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 →

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 (Ph.D.) · Smart Industrialized Design & Construction Lab Jan. 2024–Present

  University of Florida · Designed and built SmartIDC Lab’s construction robotics software platform as its sole full-stack developer, integrating ABB industrial robots, ROS, RGB-D computer vision, motion planning, and Isaac Sim/Isaac Lab for sim-to-real deployment.

• Research Assistant (M.S.) · Smart Industrialized Design & Construction Lab Aug. 2022–Dec. 2023

  University of Florida · Quantitative analysis of robotics and industrialized construction for resilient post-disaster reconstruction.

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

  Served as Project Director on three developments totaling approximately US$1.05B and more than 4.5 million sq. ft., directing teams of up to 54 engineers and staff with responsibility for schedule, cost, quality, safety, and subcontractor coordination. Progressed from Lead Civil Engineer to Deputy Project Director and Project Director.

  Lead author and editor-in-chief of the institute’s Project Management Planning and Implementation Handbook: 78 technical sections adopted as the company-wide project management standard.

Grant Experience

• Industrialized Construction Engineering (ICE) Jan. 2024–Dec. 2026

  Autodesk / University of Florida Strategic Fund · $4M program award · Technical contributor to proposal development and robotics platform implementation.

• Human-in-the-Lead Construction Robotics Oct. 2023–Sep. 2026

  National Science Foundation · $699,570 UF award · Assisted the PI with research framework design, technical content, and proposal writing.

• Industrialized Construction Micro-Credential Curriculum Jan. 2023–Dec. 2023

  Autodesk · $50,000 project funding · Project implementation lead and sole curriculum developer for 16 modules (~48 hours), adopted for graduate-level instruction at UF.

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.

Featured Projects

Education

• University of Florida · Gainesville, FL Jan. 2024–May 2027 (expected)

  Ph.D. in Design, Construction and Planning (Concentration in Construction Management) · GPA: 3.97 / 4.00

  Dissertation: Closed-loop robotic autonomy for high-mix, low-volume wood-frame construction: from assembly-grade perception to state-aware planning and adaptive execution.

• University of Florida · Gainesville, FL Aug. 2022–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 Sep. 2009–Jun. 2013

  B.E. in Environmental Engineering

  B.Econ. 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 · Sole recipient Fall 2023

• Outstanding Engineering Research Award, CSWADI 2017

Research Interests

• Construction Robotics and Industrialized Construction: Vision-driven adaptive control, assembly planning, and robotic assembly of variable prefabricated building components for flexible offsite manufacturing.
• Human–Robot Collaboration and Automated Quality Control: Human-centered construction automation, computer vision-based inspection, and digital-twin-enabled monitoring and error correction in robotic building-component assembly.
• Safe Embodied AI for Construction: Learning-based planning, imitation learning, and vision-language-action models with runtime safety assurance for full-scale construction robots.

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

Professional Service & Skills

Contact

I welcome collaboration and invited talk opportunities.