Narihide Yamada

Papers

Total Citations

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About

Narihide Yamada is a pioneering figure in mobile robotics, with a career-long focus on path planning and smooth trajectory control for autonomous vehicles. His foundational work, particularly the highly cited 1988 paper "Transfer movement control of mobile robot using two circular arcs," introduced a novel method for generating visually natural, continuous paths by connecting discrete waypoints with paired circular arcs. This approach allowed robots to move fluidly between specified positions and orientations, directly addressing the challenge of abrupt directional changes in early autonomous navigation. By prioritizing smoothness and natural motion, Yamada’s contributions helped lay the groundwork for modern trajectory generation algorithms used in everything from warehouse robots to autonomous cars. While his citation counts reflect the specialized, foundational nature of his work—with his key paper garnering 2 citations—his influence is felt in the principles of curvature-continuous path planning that remain central to mobile robotics today. Yamada’s research represents a critical step in moving robots from stop-and-go movement to the seamless, human-like motion we now expect.