Yujin Kim

Yujin Kim

Korea Institute of Science and Technology



My research interest lies in the area of Reinforcement Learning, both practical applications and theoretical perspectives. I focus on solving sequential decision-making problems for real-world autonomous learning systems! These are the questions that I am digging these days.

1️⃣ How can an agent acquire skills with minimal (or without) human-engineered intervention?

2️⃣ How can an agent acquire general-purpose skills to efficiently solve practical, long-horizon tasks?

3️⃣ What are the key differences that distinguish AI agents from humans in the process of learning new skills? What aspects of human learning can AI systems leverage?

I am a research scientist at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) under the supervision of a senior researcher, Yisoo Lee. Before that, I received my M.S. from Korea University under the supervision of Professor Myo-Taeg Lim, where I studied reinforcement learning and path planning for autonomous driving. I received my B.S. from the University of Seoul. I finished internship at Hyundai Motor Group, working on developing autonomous driving decision-making and control.

📖 Educations

  • M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mar. 2021 - Aug. 2023
    • Major : Control, Robotics and Systems. Korea University (GPA: 4.39/4.5)
    • Research Scholarship from Hyundai Motor Group, Mar. 2021 - Dec. 2022,
  • B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mar. 2017 - Feb. 2021
    • University of Seoul. (GPA: 4.0/4.5)
    • Research Scholarship from Hyundai Motor Group, Sep. 2019 - Dec. 2020

🔥 News

  • Sep. 2023:  🎉🎉 Paper published at electronics journal
  • Aug. 2023:  🎉🎉 Completed my M.S degree!!
  • Jan. 2022:  🎉🎉 Started working at KIST.

👩🏼‍💻 ̆̈Projects

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Autonomous Robot Manipulator Operation for Intricate Object Handling

  • ON GOING PROJECT!
    • Challenge to long-horizon manipulator operation using reinforcement learning.
    • Develop skills for operating equipment (e.g., valve, switch, gear lever…) at industrial sites with a manipulator.
    • Learn skills while minimizing human-engineered features.
    • Learn skills without human intervention to enhance the autonomy of our robot manipulator.
    • Implemented TQC.
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Dual-Armed Mobile Manipulator Door Traversal

  • ON GOING PROJECT!
    • Address challenges of door traversal motion planning
    • Unified framework for door traversal, from approaching, opening, passing through, and closing the door with dual-armed mobile manipulator
    • Decision making for optimal contact point planning with RL.
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Classified Experience Replay

  • Challenge to skewed sub-goal distribution for goal-conditioned RL controller.
  • Implemented TQC.
  • Paper under review
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Learning to drive in highway with guided RL controller.

  • Addresses the challenge of reward shaping for continuous RL controllers by using MPC reference.
  • Implemented DDPG.
  • Paper published at ICEIC, 2022 (oral).
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F1tenth Virtual Race competition

  • Compete to race with RL controller.
  • Participated in IROS, 2021 and ICRA, 2022
  • Won 3rd prize
  • Implemented PPO, DQN.
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Pallet loading problem with robot manipulator

  • Employed decision-making techniques using Reinforcement Learning (RL) to optimize box layout on pallets for varying box sizes.
  • Implemented PPO.
  • Executed pallet loading operations based on the optimized layout using the Doosan Robotics M1013 robot manipulator.
  • Successfully applied this solution in a real-world scenario.
EMECS 2023
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Lane change decision making on crowded highway environment

  • Establishing robust statistical criteria for lane change decisions in driving, grounded in human data.
  • Poster session at EMECS, 2023
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Transformer model from scratch!

  • Generate Korean-English translator.
SMP 2020
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Smart Mobility Project - Fail safe system development

  • Development of a fail-safe system for self-driving cars.
  • Utilization of V2V sensor data for operation during sensor failure.
  • Presentation

📝 Publications

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Classified Experience Replay: The Off-Policy Reinforcement Learning Method and Dynamic Trajectory Planning for Autonomous Driving

  • Under Review

Yujin Kim, Sun-Ho Jang, Woo-Jin Ahn, Myo-Taeg Lim, Dong-Sung Pae

ICEIC 2022
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Reinforcement Learning for Autonomous Vehicle using MPC in Highway Situation

Yujin Kim, Dong-Sung Pae, Sun-Ho Jang, Seong-Woo Kang, Myo-Taeg Lim

EMECS 2023
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Prediction of estimated lane change distance on highway: based on traffic information

Yujin Kim, Seok Youl Yang, Myo-Taeg Lim

Electronics 2023
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Stable and Efficient Reinforcement Learning Method for Avoidance Driving of Unmanned Vehicles

Sun-Ho Jang, Woo-Jin Ahn, Yu-Jin Kim, Hyung-Gil Hong, Dong-Sung Pae, Myo-Taeg Lim

🎖 Honors and Awards

  • Spring 2018, Scholarship for Excellent Achievement, University Of Seoul.
  • Sep. 2018 - Dec. 2022, Full Scholarship for Selected Research Student, Hyundai Motor Company.
  • May 2022, 10th F1TENTH Autonomous Racing Grand Prix, 3rd Place, ICRA 2022.
  • Jul. 2018, 2018 Intelligent Model Car Competition, 3rd Place, Hanyang University.
  • Jul. 2017, 14th Microrobot Competition, Special Award for Women Engineer, Dankook University.

💻 Work Experience