Papers
58
Total Citations
3,188
H-Index
25
About
Yoky Matsuoka is a pioneering roboticist whose work sits at the transformative intersection of neuroscience, biomechanics, and assistive technology. Best known for her development of the Anatomically Correct Testbed (ACT) Hand — a robotic hand that faithfully replicates the skeletal structure, extensor mechanisms, and thumb kinematics of the human hand — Matsuoka has fundamentally advanced our understanding of how biological hands achieve their remarkable dexterity. Her research into EMG-controlled exoskeletons for paralysis rehabilitation (194 citations) and the perceptual limits of visual feedback distortion in stroke recovery (103 citations) demonstrates a deep commitment to translating engineering insight into tangible human benefit. Her contributions to surgical robotics (284 citations) helped lay the conceptual groundwork for precision-guided robotic interventions. Matsuoka also championed the study of human-guided grasping, showing that principles extracted from human interaction can measurably improve robotic grasp robustness. Recognized among robotics' grand challenges in prosthetics and exoskeletons (145 citations), her body of work — anchored by over 2,000 cumulative citations — establishes her as a defining voice in neurorobotics, rehabilitation engineering, and the quest to build machines that truly understand the human body.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS)1,084 citations · 2010
- 2Robotics for Surgery284 citations · 1999
- 3An EMG-Controlled Hand Exoskeleton for Natural Pinching194 citations · 2004
- 4Prosthetics, exoskeletons, and rehabilitation [Grand Challenges of Robotics]145 citations · 2007
- 5The ACT Hand: design of the skeletal structure121 citations · 2004
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- 8An extensor mechanism for an anatomical robotic hand87 citations · 2004
- 9Human-guided grasp measures improve grasp robustness on physical robot71 citations · 2010
- 10A kinematic thumb model for the ACT hand71 citations · 2006