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Tanaka Lab
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The lab researches robots and AI that stay close to people and help them through life.
AboutAbout the lab
Creating technology that stays by people's side and supports their lives.
Tanaka Lab aims to create intelligent agent technologies that are always by people's side and support their lives in a society with a shrinking population.
The lab conducts research through international collaborations in HRI (Human-Robot Interaction), the study of interactions between people and robots, and in AI robotics.
Its current main focuses are realizing new families made up of people and robots, and research on general-purpose AI models aimed at application to HRI.
The lab also aims to let everyone enjoy immersing themselves in research in a well-equipped lab environment.
Key terms
- HRI
- Short for Human-Robot Interaction. The field that studies interactions between people and robots
- ROS
- Short for Robot Operating System. A basic environment for developing robot software
- Oxytocin
- A type of hormone. It is known to decrease as a person's stress level goes down
NewsLab news
A doctoral student received the Research Group Chair's Award, and a master's student received the Outstanding Master's Thesis Award
A paper on the soothing effect of a robot that nuzzles its head like a cat was published in ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction
A master's student received both the Best Paper Award at the HAI Symposium 2024 and the Student Outstanding Interactive Presentation Award at the HCG Symposium
ResearchResearch themes
The lab is advancing research on a foundational system for families made up of people and agents such as robots, and on general-purpose AI models oriented toward application to HRI. It is also developing robots that ease people's pain and fear by squeezing back, and robots that convey feelings through the movement of an internal weight.
*Illustrative imageRobot Family System
Aiming to create a place where even people living alone can feel the warmth and security of family at home, the lab is developing a foundational system for families made up of people and agents (robots, etc.). It will build an environment combining conversational AI and multi-agent systems on ROS and make it publicly available.
*Illustrative imagePhysical AI
With social robots and HRI applications in view, the lab conducts basic research on general-purpose AI models (VLMs, VLAs, etc.). Focusing on foundation models trained on video and images that work in the real world, it learns cutting-edge knowledge through joint research with the University of Washington in the United States.
*Illustrative imageA Robot That Conveys Feelings Through the Movement of a Weight
The lab studies OMOY, a robot with an internal weight that moves in sync with its speech, giving users a physical sense of heaviness. In experiments, the movement of the weight significantly increased the seriousness that people perceived in the robot.
*Illustrative imageRobots That Ease Pain and Fear
With Reliebo, a wearable robot that people hold in the hand, the lab aims to reduce pain and fear during medical procedures such as vaccinations. In experiments, pain scores decreased significantly while wearing it, and salivary oxytocin tended to decrease in the condition where the robot squeezed back.
MembersFaculty
Tanaka Lab members consist of faculty, a project assistant professor, doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students, research students, intern students, and assistants.As of 2026
- ProfessorFumihide Tanaka
- Project Assistant ProfessorYouchan Yim
VoicesStudent voices
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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: “SMS robot” Clubfirst / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Robot Family System: “223 MNACTEC, exposició Robots, robòtica per a la llar, LOVOT, Buddy, Moxie i Aibo” Enric / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Physical AI: “Halodi Robotics' Perception Engineer With a Humanoid Collaborative Robot” Nicholas-halodi / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- A Robot That Conveys Feelings Through the Movement of a Weight: “Quori socially interactive robot platform IMG” Mary Mark Ockerbloom / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Robots That Ease Pain and Fear: “Vaccination” United States Department of Health and Human Services / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (BR研
（松本研究室） ): “InclusiveGameLab Person-Playing-Virtual-Reality 7 CC-BY-SA” InclusiveGameLab / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped) - Related lab (金川研究室): “Frozen soap bubble behind fir twigs (Unsplash BojuZpqw4zM)” aaronburden Aaron Burden from Baltimore, Maryland, USA. / CC0 (cropped)
- Related lab (知覚拡張システム研究室): “Wearing AR Glasses” Maxibu / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (計測情報工学研究室): “Robot measurement” Author: H. Lettenbauer / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
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