Makoto Hattori

Denso (Japan), Robotics Research (United States)

Papers

Total Citations

H-Index

About

Makoto Hattori is a pioneering roboticist whose work bridges the gap between disaster response and precision industrial automation. His primary research areas include mobile robotics for hazardous environments, sensorless torque estimation, and dual-arm construction automation. Hattori’s most notable contribution is the development of “SWAN” (2002), a transformable crawler robot designed for nuclear disaster prevention support, which remains a foundational reference in the field of remote-controlled disaster robotics with 17 citations. He also advanced manufacturing by creating a screw-tightening robot that estimates tightening torque in real time using motor current—eliminating the need for expensive torque sensors (12 citations). This work demonstrated how to achieve high precision with low-cost hardware, a principle now widely adopted in industrial automation. More recently, Hattori has tackled the construction labor shortage with a dual-arm robot (2023) capable of autonomously fixing structural parts to concrete in narrow environments, a challenging task that had previously resisted automation. His career reflects a consistent focus on solving real-world, high-stakes problems—from nuclear safety to construction efficiency—making him a key figure in applied robotics.