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Kawahara Lab
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A lab that builds AI and robots with physical bodies that interact with people in the real world.
AboutAbout the lab
Intelligent technology that blends into everyday life
The Kawahara Lab researches intelligent technologies that harmonize naturally with people and environments and blend into daily life without feeling out of place.
In the JST ERATO project (2015–2022), the lab built its research around four technologies: fabrication, sensing, actuation (mechanisms that produce movement), and energy.
Building on that foundation, the lab is now moving into research on AI that has a body and works in the real world (Embodied AI and Physical AI).
The lab aims to create AI that understands real spaces and people by reading not only visual and auditory information but also tactile information and data from environmental sensors.
Key terms
- Embodied AI
- AI that has a body like a robot and acts in the real world while sensing its surroundings with sensors
- Force sensing
- The sense of force felt when pushing or gripping something. In robots, it is measured with fingertip sensors.
- Reinforcement learning
- A machine learning method in which a system learns better actions on its own by receiving "rewards" for the results of trial and error
NewsLab news
A graduate of the lab received the IPSJ Yamashita SIG Research Award
A master's student received the Outstanding Presentation Award at DICOMO2026
Project Assistant Professor Takahashi received the IEEE RA-L 2025 Best Paper Award
A doctoral student received the Encouragement Award at the IPSJ National Convention
ResearchResearch themes
Aiming for intelligent technologies that harmonize naturally with people and environments, the lab has studied fabrication, sensing, actuation, and energy technologies. Building on this, it is now pursuing research on Embodied AI and Physical AI that understand real spaces and people from sensor information such as touch.
*Illustrative imageRobots Driven by Force Sensing
This research aims at robots that, like humans, "see, touch, and understand," by making use of the force sensing transmitted through the fingertips. The lab is building models that read meaning from changes in force sensing and combine it with visual and language information to decide the robot's movements.
*Illustrative imageLightweight and Accurate Sign Language Recognition
This research is on lightweight sign language recognition that runs even on small devices such as smartphones. Using the linguistic idea that a sign is made up of a combination of movement and hold, the lab is developing a method that correctly recognizes the signs of people it has never seen before.
*Illustrative imageAir Conditioning Control Taught by LLMs
This research controls building air conditioning with reinforcement learning, balancing energy savings and comfort. It uses the common-sense judgment of large language models (LLMs) as a "teacher" to shorten the time it takes for reinforcement learning to reach practical performance.
*Illustrative imageSelf-Healing Robot Skin
This research is on soft artificial skin that allows people and robots to touch each other safely. The lab has developed new materials, such as magnetic putty-like and slime-like materials, and given them functions to measure force and to self-heal, returning to their original state even after being cut.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Kawahara Lab consist of faculty, academic specialists and project specialists, doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students, and collaborative researchers.As of 2026
- ProfessorYoshihiro KawaharaPublications ↗
- Project ProfessorMitsuhiro KamezakiPublications ↗
- Associate ProfessorKoh Takeuchi
- Project LecturerShintaro ShibaPublications ↗
- Assistant ProfessorTakuya SasataniPublications ↗
- Project Assistant ProfessorCaremel Cedric Jean Vincent
- Project Assistant ProfessorHiroaki MurakamiPublications ↗
- Project Assistant ProfessorRyo TakahashiPublications ↗
- Assistant ProfessorKen TakakiPublications ↗
VoicesStudent voices
Compiled from answers by students who were in the lab. Ratings and reviews reflect individual students' experiences, not the lab's official views.
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Printed flexible electronics ( )” Oak Ridge National Laboratory / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Robots Driven by Force Sensing: “Robotic Hand at Hannover Messe 2016” NearEMPTiness / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Lightweight and Accurate Sign Language Recognition: “Digits ( )” cogdogblog / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Air Conditioning Control Taught by LLMs: “Rooftop Packaged Units” P199 / Public domain (cropped)
- Self-Healing Robot Skin: “Ferrofluid close” Opoterser / CC BY 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (IIS Lab): “Piqsels.com-id-zbxec” piqsels / CC0 (cropped)
- Related lab (山崎研究室): “Artificial Neural Network with Chip” mikemacmarketing / photo on flickr / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (廣瀬・
夏秋研究室): “Radar image of the Danube Delta ESA223752” European Space Agency / CC BY-SA 3.0 igo (cropped) - Related lab (竹内研究室): “Datacenter Server Racks ( )” Carl Lender / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
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