Legged Locomotion and Embodied AI





Junzhe He

Junzhe He
Junzhe He

PhD student at ETH Zurich Robotic Systems Lab

About Me

I am currently a PhD student supervised by Prof. Marco Hutter at ETH Zurich Robotic Systems Lab, Switzerland, where I focus on developing learning-based methods for generalized legged locomotion, including both quadruped and humanoid robots. My current research also explores enabling agile and natural parkour-like movements in unstructured environments. Previously, I completed my Master’s degree in Robotics, Systems, and Control at ETH Zurich. During my Master’s studies, I worked on integrating model-based and learning-based approaches to design robust and generalized locomotion controllers for quadrupeds. After that, I also worked on a holistic method that enables legged robots traversing various discontinuous terrains through pure reinforcement learning.

In summary, my research interests focus on developing athletic intelligence for autonomous legged robots, with the goal of enabling these agents to traverse anywhere their biological counterparts can. Beyond locomotion, I am also driven by a broader ambition: empowering legged robots to perform the full spectrum of actions their natural counterparts are capable of—moving, adapting, and interacting with the world with agility and versatility.

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Interests
  • Athletic Intelligence
  • Reinforcement Learning
  • Vision-language-action model
Education
  • PhD in Robotics

    ETH Zurich

  • MSc in Robotics, Systems and Control

    ETH Zurich

Featured Publications
Recent Publications
(2025). Attention-based Map Encoding for Learning Generalized Legged Locomotion. In SciRob 2025.
(2025). Constrained Style Learning from Imperfect Demonstrations under Task Optimality. In CoRL 2025.
(2025). Parkour *** ***. In IJRR 2025.
(2024). DTC: Deep Tracking Control. In SciRob 2024.

Experience

  1. Research Engineer

    ETH Zurich RSL
    Legged Robot Locomotion
  2. Visiting Researcher

    Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  3. Software Engineer Intern

    Tencent Technology
    Imitation Learning for Quadruped Robot Locomotion
  4. Research Assistant

    Jet Propulsion Laboratory & University of Colorado Boulder
    Hazard Examination and Reconnaissance Messenger for Extended Surveillance

Education

  1. PhD in Robotics

    ETH Zurich
  2. MSc in Robotics, Systems and Control

    ETH Zurich
Awards
ETH Scholarship
ETH Zurich ∙ February 2022
1st Place Student Paper Award
Society of Allied Weight Engineers (SAWE) ∙ May 2010
The 78th Society of Allied Weight Engineers International Conference 2019
2nd Place Student Paper Award
AIAA ∙ April 2019
AIAA Region 5 Student Conference 2019:
Engineering Differential Scholarship
University of Colorado Boulder ∙ September 2018
Languages
100%
English
100%
Chinese
25%
German