Head	Shinichi Hirai	Professor, Dept. of Robotics
Founded	April, 1996

Channel of Dept. Robotics Introducing Dept. Robotics Ritsumeikan Robotics Research Center Biwako-Kusatsu Campus (BKC) | visit Biwako-Kusatsu Campus (BKC) | map Schedule Logo

Soft Robotics Laboratory is investigating robots with novel functions brought by soft materials and its related technologies including soft sensors and actuators.

Current main research topics
Food Manipulation	Soft Sensors	Living Organism Manipulation
Nursing Robotics	Pneumatic System	Soft Contact

lab. introduction movie

Books

Book Chapters

Pamphlet for Introduction (2023)
Introducing Soft Robot - Ritsumeikan University in EXPO21XX - AUTOMATION 21XX

present

previous

short stay

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2024
2024/8/5	Lecture entitled "Robotics and AI: Reaching Points and Possibilities" at Q-STAR Applications of Quantum Superposition Committee
2024/6/21-6/23	The 2nd Soft Robot Symposium @ Ishigaki
2024/6/4-6/7	Presenting 'Food Samples for Evaluation of Food Handling' at FOOMA AP
2024/4/24	The 5th Robot Food Manipulation Challenge (ICRA Don Challenge)
2024/4/17	pre-contest
2024/4/4	tmsuk Raicho 2
2024/4/1	Dr. Satake became an Assistant Professor of Soft Robotics Lab.
2024/3/22	Graduation Ceremony
2024/2/2	Rank in "Top 2% Scientists"
2024/1/9	Hanamura-kun was selected as a finalist for the Best Soft Robotic Paper Award at SII 2024 with his paper 'Fabric Manipulation by Pulling-Driven Soft Hand with Closing-Approaching Coupling'.
2024/1/8-1/11	IEEE/SICE Int. Symp. on System Integration (SII 2024), Ha Long, Vietnam
2023
2023/11/7-11/8	The 1st Soft Robot Symposium @ Village Azumino
2023/9/23	Demonstrating Jellyfish Catcher at E-Kagen Robots at Fukuoka City Science Museum
2023/9/13	Nate, Wang, and Hirai received RSJ 4th Excellent Research and Technology Award.
by Mr. Maeda by Prof. Endo by Nate by Mr. Maeda
2023/9/13	Mr. Maeda (2004 master) of Ishida Co., Ltd. received RSJ 28th Technical Innovations Award.
2023/9/12	The Science of Soft Robots - Design, Materials and Information Processing was published.
2023/9/11	Reporting "Feasibility Study on Food Samples for Robotic Handling Evaluation" at RSJ 2023 Open Forum "Food Samples for Food Handling Robots"
2023/9/11	Reporting "Feasibility Study on Food Samples for Robotic Handling Evaluation" at RSJ 2023 Open Forum "Reports on Feasibility Study Programs for Practical Use of Robot Technologies"
2023/9/6-9/9	SICE Annual Conference 2023
2023/6/23	Presenting "Soft Robot Hands and their Application to Food Handling" at AIST-RU symposium on Recent Trends in Tactile Transmission Technology (Haptics)
2023/6/16	4th Robot Wine Pouring Challenge (Ritsumeikan University Kiyukai Degital News)
2023/6/9	Experienced surgical robot 'hinotori' at Kobe University ICCRC
2023/6/7	Presenting '' at FOOMA Japan 2023
2023/6/6	Presenting 'Food Geometric Modeling considering Shape Variation' at FOOMA AP
2023/6/2	Presenting "Soft Hands Grasping and Manipulating Living Organisms" at ICRA23 workshop on robot assisted safe manipulation of hazardous materials
2023/5/31	Nate received IEEE RAS Japan Joint Chapter Young Award (ICRA2023).
2023/5/20	Presenting "Manipulation of Biological Objects and Living Organisms by Soft Robot Hand" at symposium on "Can Soft Robotics save Human Lives?" at 62nd Annual Conf. of Jap. Soc. for Medical and Biological Engineering
2023/4/26	Team from Soft Robotics Lab. (Faculty of Science and Engineering) won the second place in a competition held in the "6th IEEE-RAS Int. Conf. on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft 2023)
2023/4/21	Presented 'Soft Robotics: Utilization and Expectation of Polymer Materials' at 'Polymer Frontier 21 - Polymer Materials Supporting Robotics' sponsored by Society of Polymer Science, Japan
2023/4/7	Team Ritsumeikan won second place in RoboSoft 2023 Competition Kiyuukai news (Japanese)
2023/3/22	Morikage received Miura Award from JSME.
