His research interests include human-symbiotic anthropomorphic robot design, dexterous and safe manipulator design, and human-robot communication. He received the Technical Innovation Award from the Robotics Society Japan for the development of the Waseda Piano-Playing Robot: WABOT-2 in 1991. He received the JSME Medal for Outstanding Paper from the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers in 2000, the JSME Fellow Award in 2006, and the IEEE Fellow Award in 2007. He also received IEEE RAS Distinguished Service Award in 2008, the RSJ Fellow Award in 2008, and the SICE Fellow Award in 2011.He received RSJ Distinguished Service Award in 2012.