＜Summary＞

• Robotics researcher with 15+ years of experience, specializing in deep learning for robotics and real-world problem solving.

• Currently leading research and development of Vision Language Models (VLMs), covering model design, training, evaluation, and application.

＜Highlights＞

• Lead R&D of VLMs: design, training, evaluation, and application

• Develop deep learning methods for real-world robot manipulation

• Award-winning research at top-tier conferences/journals (e.g., ICRA; Advanced Robotics)

• Inventor on multiple US/JP patents (see the Patents section for details)

＜Core Competencies＞

• Deep Learning for Robotics

• Multi-modal Learning and Sensor Fusion

• Reinforcement Learning

• Computer Vision

• Vision Language Model (VLM)

＜Research & Development Focus＞

• Contact-rich Manipulation: manipulation involving physical contact; adaptive learning under uncertainty

• Multimodal Learning: sensor fusion centered on vision and tactile sensing

• Data-efficient Learning: learning with limited data ; synthetic data generation, etc.

• Flexible Object / Flexible Joint Dynamics: manipulation of deformable objects; motion generation for robots with flexible joints

• Robotics × Language: design, training, evaluation, and application of models integrating vision and language

• Vision Language Model (VLM): Robust models for VQA, visual grounding, task analysis, and anomaly detection.

＜Awards＞

• 2024 FA Foundation Paper Award (Co-author)

• 2024 Advanced Robotics Best Paper Award (Co-author)

• 2019 FA Foundation Paper Award (First author)

• 2019 Advanced Robotics Best Paper Award (First author)

• 2019 RSJ2019 Young Investigation Excellence Award (First author)

• 2019 ICRA2019 Best Paper Award finalist (First author)

• 2018 ICRA2018 Best Paper Award on HRI (Equal contribution first author)

• 2016 SI2016 Award (Co-author)

• 2016 IPSJ2016 Student Encouragement Award (Co-author)

• 2016 IPSJ2016 Conference Encouragement Award (Co-author)

• 2011 SI2011 Award (Presenter)

＜Career＞

• Preferred Networks, Inc.

  • Engineering Manager (20th January 2025 - Current)

  • Researcher (1st April 2017 - Current)

  • Secondment; Preferred Elements, Inc.  (20th January 2025 - 30th June 2025)

• Ristumeika University

  • Visiting Researcher (1st November 2021 - 31st March 2024)

• Waseda University

  • Adjunct Researcher (1st December 2017 - Current)

• Institute for Cognitive Systems (Prof. Gordon Cheng), Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany

  • Visiting researcher (February 2017 - March 2017)

  • Visiting researcher (February 2015 - March 2016) 

• IBM Research, Tokyo

  • Internship (4th July 2016 - 29th July 2016)

• Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

  • Research Fellow DC2 (April 2015 - March 2017)

• Waseda University

  • Graduate Program for Embodiment Informatics (February 2014 - March 2017) 

  • Research Assistant (RA) (September 2013 - April 2014)

  • Research assistant in the brain circulation Abroad Program (April 2013 - July 2013)

  • Teaching Assistant（TA） (April 2011 - March 2012)

＜Education＞

• April 2013 - March 2017

  • Doctor of Engineering, Department of Modern Mechanical Engineering, Graduate School of Creative Science and Engineering, Waseda University

  • Ph.D. thesis: “Acquisition and Extension of the Robot Body Model Using Motor Babbling through Deep Learning” [PDF]

    • • Supervisor: Prof. Shigeki Sugano 

      • Co-adviser: Prof. Tetsuya Ogata (Waseda University, Japan)

      • Co-adviser: Prof. Gordon Cheng (Technical University of Munich, Germany)

• April 2011 - March 2013

  • Master of Engineering, Department of Modern Mechanical Engineering, Graduate School of Creative Science and Engineering, Waseda University

• April 2007 - March 2011

  • Bachelor of Engineering, Department of Modern Mechanical Engineering, School of Creative Science and Engineering, Waseda University

＜International Experience＞

• February 2015 -  March 2016， February 2017 - March 2017 (Totally 369 days)

  • Institute for Cognitive Systems (Prof. Gordon Cheng), Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany; Visiting researcher

• August 2014 - September 2014

  • University of California, Davis (U.C.Davis); Language School

Copyright @ Kuniyuki Takahashi All Rights Reserved.