2023/3/22	Graduation Ceremony
2023/1/27	Presenting 'Food Handling Based on Soft Robotics' at Food Process Technical Group (Association of Powder Process Industry and Engineering, Japan)
2023/1/26	Lecture on 'Soft Body Modeling' at Introduction to Soft Robots organized by JSME
2023/1/23	Presenting 'Robot End-Effectors for Food Material Handling' at Hokkaido Research Organization
2023/1/19	Introduction to Science of Soft Robots was published.
2022
2022/12/16-12/17	Science of Soft Robot Meeting @ Biwako-Kusatsu Campus & Biwako Grand Hotel
2022/12/6	Detecting grasping, releasing, or object dropping during object manipulation using flexible sensors in soft robot hands
2022/12/4	Demonstrating Jellyfish Catching Robot at E-kagen Robot Exhibition
2022/12/1	Detecting grasping, releasing, or object dropping during object manipulation using flexible sensors in soft robot hands
2022/11/28-11/30	IEEE Humanoids
2022/11/22	Preliminary Research on Food Samples for Food Handling Evaluation was accepted by NEDO.
2022/10/23	Presenting "Fabric-based Proximity/Contact Sensors Applied to Two-DOF Variable Stiffness Mechanism" in IROS 2022 Workshop "Large-scale robotic skin: Perception, Interaction, and Control"
2022/10/23-10/27	IROS 2022
2022/9/30	Ritsumeikan University Kiyukai Degital News No. 134 "Robot Restaurant"
2022/9/27	Experienced robot restaurant AI_SCAPE
2022/9/9	Presenting "Soft Body Modeling" in an open forum at RSJ 2022
2022/9/9	Presenting "Concept in Food Properties" in an open forum at RSJ 2022
2022/9/1	SIP Open Symposium in Hiroshima 'Towards End-Effectors Applicable to New Areas -Mechanism and Intelligence of Robotic End-Effectors -'
2022/8/29	Presenting "Toward Robotic Handling of Food" at IFT Japan Section Seminar
2022/8/24	Presenting "Food Handling - Soft Robotics Approach" in Toyama Robotics Study Group
2022/8/21-8/23	Visiting JA Youtei (Hokkaido)
2022/8/4-8/5	Fabricating soft grippers in undergraduate laboratory experience
2022/7/5	Joint Symposium on 'Challenges in Social Implementation of Soft Robotics' in cooperation of Sensor-Rich Soft End-Effectors for Cyber-Physical Systems Project (SIP) and Science of Soft Robots (Kakenhi)
2022/6/16-6/17	Science of Soft Robot Meeting @ Ueda
2022/6/8	Presenting 'Grippers for Food Handling' in Automatic Food Production Line Project in FOOMA JAPAN 2022
2022/6/7-6/10	Food Robot Challenge Trials' in FOOMA 2022 Academic Plaza
2022/5/26	Robot Wine Pouring Challenge
2022/5/10	Preliminary Robot Contest
2022/4/14	Professor Shibata (Kindai University) was introduced at Robot Digest
2022/3/22	Graduation Ceremony
2022/3/14-3/15	Science of Soft Robot Meeting at Tsuruoka (Kamo Aquarium & Suiden Terrasse)
2021
2021/12/11	Presenting "Haptic Sensing in Soft Robotics" at Manipulation Winter Seminar 2021: Haptic/Tactile Sensors for Manipulation (organized by Manipulation SIG, SICE SI Division)
2021/10/6	Ritsumeikan University Kiyukai Degital News No. 120 "Wine Pouring Robot Challenge"
2021/10/5	online symposium on Future Automation in Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishery Industries based on IoT and Robotics
2021/6/11	Robot Wine Pouring Challenge
2021/6/9	Presenting Soft Hands for Food Handling at the 8th online seminar organized by Campus Create Co., Ltd.
2021/6/3	Presenting "Food x Robots: Food Handling by Soft Robot Hands" at 2021 Japanese Society of Taste Technology Symposium on Innovative Technology for Next Generation Food Industry and Taste
2021/6/1-6/4	Introducing thin planar shell gripper and scooping-binding hand at FOOMA 2021 Acadamic Plaza
2021/5/26	Modeling and Control published by Corona Publishing.
2021/5/11	Ritsumeikan University Kiyukai Degital News No. 38 "Research on Pudding !?"
2021/4/1	Proposal for Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovation Areas (Science of Soft Robots) "Mechanics of Wet Contact with Applications to Sticky/Slippery Object Manipulation" was accepted.
2021/3/30	Dr. Hisyam went back to Malaysia.
2021/3/11	Denpa Shimbun Daily article introduced Dr. Matsuno's research on proximity sensing algorithm.
2020
2020/12/30	Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun's article "Oral Care Training using Models" reported Dr. Matsuno's oral care simulator.
2020/12/25	Mimori received SI2020 Excelent Presentation Award.
2020/12/22	Published Comparative Study of Robotics Curricula in IEEE Trans. Education.
