Masami IWATSUKI

About

Masami Iwatsuki is a robotics researcher whose work spans intelligent robot control, visual servoing, and engineering education technology. His most influential contributions lie in the domain of image-based visual servoing, where he addressed a fundamental limitation of classical Cartesian coordinate-based approaches — the notorious "camera retreat" problem. By reformulating visual servoing within a cylindrical coordinate system, and later introducing a shiftable origin variant, Iwatsuki developed more robust and geometrically intuitive frameworks for guiding robots to desired positions using only two-dimensional visual data. His 2005 paper on this topic has garnered 53 citations, establishing it as a significant reference in the visual servoing literature. Beyond visual control, Iwatsuki made early contributions to intelligent vehicle navigation, proposing fuzzy reasoning-based tracking controllers and neural network-driven obstacle avoidance and adaptive speed control systems throughout the 1990s. His work on performance evaluation of robot arms using controllability and observability Gramians reflects a deeper theoretical grounding in systems engineering. Later in his career, Iwatsuki turned his attention to remote experimentation platforms, developing Web-based systems that brought hands-on robot control exercises to distance learners — bridging cutting-edge robotics research with practical engineering education innovation.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   A new formulation of visual servoing based on cylindrical coordinate system

   53 citations · 2005
2. 2
   A new formulation of visual servoing based on cylindrical coordinate system with shiftable origin

   26 citations · 2003
3. 3
   Target Point Tracking Control of Robot Vehicle by Fuzzy Reasoning

   11 citations · 1991
4. 4
   Rotation-oriented visual servoing based on cylindrical coordinates

   6 citations · 2003
5. 5
   Obstacle avoidance travel control of robot vehicle using neural network

   6 citations · 1996
6. 6
   A Remote Experiment System on Robot Vehicle Control for Engineering Educations Based on World Wide Web

   5 citations · 2006
7. 7
   Adaptive Speed Control of a Robot Vehicle by Neural Networks

   5 citations · 1992
8. 8
   Performance Evaluation of Robot Arms from the Viewpoint of Controllability and Observability

   2 citations · 1987
9. 9
   Prototyping of Remote Experiment and Exercise Systems for an Engineering Education based on World Wide Web

   2 citations · 2003

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links