Papers
47
Total Citations
1,940
H-Index
20
About
Koichi Nishiwaki is a pioneering robotics researcher whose work has fundamentally advanced the field of humanoid robot locomotion, motion planning, and autonomous navigation. With a career centered at institutions including the University of Tokyo, his research has tackled some of the most challenging problems in getting bipedal robots to move safely and intelligently through real-world environments. Nishiwaki's most influential contributions lie in dynamically stable motion planning and walking trajectory generation for humanoid robots, with his 2002 papers on these topics accumulating over 380 combined citations. His work on footstep planning in complex, obstacle-filled environments — cited 175 times — helped establish foundational algorithms that distinguish legged robot navigation from conventional wheeled approaches. He also contributed significantly to grasp planning in cluttered scenes, a paper cited 186 times that addressed the practical challenge of manipulation among multiple objects. As a key contributor to the H7 humanoid robot platform at the University of Tokyo, Nishiwaki helped bridge hardware development with autonomous behavior research. His later work on laser-based terrain perception and adaptive action models for legged navigation demonstrates a sustained commitment to making humanoid robots genuinely capable of operating in unpredictable, real-world conditions — a vision that continues to inspire robotics researchers worldwide.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Dynamically-Stable Motion Planning for Humanoid Robots268 citations · 2002
- 2Motion Planning for Humanoid Robots191 citations · 2005
- 3Grasp planning in complex scenes186 citations · 2007
- 4Planning Biped Navigation strategies in Complex Environments175 citations · 2003
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- 7An adaptive action model for legged navigation planning83 citations · 2007
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- 10Motion Planning for Humanoid Robots.69 citations · 2003