Our research sits at the intersection of mechanism design, AI, and human–machine interaction. We pursue four connected themes, all aimed at making robots safer, more intuitive, and useful in the real world.
Robots that bring the surgeon and patient closer together — safer, more reliable, and more accessible.
Most surgical robots adapt arms built for industry, which raises cost and limits performance. We design specialized, intrinsically-safe robotic instruments and teleoperation systems where safety is guaranteed at the hardware level rather than relying solely on software. A long-term goal is a cost-effective, portable surgical robot that can extend expert care to underserved regions.
Research in our surgical robotics and haptics programmes has been supported, through current and completed projects, by competitive research grants (JSPS KAKENHI, AMED) and academy programmes (New York Academy of Sciences, U.S. National Academy of Medicine).
A teleoperation system that restores the sense of touch lost in remote surgery.
Multi-DoF instrument design and kinematic evaluation for dexterous minimally-invasive surgery.
An approach to deliver kinesthetic feedback in safety-critical robot teleoperation.
Giving operators a sense of robotic touch — on the fingertip, the palm, and beyond.
When operators control robots remotely, they lose the forces of interaction with the environment, which degrades performance. We develop wearable and world-grounded haptic devices that render kinesthetic and tactile cues, and study how device design shapes operator performance across teleoperation, skill training, and mixed-reality interfaces.
Our HaptLinX haptic-enabled mixed-reality framework for fine telemanipulation training was presented at the 43rd Annual Conference of the Robotics Society of Japan (RSJ 2025). View the paper →
Electrotactile and squeeze-based feedback designs evaluated for perception and performance.
A vibrotactile haptic glove and mixed-reality framework for precision-task training.
Applying kinesthetic feedback to surgical robots and space teleoperation systems, comparing wearable vs. world-grounded rendering for fine telemanipulation and berthing.
Compliant, adaptive mechanisms for safe and versatile manipulation.
We design soft pneumatic actuators, adaptive grippers, and 3D-printed compliant mechanisms that grasp delicate and irregular objects safely. Our work investigates actuator geometry, material selection, and integration into multi-finger robotic hands and rehabilitation devices.
FAYRA, a foldable soft robotic arm for wheelchair users developed in the lab, was a Japan national runner-up in the James Dyson Award 2025. Project page →
A soft actuator integrated into a versatile 3-finger robot gripper (IEEE Access, 2025).
Materials and methods for designing 3D-printed soft grippers in 60A–70A TPU (IEEE Access, 2025).
A monolithic 3D-printed soft crawling robot that uses spatial stiffness tuning of TPU to enhance locomotion (IEEE Access, 2026).
Human-centered systems for mobility, rehabilitation, and everyday autonomy.
We apply AI and novel mechanism design to assistive and human-centered robots: vibrotactile safety systems for power wheelchairs, bio-inspired prosthetics with real-time feedback, lower-limb exoskeletons, dexterous and reflexive robotic hands, and efficient bipedal leg architectures.
The lab’s wheelchair-assistance research was featured in the NHK WORLD-JAPAN documentary Where We Call Home; the associated driving-safety method is published in IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering (2026). Read more →
Vehicle-embedded vibrotactile feedback to improve driving safety (IEEE T-NSRE, 2026).
Lower-limb prosthesis with real-time haptic feedback; anthropomorphic fingers for dexterous hands.
Low-cost layered sensing for reflexive grip control; mode-switching legs for bipedal robots.
Browse our full list of peer-reviewed publications, or get in touch to discuss collaborations and student projects.