# Kyrylo Kolesnichenko

> Kyrylo Kolesnichenko, undergraduate researcher in humanoid robot learning at the Advanced Telerobotics Research Lab, Kent State University (B.Sc., Vilnius University). Learned locomotion, expressive gaits, robot footwear.

I’m a final-year undergraduate at Vilnius University and a researcher at Kent State
University’s Advanced Telerobotics Research Lab, advised by Jong-Hoon Kim.

My main interests are reinforcement learning and humanoid robotics. I develop and test
control policies in simulation and on hardware, working on expressive motion,
[locomotion for teleoperation](https://kyry.me/projects/k1-loco-teleop/), and
[walking with different foot geometries](https://kyry.me/projects/k1-heel-walking/).
I also work on [bipedal running](https://kyry.me/projects/) and
[LLM-based human–robot interaction](https://kyry.me/projects/mi-rol/).

Role: Undergraduate researcher, humanoid robot learning.
Affiliations: Advanced Telerobotics Research Lab, Dept. of Computer Science, Kent State University; Institute of Social Sciences and Applied Informatics, Vilnius University.

## Pages

- [Home](https://kyry.me/): overview, featured projects, selected publications
- [Projects](https://kyry.me/projects/): all research projects
- [Publications](https://kyry.me/publications/): papers with BibTeX
- [CV](https://kyry.me/cv/): education, research, industry, skills ([PDF](https://kyry.me/cv.pdf))

## Projects

- [Expressive Motion](https://kyry.me/projects/expressive-motion/): From a monocular runway video to a catwalk gait on the Booster K1. (Booster K1; IROS 2026 Late Breaking Results (LBR); published code, poster presented) Links: [code](https://github.com/Kyk0/expressive-motion), [code (ATR Lab)](https://github.com/ATR-Lab/expressive-motion), [paper (arXiv)](https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.27003), [paper (PDF)](https://kyry.me/media/expressive-motion/paper.pdf), [poster (PDF)](https://kyry.me/media/expressive-motion/poster.pdf), [project page](https://kyk0.github.io/expressive-motion/), [video](https://kyk0.github.io/expressive-motion/video/).
- [Catwalk gait with AMP](https://kyry.me/projects/catwalk-amp/): A runway walk for the Booster K1 learned with adversarial motion priors. (Booster K1; in progress)
- [RFCP, Robot Fashion Catwalk Policy](https://kyry.me/projects/rfcp/): Our Ghost Trial 04 entry. A G1 walks the runway, turns, poses and walks back, by fine-tuning SONIC. (Unitree G1; Ultimate Bots Ghost Trial 04, Performance Arts; submitted, simulation) Links: [code](https://github.com/Kyk0/rfcp), [policy + ONNX](https://huggingface.co/Kyry10/rfcp), [dataset](https://huggingface.co/datasets/Kyry10/rfcp-dataset), [video](https://youtu.be/-qTc33E9ujQ), [hackathon](https://www.ultimatebots.com/hackathon).
- [K1 Heel Shoes](https://kyry.me/projects/k1-heel-shoes/): 3D-printed heel shoes for the Booster K1. (Booster K1; 50 mm pair printed and fitted) Links: [shoe files](https://github.com/Kyk0/k1-heel-shoes), [heel walking](https://kyry.me/projects/k1-heel-walking/).
- [K1 Heel Walking](https://kyry.me/projects/k1-heel-walking/): Getting the K1 walking policies to walk in the 50 mm heels. Sim for now. (Booster K1; simulation; robot tests next) Links: [code](https://github.com/Kyk0/booster_mjlab/blob/k1-teleop-and-heels/docs/heels.md), [shoes](https://kyry.me/projects/k1-heel-shoes/).
- [K1 Loco-Teleop](https://kyry.me/projects/k1-loco-teleop/): A walking policy for the Booster K1 that drives only the legs, so the arms and head stay free for teleoperation. (Booster K1; in progress, simulation) Links: [code](https://github.com/Kyk0/booster_mjlab/blob/k1-teleop-and-heels/docs/loco_teleop.md), [heel walking](https://kyry.me/projects/k1-heel-walking/).
- [K1 Cartwheel](https://kyry.me/projects/k1-cartwheel/): Teaching the Booster K1 a cartwheel from a video. It works in simulation; on the robot it still falls. (Booster K1; experimental; works in sim, not yet on the robot)
- [Mi-RoL](https://kyry.me/projects/mi-rol/): A multi-tier LLM framework for empathetic conversation on the Pepper robot, grounded in Motivational Interviewing. Tested in a 40-participant study. (Pepper; IHCI 2026; accepted · co-author)
- [Structured prompting and knowledge bias in VLMs](https://kyry.me/projects/vlm-bias/): Can structured prompting overcome knowledge bias in vision-language models? Four open-source VLMs, five prompting strategies, the VLMBias benchmark. (IVUS 2026; presented, to appear) Links: [code](https://github.com/Kyk0/structured-prompting-vlm-bias).
- [Microduck Arena Lab](https://kyry.me/projects/microduck-arena-lab/): Faster running gaits for Pollen Robotics' Microduck on three simulated race courses, fine-tuned with PPO and chosen by the Arena's five-seed score. #1 on the roller sprint leaderboard. (Microduck; simulation) Links: [code](https://github.com/Kyk0/microduck-arena-lab), [weights](https://huggingface.co/Kyry10/microduck-arena-lab), [arena](https://huggingface.co/spaces/pollen-robotics/microduck-arena).

## Publications

- Kyrylo Kolesnichenko, Irvin Steve Cardenas, Jong-Hoon Kim. "Learning Expressive Humanoid Locomotion from Monocular Runway Videos for Robot Fashion Shows." IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2026), Late Breaking Results (LBR), 2026. arXiv:2609.27003. Status: presented, poster. [https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.27003](https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.27003)
- Kyrylo Kolesnichenko, Martas Ambraziunas. "Can Structured Prompting Overcome Knowledge Bias in Vision-Language Models?" Proceedings of the 31st International Conference on Information Society and University Studies (IVUS 2026), CEUR Workshop Proceedings, to appear, 2026. Status: presented, to appear. [https://kyry.me/projects/vlm-bias/](https://kyry.me/projects/vlm-bias/)
- Raiyan Ashraf, Yanni Liu, Kyrylo Kolesnichenko, Sruthi Ganji, Jong-Hoon Kim, Ju Yup Lee. "Can Motivational Interviewing Guided Dialogue Improve Empathy in Human–Robot Interaction? A Controlled Study with Baseline Comparison." International Conference on Intelligent Human–Computer Interaction (IHCI 2026), 2026. Status: accepted. [https://kyry.me/projects/mi-rol/](https://kyry.me/projects/mi-rol/)
- Walking in Heels: Heel-Aware Humanoid Gait Under Changing Contact Geometry. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2027), under review.

## Contact

- Email: kkolesni@kent.edu
- GitHub: https://github.com/Kyk0
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyrylo-kolesnichenko/
- X: https://x.com/kyry_D
- CV (pdf): https://kyry.me/cv.pdf