2020/12/3	Forum on Robotic Food Manipulation Challenge at IEEE/RSJ IROS 2020
2020/11/28	Presenting "Soft Robotic Hands changing Manufacturing in New Noraml" in the 6th SICE workshop for Post Corona Future Society in Japan
2020/10/8	Robot Contest   Robot Wine Pouring Challenge   Food Handling Challenge
2020/10/3	Dr. Matsuno was nominated to Best Paper in Robotics Award Finalist in RCAR 2020.
2020/9/28-11/30	Dr. Matsuno Introduces Oral care simulator capable of training based on numerical data at Innovation Japan 2020. (web)
2020/9/28	Presenting Soft Grippers for Food Handling at SIP online symposium
2020/9/23-12/12	Mr. Kawashima (Hokkaido Research Organization) will stay in the lab. for his research and development.
2020/6/25	Maryam Tebyani received Best Paper Award at IEEE UR 2020. (certificate)
2020/6/1	Lab. Introduction written by Dr. Matsuno at JSSE Magagine June Issue.
2020/5/31	ICRA 2020 workshop: Beyond Soft Robotics: Pioneer Perspectives and Interdisciplinary Collaboration
2020/5/27	Hirai was introduced as one of main researchers of intelligent mechanical systems at mirai book.
2020/5/26	Keynote Speech Soft Robotic Approach to Food Material Handling at 2020 Asia-Pacific Conference on Robotics and Autonomous Systems (APCRAS 2020)
2020/4/24	Remote lecture on "Challenge to Soft Object Handling by Soft Grippers" at RSJ Robotics Seminar No. 125 on "Recent Object Recognition and Handling Technologies in Logistic Robots"
2020/3/13	Graduation Ceremony
2020/3/13	Okada won Miura Award from JSME.
2020/2/27	Received Kansai Section Medal from IEEE Kansai Section.
2020/2/18	Workshop on Problem Solution in Food Industry
2020/1/8	Discussion on Food x Robotics
2019
2019/12/17	Year-End & Welcome Party
2019/12/7	Katsuma and Arimoto won the 3rd prize at MathWorks Minidrone Competition at Tokyo 2019. (trial) (final result) (archived video)
2019/11/28	Numerical Methods for Mechanical Systems —Matlab version— published by Corona Publishing. (sample programs)  Introduced in Books on MATLAB/Simulink
2019/11/19	Lecture on "Application of Soft Actuators to Industry" at seminar "Soft Actuators: From Foundation to Recent Applications" supported by Machine Design & Tribology Division, JSME
2019/10/15	Workshop on Robotic Food Manipulation at IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots (photos)
2019/9/20	Ritsumeikan junior high-school laboratory experience
2019/9/2	Ge Han stays at our lab. for his internship.
2019/8/30	Professor Sri Kurniawan and Professor Mircea Teodorescu (UCSC) visited our lab.
2019/7/18	Science of Soft Robot A01 Meeting at Shirahama
2019/7/11	Received AP Award (visitors' evaluation) at International Food Machinery and Technology Exhibition.
2019/7/10	Presenting "Food Material Handling by Soft Robotic Hands" at International Mini-Symposium organized by Japan Society for Food Engineering
2019/7/10	Introducing "Non-destructive measurement of food material viscoelasticity" at FOOMA 2019 Acadamic Plaza
2019/7/9	Hirai's comment on collaborative robots for food industry was introduced in TBS TV program "NEWS 23".
2019/7/4	Lecturing "Soft Robotic Automation" in the 2nd meeting of Soft 3D Co-Creation Consortium
2019/7/1-9/19	Maryam Angela Tebyani from UCSC stays in the lab. for her summer internship.
2019/6/29	Lecturing "Education of Mathematics and Mechanics in Department of Robotics using MATLAB" in MATLAB Teachers Seminar
2019/5/30	Lecturing "Vibration-driven Micro Pneumatic Valves" at a seminar in spring conference of Japan Fluid Power System Society
2019/5/8	Robotics Lecture Soft Robot Revolution: Turning Soft Materials into Intelligent Machines Professor Fumiya Iida (Univ. Cambridge)
2019/4/1	Proposal for Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovation Areas (Science of Soft Robots) "Mechanics and Synthesis of Soft Contact" was accepted.
2019/4/1	Dr. Matsuno became an Assistant Professor of Soft Robotics Lab.
2019/4/1	Dr. Wang became a Research Associate Professor of Research Organization of Science and Technology.
2019/3/19	Ritsumeikan Unviersity Robotics Research Center Symposium - Launching New Industry-Academia Collaboration for Robotics Research and Development - at Sapia Hall, Station Conference Tokyo
2019/3/19	"Research Trend in Soft Robotics" in Ritsumeikan Unviersity Robotics Research Center Symposium
2019/3/5	Ms. Okada received SI2018 Excellent Presentation AwardSI for her presentation Modeling ripping force in binding hand at SICE SI2018.
