When the College of Science and Engineering moved to Biwako-Kusatsu Campus (BKC) in 1994, the Robotics Research Center, formerly the Robotics and FA Research Center, was one of the six centers established to take on commissioned research and joint research projects. At that time, the College of Science and Engineering put out a call for joint research with companies and solicited donations for the construction of a research building, and the Robotics and FA Research Center Building was completed ahead of its fellow research centers. This demonstrates just how high expectations were from industry for robotics technology and for the Center.

Director Hirai looks back on the time of the Center's establishment.

“Back then, universities had not warmed to the idea of industry-university collaboration. Amid this backdrop, I think it was innovative for both the university and the college to adopt an open attitude toward engaging in industry-academia collaboration.

The term ‘robotics’ was still not widely used. Therefore, we added ‘FA,’ which stands for flexible automation, to the name of the center. This was a robot technology that was sweeping the industry, and this made it clear that we were conducting research that could be applied to actual production sites,” explains Director Hirai.

Ten years have passed since the center was renamed the Robotics Research Center, and what has been handed down for the 30 years since the establishment of its predecessor is the attitude of conducting technology research rooted in actual issues and problems in the field. Director Hirai speaks of the significance of emphasizing research that originates from the issues that society and companies face, that is, needs, as follows:

“First and foremost, we recognize that engineering is a problem-solving discipline, so it is only natural that we would focus on research and development to solve society's problems. Also, if you just contemplate things in the lab or inside your own head, you can lose perspective and get stuck. Therefore, it is beneficial to meet people from various industries, ask them about their problems, and go out to the field to gather information because this can give you different perspectives.”

Director Hirai recounts that when he was a student, he collaborated with a company to automate its air conditioner assembly line. When he was looking for his next research topic, he remembered the cords, tubes, and other wiring he saw at the air conditioner factory. This led him to shift his interest from hard materials to soft materials, and he now specializes in soft robotics, a technology that uses soft materials to enable robots to perform new functions. Director Hirai says that he has also had many other experiences where collaboration has stimulated his research activities.

Director Hirai also discussed the significance of working with other members of the Center on cooperative research projects. “The field of robotics requires the integration of a wide range of technologies. I think the strength of the Center is that we are able to provide solutions that meet the needs of companies because we have talented individuals who specialize in a wide variety of fields, including mechanical engineering, information science, electrical engineering, biology, pharmaceuticals, and sports and health sciences.

One example of how the Center has put its multidisciplinary strengths to use is Phase 2 of the Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP), a national government project that began in 2018. This program aims to build cyber physical systems (CPS) that integrate information from manufacturing and other sites (physical spaces) with virtual spaces (i.e., cyberspace) by collecting and storing information in an advanced and highly efficient manner. As part of this program, the Center joined a project to conduct research on digital data processing for physical spaces.

Center members conducted research on automation for manufacturing sites where automation by conventional robots is lagging behind, such as high-mix low-volume production sites, sites that handle objects of many different shapes, and sites that have to accommodate for properties like flexibility and friction. The integration of many elemental technologies, such as AI-driven force and tactile recognition systems, polymer-based soft hands, and polymeric material sensors for obtaining multidimensional data, has led to significant achievements in the development of CPS.

The research areas covered by the Center are very broad. In addition to field robots that work in places where it is difficult for humans to work, such as underwater and in the air, the Center also conducts research on the following: biological robotics that uses biological signals and motor function measurements in fields such as medicine, nursing, and welfare; production robotics that uses image processing, sensor technology, and handling technology at actual production sites; intelligent robotics; interactive robotics; and robot mechanisms and devices. Director Hirai introduced a few specific examples of the research and development the Center is engaged in with its partners in the real world.

