Biography

Education

• 2002.4-2006.3.24: Undergraduate School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Kyoto University
• 2006.4.2-2008.3.24: Master's course, Graduate School of Information Science, Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST)
• 2008.4.2-2011.3.31: Doctorate course, Graduate School of Information Science, Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST)

Academic degree

• 2006.3.24: Bachelor of Engineering (Kyoto University)
  Thesis title: "Event-driven Control and Its Representation ---Towards a Motion Learning of Multi-DOF Robot in Dynamic Environment---"
• 2008.3.24: Master of Engineering (Nara Institute of Science and Technology)
  Thesis title: "Reinforcement Learning with Reusing Mechanism of Avoidance Actions and its Application to Learning Whole-Body Motions of Multi-Link Robot"
• 2011.3.31: Doctor of Engineering (Nara Institute of Science and Technology)
  Thesis title: "Highly Modularized Learning System for Behavior Acquisition of Functional Robots"

Employment history

• 2010.2.1-2010.3.31: Researcher, Computational Neuroscience Laboratories, Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR)
• 2010.4.1-2011.3.31: JSPS Research Fellow (DC2)
• 2011.4.1-2011.7.31: JSPS Research Fellow (PD)
• 2011.8.1-2015.3.31: Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Information Science, Nara Institute of Science and Technology
• 2012.9.16-2013.3.15: Part-time lecturer, Osaka Electro-Communication University
• 2013.9.16-2014.3.15: Part-time lecturer, Osaka Electro-Communication University
• 2014.4.14-2015.4.14: Visiting Scholar, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University
• 2015.4.1-2016.3.31: Postdoctoral Researcher (part time), Graduate School of Information Science, Nara Institute of Science and Technology
• 2015.4.20-2017.8.31: Postdoctoral Fellow, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University
• 2016.9.1-2016.10.31: Visiting Scientist, Institute for Artificial Intelligence, University of Bremen
• 2017.9.1-Present: Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Information Sciences, Tohoku University

Internship

• 2006.4-2008.3: Computational Neuroscience Laboratories, Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR)

Mentored students

NAIST: Nara Institute of Science and Technology

• NAIST/Master's course:
  • 2008-2010: Yoshiyuki Takeuchi (Total: 1)
  • 2010-2012: Emarc Magtanong, Shiori Sato (Total: 2, International: 1, Women: 1)
  • 2011-2013: Gustavo Alfonso Garcia Ricardez, Satoki Tsuichihara (Total: 2, International: 1)
  • 2012-2014: Masahiro Oshita, Takuya Akamoto, Takuya Nakayama (Total: 3)
• NAIST/Doctoral course:
  • 2013-2016: Gustavo Alfonso Garcia Ricardez (Total: 1, International: 1)
• NAIST/Internship:
  • 2013: Phawat Lertariyasakchai (2 months) (Total: 1, International: 1)
• CMU/Internship:
  • 2017: (Total: 2, International: 2)
• Tohoku University/Bachelor's course:
  • 2017-2018: Shintaro Takayama, Vorapol Assavasangthong (Total: 2, International: 1)
• Tohoku University/Master's course:
  • 2017-2019: Fucai Zhu, Other (Total: 2, International: 2)

Lectures

NAIST: Nara Institute of Science and Technology, O.E.C.U.: Osaka Electro-Communication University, CMU: Carnegie Mellon University

• Advanced Robot Design (NAIST): 2011, 2012, 2013
• Introduction to Advanced Robot Technology (NAIST): 2012, 2013
• Advanced Robot Development I (NAIST): 2012
• Advanced Robot Development II (NAIST): 2012
• Advanced Robot Development I (NAIST): 2013
• Advanced Robot Development II (NAIST): 2013
• Studio of Advanced IT (NAIST): 2012, 2013
• Computer Hardware (O.E.C.U.): 2012, 2013
• Computer Interface (O.E.C.U.): 2012
• 16-264: Humanoids (CMU): 2016, 2017
• Electrical Engineering Laboratory (Tohoku University): 2017
• Computer Seminar I (Tohoku University): 2018
• Computer Seminar II (Tohoku University): 2018
• Laboratory Experiment I (Tohoku University): 2019, 2020
• Laboratory Experiment II (Robotics Course) (Tohoku University): 2018, 2019
• Seminar I (Tohoku University): 2018, 2019
• Seminar II (Tohoku University): 2018, 2019

