Wenchao Yue

27 Learning-based Hierarchical Tracheal Anatomy Understanding from Sparse Surgical Demonstration Annotations for Ultrasound Robots
Hiu Ching Cheung, Wenchao Yue, Zhengran Han, Mingcong Chen, Guanglin Cao, Hongbin Liu, Hongliang Ren
The International Conference on Cyborg and Bionic Systems, 2026 (J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 3291, 012035) · paper / arXiv

A detect-then-segment pipeline (YOLO + SAM2) that learns the hierarchy of thyroid cartilage, cricoid cartilage and tracheal rings in ultrasound from sparse surgeon annotations, towards ultrasound-guided robotic tracheostomy.

26 Bilateral Soft Pouch Matrix Actuation for Multimodal Intraluminal Locomotion of Liquid Sampling Robotics
Yixin Zhang^*, Wenchao Yue^*, Hiu Ching Cheung, Haixu Meng, Xiaoxiao Yang, Shichen Fu, Jinran Su, Huxin Gao, Chia-Hung Chen, Xiuli Zuo, Hongliang Ren
IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics (T-MRB), 8(3), 2026 · paper

A bilateral matrix of soft pouch actuators gives a liquid-sampling robot several locomotion modes inside the lumen.

25 Bioinspired Kirigami Capsule Robot for Minimally Invasive Gastrointestinal Biopsy
Ruizhou Zhao^*, Yichen Chu^*, Shuwei Zhao, Wenchao Yue, Raymond Shing-Yan Tang, Hongliang Ren
ICRA, 2026 · paper / arXiv

An ingestible capsule whose cam-driven kirigami polyimide flaps deploy and rotationally scrape tissue for depth-controlled GI biopsy, validated on ex vivo porcine tissue with histology.

24 Body-Temperature-Responsive Balloon Actuator for Adaptive In-Ear Microneedle Electrode Deployment
Ruizhou Zhao^*, Wenchao Yue^*, Entong Li, Chengxi Bai, Hongliang Ren
IROS, 2025 · paper

A balloon actuator triggered by body temperature that adaptively presses microneedle electrodes against the ear canal.

23 Bimodal Tactile Tomography with Bayesian Sequential Palpation for Intracavitary Microstructure Profiling and Segmentation
Wenchao Yue, Chao Xu, Tao Zhang, Jianing Qiu, Wu Yuan, Hongliang Ren
Cyborg and Bionic Systems, 6:0348, 2025 (also presented at the ICRA 2025 RAMI workshop) · paper

Robotic bimodal palpation with ElastoSight: circumferential and sliding OCT B-scans plus Bayesian optimization localize tumor phantoms within 30 palpations (F1 > 0.976, centroid error < 0.032 mm) and segment hard inclusions from soft tissue with 0.983 precision.

22 Conformable Vision-Based Tactile Sensor with Enhanced Soft Elastomer Design for Palpating Irregular Anatomical Surfaces
Yang Yang, Tao Zhang, Yupeng Wang, Wenchao Yue, Tangyou Liu, Hongliang Ren
ICBIR (Procedia Computer Science), 2025 · paper

A vision-based tactile sensor with a softer, conformable elastomer that palpates uneven, skin-covered cartilage and recovers both shape and stiffness of the throat region.

21 Delay-aware Teleoperative Training System for Transcontinental Robot-assisted Minimally Invasive Trajectory Following
Wenchao Yue, Yixin Zhang, Ziqiao Wang, Jamie Kyujin Paik, Hongliang Ren
ICBIR (Procedia Computer Science), 2025 · paper

A teleoperation training system that accounts for network delay so that operators can follow minimally invasive trajectories across continents.

20 Design and Characteristics of Motion Scaling Manipulator for Enhanced Microsurgical Applications
Wenchao Yue, Ruizhou Zhao, Yuxiang Nie, Hongliang Ren
ICBIR (Procedia Computer Science), 2025 · paper

Design and characterization of a manipulator that scales down the surgeon's hand motion for microsurgical tasks.

19 Centimeter-Scale Magneto-Reconfigurable Parallel Robots: A Grassmann Line Geometry Synthesis Framework for Multitask Adaptation Using Magneto-Connected Part Library
Yunong Li, Bin Zhu, Wenchao Yue, Zhiwei Fang, Xiao Xiao, Hongliang Ren
Advanced Intelligent Systems, 2025 · paper

Grassmann line geometry is used to synthesize centimeter-scale parallel robots from a library of magnetically connected parts, so one kit can be reconfigured for many tasks.

