Welcome!

I will join the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Arkansas as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in January 2027. I am currently a fixed-term Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Michigan State University (MSU). Prior to this appointment, I was a Research Associate at MSU, where I had the privilege of working with Prof. Zhaojian Li.

I received my B.E. degree in Automation from Xiamen University, China, and my Ph.D. degree in Control Science and Engineering from Zhejiang University, China, under the supervision of Prof. Jian Chen.

My primary research interests lie in automation and robotics, through cross-disciplinary research interweaving control theory, perception, privacy preservation, and artificial intelligence. My research also focuses on applications such as field robotics and smart agriculture, where robust perception, decision-making, and control are essential for enabling safe and efficient autonomous operation in structured/unstructured environments.

News

2026

• Hiring! We are recruiting fully funded Ph.D. students beginning in Spring/Fall 2027 at the University of Arkansas. Interested applicants are encouraged to email kaixiangzhang91@gmail.com with their CV and a summary of their qualifications.
• [07/2026] Our paper Design and Data-Driven Control of Hydraulic Tendon-Driven Mechanisms for MRI-Conditional Surgical Robots was accepted for publication in IECON 2026.
• [06/2026] A new preprint: A Modular Dual-Arm Apple Harvesting Robot with Enhanced Field Performance.
• [06/2026] Our paper Velocity-Form Data-Enabled Predictive Control of Soft Robots under Unknown External Payloads was accepted for publication in the IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters.
• [06/2026] Our paper Deep Reinforcement Learning-Enhanced Event-Triggered Data-Driven Predictive Control for a 3D Cable-Driven Soft Robotic Arm was accepted for publication in IROS 2026.
• [06/2026] I will be starting a new chapter as a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, beginning in January 2027.