Yasumasa Tamura

About

Yasumasa Tamura is a leading researcher in multi-robot coordination and multi-agent path finding (MAPF), with a particular focus on scalable, real-world solutions for automated warehouses and distributed robotic systems. His most impactful contribution is the development of priority inheritance with backtracking for iterative multi-agent path finding (2022, 110 citations), a breakthrough algorithm that enables efficient collision-free navigation for hundreds of agents in practical settings. Tamura has also advanced the field through iterative refinement techniques for real-time multi-robot path planning (2021, 19 citations) and introduced the novel Offline Time-Independent Multiagent Path Planning (OTIMAPP) framework (2023, 12 citations), which addresses planning for agents that cannot share holding resources. Beyond MAPF, he contributed to swarm robotics with the Kilogrid experimental environment for Kilobot robots (2018, 50 citations) and the innovative "amoeba exploration" framework for coordinated distributed exploration (2018, 5 citations). His work on behavioral specialization emerging from robotic swarm embodiment (2020) and active modular environments for robot navigation (2021) further demonstrates his versatility in designing intelligent, decentralized systems. With over 200 total citations, Tamura’s research bridges theoretical planning algorithms and practical multi-robot coordination, making him a key figure in modern robotics.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Priority inheritance with backtracking for iterative multi-agent path finding

   110 citations · 2022
2. 2
   Kilogrid: a novel experimental environment for the Kilobot robot

   50 citations · 2018
3. 3
   Iterative Refinement for Real-Time Multi-Robot Path Planning

   19 citations · 2021
4. 4
   Offline Time-Independent Multiagent Path Planning

   12 citations · 2023
5. 5
   Offline Time-Independent Multi-Agent Path Planning

   6 citations · 2022
6. 6
   Amoeba Exploration: Coordinated Exploration with Distributed Robots

   5 citations · 2018
7. 7
   Behavioral specialization emerges from the embodiment of a robotic swarm

   3 citations · 2020
8. 8
   Active Modular Environment for Robot Navigation

   2 citations · 2021

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links