2019/3/1	Soft grippers were introduced in March issue of magazine "Production Goods Marketing".
2019/2/27	Presenting "Soft Robotic Automation" at Hokkaido Food-industry Network Promotion Meeting
2019/2/26	Chocolate Factory in Chitose International Airport
2019/2/1	Soft grippers were introduced in February issue of magazine "Production Goods Marketing".
2018
2018/12/18	37 attendance at welcome party
2018/12/13	Dempa Shimbun Daily introduced our soft gripper in its article "Handling Food Materials".
2018/12/12	The Kyoto Shimbun introduced our soft gripper in its article "Soft Robots gentle to Human".
2018/11/26	Nippon Keizai Shimbun introduced our soft gripper in its article "Robots for Packing Food to Box Lunches".
2018/11/21	Sensor-Rich Soft End-Effectors for Cyber-Physical Systems (Professor Sadao Kawmura) was accepted in Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP).
2018/10/3	Introducing Private University Research Branding Project of MEXT Soft materials bring robotic research to a new level
2018/10/3	Introducing Private University Research Branding Project of MEXT Quantifying food texture
2018/8/30-8/31	Professor Wang demonstrated "Pneumatically Driven Soft Robot Gripper Capable of Gentle Gripping and Its Automation System Based on ROS" at Innovation Japan 2018.
2018/8/3	Dr. Wang received Best Paper Award on Robotics by A Soft Gripper with Adjustable Stiffness and Variable Working Length for Handling Food Material.
2018/8/1-9/30	Tomohiro Inukai stayed at King's College, London for his summer internship.
2018/7/14-10/26	Joshua Truskinger from Griffith University stayed in the lab. for his internship.
2018/6/14	Received AP Award Grand Prix at International Food Machinery and Technology Exhibition.
2018/6/12-6/15	Introducing printable hand, prestretched-finger hand, and binding hand at FOOMA 2018 Acadamic Plaza, with demonstration of ROS-based robotic handlnig system.
2018/6/12	Our research on soft robotics was introduced in an article of Kanjuku Times, a magazine of Kanjuku school.
2018/5/29	Lecture on "Soft Robotic Automation" at University of Tokyo
2018/5/21	Matsuno's research was introduce in Alumni Association Digital News.
2018/4/24-4/28	The First IEEE-RAS Int. Conf. on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft 2018) at Grand Hotel Palazzo, Livorno, Italy
2018/3/22	Okino won Hatakeyama Award from JSME.
2018/3/8	Valparaiso University student visit (photos) by courtesy of Dr. Keiko Abercrombie Tomita and Dr. Zhongkui Wang
2018/1/28	Soft hand research was introduced in TV program "Galileo X" of BS Fuji channel.
2018/1/16	Soft hand research was introduced at web magazine "almost 0 yen university".
2017
2017/12/13	Dr. Matsuno was nominated to Finalist for Best Conference Paper Award in SII 2017 held at Taipei.
2017/12/8	The 3rd meeting of RSJ Special Interest Group on Soft Robotics (SIG SoRo Japan)
2017/11/29-12/2	Demonstrating soft grippers and micro pneumatic valves at International Robot Exhibition
2017/11/16	"Soft Robotic Hands for Food Material Handling" at FOOMA 1Day Special Lectures
2017/10/20	Invited Presentation Soft Robotics for Locomotion and Manipulation in Special Session Soft Robotics at 17th Int. Conf. on Control, Automation and Systems (ICCAS 2017).
2017/10/16	Dr. Matsuno received Best Young Researcher Group Work Award at MPR2017.
2017/9/13	Professor Hirai was awarded to a fellow of Robotics Society of Japan (RSJ).
2017/8/10	World Business Satellite Japan (TV Tokyo) introduced our research on food modeling and printable hands.
2017/7/15	Dr. Matsuno was nominated to IEEE RCAR 2017 Best Conference Paper Finalist by Real-time Curvature Estimation of Printable Soft Gripper using Electro-conductive Yarn.
2017/6/15	Received AP Award Grand Prix at International Food Machinery and Technology Exhibition. (Univ. web page)
2017/6/13-6/16	Demonstrating Soft Robotic Hands for Food Material Handling at International Food Machinery and Technology Exhibition
2017/6/9	Trial lecture on "Soft Robotics" to students of Higashi Otsu High School
2017/4/30	Asahi Shimbun introdiced our soft robotics research in Door to Science.
2017/4/20	Robotics Seminar by Dr. Yang, Boo-Ho (CEO, Soft Servo Systems) Soft Motion Technology and EtherCAT Network
2017/4/3	Dr. Wang's proposal for Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research "Establishment of basic design principle of pneumatically driven soft actuator" was accepted.
2017/3/24	Alumni Association Digital News (Issue 1) Introduction of Hirai Lab.
2017/3/14	Introduced a 3D printer Objet 350 Connex 3 (Stratasys Ltd.), which can apply three different materials and print a soft part using rubber-like material.