Academic activity

• Regular members of:
  • The Robotics Society of Japan (RSJ)
  • The Society of Instrument and Control Engineers (SICE)
  • IEEE-RAS
• 2013: Program committee of SSRR 2013, the IEEE Symposium on Safety, Security and Rescue Robotics
• 2015: Program committee of RSS 2015, Robotics: Science and Systems Conference
• 2017: Guest Editor of Advanced Robotics for "Special Issue on Advanced Manipulation"
• 2017: Associate Editor of the 2017 IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids2017)
• 2017: Organized session: Robot Intelligence and Learning for Manipulation (Akihiko Yamaguchi, Takamitsu Matsubara, and Kensuke Harada), in the 18th SICE System Integration Division Annual Conference (SI2018), Sendai, 2017.
• 2018-2020: Editorial Committee of the Journal of the Robotics Society of Japan
• 2018: Associate Editor of the 2018 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS2018)
• 2018: Associate Editor of the 2018 IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids2018)
• 2018: Organized session: Robot Intelligence and Learning for Manipulation (Akihiko Yamaguchi, Takamitsu Matsubara, and Kensuke Harada), in the 19th SICE System Integration Division Annual Conference (SI2018), Osaka, 2018.
• 2019: Associate Editor of the 2019 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS2019)
• 2019: Associate Editor of the 2019 IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids2019)
• 2019: Special issue: Robotic Manipulation of Food, Journal of the Robotics Society of Japan, Vol.37, No.6, pp.464-465, 2019. [JRSJ]
• 2019: Organizing workshop: Workshop on Robotic Food Manipulation, at the 2019 IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids2019). [Workshop website]
• 2019: Organized session: Robot Intelligence and Learning for Manipulation (Akihiko Yamaguchi, Takamitsu Matsubara, and Kensuke Harada), in the 20th SICE System Integration Division Annual Conference (SI2019), Takamatsu, 2019.
• 2020-2021: Manger of the SICE SI Division Research Committee for Robotic Manipulation

Outreach

• 2010.5.15: The 30th NAIST Science School: Robo-Dojo! (lecturer)
• 2010.7.10: The 32th NAIST Science School: Robo-Dojo!! (lecturer)
• 2012/8/6 - 8/8: Super Science Highschool on Nishiyamato-gakuen: NAIST Lab Intern (lecturer)
• 2013/8/5 - 8/7: Super Science Highschool on Nishiyamato-gakuen: NAIST Lab Intern (lecturer)
• 2013/8/8: Nawate Junior High School: Robot Programming School (lecturer)
• September 11-14, 2017: FingerVision exhibition in the 35th Annual Conference of the Robotics Society of Japan (RSJ2017) in Saitama, Japan.
• 2018/1/18: FingerVision Exhibition, Academia-Industry-Financial Institution-Government Collaboration Fair 2018 Miyagi, Sendai, Japan
• 2018/6/4 - 6/5: FingerVision Exhibition, ROBOMECH2018, Kitakyushu, Japan
• 2018/9/5 - 9/7: FingerVision Exhibition with Robotis Japan, RSJ2018, Kasugai, Japan
• 2018/9/8: FingerVision Hackathon, Nagoya
• 2018/12/5 - 12/7: FingerVision Exhibition with Momentive Performance Materials Japan, Plastic Expo Tokyo, Makuhari Messe, Japan
• 2019/12/18 - 12/21: FingerVision Exhibition, International Robot Exhibition 2019, Tokyo Big Sight
• 2020/2/15 - 2/16: FingerVision Exhibition, Tsukuba Mini Maker Faire 2020, Tsukuba Capio

