Dr Erfu Yang
Senior Lecturer
Design, Manufacturing and Engineering Management
Personal statement
Dr Erfu Yang is a Senior Lecturer in Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS) Group within the Department of Design, Manufacturing and Engineering Management (DMEM) at the University of Strathclyde. In 2008, he received his Ph.D. degree in robotics from the University of Essex, Colchester, UK, within the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering. Before joining the DMEM, he was a research fellow in the Cognitive Signal Image and Control Processing Research (COSIPRA) Laboratory at the University of Stirling, UK. Previously, as a research fellow he also worked in the Department of Mechanical and Control Systems Engineering (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan) and School of Engineering (University of Edinburgh, UK). His main research interests include robotics, autonomous systems, computer vision, image/signal processing, mechatronics, data analytics, manufacturing automation, multi-objective optimizations, and applications of machine learning and artificial intelligence including multi-agent reinforcement learning, fuzzy logic, neural networks, bio-inspired algorithms, and cognitive computation, etc. He has over 160 publications in these areas, including more than 80 journal papers and 10 book chapters. Dr Yang has been awarded over 15 research grants as PI (principal investigator) or CI (co-investigator). He is the Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy, Member of the UK Engineering Professors’ Council, Senior Member of the IEEE Society of Robotics and Automation, IEEE Control Systems Society, Publicity Co-Chair of the IEEE UK and Ireland Industry Applications Chapter, Committee Member of the IET SCOTLAND Manufacturing Technical Network. Dr Yang has been a Scientific/Technical Programme Committee member or organizer for a series of international conferences and workshops. He is an associate editor for the Cognitive Computation journal published by Springer.
Prize And Awards
- TOP CITED ARTICLE 2023-2024
- Recipient
- 8/4/2025
- Top 2% Scientists
- Recipient
- 16/9/2024
- IEEE Outstanding Service Award
- Recipient
- 30/8/2023
- Best Poster for RoVER VIP Project at the ESD@Strath Conference 2023
- Recipient
- 30/3/2023
- TOP CITED ARTICLE 2021-2022
- Recipient
- 21/2/2023
- Excellent Paper
- Recipient
- 7/1/2022
Publications
- Advances in Brain Inspired Cognitive Systems : 14th International Conference, BICS 2024, Hefei, China, December 6–8, 2024, Proceedings, Part II
- Hussain Amir, Jiang Bo, Zheng Aihua, Li Chenglong, Zhao Zhicheng, Ren Jinchang, Mahmud Mufti, Yang Erfu, Wang Shuqiang, Gao Zhi
- Lecture Notes in Computer Science Lecture Notes in Computer Science (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-96-2885-8
- Advances in Brain Inspired Cognitive Systems : 14th International Conference, BICS 2024, Hefei, China, December 6–8, 2024, Proceedings, Part I
- Hussain Amir, Jiang Bo, Zheng Aihua, Li Chenglong, Zhao Zhicheng, Ren Jincheng, Mahmud Mufti, Yang Erfu, Wang Shuqiang, Gao Zhi
- Lecture Notes in Computer Science Lecture Notes in Computer Science (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-96-2882-7
- Parameter estimation method for separable fractional-order Hammerstein nonlinear systems based on the on-line measurements
- Wang Junwei, Xiong Weili, Ding Feng, Zhou Yihong, Yang Erfu
- Applied Mathematics and Computation Vol 488 (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amc.2024.129102
- Robotics and Autonomous Systems and Engineering Applications of Computational Intelligence : 8th International Conference on Life System Modeling and Simulation, LSMS 2024, and 8th International Conference on Intelligent Computing for Sustainable Energy and Environment, ICSEE 2024, Suzhou, China, September 13-15, 2024, Proceedings, Part V
- Gu Juping, Hu Fuyuan, Zhou Huiyu, Fei Zixiang, Yang Erfu
- Communications in Computer and Information Science Communications in Computer and Information Science (2024)
- https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-96-0313-8
- Adaptive fault-tolerant tracking control for multi-joint robot manipulators via neural network-based synchronization
- Le Quang Dan, Yang Erfu
- Sensors Vol 24 (2024)
- https://doi.org/10.3390/s24216837
- Advancing healthcare through intelligent human-robot collaboration : overview, challenges and opportunities
- Ait Ameur Mohamed Adlan, Yang Erfu, Brady Scott
- 2024 29th International Conference on Automation and Computing (ICAC) The 29th International Conference on Automation and Computing (ICAC 2024), pp. 1-6 (2024)
- https://doi.org/10.1109/icac61394.2024.10718809
Professional Activities
- BridgeAI Annual Showcase 2025
- Participant
- 15/6/2025
- Hyperion Course on Proposal Writing for Pillar II (Horizon Europe)
- Participant
- 11/6/2025
- Symposium on Cross-cultural and inclusive approaches to support brain health
- Participant
- 9/6/2025
- Research and KE Projects Costing Training
- Participant
- 3/6/2025
- Horizon Europe: Cluster 4 info day - Digital, Industry and Space
- Participant
- 13/5/2025
- DMEM Industrial Group Projects (IGP) Presentation Day 2025
- Participant
- 9/5/2025
Projects
- KTP - Glenrath Farms Ltd. Development of an intelligent collaborative robot system for smart farm manufacturing (iCoBOTS).
