Acknowledgements
In the epilogue of my PhD career, I feel thankful to many people. Those
who deserve the most of my gratefulness are my supervisors Niki and
Andrew. Their diligent supervision trains me and grows me, strict but
full of tenderness. Listening to their “crazy” ideas is one of the biggest
pleasure, though they frightened me a lot at the beginning. However,
gradually I realised that they taught me through those ideas, as what the
bishop has taught the arrested Valjean in Les Miserables, to see things in a
higher plan. In their dual supervision, Niki watches more on my research
direction, discussing all the possibilities with me patiently based on her
long-accumulated academic experience. Andrew, on the other hand, can
always catch the core concepts behind my poor expressions and help me
to polish them on the paper. Thanks to them, otherwise many of the
achievements in this thesis would have died before the birth.
Second, I’d like to thank Dr. Sen Wang and Dr. Yishu Miao. Sen guided
my first step to robotics, like Venus to sailors in the dark sea, illuminating
my way on this unknown territory. Those memorable days when he was
sitting behind me in the office were the peak of my progress in robotic re-
search. Yishu, my advisor and collaborator in machine learning, catalysed
my study on deep reinforcement learning and bridging it with robotics.
Now he becomes my boss for my internship in MO Intelligence which is a
wonderful working place for me. Sen and Yishu are also my friends and
mentors who I deeply appreciate their help on my life in Oxford.
Next, I want to thank to Xiaoxuan, Zhihua and other colleagues in Cyber-
Physical Systems Group. Their enthusiasm to the work and exciting
achievements encouraged me to dive deeper into my research. Besides,
the endless anecdotes and fun gossips in the office also brought me laugh
and happiness. Thanks to each of my friends in Oxford. I miss all the
hotpot parties, drinks in the pub and our online reunions in DotA. My
gratitude also goes to my girlfriend Yuanyuan for embracing me warmly
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