao, Zihan Wang, Huan Xu, Zihang Fang, Yutian Chen, Wentao Wang, Xu Fang, Yi Du, Tianhao Wu, Xiao Lin, Yuheng Qiu, Fan Yang, Jingnan Shi, Shaoshu Su, Yiren Lu, Taimeng Fu, Karthik Dantu, Jiajun Wu, Lihua Xie, Marco Hutter, Luca Carlone, Sebastian Scherer, Daning Huang, Yaoyu Hu, Junyi Geng, Chen Wang.
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) Workshop, 2023.
```
@inproceedings{zhan2023pypose,
  title = {{PyPose} v0.6: The Imperative Programming Interface for Robotics},
  author = {Zhan, Zitong and Li, Xiangfu and Li, Qihang and He, Haonan and Pandey, Abhinav and Xiao, Haitao and Xu, Yangmengfei and Chen, Xiangyu and Xu, Kuan and Cao, Kun and Zhao, Zhipeng and Wang, Zihan and Xu, Huan and Fang, Zihang and Chen, Yutian and Wang, Wentao and Fang, Xu and Du, Yi and Wu, Tianhao and Lin, Xiao and Qiu, Yuheng and Yang, Fan and Shi, Jingnan and Su, Shaoshu and Lu, Yiren and Fu, Taimeng and Dantu, Karthik and Wu, Jiajun and Xie, Lihua and Hutter, Marco and Carlone, Luca and Scherer, Sebastian and Huang, Daning and Hu, Yaoyu and Geng, Junyi and Wang, Chen},
  year = {2023},
  booktitle = {IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) Workshop},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.13035},
  code = {https://github.com/pypose/pypose},
  video = {https://youtu.be/XDtUDIWuGng},
  website = {https://sairlab.org/pypose/},
  cover = {/img/pubs/pypose-v0.6.jpg}
}
```
```
Zhan, Zitong and Li, Xiangfu and Li, Qihang and He, Haonan and Pandey, Abhinav and Xiao, Haitao and Xu, Yangmengfei and Chen, Xiangyu and Xu, Kuan and Cao, Kun and Zhao, Zhipeng and Wang, Zihan and Xu, Huan and Fang, Zihang and Chen, Yutian and Wang, Wentao and Fang, Xu and Du, Yi and Wu, Tianhao and Lin, Xiao and Qiu, Yuheng and Yang, Fan and Shi, Jingnan and Su, Shaoshu and Lu, Yiren and Fu, Taimeng and Dantu, Karthik and Wu, Jiajun and Xie, Lihua and Hutter, Marco and Carlone, Luca and Scherer, Sebastian and Huang, Daning and Hu, Yaoyu and Geng, Junyi and Wang, Chen, "PyPose v0.6: The Imperative Programming Interface for Robotics," IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) Workshop, 2023.
```
AirVO: An Illumination-Robust Point-Line Visual Odometry.
Kuan Xu, Yuefan Hao, Shenghai Yuan, Chen Wang, Lihua Xie.
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), pp. 3429–3436, 2023.
```
@inproceedings{xu2023airvo,
  title = {{AirVO}: An Illumination-Robust Point-Line Visual Odometry},
  author = {Xu, Kuan and Hao, Yuefan and Yuan, Shenghai and Wang, Chen and Xie, Lihua},
  booktitle = {IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)},
  year = {2023},
  pages = {3429--3436},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.07595},
  code = {https://github.com/sair-lab/AirVO},
  video = {https://youtu.be/YfOCLll_PfU},
  website = {https://sairlab.org/airvo/},
  cover = {/img/posts/2022-10-14-airvo/demo_uma.gif}
}
```
```
Xu, Kuan and Hao, Yuefan and Yuan, Shenghai and Wang, Chen and Xie, Lihua, "AirVO: An Illumination-Robust Point-Line Visual Odometry," IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2023.
```
PyPose: A Library for Robot Learning with Physics-based Optimization.
Chen Wang, Dasong Gao, Kuan Xu, Junyi Geng, Yaoyu Hu, Yuheng Qiu, Bowen Li, Fan Yang, Brady Moon, Abhinav Pandey, Aryan, Jiahe Xu, Tianhao Wu, Haonan He, Daning Huang, Zhongqiang Ren, Shibo Zhao, Taimeng Fu, Pranay Reddy, Xiao Lin, Wenshan Wang, Jingnan Shi, Rajat Talak, Kun Cao, Yi Du, Han Wang, Huai Yu, Shanzhao Wang, Siyu Chen, Ananth Kashyap, Rohan Bandaru, Karthik Dantu, Jiajun Wu, Lihua Xie, Luca Carlone, Marco Hutter, Sebastian Scherer.
IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), pp. 22024–22034, 2023.

