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Robot Manipulation Lab
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The lab works to realize the dexterity of the human hand in robots.
AboutAbout the lab
Exploring robot dexterity from the idea that "the hand is a second brain"
The Robot Manipulation Lab researches how to realize the dexterous movements of human fingers and arms in robots.
As the saying "the hand is a second brain" suggests, clarifying the functions of the hand is directly linked to understanding human intelligence.
By realizing dexterous human movements through engineering, the lab seeks to understand human intelligence and also researches and develops practical robot systems.
The lab's website introduces it under the name "Harada Lab."
Key terms
- Manipulation
- Grasping objects with a robot's hand or arm and moving them to handle them. This is the central theme of this lab.
- Data glove
- A device worn on the hand to acquire finger movements. It is used to measure the motion of cutting with a kitchen knife.
- AR marker
- A marker used to acquire where the hand is in space (its absolute position). It is used in combination with the data glove.
NewsLab news
Received Outstanding Presentation Awards and Research Encouragement Awards at the Annual Conference of the Robotics Society of Japan
Received awards including the Interdisciplinary Research Excellence Award at Robomech2026
At IROS 2025, a student received the Young Award and an Associate Professor received the Best Reviewer Award
Received an Outstanding Presentation Award at the Annual Conference of the Robotics Society of Japan
An Assistant Professor received the Sigma Global Engineering Science Award
ResearchResearch themes
Realizing the functions of human fingers and arms requires approaches from various fields, and research results from multiple fields must be integrated. The lab's main themes are object manipulation by robots, analysis and measurement of human motion, task and action planning, and new sensors and actuators, and it proposes applications that integrate them.
*Illustrative imageObject manipulation by robots
This research makes robots grasp and manipulate everyday objects, something humans do without thinking. The key is how to implement in robots the "common sense" that humans use without being aware of it.
*Illustrative imageMeasuring human motion and applying it to robots
The lab captures human manipulation motions and either applies them to robots as they are or extracts key elements before applying them, aiming to realize human dexterity. For the motion of using a kitchen knife when cooking, finger movements are acquired with a data glove and hand position with AR markers.
MembersFaculty
The Robot Manipulation Lab consists of faculty members, project faculty members and project researchers, visiting faculty, doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students, secretaries, and technical assistants.As of 2026
- ProfessorKensuke Harada
- Associate ProfessorWeiwei Wan
- Project LecturerTakuro Nishi
- Assistant ProfessorTakuya Kiyokawa
- Assistant ProfessorHao Chen
- Project Assistant ProfessorRajesh Subburaman
- Project Assistant ProfessorErwin Ropez
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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: “Humanoid robot at Science Square Tsukuba 4” Syced / CC0 (cropped)
- Object manipulation by robots: “Manipulation Robot Momaro” Sven Behnke / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Measuring human motion and applying it to robots: “VPL Eyephone and Dataglove” Dave Pape / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Human Evolution and Functional Genomics Lab): “Primate skull series with legend cropped-ar” Primate_skull_series_with_legend_cropped.png: *Primate_skull_series_with_legend.png: Christopher Walsh, Harvard Medical School derivative work: Gary2863 (talk) derivative work: باسم / CC BY 2.5 (cropped)
- Related lab (Dialogue Intelligence Systems Lab): “The Talking Furhat Robot” Guojing92 / CC0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Biomechanics Lab): “Featool-multiphysics-matlab-fem-and-cfd-gui-toolbox” Precise Simulation Ltd. / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
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