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About

Shunji Mori is a pioneering roboticist whose work has fundamentally shaped the design of mobile robots capable of true omnidirectional movement. His primary research focus lies in the kinematics and mechanical design of holonomic platforms, addressing the challenge of enabling robots to move instantaneously in any direction without changing orientation. Mori’s most significant contribution is the invention of the dual-wheel caster-drive mechanism, a novel approach that leverages a standard caster wheel with an offset steering axle to achieve full holonomic capability. This breakthrough, detailed in his highly cited 1997 paper (22 citations) and its 2000 follow-up (19 citations), provided a practical and robust alternative to complex omnidirectional wheels, directly influencing the development of agile service and industrial robots. Earlier in his career, Mori also made a foundational contribution to robot accuracy by developing a method to correct structural errors in articulated arms, introducing new parameters to compensate for angular misalignments—a subtle but critical issue previously overlooked. While his later work includes a self-positioning system for mobile robots, Mori’s enduring legacy is his elegant mechanical solution to omnidirectional mobility, a concept that remains central to modern robotics research.