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Hideaki Kikuchi is a pioneering researcher in human-robot interaction and spoken dialogue systems, with a focus on integrating non-verbal communication to enhance collaboration between humans and machines. His work spans two key areas: space robotics and affective computing. Notably, Kikuchi led the development of Int-Ball2, an internal camera robot deployed in the Japanese Experiment Module "Kibo" on the International Space Station. This autonomous drone assists astronauts by capturing video and performing inspections, reducing crew workload and enabling remote ground control—a breakthrough in orbital operations. His earlier research, including a 2006 study on recognizing positive and negative attitudes through prosody and facial expressions, laid groundwork for emotionally aware dialogue systems. Kikuchi also explored how repetitive utterances and backchannels in chat-oriented systems affect user engagement, contributing to more natural human-robot conversations. With over 15 citations across his most-cited papers, his work bridges practical space applications and fundamental insights into non-verbal cues, making him a notable figure in robotics and human-computer interaction.