Ko‐ichi Nakamura

National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology

Papers

Total Citations

H-Index

About

Ko-ichi Nakamura is a pioneering roboticist whose work bridges the frontiers of deep-sea exploration and planetary science. His primary research focuses on autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) designed for extreme, ice-covered environments, with a core mission to develop technologies that can one day explore extraterrestrial oceans, such as those on Jupiter’s moon Europa. His most influential contribution is the development of the AUVs *Jaguar* and *Puma*, which were deployed in 2007 at 85°N latitude in the Arctic Ocean to search for hydrothermal vents—the first robots ever to be deployed and recovered through sea ice in such harsh conditions. This landmark work, detailed in his 2009 paper “Toward extraplanetary under‐ice exploration: Robotic steps in the Arctic” (61 citations), demonstrated that autonomous systems could survive and operate in sub-ice environments analogous to those on icy moons. By proving the feasibility of under-ice robotic exploration, Nakamura has laid critical groundwork for future astrobiology missions, earning recognition as a leader in the nascent field of extraplanetary under-ice robotics.