An exciting new world where robots and humans collaborate!

When I was a child, I vaguely thought, "I want to be an amazing person." During my soccer training, which lasted from elementary school through high school, I was strongly drawn to the highly skilled players, who played with apparent enjoyment and were respected by those around them. At the time, I simply thought that anyone who was good at soccer was amazing, but looking back now, I believe it was their joyful attitude that attracted me. Out of this experience grew the idea that improvement through continuous effort leads to even greater enjoyment – something that has become crucial throughout my career.

My interests weren't limited to soccer; I was also keen on programming. Originally, I aspired to be an engineer, but my encounters with researchers through collaborative research in graduate school significantly changed my career path. I developed a strong admiration for them, because they possessed "their own strengths" in the form of intense specialization, and seemed genuinely to enjoy facing daily challenges by making the most of their skills. On top of this, n research, one can approach things from multiple standpoints – including implementation skills as well as an academic standpoint, creating an environment where solving more fundamental problems can be truly enjoyed. For these reasons, I really wanted to achieve a positive cycle of "growth" and "enjoyment" in the world of R&D.

I am currently a member of the Spatial Robotics Research Center, which was established in April 2025. Our center aims to realize a world where robots can behave intelligently without posing a danger to humans, by comprehensively recognizing their entire spatial environment using deployed sensors. Within this context, I am researching "maps" that enable robots to act intelligently in human living spaces. Specifically, this involves developing technology to reflect the behavioral history of "when, where, and what a person did" onto a map.

When robots operate in real-world environments, correctly understanding their surroundings is a significant challenge. For example, if instructed to "get the cup from the kitchen," a robot will try to complete the task in the shortest time and by the shortest route. As a result, if a child happens to be on that route, the robot might prioritize task completion and potentially collide with the child. By applying this technology, information about the times and locations where children are frequently present is recorded on the map as behavioral history. This allows the robot to determine, "It's better not to take this route into the kitchen at this time." Consequently, instead of the shortest route, the robot can choose a safety-conscious route to retrieve the cup. In the future, my goal is to realize a convenient society where humans and robots smoothly collaborate, for instance, in areas like logistics and elderly care where labor shortages are a challenge, enabling robots to safely, securely, and efficiently support people.

My final project of the Physical AI Intelligent Robotics Course