Python library accumulated over 160,000 downloads in 2025
```
@inproceedings{wang2023pypose,
  title = {{PyPose}: A Library for Robot Learning with Physics-based Optimization},
  author = {Wang, Chen and Gao, Dasong and Xu, Kuan and Geng, Junyi and Hu, Yaoyu and Qiu, Yuheng and Li, Bowen and Yang, Fan and Moon, Brady and Pandey, Abhinav and Aryan and Xu, Jiahe and Wu, Tianhao and He, Haonan and Huang, Daning and Ren, Zhongqiang and Zhao, Shibo and Fu, Taimeng and Reddy, Pranay and Lin, Xiao and Wang, Wenshan and Shi, Jingnan and Talak, Rajat and Cao, Kun and Du, Yi and Wang, Han and Yu, Huai and Wang, Shanzhao and Chen, Siyu and Kashyap, Ananth and Bandaru, Rohan and Dantu, Karthik and Wu, Jiajun and Xie, Lihua and Carlone, Luca and Hutter, Marco and Scherer, Sebastian},
  booktitle = {IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR)},
  year = {2023},
  pages = {22024--22034},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2209.15428},
  code = {https://github.com/pypose/pypose},
  video = {https://youtu.be/XDtUDIWuGng},
  website = {https://sairlab.org/pypose/},
  cover = {/img/posts/pypose/robots.jpg},
  addendum = {Python library accumulated over 160,000 downloads in 2025}
}
```
```
Wang, Chen and Gao, Dasong and Xu, Kuan and Geng, Junyi and Hu, Yaoyu and Qiu, Yuheng and Li, Bowen and Yang, Fan and Moon, Brady and Pandey, Abhinav and Aryan and Xu, Jiahe and Wu, Tianhao and He, Haonan and Huang, Daning and Ren, Zhongqiang and Zhao, Shibo and Fu, Taimeng and Reddy, Pranay and Lin, Xiao and Wang, Wenshan and Shi, Jingnan and Talak, Rajat and Cao, Kun and Du, Yi and Wang, Han and Yu, Huai and Wang, Shanzhao and Chen, Siyu and Kashyap, Ananth and Bandaru, Rohan and Dantu, Karthik and Wu, Jiajun and Xie, Lihua and Carlone, Luca and Hutter, Marco and Scherer, Sebastian, "PyPose: A Library for Robot Learning with Physics-based Optimization," IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), 2023.
```
AirObject: A Temporally Evolving Graph Embedding for Object Identification.
Nikhil Varma Keetha, Chen Wang, Yuheng Qiu, Kuan Xu, Sebastian Scherer.
IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), pp. 8407–8416, 2022.
```
@inproceedings{keetha2021airobject,
  title = {{AirObject}: A Temporally Evolving Graph Embedding for Object Identification},
  author = {Keetha, Nikhil Varma and Wang, Chen and Qiu, Yuheng and Xu, Kuan and Scherer, Sebastian},
  booktitle = {IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR)},
  year = {2022},
  pages = {8407--8416},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.15150},
  video = {https://youtu.be/WZgn7hMZXhI},
  code = {https://github.com/Nik-V9/AirObject},
  website = {https://sairlab.org/airobject/},
  cover = {/img/posts/2022-03-15-airobject/airobject-title.gif}
}
```
```
Keetha, Nikhil Varma and Wang, Chen and Qiu, Yuheng and Xu, Kuan and Scherer, Sebastian, "AirObject: A Temporally Evolving Graph Embedding for Object Identification," IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), 2022.
```
AirCode: A Robust Object Encoding Method.
Kuan Xu, Chen Wang, Chao Chen, Wei Wu, Sebastian Scherer.
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 1816–1823, 2022.

Presented at ICRA 2022
```
@article{xu2021aircode,
  title = {{AirCode}: A Robust Object Encoding Method},
  author = {Xu, Kuan and Wang, Chen and Chen, Chao and Wu, Wei and Scherer, Sebastian},
  journal = {IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L)},
  year = {2022},
  volume = {7},
  number = {2},
  pages = {1816--1823},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.00327},
  code = {https://github.com/sair-lab/AirCode},
  video = {https://youtu.be/TsdfSVz7hks},
  website = {https://sairlab.org/aircode/},
  cover = {/img/posts/2021-10-06-aircode/AirCode.mp4},
  addinfo = {Presented at ICRA 2022}
}
```
```
Xu, Kuan and Wang, Chen and Chen, Chao and Wu, Wei and Scherer, Sebastian, "AirCode: A Robust Object Encoding Method," IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), 2022.
```
AirSwarm: Enabling Cost-Effective Multi-UAV Research with COTS Drones.
Xiaowei Li, Kuan Xu, Fen Liu, Ruofei Bai, Shenghai Yuan, Lihua Xie.
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2025.
```
@inproceedings{li2025airswarm,
  title = {AirSwarm: Enabling Cost-Effective Multi-UAV Research with COTS Drones},
  author = {Li, Xiaowei and Xu, Kuan and Liu, Fen and Bai, Ruofei and Yuan, Shenghai and Xie, Lihua},
  booktitle = {IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)},
  year = {2025},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.06890}
}
```
```
Li, Xiaowei and Xu, Kuan and Liu, Fen and Bai, Ruofei and Yuan, Shenghai and Xie, Lihua, "AirSwarm: Enabling Cost-Effective Multi-UAV Research with COTS Drones," IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2025.
```
A Fast and Light-weight Noniterative Visual Odometry with RGB-D Cameras.
Zheng Yang, Kuan Xu, Shenghai Yuan, Lihua Xie.
Unmanned Systems, vol. 13, no. 03, pp. 957–969, 2025.
```
@article{yang2025fast,
  title = {A Fast and Light-weight Noniterative Visual Odometry with RGB-D Cameras},
  author = {Yang, Zheng and Xu, Kuan and Yuan, Shenghai and Xie, Lihua},
  journal = {Unmanned Systems},
  volume = {13},
  number = {03},
  pages = {957--969},
  year = {2025},
  publisher = {World Scientific},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.18886}
}
```
```
Yang, Zheng and Xu, Kuan and Yuan, Shenghai and Xie, Lihua, "A Fast and Light-weight Noniterative Visual Odometry with RGB-D Cameras," Unmanned Systems, 2025.
```