Mizuho Shibata

About

Mizuho Shibata is a versatile robotics researcher whose work spans soft robotics, robotic assembly, underwater systems, and robotics education. Perhaps most notably, Shibata has made significant contributions to tensegrity robotics, developing rolling tensegrity structures driven by pneumatic soft actuators — a landmark 2012 paper that has garnered 117 citations and demonstrated how elastic-rigid hybrid structures can enable compliant, adaptive locomotion. Building on this foundation, subsequent work on active shaping through pre-pressure further refined control strategies for these novel robots. Shibata's research extends meaningfully into industrial automation, including a widely cited 2020 paper (82 citations) establishing benchmarking protocols for small-parts robotic assembly, and contributions to Japan's World Robot Summit, which sought to accelerate real-world robotics deployment. Earlier work on single-armed fabric-handling robots and biped impact-force reduction reflects a longstanding interest in practical, human-environment robotics. Underwater robotics represents another dimension of Shibata's portfolio, with innovative work on inspection systems using mechanical contact and fish-like robots with flexible plastic film bodies. Rounding out this broad profile, Shibata has also contributed to robotics education through comparative curriculum studies, demonstrating a commitment to advancing both the discipline's research frontiers and its pedagogical foundations.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Rolling tensegrity driven by pneumatic soft actuators

   117 citations · 2012
2. 2
   Benchmarking Protocols for Evaluating Small Parts Robotic Assembly Systems

   82 citations · 2020
3. 3
   Assembly Challenge: a robot competition of the Industrial Robotics Category, World Robot Summit – summary of the pre-competition in 2018

   69 citations · 2019
4. 4
   Handling of hemmed fabrics by a single-armed robot

   33 citations · 2008
5. 5
   Development of an Underwater Robotic Inspection System using Mechanical Contact

   26 citations · 2013
6. 6
   Active shaping of a tensegrity robot via pre-pressure

   20 citations · 2013
7. 7
   Fabrication of a fish-like underwater robot with flexible plastic film body

   19 citations · 2014
8. 8
   Comparative Study of Robotics Curricula

   17 citations · 2020
9. 9
   MOVING STRATEGY OF TENSEGRITY ROBOTS WITH SEMIREGULAR POLYHEDRAL BODY

   17 citations · 2010
10. 10
    Impact force reduction for biped robot based on decoupling COG control scheme

    17 citations · 2000

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links