Engineering

Professor Yang Liu is Personal Chair in Dynamics and Control in the Department of Engineering at the University of Exeter, and an Honorary Lecturer at the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. He joined the University of Exeter in 2016 and was promoted to Senior Lecturer (2019), Associate Professor (2022), and Professor/Personal Chair (2024). Prior to Exeter, he held research and academic positions at the University of Aberdeen (Research Fellow) and Robert Gordon University (Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering).

 

Professor Liu’s research sits at the intersection of nonlinear dynamics, control, and medical robotics, with a strong focus on translational healthcare applications. His work particularly targets next-generation robotic technologies for gastrointestinal diagnostics, including sensing and intervention in challenging clinical environments using millimetre- and micrometre-scale robots.

 

His research achievements have been recognised internationally through multiple awards and honours, including the Ali H. Nayfeh Prize (International Conference on Nonlinear Dynamics 2021), and he has been listed in the Stanford & Elsevier Global Top 2% Scientists since 2019.

 

Media Coverage:

 

Live Projects:

  • AI analytics engine for vibro-mechanical detection of bowel lesions, EPSRC IAA, PI, £27,194, 01/2026-03/2026
  • Monitoring physiological signals via an ingestible pill sensor for early detection and diagnosis of mental disorders, EPSRC IAA, PI, £58,712, 05/2025-04/2026
  • Development of a smart minimally invasive tool for early diagnosis of bowel cancer, EPSRC DTP (2918445), PI, £90,000, 09/2024-03/2028

 

Finished Projects:

  • Development of the initial prototype of a pill sensor to detect colonic polyps and early bowel cancer, MRC (MR/Y503411/1), PI, £247,147, 02/2024-10/2025
  • EXONS: Exploring and exploiting nonlinearity in small-scale robots, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship (101204440), PI, €276,188, Secondment supervisor: Prof. Matthieu Fruchard (University of Orléans), 08/2025-07/2027
  • WORMS: When micro-robots encounter metastatic cancer in the adjacent capillaries, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship (EP/Y016017/1), PI, €236,748, Secondment supervisor: Prof. Antoine Ferreira (INSA Centre Val de Loire), 10/2023-09/2025
  • AGENT: Targeting high efficient energy harvesting via controlling multistability, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship (EP/Y016130/1), PI, €236,748, Secondment supervisor: Prof. Przemyslaw Perlikowski (Lodz University of Technology), 10/2023-09/2025
  • On the piecewise-smooth dynamics of robot-cancer interaction at microscale, EPSRC Mathematical Sciences DTP (2581433), PI, £88,503, 10/2021-09/2025
  • Preclinical assessment of a vibrational device for early bowel cancer diagnosis, MRC IAA, PI, £44,857, 07/2023-09/2024
  • On the dynamics of two contacting bodies under frictional sliding, Royal Society, PI, £11,685, 03/2021-09/2024 (ranked in Top 7th of 56 funded projects, see News)
  • Late proof-of-concept demonstration of a clinician-controlled capsule device for lower gastrointestinal endoscopy, EPSRC IAA, PI, £53,180, 11/2023-03/2024
  • OMEGA: On the modelling of micro-robots in the gut: a non-smooth dynamics approach, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellowship (101018793), PI, €212,933, Secondment supervisor: Prof. Bradley J. Nelson (ETH Zurich), 10/2021-09/2023 (marked 97 out of 100, ranked in Top 2.95% in Engineering Panel, and about 1,630 funded projects out of 11,300 applications)
  • When a micro-robot encounters a bowel lesion, EPSRC New Horizons (EP/V047868/1), PI, £202,450, 05/2021-06/2023 (about 100 funded projects out of over 1,200 applications, see EPSRC News)
  • Developing AI enabled low-cost microcontrollers, EPSRC SMM CDT, PI, £80,000, 11/2019-10/2023
  • Development of a mathematical tool for piecewise-smooth delay differential equations: a micro-robot’s perspective, EPSRC (EP/W52265X/1), PI, £TBC, 10/2021-02/2022
  • EPSRC Capital award for core equipment (EP/T023635/1), Co-I, £269,363, 11/2019-07/2021
  • Controlling multistability in vibro-impact systems: theory and experiment, EPSRC (EP/P023983/1), PI, £101,147, 10/2017-06/2019
  • Utilising the vibro-impact self-propulsion technique for gastrointestinal endoscopy, EPSRC (EP/R043698/1), PI, £31,674, 08/2018-02/2019
  • Control of multistable dynamical systems with applications in oil and gas industry, the Carnegie PhD scholarship, PI, £54,159, 10/2015-03/2019
  • Mathematical modelling and optimisation of a downhole anti stick-slip tool for reduction of torsional vibrations, ETP PhD Studentship collaborated with Tomax Ltd., Co-PI, £82,423, 10/2014-03/2018
  • Agri-Tech in China: Newton Network+, Pathfinder Awards (PF002), PI, £4,914, 07/2017
  • Design, modelling and implementation of a capsule system for pipeline pigging inspection, IMechE Group Project Award, £2,500, 10/2015-03/2016 (News 1, News 2)
  • Development of an experimental test rig for a vibro-impact capsule system, the Carnegie Trust Small Research Grant (No 31841), PI, £2,140, 08/2014-07/2015

