Helin Cao

Hi there! I’m Helin Cao (in Chinese: 曹贺淋).

I am currently a Robot Perception Expert at Neura Robotics, where I actively contribute to foundational ecosystems like NeuraGym and NeuraVerse, bridging the gap between large-scale spatial simulation and physical robotic intelligence.

I am also concluding my Ph.D. at the Center for Robotics, University of Bonn and the Lamarr Institute, advised by Prof. Sven Behnke in the Autonomous Intelligent Systems group. I was a proud core member of Team NimbRo@Home, deploying perception systems in international competitions. Prior to this, I spent three wonderful years earning my Master’s at TU Munich, where I had the privilege of working with Prof. Matthias Niessner and Prof. Eckehard Steinbach at the Visual Computing Group.

My research vision is to endow machines with a native, physics-grounded understanding of the 3D world. Currently, my work and interests center around:

• Physics-grounded world models: Moving beyond visual pixel prediction to simulate underlying physical dynamics (e.g., gravity, collisions) in latent spaces, creating a “commonsense brain” for embodied agents.
• Interactive 4D scene representations: Advancing 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) and Neural Fields into dynamic, interactable environments enriched with semantic occupancy for precise robotic manipulation.
• Spatial computing & sim-to-real infrastructure: Architecting high-fidelity digital twin engines and scalable spatial data pipelines to bridge the critical “data gap” in Embodied AI.

I am incredibly thankful to my collaborators and mentors, and enjoy exploring new domains through collaborations. If you have questions or would like to work together, feel free to reach out through email!