Awards†

• May, 2009
  2009 IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Japan Chapter Young Award
  for "Constructing Action Set from Basis Functions for Reinforcement Learning of Robot Control" (ICRA2009).
• March, 2011
  NAIST Best Student Award
• December, 2011
  RT Middleware Contest 2011 Incentive Award (Global Standard Award)
  for Gustavo Alfonso Garcia Ricardez, Satoki Tsuichihara, Atsutoshi Ikeda, Akihiko Yamaguchi, Jun Takamatsu, and Tsukasa Ogasawara: "RT Component for analyzing a motion script to implement a service using the Humanoid Robot HRP-4" (SI2011).
• February, 2016
  Excellent Paper Award
  for Gustavo Alfonso Garcia Ricardez, Akihiko Yamaguchi, Jun Takamatsu, and Tsukasa Ogasawara: "Human Safety Index based on Impact Severity and Human Behavior Estimation" (ICMRE 2016).
• November, 2017
  Mike Stilman Award in IEEE Humanoids 2017
  for Akihiko Yamaguchi and Christopher G. Atkeson: "Implementing Tactile Behaviors Using FingerVision" (Humanoids2017).
• Sep 2018
  Young Investigation Excellence Award from the Robotics Society of Japan
  for "Grasp Adaptation Control with Finger Vision -Verification with Deformable and Fragile Objects-" (RSJ2017).
• December, 2018
  SICE SI2018 Excellent Presentation Award
  for Akihiko Yamaguchi: "Assistive Utilities with FingerVision for Learning Manipulation of Fragile Objects" (SI2018).
• December, 2019
  SICE SI2019 Excellent Presentation Award
  for Fucai Zhu, Akihiko Yamaguchi, Koichi Hashimoto: "Case study of model-based reinforcement learning with skill library in peeling banana task" (SI2019).

Media

• Feb 2, 2014: DCOB: Action space for reinforcement learning of high DoF robots , Advances in Engineering.
• Nov 6, 2015: Baymax Science: User preference study of static Baymax doll and active Baymax (Baymaxter: Baymax + Baxter) , IEEE Spectrum video Friday. Enjoy the complete video
• Jul 5, 2017: Fingervision is robot skin made from cheap, off-the-shelf components , TechCrunch.
• Jul 5, 2017: TechCrunch Japan .
• Jul 5, 2017: Chinese article .
• Jul 5, 2017: Gizmodo Japan.
• Jul 6, 2017: Fingervision's 3D printed grippers and silicone skin give robots a sense of touch , 3ders.org.
• Oct 10, 2017: Accelerating AI Research for Robots with FingerVision - Assistant Professor Akihiko Yamaguchi of Tohoku University , Academist Journal.
• March 29, 2018: Interview of Akihiko Yamaguchi: FingerVision x Robot , Robot Creators Magazine (in Japanese)

Grants

• 2010.4-2012.3: Grant-in-Aid for JSPS, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Fellows
  • PI
  • Project ID: 22-9030
• 2014.1-2015.3: Artificial Intelligence Research Promotion Foundation of Japan
  • PI
  • Project ID: 25AI-61-7
• 2014.3-2016.3: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B) from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
  • PI
  • Project theme: "A novel safety index with a human behavior estimation for robot safety"
  • Project ID: 26730137
• 2017.8-2020.7: Robust Intelligence, National Robotics Initiative, NSF
  • Co-PI (PI: Christopher Atkeson)
  • Project theme: "Optical Skin For Robots: Tactile Sensing and Whole Body Vision"
  • Project ID: 1717066
  • Link
• 2018-2020: NSK Foundation for the Advancement of Mechatronics
  • PI
• 2018-2019: Tohoku University BIP (Business Incubation Program)
  • PI
• 2018-2021: JST Program for Creating STart-ups from Advanced Research and Technology (START)
  • PI
  • Project theme: "Commertialization of Vision-based Tactile Sensor FingerVision"
  • Project ID: JPMJST1815
• 2019-2021: The Canon Foundation 10th Research Grant Program "Creation of Industrial Infrastructure"
  • PI
  • Project theme: "AI-based robotic manipulation with vision-based tactile sensor FingerVision"

Programming skills

• Professional level: C++, Python
• Others: PHP, Bash, Prolog, etc.
• Most of my work is implemented with C++ and Python.
• Open source reinforcement learning library SkyAI.
• GitHub

Languages

• Japanese: Native language
• English: Fluent in reading, writing, and speaking