Ethan Yifu Tao 陶奕甫

I am a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Dynamic Robot System Group (DRS) of the Oxford Robotics Institute (ORI), University of Oxford, supervised by Prof. Maurice Fallon. I am generally interested in robot perception and navigation.

I completed my DPhil thesis in 2025, conducted also in DRS. During my DPhil, I worked on dense 3D reconstruction using both vision and LiDAR. Prior to my DPhil, I finished my undergraduate study in Engineering Science also at the University of Oxford with a MEng degree at 2020. For my master’s thesis, I worked on human body 3D reconstruction supervised by Prof. Philip Torr.

News

Mar 26, 2025	Oxford Spires Dataset conditionally aceepted to IJRR. This work connects SLAM research with NeRF/3DGS is released. TLS ground truth 3D map, colour cameras, lidar, all in one.
Mar 03, 2025	I submitted my DPhil thesis.
Jan 05, 2024	Invited talks at CVMI Lab and MARS Lab at Hong Kong University.
Dec 24, 2023	I was on the BBC! This post summarises our conversation on forest mapping research.

Publications

SiLVR: Scalable Lidar-Visual Radiance Field Reconstruction with Uncertainty Quantification

Yifu Tao, and Maurice Fallon

arXiv preprint, 2025

arXiv Bib Youtube Website

@article{tao2025silvr,
  title = {{SiLVR}: Scalable Lidar-Visual Radiance Field Reconstruction with Uncertainty Quantification},
  author = {Tao, Yifu and Fallon, Maurice},
  year = {2025},
  journal = {arXiv preprint},
}

The Oxford Spires Dataset: Benchmarking Large-Scale LiDAR-Visual Localisation, Reconstruction and Radiance Field Methods

Yifu Tao, Miguel Ángel Muñoz-Bañón , Lintong Zhang , Jiahao Wang , Lanke Frank Tarimo Fu , and Maurice Fallon

International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR), Conditionally Accepted, 2025

arXiv Bib Youtube bilibili Website

@article{tao2025spires,
  title = {The {Oxford Spires} Dataset: Benchmarking Large-Scale {LiDAR}-Visual Localisation, Reconstruction and Radiance Field Methods},
  author = {Tao, Yifu and Mu{\~n}oz-Ba{\~n}{\'o}n, Miguel {\'A}ngel and Zhang, Lintong and Wang, Jiahao and Fu, Lanke Frank Tarimo and Fallon, Maurice},
  year = {2025},
  journal = {International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR), Conditionally Accepted},
}

Visual Localization in 3D Maps: Comparing Point Cloud, Mesh, and NeRF Representations

Lintong Zhang , Yifu Tao, Jiarong Lin , Fu Zhang , and Maurice Fallon

arXiv preprint, 2024

arXiv Bib Youtube

@article{zhang2024renderloc,
  title = {Visual Localization in {3D} Maps: Comparing Point Cloud, Mesh, and {NeRF} Representations},
  author = {Zhang, Lintong and Tao, Yifu and Lin, Jiarong and Zhang, Fu and Fallon, Maurice},
  year = {2024},
  journal = {arXiv preprint},
}

SiLVR: Scalable Lidar-Visual Reconstruction with Neural Radiance Fields for Robotic Inspection

Yifu Tao, Yash Bhalgat , Lanke Frank Tarimo Fu , Matias Mattamala , Nived Chebrolu , and Maurice Fallon

In IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) , 2024

arXiv Bib Youtube bilibili Website

@inproceedings{tao2024silvr,
  title = {SiLVR: Scalable Lidar-Visual Reconstruction with Neural Radiance Fields for Robotic Inspection},
  author = {Tao, Yifu and Bhalgat, Yash and Fu, Lanke Frank Tarimo and Mattamala, Matias and Chebrolu, Nived and Fallon, Maurice},
  booktitle = {IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)},
  year = {2024},
}

Osprey: Multi-Session Autonomous Aerial Mapping with LiDAR-based SLAM and Next Best View Planning

Rowan Border , Nived Chebrolu , Yifu Tao, Jonathan D. Gammell , and Maurice Fallon

IEEE Transactions on Field Robotics, 2024

arXiv Bib Youtube

@article{border2024osprey,
  title = {Osprey: Multi-Session Autonomous Aerial Mapping with LiDAR-based SLAM and Next Best View Planning},
  author = {Border, Rowan and Chebrolu, Nived and Tao, Yifu and Gammell, Jonathan D. and Fallon, Maurice},
  year = {2024},
  journal = {{IEEE} Transactions on Field Robotics},
}

3D Lidar Reconstruction with Probabilistic Depth Completion for Robotic Navigation

Yifu Tao, Marija Popović , Yiduo Wang , Sundara Tejaswi Digumarti , Nived Chebrolu , and Maurice Fallon

In IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) , 2022

arXiv Bib Youtube bilibili

@inproceedings{tao2022pdc,
  title = {3D Lidar Reconstruction with Probabilistic Depth Completion for Robotic Navigation},
  author = {Tao, Yifu and Popovi{\'c}, Marija and Wang, Yiduo and Digumarti, Sundara Tejaswi and Chebrolu, Nived and Fallon, Maurice},
  booktitle = {IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)},
  pages = {5339--5346},
  year = {2022},
  organization = {IEEE},
}