RIKEN Information R&D and Strategy Headquarters Interactive Robot Research Team
Team Leader: Takashi Minato (D.Eng)
Research Summary

In order to develop robots that provide casual and modest support for human daily activities, this team studies robot-human interactions such that humans are not aware of robots’ support.
Specifically, the team will promote research related to the following three themes.
- *Design of a robot architecture that has cognitive functions and conversation capability
- *Research on interfaces that enable robots to express natural behavior in interaction with humans
- *Research and implementation to integrate various functions developed by other teams into one system
Main Research Fields
- Complex Systems
Related Research Fields
- Engineering
- Informatics
- Interdisciplinary Science & Engineering
- Mathematical & Physical Sciences
- Biological Sciences
- Biology
- Medicine, Dentistry & Pharmacy
- Human interface and interaction
- Intelligent robotics
Keywords
- Human-robot interaction
- Humanoid robot
- Architecture for robot intelligence
- Nonverbal communication for human-robot interaction
Selected Publications
Papers with an asterisk(*) are based on research conducted outside of RIKEN.
- 1.
*Uchida, T., Takahashi, H., Ban. M., Shimaya, J., Minato, T., Ogawa, K., Yoshikawa, Y., and Ishiguro, H.:
"Women Don't Hesitate to Self-disclose to Robots: Gender Differences for Attitude toward Robots"
Multimodal Technologies and Interaction, Vol.4, No.3, p.35 (2020) - 2.
*Zheng, X., Shiomi, M., Minato, T., and Ishiguro, H.:
"How Can Robot Make People Feel Intimacy Through Touch?"
Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics, Vol.32, No.1, pp.51-58 (2020) - 3.
*Jinnai, N., Sumioka, H., Minato, T., and Ishiguro, H.:
"The Multi-modal Interaction through Anthropomorphically Designed Communication Medium Enhances the Self-Disclosures of the Personal Information"
Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics, Vol.32, No.1, pp.76-85 (2020) - 4.
*Zheng, X., Shiomi, M., Minato, T., and Ishiguro, H.:
"What Kinds of Robot's Touch Will Match Expressed Emotions?"
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, Vol.5, Issue 1, pp.127-134 (2019) - 5.
*Uchida, T., Minato, T., and Ishiguro, H.:
"Who is responsible for a dialogue breakdown? An error recovery strategy that promotes cooperative intentions from humans by mutual attribution of responsibility in human-robot dialogues"
Frontiers in Robotics and AI, Vol.6, No.29 (2019) - 6.
*Ishi, CT., Minato, T., and Ishiguro, H.:
"Analysis and generation of laughter motions, and evaluation in an android robot"
APSIPA Transactions on Signal and Information Processing, Vol.8 (2019) - 7.
*Shiomi, M., Shatani, K., Minato, T., and Ishiguro, H.:
"How should a Robot React before People's Touch?: Modeling a Pre-Touch Reaction Distance for a Robot’s Face"
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, Vol.3, Issue 4, pp.3773-3780 (2018) - 8.
*Sakai, K., Minato, T., Ishi, CT., and Ishiguro, H.:
"Novel Speech Motion Generation by Modelling Dynamics of Human Speech Production"
Frontiers in Robotics and AI, Vol.4, No.49 (2017) - 9.
*Ishi, CT., Minato, T., and Ishiguro, H.:
"Motion Analysis in Vocalized Surprise Expressions and Motion Generation in Android Robots"
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, Vol.2, Issue 3, pp.1748-1754 (2017) - 10.
*Kuwamura, K., Minato, T., Nishio, S., and Ishiguro, H.:
"Inconsistency of Personality Distortion Caused by Appearance Gap in Robotic Telecommunication"
Interaction Studies, Vol.16, No.2, pp.249-271 (2015)
Lab Members
Principal investigator
- Takashi Minato
- Team Leader
Core members
- Carlos Toshinori Ishi
- Senior Scientist
- Chaoran Liu
- Research Scientist
- Kurima Sakai
- Research Scientist
- Tomo Funayama
- Technical Staff I
- Ryusuke Mikata
- Technical Staff I
- Yuka Nakayama
- Technical Staff II
Contact Information
3rd Floor, Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International
2-2-2 Hikaridai Seika-cho, Sorakugun, Kyoto
619-0288 Japan (Kansai Science City)
Tel:+81-(0)774-95-1360
Email: takashi.minato [at] riken.jp