Koki Kurihara

Papers

Total Citations

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About

Koki Kurihara is a robotics researcher whose work focuses on the mechanics and control of legged locomotion, particularly in challenging, vertical environments. His primary contributions center on the development of simulation and control tools for climbing robots, a niche but critical area for applications in inspection, search-and-rescue, and planetary exploration. Kurihara is the lead developer of ClimbLab, an open-source MATLAB simulation platform designed specifically for legged climbing robotics. This framework, detailed in his most-cited 2021 paper (7 citations), provides researchers with a standardized environment to model adhesion, contact dynamics, and gait planning for multi-limbed climbers, significantly lowering the barrier to entry for new work in the field. By offering a validated, modular toolkit, Kurihara’s work enables rapid prototyping and benchmarking of control strategies, helping to bridge the gap between simulation and real-world deployment. His contributions are shaping how the next generation of robots will scale vertical surfaces with reliability and efficiency.