- Yang, Erfu (Principal Investigator) Maier, Anja (Co-investigator) Masood, Tariq (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2024 - 31-Jan-2026
- Intelligent Human-Robot Collaboration for Future Advanced Healthcare Applications
- Yang, Erfu (Principal Investigator) Liang, Sha (Co-investigator) Ait Ameur, Mohamed Adlan (Researcher)
- The aim of this project is to investigate an intelligent human-robot interaction for advanced healthcare applications, which will leverage advanced computer vision, robotics, artificial intelligence to enable patent-oriented medical and health functions. Together with the cutting-edge human friendly robot system such as cobots to form a new advanced intelligent human-robot system, realise the robot healthcare applied in patients’ home, hospitals and other complex environments to achieve autonomous activities, active identification, assistance and emergency treatment, and alarm functions of sudden diseases, and remote coordination with caregivers and doctors to provide accurate support and assistance for their care, and complete the care and treatment of the elderly and patients.
- 01-Jan-2023 - 30-Jan-2026
- Cobot – Human Interaction PhD Case Study
- Yang, Erfu (Principal Investigator) Othman, Uqba (Researcher)
- 16-Jan-2022 - 31-Jan-2025
- Adaptive Path Planning and Visual Navigation of Autonomous Inspection Robots in Challenging Environments
- Yang, Erfu (Principal Investigator) Dobie, Gordon (Co-investigator) Jiang, Meiling (Researcher)
- This project aims to fundamentally investigate the novel adaptive path planning and visual navigation of robots (such as an industrial robot manipulator, Cobot, UAV etc.) for autonomous inspection by enabling holistic control and interactions of robots in complex, dynamic and changing environments such that safety and interaction of nearby humans/operators/other objects etc. can be maintained while the inspection tasks are taking place. At the same time, the efficiency and flexibility of the inspection process is also achieved when process variations or environmental changes take place.
- 01-Jan-2022 - 30-Jan-2025
- MOEA/D-PPR: Path Planning of Robots in Complex Environments via the Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithm Based on Decomposition
- Yang, Erfu (Principal Investigator) Dobie, Gordon (Co-investigator)
- 31-Jan-2022 - 30-Jan-2025
- Flexible Human-Robot Collaborative Inspection for In-Process Quality Control in Smart Manufacturing
- Yang, Erfu (Principal Investigator) Luo, Xichun (Co-investigator) Othman, Uqba (Researcher)
- The overall research aim of this project is to fundamentally investigate the novel flexible human-robot collaborative inspection strategies by enabling holistic control and interactions of collaborative robots in complex human-robot collaborative manufacturing environments such that safety and interaction of nearby humans/operators can be maintained while the in-process inspection and quality control are being done. At the same time, the efficiency and flexibility of the manufacturing process is also achieved when process variations or environmental changes occur in advanced manufacturing systems.
To achieve this aim, the proposed project will be focusing on the following three research objectives: 1) A comprehensive review of the state of the art in collaborative robotics and human-robot interactions towards smarter manufacturing in the digital age. 2) Investigation of novel concepts and algorithms for intelligent control, motion planning, and machine learning. 3) Development and testing of prototype sensing, Inspection with machine vision and NDT, path planning, and control system in the complex human-robot collaborative manufacturing environments. - 01-Jan-2021 - 30-Jan-2024
Contact
Dr
Erfu
Yang
Senior Lecturer
Design, Manufacturing and Engineering Management
Email: erfu.yang@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 574 5279