Future Robotics OrganizationWaseda University

History

Professor Ichiro Kato

Robotics research at Waseda University has an outstanding history spanning nearly half a century. During the 1960’s,the late Professor Ichiro Kato, called the “father of Japanese robotics research”, began pursuing robotics, and launched a cross-disciplinary project called the WABOT(short for WAseda roBOT) Project in in 1970’s. It developed a large number of humanoid robots as the university’s flagship project.

The principle of our robotics research is ‘people-robot symbiosis’ and we have been developing various robots that would support, help and work with people. We have launched an integrated educational and research platform for medical, nursing, and assisted-living robots, and we have been expanding this platform to unique, multi-layered organization of experts from various fields including electrical and mechanical engineering. The Humanoid Robotics Institute was established in 2000, and the WABOT-HOUSE Laboratory opened in Gifu prefecture as a research base on the integration of robots and community environments in 2002.

At the same time, Waseda has established an integrated educational and research platform for training young researches. In 2003, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, Science and Technology (MEXT) began its 21st century COE program, our program called “Innovative research on symbiosis technologies for humans and robots in population aging” was adopted. In 2008,MEXT implemented the Global COE program and our program “Global Robot Academia” was also selected. The university has aimed to consolidate extensive cross-disciplinary robotics studies into Waseda-oriented “ Methodological robotics” based on Waseda ‘s outstanding robotics researches. In addition, the university has also aimed to educate researchers that can conquer various challenges facing the global research community by expanding opportunities for students to study overseas.

To integrate the activities described above, the university established “the Future Robotics Organization” in 2015. The mission is to accelerate achievements that meet such needs of the 21st century. As in super-aged society, co-creating with people, recovery and rebuild from natural disaster and hazard and human healthcare.

  • The World’s First Humanoid Robot
  • Keyboard Playing Robot
  • Automatic Palpation System for Breast Cancer
  • EMG-controlled Upper Limb Prosthesis

Achievements of Robot Researches in Waseda University

2013-           Waseda Ocean ICT/Robotics
2013-           Graduate Program for Embodiment Informatics
2008-2013 Systematic Robotics Web Text RTPedia
2004-2009   Integration of Human Measurement and Health Care
2004-2009 Innovative Cluster for Medical Engineering
2001-2010    Robot Community Co-Created with Human & Nature
2000-             Humanoid Robotics Institute
1970-             WABOT Project

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