Masayoshi Kanoh

About

Masayoshi Kanoh is a pioneering researcher in social and assistive robotics, with a particular focus on emotional expression in robots, human-robot interaction, and the application of robotic systems in healthcare and education. His work has garnered over 300 citations, reflecting its broad influence across robotics, gerontology, and educational technology. Kanoh is perhaps best known for his development of the "Ifbot" robot, an emotionally expressive communication robot capable of conveying nuanced facial expressions mapped to a defined emotional space — work that attracted over 90 citations across two foundational 2005 papers. His Robot-Assisted Activity (RAA) program for elderly care facilities, cited 73 times, demonstrated practical pathways for deploying social robots in therapeutic settings. He also created "Babyloid," a deliberately limited care robot designed to provide emotional comfort to elderly individuals with dementia, exploring how vulnerability in robots can foster genuine human attachment. In educational contexts, Kanoh has advanced models of emotional expression and sympathy in learning-support robots, examining how robots can sustain student engagement and promote collaborative learning. His interdisciplinary approach — bridging affective computing, cognitive science, and robotics engineering — makes his body of work essential reading for anyone exploring the frontier of socially intelligent machines.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Examination of Practicability of Communication Robot-Assisted Activity Program for Elderly People

   73 citations · 2011
2. 2
   EMOTIVE FACIAL EXPRESSIONS OF SENSITIVITY COMMUNICATION ROBOT "IFBOT"

   53 citations · 2005
3. 3
   Facial expressions using emotional space in sensitivity communication robot "Ifbot"

   41 citations · 2005
4. 4
   An Emotional Expression Model for Educational-Support Robots

   35 citations · 2015
5. 5
   A Model for Generating Facial Expressions Using Virtual Emotion Based on Simple Recurrent Network

   24 citations · 2010
6. 6
   Effects of a Novel Sympathy-Expression Method on Collaborative Learning Among Junior High School Students and Robots

   21 citations · 2018
7. 7
   Developing a Robot Babyloid That Cannot Do Anything

   19 citations · 2011
8. 8
   Research Trends on Educational－ support Robots

   14 citations · 2014
9. 9
   Subjective evaluation of use of Babyloid for doll therapy

   14 citations · 2012
10. 10
    Effect of collaborative learning with robot that prompts constructive interaction

    14 citations · 2014

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links