Jianhao Jiao

Senior Research Fellow at University College London (UCL)

Mobile Robot, Navigation, Embodied Intelligence

jianhaojiao_pict.jpeg

Hong Kong, 2022, captured by Ren Xin

I am currently the senior research fellow in University College London (UCL), Department of Computer Science. I work in the Robot Perception and Learning Lab which is led by Prof.Dimitrios Kanoulas. My long-term research aims to develop a mobile robotic system with human-level proficiency in localization, navigation, and decision-making, ultimately facilitating applications such as logistics, inspection, and rescue.

I received my Ph.D. in Robotics in 2021 from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). I was fortunate to collaborate with some excellent researchers, including Prof.Rui Fan, Dr.Lei Tai, Dr.Haoyang Ye, Dr.Peng Yun, and Prof.Jin Wu. I was the research associate in the Intelligent and Autonomous Driving Center (IADC) from 2022 to 2023.

More details regarding my previous/ongoing projects can be found on Research Projects. Please feel free to contact me (jiaojh1994 at gmail dot com) if you have questions about our projects and want collaboration.

News

Feb 1, 2025 Serving again as the Associate Editor of IROS 2025 for Mapping session.
Jan 29, 2025 Four papers are accepted to ICRA 2025. Topics cover Image-Goal Navigation, Visual Localization, Gaussian Splatting, and Traversability Estimation. Check this page for the preprint. Congratulation to Changkun (HKUST Ph.D.), Yuzhou (UCL Master), and Sebastian (RA in University of Toronto)! See you in Atlanta!
Jan 19, 2025 General Place Recognition Survey: Towards Real-World Autonomy is accepted to IEEE Transactions on Robotics as a Survey paper.
Sep 27, 2024 FusionPortableV2: A Unified Multi-Sensor Dataset for Generalized SLAM Across Diverse Platforms and Scalable Environments is accepted to International Journal of Robotics Research. Congratulation to Hexiang (Autonomous Driving Engineer in Zhuoyu Technology)! Please check this website to play with our dataset.
Jul 1, 2024 VirCap: Virtual Camera Exposure Control Based on Image Photometric Synthesis for Visual SLAM Application is accepted to IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics. Congratulation to Shuyang!
Jun 30, 2024 Two papers are accepted to IROS 2024. Topics cover visual place recognition and semantic mapping. Congratulation to Jingwen (SUST Ph.D.) and Tianshuai (HKUSTGZ Ph.D)! See you in Abu Dhabi!
Jun 2, 2024 Real-Time Metric-Semantic Mapping for Autonomous Navigation in Outdoor Environments is accepted to IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering.
Code are available here.
May 10, 2024 Enhancing Campus Mobility: Achievements and Challenges of the Snow Lion Autonomous Shuttle (website) is accepted to IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine. Congratulation to Yingbing (Research Scientist in Huawei Hong Kong Research Center)!
May 8, 2024 The GPRS survey and the summary of related literature are available.
Apr 17, 2024 Efficient Global Navigational Planning in 3D Structures based on Point Cloud Tomography is accepted to IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics. Congratulation to Bowen!

Featured Publications

  1. icra_2025_litevloc.gif
    LiteVLoc: Map-Lite Visual Localization for Image Goal Navigation

    This paper introduces LiteVLoc, a hierarchical visual localization framework using lightweight topometric maps for efficient, precise camera pose estimation, validated through experiments in simulated and real-world scenarios.

    Jianhao Jiao+, Jinhao He, Changkun Liu, and 4 more authors
    International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2025
  2. tro_2024_gprs_preview.png
    General Place Recognition Survey: Towards Real-World Autonomy

    We provide a comprehensive review of the current SOTA advancements in place recognition, alongside the remaining challenges, and underscore its broad applications in robotics.

    Peng Yin*, Jianhao Jiao*, Shiqi Zhao, and 7 more authors
    IEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO), 2025
  3. ijrr_2022_fusionportablev2.gif
    FusionPortableV2: A Unified Multi-Sensor Dataset for Generalized SLAM Across Diverse Platforms and Scalable Environments

    We propose a multi-sensor dataset that addresses the generalization challenge of SLAM algorithms by providing diverse sensor data, motion patterns, and environmental scenarios across 27 sequences from four platforms, totaling 38.7km. The dataset, which includes GT trajectories and RGB point cloud maps, is used to evaluate SOTA SLAM algorithms and explore its potential in other perception tasks, demonstrating its broad applicability in advancing robotic research.

    Hexiang Wei*, Jianhao Jiao*+, Xiangcheng Hu, and 7 more authors
    International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR), 2024
  4. tase_2023_hkust.gif
    Real-Time Metric-Semantic Mapping for Autonomous Navigation in Outdoor Environments

    We proposed an online and large-scale semantic mapping system that uses LiDAR-Visual-Inertial sensing to create a real-time global mesh map of outdoor environments, achieving high-speed map update and integrating the map into a real-world vehicle navigation system.

    Jianhao Jiao, Ruoyu Geng, Yuanhang Li, and 7 more authors
    IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering (T-ASE), 2024
  5. tmech_2023_lcecalib_preview.png
    LCE-Calib: Automatic LiDAR-Frame/Event Camera Extrinsic Calibration With a Globally Optimal Solution

    We proposed an automatic checkerboard-based approach for calibrating extrinsics between a LiDAR and a frame/event camera by introducing a unified globally optimal solution for calibration optimization.

    Jianhao Jiao, Feiyi Chen, Hexiang Wei, and 2 more authors
    IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics (T-MECH), 2023
  6. tro_2021_mloam_preview.png
    Robust Odometry and Mapping for Multi-LiDAR Systems with Online Extrinsic Calibration

    We proposed a SOTA multi-LiDAR SLAM system for robust and simultaneous extrinsic calibration, odometry, and uncertainty-aware mapping.

    Jianhao Jiao, Haoyang Ye, Yilong Zhu, and 1 more author
    IEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO), 2021
  7. iros_2021_mlod_preview.png
    MLOD: Awareness of Extrinsic Perturbation in Multi-LiDAR 3D Object Detection for Autonomous Driving

    We proposed a two-stage and uncertainty-aware multi-LiDAR 3D object detection system that fuses multi-LiDAR data and explicitly addresses extrinsic perturbation on extrinsics.

    Jianhao Jiao, Peng Yun, Lei Tai, and 1 more author
    IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2020
  8. iros_2019_calib_preview.png
    Automatic Calibration of Multiple 3D LiDARs in Outdoor Environment

    We proposed an automatic multi-LiDAR calibration system that requires no calibration target or manual initialization, achieving high reliability and accuracy with minimal rotation and translation errors for mobile platforms.

    Jianhao Jiao, Yang Yu, Qinghai Liao, and 2 more authors
    IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2019