Graduate School of
Science and Engineering

My research is mainly about locomotion control of a snake-like robot. The control method is based on a central pattern generator, called CPG for short. Currently, I am doing research on how to change the body shape of the snake-like robot according to different space widths using a proposed unidirectional CPG network. The final goal of my research is to achieve self-adaptive locomotion of the snake-like robot without any human assistance.

The main reason I chose Ritsumeikan University to further my study is because of the academic background and excellent research experiences of the professors. I believe, with the guidance from professor Ma and other professors, I can gain much useful knowledge in the field of robotics. Professor Ma, who always emphasizes theory and practicality, hands-on teaching and learning, and always nurtures active intellectual curiosity, helps me a lot in building my interpersonal skills. In addition, there are many international and local students in my lab, allowing me to sharpen my knowledge and think with a global perspective. Also, since there are a lot of oral presentations, it helps me develop self confidence and communication skills. In the future, all of the knowledge and experiences at Ritsumeikan will help me shape a positive personality and help me develop expertise in my research field.

There are many diverse students including local and international students at Ritsumeikan, and with this advantage, I can enhance my interpersonal skills on a daily basis. Meeting with people from different cultural background makes me enthusiastic about coming to the university everyday where we not only discuss our research and study, but also share our experience and cultural background. This is totally a new experience for me and I really love it.

Ritsumeikan always offers help and assistance to students in English based-degree programs. At first, I thought it would be very difficult for me to adapt to the Japanese environment because I came here without any basic Japanese language proficiency. But that feeling vanished as I first stepped into this university. The Ritsumeikan community has helped me so much that I do not feel awkward even though this is the first time for me to study abroad. Also, with the free Japanese language class provided by the university, I can meet the teaching assistants and learn Japanese with their help assistants, allowing me to make many kinds of friends.