Jun Yokono

Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Dexerials (Japan)

Papers

Total Citations

186

H-Index

About

Jun Yokono is a pioneering researcher in evolutionary robotics and autonomous systems, whose work bridges the gap between artificial intelligence and real-world robot behavior. His most impactful contribution lies in the evolution of robust gaits for quadruped robots, particularly the Sony AIBO. In his landmark 2002 paper (125 citations), Yokono demonstrated that evolutionary algorithms could run entirely on the robot's onboard computer, enabling it to adapt gaits in real-time to different surfaces—a breakthrough in embodied AI. He further advanced this with the evolution of dynamic trot and pace gaits (18 citations), showcasing the potential for on-board, sensor-driven evolution. Beyond locomotion, Yokono introduced the EGO architecture (25 citations), a behavior control system grounded in ethology that allows robots to autonomously manage internal states through interaction with humans and environments. He also proposed the novel concept of emotionally grounded symbols (18 citations), where robots assign emotional significance to objects based on their survival value—a foundational idea for affective computing in autonomous agents. Yokono’s work remains highly influential in evolutionary robotics, embodied cognition, and human-robot interaction.