Papers
6
Total Citations
96
H-Index
5
About
Wataru Ohata is a leading researcher at the intersection of computational neuroscience and robotics, whose work is pioneering the application of the free energy principle and active inference to create more adaptive, intelligent, and socially aware artificial agents. His major contributions center on developing variational recurrent neural network models that enable robots to perform goal-directed planning, incremental learning in dynamic environments, and sophisticated human-robot interaction. Ohata’s 2021 survey on active inference in robotics, with 55 citations, has become a foundational reference for the field. He has further demonstrated the practical power of these frameworks through physical robot experiments, showing how machines can understand and generate goal-directed actions, and even develop turn-taking and leader-follower dynamics in imitative social interactions. Most recently, his 2025 work has broken new ground by characterizing the sense of agency in human-robot interaction, exploring the competitive dynamics between top-down expectations and bottom-up sensory information. Through this body of work, Ohata is not only advancing robotic autonomy but also providing a computational bridge between theories of the mind and embodied artificial intelligence.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Active Inference in Robotics and Artificial Agents: Survey and Challenges55 citations · 2021
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- 5Human-Robot Kinaesthetic Interactions Based on the Free-Energy Principle5 citations · 2024
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