Nova - Spatial AI & Robotics Lab

Nova is a quadruped robot that is a trailblazer in motion and machine learning. Designed to navigate and adapt like a creature born in silicon and steel, Nova serves as a hands-on research partner for exploring a wide range of topics in robotics.

Its research interests include navigating rough terrain, confident climbing, and dynamic adaptation. Nova’s grace is only matched by her grit, making her an ideal platform for testing and refining algorithms in the real world. Whether it’s dancing through challenging landscapes or adapting to new environments, Nova is always ready to make a path.

With her robust form and dynamic capabilities, she turns abstract code into expressive, physical motion, and brings ideas to life, one step at a time.

Publications

Fast Task Planning with Neuro-Symbolic Relaxation.
Qiwei Du, Bowen Li, Yi Du, Shaoshu Su, Taimeng Fu, Zitong Zhan, Zhipeng Zhao, Chen Wang.
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 3684–3691, 2026.

An elegant real-world demonstration of interactive navigation
```
@article{du2026fast,
  title = {Fast Task Planning with Neuro-Symbolic Relaxation},
  author = {Du, Qiwei and Li, Bowen and Du, Yi and Su, Shaoshu and Fu, Taimeng and Zhan, Zitong and Zhao, Zhipeng and Wang, Chen},
  journal = {IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L)},
  year = {2026},
  volume = {11},
  number = {3},
  pages = {3684-3691},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.15975},
  website = {https://sairlab.org/flax/},
  code = {https://github.com/sair-lab/flax},
  video = {https://youtu.be/_4DYcqwycnQ},
  cover = {/img/posts/2025-07-21-flax/Flax.mp4},
  addendum = {An elegant real-world demonstration of interactive navigation}
}
```
```
Du, Qiwei and Li, Bowen and Du, Yi and Su, Shaoshu and Fu, Taimeng and Zhan, Zitong and Zhao, Zhipeng and Wang, Chen, "Fast Task Planning with Neuro-Symbolic Relaxation," IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), 2026.
```
iKap: Kinematics-aware Planning with Imperative Learning.
Qihang Li, Zhuoqun Chen, Haoze Zheng, Haonan He, Shaoshu Su, Junyi Geng, Chen Wang.
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 10164–10170, 2025.

First imperative learning planner that respects robot kinematics constraints
```
@inproceedings{li2025ikap,
  title = {{iKap}: Kinematics-aware Planning with Imperative Learning},
  author = {Li, Qihang and Chen, Zhuoqun and Zheng, Haoze and He, Haonan and Su, Shaoshu and Geng, Junyi and Wang, Chen},
  booktitle = {IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)},
  year = {2025},
  pages = {10164--10170},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.09496},
  video = {https://youtu.be/7HPAMFbHc4U},
  website = {https://sairlab.org/iKap},
  cover = {/img/posts/2024-12-12-ikap/cover.gif},
  addendum = {First imperative learning planner that respects robot kinematics constraints}
}
```
```
Li, Qihang and Chen, Zhuoqun and Zheng, Haoze and He, Haonan and Su, Shaoshu and Geng, Junyi and Wang, Chen, "iKap: Kinematics-aware Planning with Imperative Learning," IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2025.
```
VL-Nav: A Neuro-Symbolic Approach for Reasoning-based Vision-Language Navigation.
Yi Du, Taimeng Fu, Zhipeng Zhao, Shaoshu Su, Zitong Zhan, Qiwei Du, Zhuoqun Chen, Bowen Li, Chen Wang.
arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.00931, 2026.

Deployment-ready neuro-symbolic vision-language navigation
```
@article{du2026vlnav,
  title = {{VL-Nav}: A Neuro-Symbolic Approach for Reasoning-based Vision-Language Navigation},
  author = {Du, Yi and Fu, Taimeng and Zhao, Zhipeng and Su, Shaoshu and Zhan, Zitong and Du, Qiwei and Chen, Zhuoqun and Li, Bowen and Wang, Chen},
  year = {2026},
  journal = {arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.00931},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.00931},
  website = {https://sairlab.org/vlnav/},
  cover = {/img/posts/2025-02-01-vlnav/vlnav_cover.mp4},
  addendum = {Deployment-ready neuro-symbolic vision-language navigation}
}
```
```
Du, Yi and Fu, Taimeng and Zhao, Zhipeng and Su, Shaoshu and Zhan, Zitong and Du, Qiwei and Chen, Zhuoqun and Li, Bowen and Wang, Chen, "VL-Nav: A Neuro-Symbolic Approach for Reasoning-based Vision-Language Navigation," arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.00931, 2026.
```
GSMem: 3D Gaussian Splatting as Persistent Spatial Memory for Zero-Shot Embodied Exploration and Reasoning.
Yiren Lu, Yi Du, Disheng Liu, Yunlai Zhou, Chen Wang, Yu Yin.
arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.19137, 2026.
```
@article{lu2026gsmem,
  title = {{GSMem}: 3D Gaussian Splatting as Persistent Spatial Memory for Zero-Shot Embodied Exploration and Reasoning},
  author = {Lu, Yiren and Du, Yi and Liu, Disheng and Zhou, Yunlai and Wang, Chen and Yin, Yu},
  journal = {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.19137},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.19137},
  website = {https://yiren-lu.com/project_pages/gsmem/},
  cover = {/img/pubs/GSMem.mp4}
}
```
```
Lu, Yiren and Du, Yi and Liu, Disheng and Zhou, Yunlai and Wang, Chen and Yin, Yu, "GSMem: 3D Gaussian Splatting as Persistent Spatial Memory for Zero-Shot Embodied Exploration and Reasoning," arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.19137, 2026.
```