Kazuteru TOBITA
NSK (United States), Shizuoka Institute of Science and Technology
Papers
14
Total Citations
80
H-Index
5
About
Kazuteru Tobita is a Japanese robotics researcher whose work centers on assistive and autonomous mobile robot systems, with a particular focus on improving mobility and independence for visually impaired and elderly individuals. His most significant contributions involve the development of LIGHBOT, a guidance robot designed to navigate large hospital environments, enabling visually impaired and elderly users to travel safely and intuitively through physical interaction via a force-sensor-equipped grip interface. His longitudinal research program, spanning from early system prototypes in 2013 through rigorous clinical examinations at Kanagawa Rehabilitation Hospital, has accumulated over 70 citations, demonstrating sustained influence in the assistive robotics community. Beyond guidance robotics, Tobita has explored autonomous wheelchair systems aimed at reducing caregiver workload in nursing facilities, as well as advanced sensing technologies including hemispherical proximity sensors for obstacle detection and computer vision techniques such as ORB-SLAM, YOLO-based semantic mapping, and optical flow methods for movement accuracy evaluation. His more recent investigations into cloud-controlled autonomous robots and human-robot ensemble coordination reflect an expanding research vision that bridges rehabilitation engineering, autonomous navigation, and human-robot interaction — positioning him as a versatile contributor to socially impactful robotics research.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Examination of a Guidance Robot for Visually Impaired People24 citations · 2017
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7Semantic Mapping Based on ORB-SLAM and YOLO in Indoor Scenes3 citations · 2023
- 8Examination of the Guidance Robot for Visually-impaired People3 citations · 2015
- 9
- 10Research on Risk Assessment in Cloud Control of Autonomous Mobile Robots2 citations · 2023