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About

Mina Yamazaki is a robotics researcher whose work centers on vision-based control systems for biped walking robots, with a particular focus on dynamic balance, posture estimation, and adaptive locomotion over uneven terrain. Her research addresses one of the fundamental challenges in humanoid robotics: enabling stable, responsive walking in real-world environments where ground conditions are unpredictable. Yamazaki's most significant contributions involve developing innovative methods for estimating critical physical parameters — such as landing foot angle and foot sole floating angle — using visual environmental information rather than relying solely on traditional sensor feedback. Her 2014 paper on foot adaptation to obstacles introduced a vision-based landing angle detection system that allows biped robots to intelligently adjust to irregular surfaces, earning 6 citations and establishing a foundation for her subsequent work. Building on this, she developed recovery control methods that use visual scene recognition to detect near-fall states before they become critical, and explored image feature point tracking as a basis for whole-body balance estimation. Across her portfolio of six notable publications spanning 2014 to 2016, Yamazaki has accumulated over 20 citations, demonstrating steady influence in the specialized field of humanoid robot locomotion. Her work represents a meaningful step toward robots that can navigate complex environments autonomously using vision as a primary stabilizing sense.