Yutaka Yokomine

About

Yutaka Yokomine is a robotics researcher whose work centers on assistive technologies for individuals with physical disabilities, particularly the development and control of lower-limb power-assist exoskeletons. His research addresses a critical gap in rehabilitation engineering: the recognition that physically weak individuals often experience simultaneous deterioration of both motor and sensory capabilities. To meet this dual challenge, Yokomine pioneered the concept of "perception-assist," an innovative framework that augments not only a user's physical movement but also their environmental awareness, thereby reducing fall risk during everyday activities such as sitting, standing, and walking. His most cited work (2015, 13 citations) introduced perception-assist for sitting motion, while subsequent research demonstrated practical applications for stroke survivors, proposing novel control methods to estimate movement intention in paralyzed limbs — a particularly difficult technical challenge. Earlier foundational work on foot trajectory control further refined the perception-assist paradigm. Collectively, Yokomine's contributions have helped shape a more holistic design philosophy in wearable robotics, one that treats human-robot interaction as encompassing both physical and perceptual support, offering meaningful quality-of-life improvements for aging populations and neurological rehabilitation patients alike.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Perception-Assist with a Lower-Limb Power-Assist Robot for Sitting Motion

   13 citations · 2015
2. 2
   Walking assist for a stroke survivor with a power-assist exoskeleton

   7 citations · 2014
3. 3
   Control of Foot Trajectory in Perception-Assist with a Power-Assist Robot

   2 citations · 2013

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links