For students, researchers, and engineers who are interested in learning more
What You Gain from the Team’s Background
The Embodied AI Research Team is composed of researchers whose core expertise spans robotics, deep learning, simulation, and computer vision. While united by these foundational technologies, our team members come from a wide range of professional and academic backgrounds.
Our team includes researchers who hold joint university appointments and pursue research driven by academic interests, as well as engineers with extensive research and development experience in large corporations and startup companies. This diversity of backgrounds fosters a rich and dynamic research environment.
Our research activities are equally broad in scope. We engage in research that ranges from publishing in top-tier international conferences and journals to conducting technology demonstrations in collaboration with industry partners, as well as pursuing patenting and real-world deployment. Through these efforts, we place strong emphasis on creating value from both academic and industrial perspectives.
By participating in the activities of our team, individuals can gain insight into their own strengths, interests, and aptitudes as researchers and engineers. With a clearer understanding of their professional orientation, they are better positioned to envision and pursue their next career steps—whether in national research institutes, university faculty positions, research and engineering roles in startups or large enterprises, or even entrepreneurial ventures.
Skills You Will Develop
Through a wide range of research activities, team members gain hands-on experience in controlling robotic arms and mobile manipulators using the Robot Operating System (ROS) together with visual, tactile, and auditory sensors. Deep learning models are developed and deployed using tools such as Python, PyTorch, and Isaac Sim/Lab, while large-scale model training is supported by cloud-based computing resources, including AIST’s ABCI infrastructure. In some projects, custom hardware such as end effectors is also designed and built in-house.
Through these research efforts, members acquire practical skills in designing effective learning models and hardware, developing efficient training methodologies using simulators and real-world environment models, training large-scale models, and validating learned models on real robotic systems.
Research in AI and robotics is highly competitive on a global scale. To stay at the forefront of the field, we regularly conduct surveys of papers and technologies presented at top-tier international conferences. In addition, when students and early-career researchers in the team prepare research papers, we provide close support in idea generation and academic writing, helping them strengthen their ability to publish at leading international conferences and journals.
Skills and Qualities Needed for Research
Research in our team requires a combination of technical expertise spanning robotics, deep learning, simulation, and human understanding. While it is rare for individuals to possess comprehensive expertise across all these areas, as described in “Skills You Will Develop,” we believe that by cultivating these abilities through team activities, researchers can grow into professionals who thrive in future society.
Ideally, prospective members have research experience in at least one of the aforementioned fields, along with achievements such as conference presentations or journal publications. We also value strong foundations in mathematics and physics, including the modeling of physical phenomena, problem formulation through objective functions and multi-objective optimization, probabilistic modeling, and the underlying knowledge of probability and statistics that supports these approaches.
However, technical breadth alone does not define successful research. Individuals who enjoy implementation and engineering often leverage these strengths to generate impactful research outcomes. Likewise, engineers with a practical mindset frequently produce simple yet powerful ideas. Many research contributions that achieve significant impact at academic conferences or are successfully deployed in industry are based on simple approaches grounded in fundamental principles. Such simplicity is often more readily recognized by researchers who are not constrained by established assumptions and bring fresh perspectives to their work.
For this reason, our team is structured to allow early-career researchers to actively engage with and take ownership of core research challenges.
Growth occurs at different paces for different individuals. If this description resonates with you, we encourage you not to overthink the requirements and to feel free to contact our team.
Professional Mindset
To achieve research outcomes at the level of top-tier international conferences or to realize impactful and practical research and development, a strong sense of speed is essential. This includes the ability to rapidly refine ideas, translate them into concrete implementations, and carry them through to validation. Equally important is the motivation to enjoy this pace while continuously striving to improve one’s own capabilities.
Research does not always proceed smoothly. While team members provide mentorship and support, maintaining one’s own mental well-being is also crucial. We view the mind and body as deeply interconnected. Taking care of one’s health—through proper nutrition, regular physical activity, engaging in hobbies, social interaction, and making time to relax when needed—is an important part of sustaining productive research.
How to Join Master’s and Doctoral Students
Students enrolled in master’s or doctoral programs may apply through the AIST Research Assistant (RA) Program.
For details on the AIST RA Program, please visit the following page:
AIST Research Assistant Program (information page)
Please note that the eligibility conditions differ between the master’s and doctoral programs.
Early-Career Researchers with a Ph.D.
For early-career researchers who have already obtained a doctoral degree, we offer opportunities through postdoctoral positions and full-time research appointments.
Please refer to the following pages for detailed information:
Full-time Research Positions:
AIST Research Staff Recruitment Information
Postdoctoral Positions:
AIST Fixed-Term Staff Recruitment Information
Engineer-Oriented Applicants:
For applicants interested in engineering roles, technical staff positions are available.
For more details, please refer to:
AIST Fixed-Term Staff Recruitment Information
CV Formats (English Version)
Please use the following format when preparing your application materials: English CV Format (Word)
Contact Information
If you wish to discuss potential opportunities or have any questions, please contact us here.
For companies and organizations interested in partnering with us
Research Themes
Our team aims to create pathways for addressing new societal challenges and to deliver positive impact by society through collaborative research. This includes the applied development and practical deployment of our core technologies and datasets, joint demonstration experiments leveraging both parties’ experimental and data collection environments, and the co-creation of intellectual property related to applied technologies.
In addition to these activities, we also welcome discussions that go beyond predefined frameworks—for example, exploring ambitious and unconventional research ideas, dispatching researchers to promote mutual exchange, or learning from our research methodologies and expertise.
For specific research keywords and recent work, please refer to the PUBLICATIONS and RESEARCH sections.
PUBLICATIONS and RESEARCH sections.
There is often a gap between research and development. Bridging this gap requires careful alignment and shared understanding between both parties from the early stages of research theme formulation.
If you are interested in our team’s expertise, technologies, and research environment but have not yet identified a concrete research theme, we encourage you to consider a consulting-based engagement. Through this process, we work closely with your organization to understand your vision and collaboratively explore ideal forms of collaboration and concrete strategies for creating societal value.
We would be pleased if our expertise can contribute to your initiatives. Please feel free to contact us for an initial discussion.