18 Low-Strain Flexible Ink-Based Sensors Enable Hyperelastic Inflation Perception via Geometric Patterning for Balloon-Type Robots
Wenchao Yue, Shuoyuan Chen, Yan Ke, Yingyi Wen, Ruijie Tang, Guohua Hu, Hongliang Ren
Advanced Robotics Research, 2025 · paper

Geometrically patterned, low-strain conductive-ink sensors transfer-printed onto soft balloon actuators give balloon-type robots awareness of their own inflation and of touch, which makes human–balloon interaction safer and inflation controllable.

17 Miniature OCT-based Tactile Sensor for Concurrent Multimodal Contact Profiling in Robotic Intraluminal Palpation
Wenchao Yue, Chao Xu, Wu Yuan, Hongliang Ren
ICRA 2025 Workshop on the Evolving Landscape of Surgical Robotics (ELSR), 2025 (Best Paper Award & Best Poster Runner-Up) · preprint

Workshop version of ElastoSight: a single OCT probe with a snap-on elastomer film profiles contact force and 3D contact geometry at the same time during robotic intraluminal palpation.

16 Redesign Energy Landscapes of A Bistable Magnetoelastic Origami Towards Tissue Puncture
Yunong Li^*, Wenchao Yue^*, Chengxi Bai, Ruizhou Zhao, Fang Leng, Chenjie Xu, Hongliang Ren
RoboSoft, 2025 · paper

Reshaping the energy landscape of a bistable magnetoelastic origami so that a magnetic field triggers a snap-through fast and strong enough to puncture tissue.

15 Kirigami-inspired Flexible Strain Sensor for Dynamic Inflation Surface Applications
Shuoyuan Chen^*, Wenchao Yue^*, Ruizhou Zhao, Hongliang Ren
RoboSoft, 2025 · paper

A kirigami-cut flexible strain sensor that keeps working on surfaces that inflate and deflate dynamically.

14 ElastoSight: Miniature Tactile Sensors for Multimodal Force and Geometry Estimation in Robotic Intraluminal Palpation
Wenchao Yue, Peng Liu, Chao Xu, Jiewen Lai, Wu Yuan, Hongliang Ren
RoboSoft, 2025 · paper / preprint

A miniature tactile sensor made by snapping a thin PDMS film onto an endoscopic OCT probe: Hertz-contact calibration gives contact force, and the imaged film gives 3D contact geometry with shape errors below 0.15 mm.

13 Endotracheal Untethered Retractable Drill Mechanism Toward Robot-Assisted Endoluminal Inside-Out Dilatational Tracheostomy
Sishen Yuan, Baijia Liang, Qingyang Liu, Shijian Su, Wenchao Yue, Zifeng Huang, Hongliang Ren
IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, 2025 · paper

An untethered, retractable drill that works from inside the trachea outwards, toward robot-assisted inside-out dilatational tracheostomy.

12 Multimodal Augmented Reality Assisted Incision Guidance for Preoperative Tracheostomy Planning
Wenchao Yue^*, Yupeng Wang^*, Shuoyuan Chen, Huxin Gao, Hongliang Ren
ROBIO, 2024 (Best Student Paper Finalist) · paper / preprint

Multimodal augmented reality that overlays the recommended incision site on the patient's neck for preoperative tracheostomy planning.

11 Haptic Feedback Technology in Robot-Assisted Surgery
Lailu Li^*, Wenchao Yue^*, Hongliang Ren
Handbook of Robotic Surgery (Elsevier), pp. 57–68, 2024 · chapter

A book chapter surveying haptic feedback technologies for robot-assisted surgery.

10 RASEC: Rescaling Acquisition Strategy with Energy Constraints under Fusion Kernel for Active Incision Recommendation in Tracheotomy
Wenchao Yue, Fan Bai, Jianbang Liu, Feng Ju, Max Q.-H. Meng, Chwee Ming Lim, Hongliang Ren
IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering (T-ASE), 2024 (oral presentation at ICRA 2025) · paper / arXiv

Active robotic palpation for tracheotomy: Bayesian optimization with a fusion (SE–OU) kernel and an energy-constrained, rescaled acquisition function localizes the tracheal rings efficiently and recommends the incision site under visual–tactile guidance.