The adoption of automation systems has been a common challenge for industries that handle soft materials, such as food processing, and this is the focus of Associate Professor Zhongkui Wang’s (Department of Robotics, College of Science and Engineering) research. This joint research project was initiated in response to a problem faced by a food processing company in their fried oyster production process, namely, that it is difficult for a robot hand to grasp the battered oysters, and the only way to place them on a tray is to rely on human labor. By taking an ingenious approach to materials and design, Associate Professor Wang’s lab has developed an unprecedented type of soft robotic hand. Using a camera and AI to recognize and locate the fried oyster fries, they were able to successfully automate the process of grabbing soft, irregularly shaped, semi-frozen fried oysters of varying quantities and transporting them to a tray. This project was also adopted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries as a demonstration project that will introduce the technology to the rest of the food industry to improve labor productivity.

Working on the development of soft hands, Director Hirai also conducts research on food manipulation systems and fruit and vegetable selection systems. In addition, he is developing sensors and sensor algorithms using soft materials such as conductive fabrics, conductive thread, and elastomers.

Associate Professor Atsushi Kakogawa (Department of Robotics, College of Science and Engineering) is involved in the development of field robots that work in places where it is impossible for humans to work. Most recently, he is working with companies and local governments on a project to develop robots to inspect buried pipes for infrastructure such as sewage systems. This project has earned a stellar reputation for its unique technological developments, such as AIRo, a multilink-articulated wheeled in-pipe inspection robot that moves in a zigzag pattern and can pass through complicated bends and T-branches in pipes, and Xbot, an in-pipe inspection robot with an emergency escape mechanism in case the entire power system is lost.

Professor Kazuhiro Shimonomura (Department of Robotics, College of Science and Engineering) focuses on sensing and intelligence technologies for robots, with an emphasis on visual and tactile sensors. He conducts research on a technology that uses a camera to acquire tactile information as an image. He has developed a technology that continuously captures and senses a wide area with a camera while an object rolls along a roller-shaped sensor surface, and he is applying this to a technology for detecting hard foreign objects in soft foods, such as shrimp shells, fish bones, and bone fragments in minced meat.

Two roller-type sensors sense both sides of the shrimp at the same time. They not only ascertain the shape but also surface texture information that can be used for tactile recognition.

“By securing stable research funding, the Center can help young researchers in particular to accumulate a track record of achievements by improving the research environment for them," explains Director Hirai. Establishing a foundation for cultivating promising researchers seems to be the main goal of the startup company.

The Center is also committed to the education of students, and various initiatives are being undertaken on a laboratory-by-laboratory basis. One such example is the annual contest held in Director Hirai's laboratory to see who can best manipulate a robot hand. Under the topic of food manipulation, which is one of the main research areas of the laboratory, students are challenged each year with a specific task, such as pouring wine or topping a bowl of rice with salmon roe. It is a learning environment where students can hone their conceptual abilities and apply the knowledge and skills they have acquired while actually tackling problems. The top place finishers are given a chance to present their work at an international conference, so the contest also functions to motivate students to learn and pursue research. Recently, Director Hirai says the Center has been encouraging students to participate in contests held off campus.

In recent years, the Center has been focusing on strengthening its ability to disseminate information. In addition to participating in robotics exhibitions and other events to provide information to the industrial world, the Center is also deepening exchanges with researchers in academia by sending its members to international conferences and inviting foreign researchers to its own lectures and symposia. As the Center increases its points of contact, it hopes to create more and varied opportunities for collaboration, including joint research. “People from outside the university are often surprised by the range of activities we are involved in. We would like to disseminate information more thoroughly than ever before,” says Center Director Hirai.

The Center is also actively pursuing collaboration with domestic and international research institutions. In September 2024, the Ritsumeikan University Research Organization of Science and Technology concluded a cooperation agreement with Kyoto Prefecture’s Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Technology Center. Collaborations with research institutions in the agriculture, forestry, and fisheries industries are expected to lead to new developments in robot technology applications for the agricultural sector.

“When it comes to university research, there has been a strong impression that it is driven by seeds, but I believe it is equally important to balance this with research that responds to needs." We would like to be a research center where companies can freely consult with us about their problems and issues, so we can work together to solve them," says Director Hirai. By achieving technological breakthroughs and supporting business activities while remaining a leader in advanced robotics technology, the evolution of the Robotics Research Center shows no signs of slowing down.