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About

Tomomi Hashimoto is a pioneering researcher at the intersection of robotics, artificial intelligence, and eldercare, whose work has profoundly shaped the field of welfare robotics over more than two decades. Specializing in robot-assisted therapy, human-robot interaction, and emotion-based machine intelligence, Hashimoto has dedicated his career to addressing the pressing challenges of aging societies, particularly in Japan. His most celebrated contributions include the development and clinical evaluation of pet-type robot therapy for elderly individuals with dementia, demonstrating measurable improvements in patient wellbeing within nursing home settings — work that has earned over 32 citations and influenced rehabilitation practice internationally. Equally significant is his foundational modeling of knowledge, emotion, and awareness using fuzzy cognitive maps, providing a sophisticated framework for designing welfare robots capable of nuanced human cooperation. Hashimoto's research spans gesture-based human-machine interfaces, sensor-driven activity recognition for robot-assisted activity, humanoid rehabilitation systems, and, more recently, ethics-informed robot decision-making. His explorations into mood congruence and episodic memory retrieval further reflect a deep commitment to creating robots that communicate naturally and empathetically. Collectively accumulating over 110 citations, his body of work stands as an essential reference for researchers developing compassionate, intelligent robotic systems for vulnerable populations.