My lab develops bio-inspired and android robots, the best known of which is my own android called “Geminoid” (certified as a Guiness world record). However, this is just one topic of my research, which spans a wide area of robotics, cognitive science and neuroscience.

The main purpose of android research is to understand the sense of existence. Part of my early work explored tele-existence robots, and more recently I have extended this to tele-operated androids and avatars. I examine human behavioural and brain responses during human-android interactions, and study how our interactions with androids differs from that between humans. I also work on engineering applications, with a particular interest in the role of fluctuations in control of complex systems – a concept called “Yuragi” – and how this may help us develop stronger assimilation between biological and non-biological individuals, like robots.

My research aims to achieve two broad goals. The first is to make robots and other machines friendly to humans, such that humans will easily live alongside and trust robots as if they were living organisms. The second is to make robots efficient and robust, using concepts such as Yuragi, so that they can support human activities reliably. Currently, we are developing a new generation of androids, as well as other human augmentation machines and logistical systems.