The development of human-symbiotic-robots that can support human daily activities is strongly expected to be a measure against labor shortages in aging societies. TWENDY-ONE is a sophisticated human-symbiotic-robot whose main characteristics are "safety," "dependability," and "dexterity." We are investigating these characteristics and developing motion planning and collaborative control functions.

This research is intended to derive a method of robot design in order to create intelligence and emotion of the robot. To achieve this, we have proposed a methodology to introduce a mechanism and control based on "self-preservation" which is a basic criterion of the survival function of humans and animals.

We are doing research on methodologies to satisfy two conflicting requirements for service robots: autonomy and user friendliness. Our robot, WEAR, is a research platform developed from a new concept known as "customization as communication."

Learning from its own experiences is an important ability for robots working in a complex daily environment. The goal of this study is to describe the essential mechanism of developing cognitive abilities through the robot's own sensory-motor experiences.

This research project is centered on a motion optimization system that is applicable to general machines. The developed optimization system realizes the most appropriate balance of precision, optimality, and computational cost among planning systems throughout the world.

Our Team Forest does R&D on innovative technology that assists various forestry tasks. We are working on the development of a manipulator system that can cut and fell trees safely. We have also developed "woody," which can climb trees by holding onto the trunk, and use its cutter to prune branches at great heights. We exhibited woody at the 2005 World Exposition in Aichi, Japan.

A wheelchair mounted robotic arm (WMRA) has been developed in an attempt to provide assistance for its potential users in daily living activities. The research concerns include an assistive robotic arm, an operating interface, and intelligent manipulation algorithms.

The goal of this research is to automate strawberry harvesting and reduce labor costs. The developed strawberry- harvesting robot picks strawberries by first recognizing them with cameras and then grasping and cutting them. We are presently focusing on improving overall farming processes.

Positioning technology is fundamental for mobile robots. Our goal in this research is to achieve cm- to dm-level positioning accuracy both indoors and outdoors by using GPS-compatible positioning techniques.

Our research team is studying an intelligent construction robot for carrying out advanced and complicated tasks such as sorted dismantling and tasks required for disaster response. We are now developing intelligent man-machine interface technologies in both hardware and software systems taking practicality into consideration.

Many post-stroke patients experience somatic sensory loss on the paralyzed side. In this research, we are developing a next-generation locomotion rehabilitation system called PARTY (Perception-Assisting Robotics TechnologY) that allows stroke victims to establish a perception-bypass communication path via a non-paralyzed-part of the body.

In emergency medical care, it is important to identify internal bleeding quickly and accurately for patients bleeding internally. Therefore, we are developing a portable tele-echography system to diagnose patients while in the ambulance.