Michihiro Shimada

About

Michihiro Shimada is a pioneering researcher in human-robot interaction, with a particular focus on android robotics, social robots, and the psychological dimensions of human-machine communication. His foundational 2004 work on developing android robots (158 citations) laid the groundwork for using humanlike machines as scientific instruments to probe the mechanics of natural human interaction. Shimada has made substantial contributions to understanding the "uncanny valley" phenomenon — the unsettling response humans experience toward near-human robots — exploring its underlying mechanisms through gaze behavior analysis and unconscious recognition studies, work that collectively attracted nearly 200 citations. His research on eye contact and human likeness assessment helped establish rigorous methodologies for evaluating android expressiveness. Beyond android science, Shimada extended his expertise into educational settings, demonstrating through classroom studies that social robots like Robovie could meaningfully support children's collaborative learning, research that earned over 120 citations across multiple publications. His development of frameworks enabling easier programming of robot communicative behaviors further reflects a commitment to making social robotics practically accessible. Across more than a decade of scholarship, Shimada has helped define how robots can be designed to interact naturally, authentically, and beneficially with humans.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Development of an Android Robot for Studying Human-Robot Interaction

   158 citations · 2004
2. 2
   Children learning with a social robot

   92 citations · 2012
3. 3
   Assessing Human Likeness by Eye Contact in an Android Testbed

   81 citations · 2005
4. 4
   Spatial Formation Model for Initiating Conversation

   75 citations · 2011
5. 5
   Evaluating the human likeness of an android by comparing gaze behaviors elicited by the android and a person

   57 citations · 2006
6. 6
   Evaluation of Android Using Unconscious Recognition

   41 citations · 2006
7. 7
   How Can a Social Robot Facilitate Children’s Collaboration?

   32 citations · 2012
8. 8
   Effects of Observing Eye Contact between a Robot and Another Person

   29 citations · 2010
9. 9
   Uncanny Valley of Androids and Its Lateral Inhibition Hypothesis

   26 citations · 2007
10. 10
    Easy development of communicative behaviors in social robots

    16 citations · 2010

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links