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About

Masahiko Morita is a robotics and human-computer interaction researcher whose work sits at the intersection of telepresence technology, educational innovation, and machine learning. He is best known for his pioneering contributions to child-operated telepresence robot systems, developed as part of the JST PRESTO project "Linking children across the world through telerobotics" (2009–2013). This initiative explored how remotely controlled robots could enrich cross-cultural and cross-linguistic classroom experiences, connecting students between countries such as Australia and Japan in ways that surpass conventional video conferencing. His most influential paper on this topic has accumulated 72 citations, with a follow-up field trial study garnering an additional 44. A particularly notable aspect of his work is the design of intuitive, tricycle-style control interfaces that allow young children to operate telepresence robots without specialized training, making the technology genuinely accessible to its intended users. Beyond educational robotics, Morita has also investigated reinforcement learning in continuous and noisy state-action spaces, applying selective desensitization neural networks to improve the robustness of Q-learning algorithms in real-world conditions. His research reflects a consistent commitment to making advanced technology both practically usable and meaningfully impactful for everyday human contexts.