Papers
23
Total Citations
204
H-Index
8
About
Nobuaki Imamura has spent decades advancing the field of robotic manipulation, with a primary focus on developing dexterous, multi-fingered robot hands that can sense and adapt to their environment. His most influential work, the "Development of a three-fingered robot hand with stiffness control capability" (1992, 43 citations), laid the foundation for his career-long pursuit of creating hands that mimic human dexterity. He is perhaps best known for his "Universal Robot Hand" platform, a five-fingered design equipped with tactile sensors and torque limiters to protect delicate actuators from external forces. This work, detailed in his 2009 paper (31 citations), has become a key reference for humanoid hand research. Imamura’s contributions extend to high-speed tactile sensing, enabling array-type sensors to measure pressure distributions for dexterous object manipulation (2011, 15 citations). He has also explored teleoperation and stiffness control, and applied his robotic systems to rehabilitation, such as modeling human motor skills in a virtual tennis task (2008, 9 citations). Across his career, Imamura’s work has accumulated over 150 citations, establishing him as a pioneer in creating robot hands that are not only functional but also intelligent enough to handle the complexities of real-world tasks.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Development of a three-fingered robot hand with stiffness control capability43 citations · 1992
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- 7Modeling and evaluation of human motor skills in a virtual tennis task9 citations · 2008
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