Dr Yu Cao
Research Associate on Offshore Robotics

Contact details
- Email: Yu.Cao@ed.ac.uk
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 controlProject 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