 

Team Members:
Postdoctoral Research Fellows/Associates:

  • Mr Andrew Bickerdike, Postdoctoral research fellow, since September 2021

 

PhD Students (Primary Supervisor):

  • Miss Ningjuan Zhao, since Jan 2026
  • Mr Joel Way, Development of a smart minimally invasive tool for early diagnosis of bowel cancer, since Sep 2024
  • Mr Xizheng Fang, since Sep 2023
  • Mr Siyuan Wang, since Sep 2023
  • Mr Andrew Bickerdike, On the piecewise-smooth dynamics of robot-cancer interaction at microscale, since Sep 2021

 

Consultant Clinicians:

  • Dr Shyam Prasad, Lead Clinician for Gastroenterology at the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
  • Prof. Anastasios Koulaouzidis, Clinical Professor, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
  • Mr James Clark, Consultant Upper GI Surgeon, Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust

 

Laboratory:

  • Prof. Liu's lab facilities can be found here, and his lab's Youtube channel can be viewed from here.

 

Visiting Scholars:

  • Positions are open.

 

PhD Graduates:

  • Dr Zhi Zhang, Postdoctoral research associate at Imperial College London, Thesis title: Control of coexisting attractors in nonsmooth dynamical systems, August 2021
  • Dr Kenneth Omokhagbo Afebu, MRC knowledge exchange fellow at the University of Exeter, Thesis title: Intelligent models for optimisation of the vibro-impact drilling system, August 2021
  • Dr Jiajia Zhang, Electrical engineer, Hunter Stoves (UK), Thesis title: Prototype design and testing of a self-propelled vibro-impact capsule system for lower gastrointestinal endoscopies, May 2023
  • Dr Jiyuan Tian, German Cancer Research Center (Germany), Thesis title: Biomechanics of a vibro-impact capsule robot self-propelling in the lower gastrointestinal tract, October 2023
  • Dr Ahmed Al Shekaili, University of Technology and Applied Sciences (Oman), Thesis title: Numerical and experimental investigation of drill-string dynamics for oil and gas drilling, November 2024
  • Dr Bo Tian, Brunel University, Thesis title: Dynamic stiffness identification via vibro-impact oscillators for bowel cancer detection and staging, July 2025
  • Dr Zepeng Wang, Multiscale modelling and experimental investigation of vibro-impact capsule robot locomotion in the human lower gastrointestinal tract, November 2025

 

Former Postdocs:

  • Prof. Bingyong Guo, Professor at Northwestern Polytechnical University (China)
  • Dr Zhi Zhang, Postdoctoral research associate at Imperial College London
  • Dr Shan Yin, Marie Sklodowska-Curie individual fellow
  • Dr Yahui Sun, Marie Sklodowska-Curie individual fellow
  • Dr Gengxiang Wang, Marie Sklodowska-Curie individual fellow
  • Dr Haihong Li, Marie Sklodowska-Curie individual fellow

 

Former Visiting Scholars:

  • Mr Wei Lin (CSC Visiting Scholar), School of Mechatronic Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, China
  • Dr Xiaojun Dai (CSC Visiting Scholar), School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, China
  • Dr Kuilin Huang, School of Mechatronic Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, China
  • Dr Shiwei Niu, School of Mechatronic Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, China
  • Mr Yiwei Han (CSC Visiting Scholar), School of Mechatronic Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, China
  • Prof. Yundong Li (CSC Visiting Scholar), School of Mathematics and Statistics, Sichuan University of Science and Engineering, Zigong, China
  • Dr Feng Zhou (CSC Visiting Scholar), School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
  • Miss Shuning Deng (CSC Visiting PhD Student), State Key Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufacturing for Vehicle Body, Hunan University, Changsha, China
  • Mr Haohao Bi (CSC Visiting PhD Student), Department of Applied Mathematics, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, China
  • Mr Zhao Tan (CSC Visiting PhD Student), State Key Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufacturing for Vehicle Body, Hunan University, Changsha, China

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