Chao (Frank) Xie

News

• Aug 2026

  TV Interview Featured by News4JAX in a report on UF researchers using robots to build homes faster and potentially lower costs. Read the story → Watch the interview →

• Feb 2026

  Published Advancing Robotic Automation in Wood-Framed Construction Using Vision-Driven Adaptive Control published in Automation in Construction. DOI → Dataset →

• Feb 2026

  Dataset Released Released WFC-Pose, a high-precision 6-DoF pose-estimation dataset for full-scale wood studs. GitHub →

Construction robotics featured on News4JAX

News4JAX visited the University of Florida to report on our work using robots to accelerate home construction and help address housing costs.

Advanced Robotics & Embodied AI

Eight years managing large-scale construction projects convinced me that the industry's labor shortages and stagnant productivity share a common cause: physical production still depends on manual experience, even as digital design and planning have advanced far ahead of physical execution. My research closes this last-mile gap by advancing embodied intelligence for construction production — enabling robots to perceive physical conditions, understand design intent, and autonomously execute assembly amid variation, uncertainty, and accumulated error.

Using industrialized wood-frame construction as a testbed, I have built an end-to-end robotics stack spanning ABB/ROS control, robotic vision, motion planning, Isaac Sim/Isaac Lab, and sim-to-real deployment. My work progresses from CAD-free component perception and precision visual servoing to long-horizon assembly planning and the safe deployment of learned robot policies.

Research & Industry Experience

• Research Assistant · Smart Industrialized Design & Construction Lab Aug 2022–Present

  University of Florida · Built an end-to-end robotics stack supporting four research projects and two sponsored programs, from ABB/ROS control and robotic vision to motion planning, digital twins, and sim-to-real deployment.

• Project Director and Civil Engineer · CSWADI Oct 2013–Jul 2021

  Led three major developments with a combined value of approximately US$1.05B and more than 4.5 million sq. ft.; progressed from Lead Civil Engineer to Deputy Project Director and Project Director.

Featured Projects

Education

• University of Florida · Gainesville, FL Expected May 2027

  Ph.D. in Design, Construction and Planning · GPA: 3.97

  Dissertation: Closed-loop robotic autonomy for industrialized construction: from assembly-grade perception to state-aware planning and adaptive execution.

• University of Florida · Gainesville, FL Dec 2023

  M.S. in Construction Management · GPA: 4.00

  Thesis: The Role of Robotics in Promoting Industrialized Construction for Resilient Post-Disaster Recovery.

• Southwest Jiaotong University · Chengdu, China Jun 2013

  B.E. in Environmental Engineering

  B.E. in International Economics and Trade

Awards & Honors

• Rinker School Building Construction Scholarship Fall 2025

• Ingle Family Scholarship Spring 2025

• Rinker School Building Construction Scholarship Spring 2025

• Jimmie Hinze Graduate Scholarship Fall 2024

• CM Masters / Graduate Academic Excellence Award Fall 2023

• Outstanding Engineering Research Award, CSWADI 2017

Research Interests

• Construction Robotics and Autonomous Assembly: Robotic perception, 3D vision, adaptive control, and high-precision assembly of prefabricated and modular building components.
• Embodied AI for Construction: Learning-based planning, imitation learning, vision-language-action models, and safe deployment of learned policies on full-scale construction robots.
• Modular Construction and Human-Robot Collaboration: Offsite manufacturing, DfMA, digital twins, robotic assembly, and human-centered automation for productivity, housing, and smart infrastructure.

Selected Publications

Teaching

• BCN4612C — Construction Estimating 2

  Teaching Assistant · Two lab sections per week across 9 semesters · 2022–Present

• BCN5905 — Advanced Construction Technology (Autodesk-Funded Course)

  Guest Lecturer · Three graduate modules · Fall 2023

• Industrialized Construction Micro-Credential Program

  Curriculum Developer · Complete 16-module Autodesk-funded curriculum · 2023

Contact

I welcome collaboration and invited talk opportunities.