About

Kurima Sakai is a leading researcher in human-robot interaction, specializing in the design and development of conversational android robots that can engage in natural, daily dialogue. His work centers on creating autonomous systems capable of hospitality, social touch, and perspective-taking, with a particular focus on how robots can generate human-like head motions and gestures from speech. Sakai’s most cited paper, “SŌTO” (2020, 22 citations), introduces a masculine android platform that explores gender effects in social touch, a novel contribution to the field. He also developed an online speech-driven head motion generating system (2015, 19 citations) that enhances tele-operated robot realism. Notably, Sakai organized the first-ever Dialogue Robot Competition (2022, 10 citations), a pioneering initiative to advance spoken dialogue with humanoid robots. His research on wearable tactile sensor suits (2021, 10 citations) and human-like interactions that prompt perspective-taking (2023, 7 citations) further demonstrates his interdisciplinary impact. With over 100 total citations, Sakai’s work bridges engineering, psychology, and robotics, pushing the boundaries of how humans and robots communicate.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

7
H-Index
12
Papers
102
Total Citations
9
Avg Citations/Paper
🏆 Most Cited Paper
SŌTO
22 citations · 2020
📈 Most Prolific Year: 2022 (3 Papers)
🤝 Key Collaborators: 22
🏛 Institutions: Kyoto Seika University, Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International, RF Laboratories (United States), The University of Osaka

Top Papers

  1. 1
    SŌTO
    22 citations · 2020
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Key Collaborators

Contact & Links

Available for collaboration
Content generated · 13 days ago