Takuro Furumoto
Papers
2
Total Citations
22
H-Index
2
About
Takuro Furumoto is a pioneering roboticist whose work is redefining the very concept of actuation, moving beyond traditional tethered or onboard power sources to create truly mid-air robots. His primary research areas lie at the intersection of acoustics, robotics, and contactless manipulation, with a specific focus on using airborne ultrasound phased arrays as a distributed power and control system. Furumoto’s major contribution is the demonstration that lightweight objects—from spherical balloons to cubic structures—can be precisely levitated, positioned, and rotated in three-dimensional space without any onboard batteries, motors, or wires. His seminal 2018 paper, "Three-Dimensional Manipulation of a Spherical Object Using Ultrasound Plane Waves," established a foundational framework for this concept, showing how sparsely arranged transducer arrays could steer a "robot" through a workspace. This work, cited 18 times, was a critical proof-of-concept. He then advanced the field in 2020 with "Rotation and Position Control of a Cubic Object Using Airborne Ultrasound," which tackled the more complex challenge of controlling an object's orientation—a vital step toward functional, untethered micro-robots. Furumoto’s vision of an environment-powered robot is a radical departure from convention, promising transformative applications in sterile manufacturing, hazardous material handling, and even medical procedures where physical contact is undesirable.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
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