Papers
23
Total Citations
193
H-Index
8
About
Masayuki Okugawa is a robotics researcher whose work sits at the intersection of disaster response, infrastructure inspection, and mobile robot systems. His research has focused on developing and evaluating crawler-type robots capable of navigating challenging terrain, with a particular emphasis on compliant mechanisms that allow sub-crawlers to adapt dynamically to uneven surfaces — a contribution that has shaped thinking around ground-adaptive robot design and earned meaningful citation traction in the field. Okugawa has played a significant role in shaping competitive robotics frameworks for disaster scenarios, contributing to task development for Japan's Virtual Robotics Challenge and the World Robot Summit (WRS), a globally recognized robot Olympics. His involvement in the 2018 WRS Preliminary Competition, which attracted 28 citations, highlights his influence on standardizing evaluation benchmarks for disaster and plant inspection robots. His work on multi-robot systems for tunnel disasters and culvert pipe inspection reflects a broader commitment to applying disaster-response technologies to aging social infrastructure — a pressing real-world concern in Japan and beyond. With collaborations spanning academic institutions and emergency services, including cooperative exercises with the Toyota City Fire Department, Okugawa bridges theoretical robotics research and practical field deployment, making his work particularly valuable for researchers and engineers developing robots for high-stakes environments.
Research Focus
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Top Papers
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- 10Standard Rescue Tasks Based on the Japan Virtual Robotics Challenge6 citations · 2017