Zhixian Xie

I am PhD student at Intelligent Robotics and Interactive Systems (IRIS) Lab at Arizona State University.

In 2022, I received my B.Eng degree in automation at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China. I joined IRIS lab for PhD study in 2024.1, working with Dr. Wanxin Jin.

               

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My Research

My research focuses on:

• Robot Learning from Human I develop algorithms that enable robots to learn efficiently from human data—such as preferences, corrections, and demonstrations. I am interested in imitation learning and interactive learning paradigms to allow robots to generalize from limited supervision and align their behavior with human intent, facilitating natural and adaptive human-robot collaboration.

• Dexterous Manipulation I design model-based and model-free methods for dynamic, contact-rich manipulation with high-DOF robotic hands. My research integrates control theory and learning to enable robust, generalizable skills such as in-hand reorientation and non-prehensile manipulation, advancing autonomous dexterity in real-world settings.

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Publication & Preprints

Safe MPC Alignment with Human Directional Feedback
Zhixian Xie, Wenlong Zhang, Yi Ren, Zhaoran Wang, George. J. Pappas and Wanxin Jin
Preprint, submitted to IEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO)
[PDF]/ [Code]/ [Video]/ [Webpage]

Language-Model-Assisted Bi-Level Programming for Reward Learning from Internet Videos
Harsh Mahesheka, Zhixian Xie, Zhaoran Wang, Wanxin Jin
arXiv preprint, 2024
[PDF]/ [Video]/ [Webpage]

Robust Reward Alignment via Hypothesis Space Batch Cutting
Zhixian Xie, Haode Zhang, Yizhe Feng, Wanxin Jin
Accepted by ICML 2025
[PDF]/ [Code]/ [Webpage]

On-Palm Dexterity: Dynamic Reorientation of Objects via Emergent Flipping and Sliding
Zhixian Xie, Wen Yang, Wanxin Jin
ICRA 2025 Workshop on Learning Meets Model-Based Methods for Contact-Rich Manipulation
[PDF]/ [Webpage]

TwinTrack: Bridging Vision and Contact Physics for Real-Time Tracking of Unknown Dynamic Objects
Wen Yang, Zhixian Xie, Xuechao Zhang, Heni Ben Amor, Shan Lin, Wanxin Jin
arXiv preprint, 2025
[PDF]/ [Webpage]/ [Video]