2017/3/9	Robotics Meetup at Colombo, Sri Lanka, presenting "What is Soft Robotics?" (news)
2017/2/15	Robotics Seminar A Novel Soft Robotic Table for Manipulation of Delicate Objects Inspired by Caterpillar Locomotion Chong Deng (Univ. Auckland) (photos)
2017/2/9	Javier Molina received Best Presentation Award at ICMRE2017.
2017/2/8-3/1	Chong Deng from University of Auckland stayed in Hirai lab.
2016
2016/12/14	Dr. Ho was nominated to Finalist of Best Conference Paper Awardat in SII 2016.
2016/11/5	Celebrating 20 years of Department of Robotics
2016/10/27-28	Presented "Soft Robotics for Object Manipulation" at RIKEN CEMS Topical Meeting on Soft Robotics
2016/10/18-19	Lecture "What is Robotics" for Keisho Junior High School
2016/9/16	Lecture on "Soft Robotic Hands for Soft Object Handling" at RSJ Robotics Seminar No.101 Soft Robots, Soft Devices: Introduction to Soft Robotics
2016/8/16, 19	Making 'Picker Drone' in laboratory experience (report)
photo by Mori video by Sako
2016/6/9	Received FOOMA Academic Plaza Award at International Food Machinery and Technology Exhibition.
2016/4/29-30	Introducing a robotic hand for aerial robots at Nikoniko Chokaigi 2016 Time-shift broadcast 1st day 2nd day
2016/4/9-10	OB/OG party cerebrating 20th anniversary of Hirai lab. at Biwako Grand Hotel (photo by Dr. Wang) (photo by Ogawa) (with the gift)
2016/1/11-2/26	Jarred Fastier-Wooller from Griffith University stayed in Hirai lab.
2015
2015/12/21	Presenting "Binding Hands for Food Material Handling" at Fishery Machine Seminar organized by Industrial Research Institute, Hokkaido Research Organization
2015/12/18	Demonstrating micro pneumatic valves at Robotics Technology Seminar in Grand Front Osaka
2015/12/2-5	Demonstrating binding hands and micro pneumatic valves at International Robot Exhibition
2015/11/27	Presenting "Binding Hands for Food Material Handling" at Press Seminar in Tokyo Campus, Ritsumeikan University
2015/10/2	Damith attended "Three Minute Thesis" Competition Semi-final held at The University of Queensland. (news)
2015/9/14	Hirai's office moved to the 7th floor of EastWing.
2015/8/26-27	Experiment rooms moved to the 7th floor of EastWing.
2015/6/25	Dr. Wang was nominated to Finalist for Best Conference Paper Award in RCAR 2015 held at Changsha, China.
2015/6/26	Damith won 3 Minute Thesis Presentation Competition held at Ritsumeikan University by his talk on "Why not let robots feel the softness of a flower petal". He will attend the Asia Level Competition held in end of July.
2015/6/9	visit to SIA (news)
2015/5/21	Dr. Wang won "favorite" poster award at SIMULIA Community Conference at Berlin. (photos)
2015/4/1	Proposal for Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research "Dynamics and Tribology of Soft Tissues in Tactile Perception" was accepted.
2015/4/1	Proposal to Program for Promotion of International Research "Application of Soft Tactile Sensors to Medical Robotics" was accepted. This program will promote collaborative research with King's College, London.
2014
2014/11/17	Griffith University – Ritsumeikan University Joint Symposium on Field Robotics
2014/11/15	Presented "Soft Robotics" at the final seminar of Muroran Institute of Technology Robot Arena
2014/10/1-11/25	Damith stayed King's College London (UK) for collaborative research.
2014/7/31	Presented "Introducing Soft Materials into Robotics" in CORE seminar at King's College London
2014/7/11	Presented "Locomotion of Tensegrity Robots" at Sustainable Flexible Automation Technical Committee of Institute of Systems, Control and Information Engineers
2014/7/7	Seminar presented by Dr. Wu, President of DJI Japan, to introduce current technology and future direction of DJI multi-copters
2014/6/12	Received FOOMA Academic Plaza Award at International Food Machinery and Technology Exhibition. (pick up)
2014/6/10-13	Presented "Handling of Food Materials by Lightweight Robot System" at Academic Plaza of FOOMA 2014
2014/3/10	Presented "Fabric Tactile Sensor" at e-Textile Technical Committee in Textile Machinery Society Japan
2013
2013/7/31	Presented "Soft Robotics" in Advanced Mechano-Informatics Seminar at the University of Tokyo
2013/6/11-14	Presented "Handling of Rheological Food Materials by Robotic Systems" at Academic Plaza of FOOMA 2013
2013/5/30	Revised laboratory names as Soft Robotics Laboratory since current research topics in the laboratory include Robot systems using soft materials (tensegrity robots or soft-fingered hands) Robot systems handling soft objects (food or cables) Soft sensors and actuators Mechanical modeling of soft biological bodies (eyes, fingertips, foot, liver) This terminology Soft Robotics is being popular in robotics community and a new journal Soft Robotics has started.
