Dr Yu Cao

Research Associate on Offshore Robotics

Contact details

Address

Street

Faraday Building

City
Room 3.097
Post code
EH17 8UT

Background

Dr Yu Cao received the M.Sc. degree in maritime engineering and the Ph.D. degree in maritime robotics from the University of Southampton, in 2016 and 2020, respectively. He founded the Southampton Sailing Robot Team, which has won the World Champion title in the World Robotics Sailing Championship (WRSC) from 2016 to 2018 and has served as the Technical Chair at WRSC 2019. He is currently a Research Associate with the Offshore Robotics for Certification of Assets (ORCA hub) Project funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). His current research interests include advanced motion control and the energy autonomy of maritime robots.

 

Qualifications

PhD in Engineering 

    University of Southampton 

MSc in Maritime Engineering & Autonomy 

    University of Southampton

BEng in Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering

   Wuhan University of Technology

BA in English Language and Literature

   Wuhan University

Responsibilities & affiliations

Member IEEE

 

Postgraduate teaching

MSc dissertation supervision

Areas of interest for supervision

MSc dissertation for IES students, also open to supervising robotics student teams. 

Research summary

Dr. Yu Cao's research is focused on smart sustainable technology for society. His main research interests are advanced control theory, machine learning and numerical optimisation with applications in the following areas:

Machine learning: Reinforcement learning, causal inference

Maritime Robotics: Autonomous surface vehicles, Autonomous underwater vehicles 

Renewable Energy: Solar-PV hybrid system,  data-driven controller design 

 

Current research interests

Machine learning, reinforcement learning, model predictive control

Project activity

UK Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Hub for Offshore Energy Asset Integrity Management (ORCA hub) 

Invited speaker

Zhejiang University 2018 Robotics sailing winter academy

Huazhong University of Science and Technology 2018 East lake forum 

University of Plymouth 2017 Sailing towards a sustainable future