Satoshi Okabayashi
Papers
16
Total Citations
180
H-Index
8
About
Satoshi Okabayashi is a robotics researcher whose work spans two compelling domains: bio-inspired robotic systems for animal behavioral studies and autonomous mobile robots for environmental monitoring. He is perhaps best known for his pioneering development of the WR (Waseda Rat) series of rat-like robots, designed to investigate social interactions between robots and live rats. His most cited work (40 citations) demonstrated that a robotic rat could meaningfully modulate rat behavior by simulating stressful, friendly, or neutral interactions, opening new frontiers in ethology and psychopharmacology. Building on this, Okabayashi extended his research to multi-rat interaction scenarios and proposed a novel robotic approach to developing animal models of depression — a significant contribution to preclinical drug testing methodologies. His hardware innovations, including the hybrid wheel-legged WR-3 platform, reflect a deep understanding of biomechanical principles drawn from careful motion analysis of real rats. Beyond animal-robot interaction, Okabayashi has contributed to practical robotics engineering, addressing locomotion challenges on rough terrain and developing robust autonomous systems for long-term environmental monitoring. With a body of work accumulating over 160 citations, his research uniquely bridges biomimetics, behavioral neuroscience, and field robotics.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Modulation of rat behaviour by using a rat-like robot40 citations · 2013
- 2Behavior modulation of rats to a robotic rat in multi-rat interaction31 citations · 2015
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- 6A rat-like robot for interacting with real rats11 citations · 2013
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