2013/5/23	Presented "Manipulation and Modeling of Belt Objects" at 2013 Fund Ceremony of Tateisi Science and Technology Foundation
2013/4/1	Proposal for Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research "Dynamics in Rolling and Jumping of Tensegrity Structures" was accepted.
2013/3/1	Dr. Wang came back from ETH, Switzerland.
2012
2012/10/16-17	MPR 2012 at Hakata
2012/10/6-15	IROS2012 at Vilamoura and visit to ETH
2012/9/28	Proposal to R-GIRO Program on e-Health was accepted.
2012/9/17-20	RSJ 2012 at Sapporo
2012/9/6	BBQ at Echi River
2012/9/1	Dr. Wang started half-year research at ETH, Switzerland.
2012/5/28-29	RoboMec2012 at Hamamatsu
2012/5/10-19	ICRA 2012 at St Paul
2012/3/26	Tensegrity robots were intoduced ini a TV program Morning Bird!.
2012/1/12	OB/OG seminar at Department of Robotics
2011
2011/12/15	Numerical Methods for Mechanical Systems (ISBN 978-4-339-06094-2), 2nd print, was published by Corona Publishing Co., Ltd.
2011/12/10	Dr. Xubing Zhang was nominated to Finalist of T. J. Tarn Best Paper in Robotics by TPS-SURF-SAC Matching Approach of Feature Point Applied to Deformation Measurement of Nonrigid Tissues from MR Images.
2011/11/21-25	International Seminar on Ensuring Environmental Sustainablility at Jakarta
2011/6/27-30	RSS 2011 at USC
2011/5/9-13	ICRA2011 at Shanghai, China
2011/4/7	Proposal for Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research "Tribology of Soft Tissues" was accepted.
2011/4/1	Proposal for Tateisi Science and Technology Foundation "Manipulation of Belt Objects" was accepted.
2011/4/1	Dr. Wang became a Research Associate of the Department of Robotics.
2011/4/1	Mr. Ho was selected as a Research Fellowship for Young Scientists (DC2) of JSPS.
2011/3/6-11	Visited universities in Vietnam (Hanoi Institute of Technology, University of Science, and Ho Chi Ming City University of Technology)
2011/1/24	Tensegrity robots appear in a magazine "Aera". (RS Web)
2010
2010/12/14-17	ROBIO2010 at Tianjin, China
2010/12/4-8	Visited Wuhan Textile University with Dr. Zhang
2010/11/19-12/27	Mr. Ho stayed at Professor Kao's laboratory in State Univ. of New York at Stony Brook for collaborative research.
2010/10/4	Experienced mixed reality in the festival for 1300 years of capital transfer to Nara
2010/9/21	Hirai Lab. was introduced in a TV program Love ☆ Lab. (News 610, NHK Kyoto).
2010/8/28	Open Campus
2010/8/1-7	Visit to universities in Indonesia with Dr. Sumadi
2010/7/6-9	IEEE/ASME AIM 2010 at Montreal, Canada
2010/6/17	Introducing Soft Robot - Ritsumeikan University in EXPO21XX - AUTOMATION 21XX
2010/5/26	Biomimetic Soft Morphing Workshop at Seoul National University
2010/5/2-9	ICRA2010 at Anchorage, Alaska, U.S.A.
2010/3/22	Farewell party
2010/3/8-19	Prof. Ma, Hirai, Prof. Shimonomura, and Dr. Ozawa visited universities in China. (Huanzhong Univ. of Science and Technology, Wuhan Univ., Tianjin Univ., Hebei Univ. of Tech., Harbin Inst. of Tech., Shenyang Inst. Automation, and Northeastern Univ.)
2010/1/19	Robotics Seminar "Industrial Robots - Towards New Development", Mr. Norio Kodaira (Chief Technology Officer, Mitsubishi Electric Cooperation)
2010/1/6	Dr. Xubing Zhang joined the laboratory as a postdoctoral fellow.
2009
2009/12/27	The 2nd OB/OG Party at Room Senzai, Hotel Granvia Kyoto
2009/12/21	Yujiro Yamazaki was nominated to Finalist of 2009 IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Biomimetics Best Paper in Biomimetics by Two-Phased Force and Coordinates Controller for a Pair of 2-DOF Soft Fingers.
2009/11/20	Experience on Japanese sweet making at Oimatsu.
