Academic Staff

BEng (NPU); MEng (NPU); PhD (PolyU); Member IEEE.

Area of Specialization
UAV/UAS design; Flight dynamics and control; Model predictive control (MPC); Aerial robotics; SLAM and planning.

Short Description
Dr Li received the B.Eng. and M.Eng. degrees in Aeronautical Engineering from Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU), Xi’an, China, in 2012 and 2015, respectively, and the PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), in 2019. After that, he was a Research Fellow at the Air Traffic Management Research Institute (ATMRI), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. Before joining PolyU as a Research Assistant Professor, he was a Research Associate in Robotics for Extreme Environment at School of Engineering, the University of Edinburgh, UK.

His research interests and experience include (1) development of novel UAV/UAS configurations such as vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) tail-sitter; (2) the application of advanced control theories such as model predictive control (MPC) to improve the flight performance; (3) robotic path/trajectory optimization to improve the autonomous level and efficiency; and (4) field experiments of aerial/underwater/ground mobile robotic systems.

Selected Publications

1. C.-W. Chang, S. Chen, C.-Y. Wen, and B. Li, “An Actuator Allocation Method for a Variable-Pitch Propeller System of Quadrotor-based UAVs,” Sensors, vol. 20, no. 19, 2020.
2. Y. Cao, B. Li, Q. Li, A. A. Stokes, D. Ingram, and A. Kiprakis, “A Nonlinear Model Predictive Controller for Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicles with Disturbance Rejection,” IEEE Access, vol. 8, pp. 158622-158634, 2020.
3. B. Li, J. Sun, W. Zhou, C.Y. Wen, K.H. Low, and C.K. Chen, “An Optimal Transition Control Method for Tail-sitter VTOL UAVs,” IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, Online published, 2020. [VIDEO]
4. J. Sun, B. Li, C.Y. Wen, and C.K. Chen, “Model-Aided Wind Estimation Method for a Tail-Sitter Aircraft,” IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, vol. 56, no. 2, pp. 1262-1278, 2020.
5. W. Zhou, B. Li, J. Sun, C.Y. Wen, C.K. Chen, “Adaptive Model Predictive Control Method for a Tail-Sitter VTOL UAV”, Control Engineering Practice, vol. 91, pp. 104-125, 2019.
6. C. Lim, B. Li, E. M. Ng, X. Liu and K. H. Low, "Three-dimensional Dynamic Obstacle Perception in a Detect-and-Avoid Framework for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles," 2019 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS), Atlanta, GA, USA, 2019. [VIDEO]
7. J. Sun, B. Li, C.-Y. Wen, and C.-K. Chen, “Design and Implementation of a Real-time Hardware-in-the-loop Testing Platform for a Dual-rotor Tail-sitter Unmanned Aerial Vehicle,” Mechatronics, vol. 56, pp. 1-15, 2018. [VIDEO]
8. B. Li, W. Zhou, J. Sun, C. Y. Wen, and C. K. Chen, “Development of Model Predictive Controller for a Tail-Sitter VTOL UAV in Hover Flight,” Sensors, vol. 18, no. 9, 2018. [VIDEO]
9. J. Sun, B. Li, Y. Jiang, and C. Y. Wen, “A Camera-Based Target Detection and Positioning UAV System for Search and Rescue (SAR) Purposes,” Sensors, vol. 16, no. 11, 2016. [VIDEO]
10. B. Li, Y. Jiang, J. Sun, L. Cai, and C. Y. Wen, “Development and Testing of a Two-UAV Communication Relay System,” Sensors, vol. 16, no. 10, 2016. [VIDEO]