9 Dual-Stroke Soft Peltier Pouch Motor Based on Pipeless Thermo-Pneumatic Actuation
Wenchao Yue^*, Chengxi Bai^*, Jiewen Lai, Hongliang Ren
Advanced Engineering Materials, 2023 (Front Cover, invited) · paper

A pipeless soft pouch motor: a Peltier element drives the liquid-to-gas phase transition in both directions, giving a dual-stroke actuator that hovers in liquid and rolls untethered on land.

8 Sim-to-Real Transfer of Soft Robotic Navigation Strategies That Learns From the Virtual Eye-in-Hand Vision
Jiewen Lai, Tian-Ao Ren, Wenchao Yue, Shijian Su, Jason Y. K. Chan, Hongliang Ren
IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, 2023 · paper

Navigation policies for a soft robot are learned from virtual eye-in-hand vision in simulation and transferred to the real robot.

7 Autonomous Tumor Palpation and Resection Path Planning Using Tactile Array Sensor and Deep Reinforcement Learning for Surgical Robot
Feng Ju, Haoran Ye, Dongming Bai, Yingxuan Zhang, Chengjun Zhu, Yanfei Cao, Wenchao Yue
ROBIO, 2022 · paper

A surgical robot palpates tissue with a tactile array and uses deep reinforcement learning to find the tumor and plan the resection path.

6 A Laminated Continuum Robot With Gripping Force-Sensing Forceps for Robot-Assisted Minimally Invasive Surgeries
Feng Ju, Yan Hong, Dongming Bai, Zhanpeng Yin, Chengjun Zhu, Wenchao Yue
IEEE Sensors Journal, 2022 · paper

A laminated continuum robot whose forceps sense gripping force, for robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery.

5 Versatile Motion Generation of Magnetic Origami Spring Robots in the Uniform Magnetic Field
Sishen Yuan, Sifan Cao, Junnan Xue, Shijian Su, Junyan Yan, Min Wang, Wenchao Yue, Shing Shin Cheng, Jun Liu, Jiaole Wang, Shuang Song, Max Q.-H. Meng, Hongliang Ren
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), 2022, with IROS 2022 · paper

Magnetic origami spring robots that crawl, roll and reconfigure under a uniform magnetic field.

4 Origami-Inspired Structure with Pneumatic-Induced Variable Stiffness for Multi-DOF Force-Sensing
Wenchao Yue, Jiaming Qi, Xiao Song, Shicheng Fan, Giancarlo Fortino, Chia-Hung Chen, Chenjie Xu, Hongliang Ren
Sensors, 22(14):5370, 2022 · paper

An origami-inspired structure whose stiffness is tuned pneumatically, turning one compliant module into a multi-DOF force sensor.

3 Deployable Tubular Mechanisms Integrated with Magnetic Anchoring and Guidance System
Wenchao Yue, Ruijie Tang, Joei Simin Wong, Hongliang Ren
Actuators, 11(5):124, 2022 · paper

Tubular mechanisms that deploy inside the body and are anchored and guided magnetically, for single-site minimally invasive access.

2 A Dual-Mode Tactile Hardness Sensor for Intraoperative Tumor Detection and Tactile Imaging in Robot-Assisted Minimally Invasive Surgery
Yingxuan Zhang, Xiaoyong Wei, Wenchao Yue, Chengjun Zhu, Feng Ju
Smart Materials and Structures, 2021 · paper

A dual-mode tactile hardness sensor for detecting tumors and producing tactile images during robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery.

1 Dynamic Piezoelectric Tactile Sensor for Tissue Hardness Measurement Using Symmetrical Flexure Hinges and Anisotropic Vibration Modes
Wenchao Yue, Feng Ju, Yingxuan Zhang, Yahui Yun, Tianliang Li, Zion Tsz Ho Tse, Hongliang Ren
IEEE Sensors Journal, 21(16):17712–17722, 2021 · paper

A piezoelectric tactile sensor that measures tissue hardness dynamically, using symmetrical flexure hinges and anisotropic vibration modes to separate contact directions.

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