2009/10/7	Keynote speech on "Simulation of Deformation in Robotics" at Asia Simulation Conference 2009. (PDF)
2009/10/4-5	The Fiffh Joint Workshop on Machine Perception and Robotics MPR2009, October 4-5, 2009, Kyoto, Japan
2009/9/7	International Robotics Seminar Handling and Manipulating Very Flexible Sheets by Robots Professor Nikos A. Aspragathos (University of Patras, Greece)
2009/8/1	Demonstration of unconstrained poppet valves and tensegrity robots in Open Campus.
2009/5/12	International Robotics Seminar Robot Assembly: From Vibratory Manipulation to Self-Organization Professor Kevin Lynch (Northwestern University)
2009/3/21-29	Professor Kawamura and Hirai visited universities in Australia (CSIRO at Brisbane, Monash University, The University of Sydney).
2009/1/1	Mechanics and Control of Soft-fingered Manipulation (ISBN 978-1-84800-980-6) was published by Springer-Verlag London Limited.
2008
2008/12/27	The 1st OB/OG Party
2008/12/20	Seminar at Hanoi Institute of Technology (HIT). Introduction of Dept. Robotics
2008/12/17-20	ICARCV2008, December 17-20, Hanoi, Vietnam
2008/12/6	Mr. Matsuyama received SICE 2007 SI Division Young Researcher Encouragement Award for his paper Mechanics of Jumping via Body Deformation.
2008/11/6-7	The Fourth Joint Workshop on Machine Perception and Robotics MPR2008, November 6-7, 2008, Beijing, China
2008/10/10	SICE published Special Issue on System Integration in Marine Engineering (Vol.47, Oct, 2008), two years after Hirai's first proposal.
2008/9/22-26	IROS2008 at Nice France
2008/9/10	Dr. Inoue and Hirai received the 2008 RSJ Best Paper Award for their paper Experimental Investigation of Mechanics in Soft-fingered Grasping and Manipulation.
2008/9/10	Dr. Inoue received the 2008 Young Investigation Excellence Award for his paper A New Object Orientation Control Method Generating Desired Joint Angles.
2008/9/8	Dr. Inoue received Best Presentation Award at the 2008 JSPE Intelligent Mechatronics Workshop.
2008/8/28	Numerical Methods for Mechanical Systems (ISBN 978-4-339-06094-2) was published by Corona Publishing Co., Ltd.
2008/7/18	Demonstration Day for high school students.
2008/6/25-27	RSS2008 at Zurich, Switzerland
2008/6/23	Visited EPFL and had two seminars. How Softness Contributes to Human Dexterity organized by Professor Bleuler Jumping via Deformation organized by Professor Floreano
2008/5/27-30	Presentation at FOOMA JAPAN 2008 Academic Plaza. (HP)
2008/4/14	Proposal for Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research "Soft Tissue Mechanics in Human Dexterity via Internal Sensing" was accepted. (HP)
2008/4/14	Joined collaborative research with Dainippon Screen Co.,Ltd. on underwater robots. (Press)
2008/4/1	Dr. Shibata moved to Kawamura Laboratory as an Assistant Professor.
2008/3/21	Fawewell party
2007
2007/12/21	Dr. Inoue and Hirai received SICE 2007 SI Division Research Encouragement Award.
2007/11/16-17	The Third Joint Workshop on Machine Perception and Robotics(MPR2007), Kusatsu, Japan
2007/11/2	Workshop on Modeling, Identification, and Control of Deformable Soft Objects in conjunction with IROS 2007, San Diego, U.S.A.
2007/9/26	Model-based Control for Cognition in Technical Systems Prof. Dr. Olaf Stursberg (Technical University of Munich)
2007/9/19	Optimal Movement Generation Professor Frank Chongwoo Park (Seoul National University)
2007/8/22	Dr. Shibata's proposal "Investigation of Human Dexterity Generated by Loose Joints via Soft Elements"was accepted for a Grant in Aid for Scientific Research (start-up).
2007/7/25	Prof. Hirai was introduced in a book Messages from Robotics Researchers, organized by Robotics Society of Japan.
2007/7/9	Dr. Shibata and Prof. Hirai's proposal Expansion and Placement of Fabrics using Visual Sensing was accepted by Japan Science and Technology Agancy (JST). (HP)
2007/4/1	Dr. Inoue moved to Okayama Prefecural University.
2007/4/1	Dr. Shibata joined the faculty of mechanical systems as an experiment assistant.
2007/3/15	Dr. Inoue and Prof. Hirai received the Best Paper Award in the 12th Robotics Symposia for their paper Dynamics in Object Manipulation by a Pair of Spft Fingertips. (HP)
2007/1/24	Research Opportunities in Robotics Professor Tzyh Jong Tarn (Washington University)
2007/1/12	Workshop on Bridge between Biology and Robotics Professor Mascaro (Univ. Utah) and Professor Sitti (CMU)
2006
2006/12/16	Mechanical Energy Analysis of Jumping by Body Deformation of Soft Circular Robot received SICE SI2006 Presentation Award.
