Kasumi Abeassociate professor

(university) degree

PhD (Engineering)

field of research

Human informatics (human interface, interaction)

Research Keywords

Child-Robot Interaction Internal state estimation (mental state/personality) Behavioural analysis (communication behaviour analysis) Childcare support system Intelligent robotics

Research

Our research focuses on the constructivist elucidation of interactions between children and robots, such as "how to get along with children", and the application of the results to communication support and childcare support systems. By linking different fields such as childcare and robotics and utilising technologies such as machine learning, we aim to solve social problems and improve wellbeing. As an example, we are developing various projects using ChiCaRo, a remote interactive robot for infants, to explore the possibilities of next-generation remote collaborative parenting suited to modern society.

research achievements

Possible graduation research topics

  • Development of a support system to improve relations between older people and children.
  • Interest estimation using machine learning based on infant behaviour during communication.
  • Remote childcare robot play selection system for daily developmental support.
  • A survey of social acceptability and expectations of robots and AI in pre-school childcare.
  • Analysing and modelling the interaction strategies of childcare workers.

Hobbies, skills and likes

Finding good food, karaoke, stretching, sweet food (but not too sweet), research

Message to candidates and students

Some of the students who participated in the projects I was involved with wanted to build robots that would be useful to others, others wanted to use their programming skills in practice, while others were unsure of what they wanted to do in the future, but the experience of helping others in the project stayed with them and, as a result, helped them to decide what they wanted to do in the future. I myself am a bit of a communicator. I myself am not very good at communication, but this has led me to a desire to learn more about it. I want to help people", "I enjoy programming and making things", "I want to know more about communication and people". If you have keywords that you share here, I am sure we can share growth and excitement together. Let's study together at our university, where you can learn the basics while also having the opportunity to work on applied research.