Papers
31
Total Citations
569
H-Index
13
About
Koji Kawasaki is a pioneering robotics researcher whose work spans aerial robotics, transformable multirotor systems, and musculoskeletal humanoids. He has made landmark contributions to the field of aerial manipulation, most notably through his development of transformable multilink multirotor platforms that enable robots to reshape their entire body structure mid-flight — eliminating the need for separate robotic arms. His 2017 and 2018 papers on whole-body aerial manipulation (92 and 59 citations, respectively) demonstrated that multilinked aerial robots could perform complex manipulation tasks through intelligent morphological transformation, a concept that has significantly influenced subsequent UAV design. Kawasaki also pioneered multi-field locomotion with the MUWA vehicle (62 citations), a quad-copter capable of operating across land, sea, and air environments. His work on tilt-angle flight and wall-trace locomotion further expanded the operational envelope of aerial platforms. Beyond aerial systems, Kawasaki has contributed substantially to tendon-driven musculoskeletal robotics, developing sensor-integrated muscle modules and learning-based control frameworks — including a Musculoskeletal AutoEncoder — that address the fundamental modeling challenges inherent in biomimetic humanoid robots. Collectively, his research portfolio reflects a rare breadth of innovation across dynamic, adaptive robotic systems.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
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