2006/12/11	Workshop on Exploration of Intelligence between Machines and Nature Professor Slotine (MIT), Professor Osuka (Kobe Univ.), and Professor Mochiyama (NITECH)
2006/12/6-8	Exhibition of CMOS+FPGA Vision at 2006 International Technical Exhibition on Image Technology and Equipment (Pacifico Yokohama) with Image Technology Laboratory Corp. and Marubeni Solutions Corp.
2006/12/4	COE Lecture on How to Find Research Issues.
2006/11/30-12/2	Exhibition of Unconstrained Poppet Valves at International Next Generation Robot Fair (INTEX Osaka). (Nikkan Kougyo Shimbun 2006/11/21) (photo in article)
2006/7/1	Hirai started to serve as an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Robotics.
2006/5/17	Takahiro Inoue was nominated to Finalist of 2006 IEEE Int. Conf. Robotics and Automation Best Manipulation Paper Award by Study on Hemispherical Soft-Fingered Handling for Fine Manipulation by Minimum D.O.F. Robotic Hand.
2006/5/17	Kazuhiro Shimizu was nominated to Finalist of 2006 IEEE Int. Conf. Robotics and Automation Best Vision Paper Award by CMOS+FPGA Vision System for Visual Feedback of Mechanical Systems.
2006/5/15-19	ICRA2006 at Orlando, U.S.A.
2006/4/1	Dr. Inoue was employed as a JSPS COE Researcher.
2006/4/1	Dr. Mitani moved to Sapporo City University.
2006/3/22	Mr. Uehara received JSME Miura Award.
2005
2005/12/22	Takahiro Inoue received IEEE Kansai Chapter Student Encouragement Award.
2005/12/6	ICMT2005 (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) Banquet
2005/11/30	Handling Engineering (ISBN 978-4-339-04525-3) was published by Corona Publishing Co., Ltd.
2005/7/26-8/7	Demonstration on Crawling and Jumping Soft Robot KOHARO at the Robot Station, Expo 2005 Aichi Japan. (HP)
2005/6/9-19	Demonstration on Crawling and Jumping Soft Robot KOHARO at Prototype Robot Exhibition, Expo 2005 Aichi Japan. (photo diary) (demonstration)
2005/6/10	ROBOCON Magazine No.40 introduced Hirai Lab.
2005/4/22	Proposal for Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research "Reality-based Modeling of Deformable Soft Objects via Internal Sensing" was accepted. (HP)
2005/4/20	Takahiro Inoue was nominated to Finalist of 2005 IEEE Int. Conf. Robotics and Automation Best Manipulation Paper Award by Quasi-Static Manipulation with Hemispherical Soft Fingertip via Two Rotational Fingers.
2004
2004/12/7	Lecture on How Softness Contributes to Dexterity in Object Manipulation at the startup meeting of soft object handling research group, Kagawa University.
2004/10/29	Farewell Party for Professor Vaz
2004/10/6	WTEC International Assessment of R&D in Robotics from U.S. visited Dept. Robotics, Ritsumeikan University. (PDF)
2004/7/28	"Crawling and Jumping of a Deformable Robot" was introduced in Mainichi Shimbun 2004/7/28 "Science TODAT".
2004/7/4	Robotic wheels that just keep rolling in New Scientists.
2004/6/19	Yuuta Sugiyama was offered the IFRR Student Fellowship to present his article "Crawling and Jumping of a Deformable Robot" in ISER2004 at Singapore.
2004/6/17	"Crawling and Jumping of a Deformable Robot" was introduced in Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun 2004/6/17.
2004/6/3	Project "Crawling and Jumping by a Deformable Soft Robot" was accepted to the NEDO 21st Century Robot Challenge Program.
2004/4/3	Visit to Professor Vaz's house and Indian Restaurant
2004/3/11-12	ISERP Symposium on Intelligent Control of Multi-fingered Hand Based on Sensory-Motor Coordination
2004/3/2-3	HUT-RITS Joint Symposium on Sensory-Motor Coordination in Robotic Manipulation
2004/1/12-13	Ski Trip
2003
2003/6/6	First Symposium on "Micro Nanoscience Integrated Systems"
2003/4/10	Project on soft-fingered manipulation was introduced in a Japanese book Coming Astro Boy (ISBN4-410-13828-6).
2003/1/16-17	Ski Trip
2002
2002/6/7	Proposal for Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research Visual and Haptic Rendering for Virtual Rheological Objects was accepted.
2001
2001/7/20-29	Advanced Science Instutute 2001
2001/7/4	Introduced in Yomiuri Shimbun 2001/7/4 "Scientist in new generation".
2001/5/24	Shinichi Tokumoto was nominated to Finalist of 2001 IEEE Int. Conf. Robotics and Automation Kayamori Best Paper Award by Vision-based Automatic Forming of Rheological Objects Using Deformation Transition Graphs.