Keiji Nagatani

Tohoku University, Tohoku University Hospital

Papers

Total Citations

133

H-Index

About

Keiji Nagatani is a prominent robotics researcher whose work centers on mobile robot navigation, localization, and terrain adaptability — particularly in challenging, unstructured environments. His research has made substantial contributions to the fields of search and rescue robotics and planetary rover technology, with a consistent focus on solving one of field robotics' most persistent challenges: slip-induced navigational error. Nagatani's most influential work addresses how crawler and tracked vehicles can accurately estimate and compensate for slippage when traversing rough terrain. His 2008 paper on vision-based slip angle estimation (53 citations) introduced innovative methods to detect drift in real time, improving both localization accuracy and vehicle safety. Complementing this, his 2007 study on odometry improvement for crawler vehicles (41 citations) tackled the mechanical reality that tracked systems inherently slip during curved maneuvers, proposing practical corrections that enhanced navigation reliability. His concurrent work on continuous 3D environment mapping (39 citations) further demonstrated how robust situational awareness could be maintained despite odometric uncertainty. Together, these contributions have meaningfully advanced autonomous robot deployment in disaster response and planetary exploration scenarios, establishing Nagatani as a key figure in ruggedized mobile robotics research.