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About

Hayato Araki is a leading researcher in neurorehabilitation robotics, with a focused mission to restore independence for stroke survivors. His work centers on the clinical application of exoskeletal robots—both for the upper and lower limbs—to enhance motor function and activities of daily living (ADL). Araki’s major contributions include demonstrating that combining exoskeletal upper limb robots with occupational therapy significantly improves ADL in acute stroke patients (64 citations), and establishing that early initiation of robotic gait training with the Hybrid Assistive Limb (HAL) yields superior functional outcomes. He has also developed a clinical prediction rule to identify which patients will achieve clinically important improvements from robot-assisted therapy, moving the field toward personalized rehabilitation. Notably, his innovative use of fNIRS has revealed the involvement of the rostromedial prefrontal cortex in human-robot interaction, providing a neural basis for how patients engage with assistive devices. With a growing body of work that includes propensity-matched analyses and retrospective cohort studies, Araki is shaping evidence-based protocols that maximize the benefits of robotic rehabilitation for diverse stroke populations.