Satoru Satake

About

Satoru Satake is a pioneering researcher in human-robot interaction (HRI), specializing in social robotics, autonomous robot behavior, and the design of robots capable of operating in real-world public environments. His work has fundamentally advanced how robots initiate and sustain meaningful interactions with people in dynamic, everyday settings such as shopping malls and science museums. Satake's most influential contribution, "How to Approach Humans?" (2009, 300 citations), introduced a groundbreaking model for robot approach behavior, enabling robots to naturally initiate conversation with pedestrians—a deceptively complex challenge requiring sensitivity to human awareness and movement. This line of inquiry extended into modeling side-by-side walking, admonishing behaviors, and flyer distribution, collectively forming a rich framework for socially intelligent robot motion. His 2019 work on a proactive museum guide robot (86 citations) demonstrated how robots can independently identify visitors, track their gaze, and deliver contextually relevant explanations. Beyond individual robots, Satake has tackled the coordination of networked multi-robot systems deployed in real commercial spaces, addressing practical engineering and interaction challenges rarely examined in laboratory settings. His interaction design framework (57 citations) further democratized social robotics development for cross-disciplinary teams. With hundreds of citations across a decade of field-tested research, Satake's work stands as essential reading for anyone studying robots that genuinely serve and engage human communities.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   How to approach humans?

   300 citations · 2009
2. 2
   Human-Like Guide Robot that Proactively Explains Exhibits

   86 citations · 2019
3. 3
   Field trial of networked social robots in a shopping mall

   77 citations · 2009
4. 4
   A Robot that Approaches Pedestrians

   66 citations · 2012
5. 5
   How do people walk side-by-side?

   65 citations · 2012
6. 6
   How to Approach Humans?-Strategies for Social Robots to Initiate Interaction-

   61 citations · 2010
7. 7
   An Interaction Design Framework for Social Robots

   57 citations · 2011
8. 8
   A Robot that Distributes Flyers to Pedestrians in a Shopping Mall

   51 citations · 2017
9. 9
   Field trial of an information-providing robot in a shopping mall

   48 citations · 2015
10. 10
    Stop Doing it! Approaching Strategy for a Robot to Admonish Pedestrians

    45 citations · 2019

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links