The Advanced Intelligence & Robotics (AIBot) Research Center at Tamagawa University is dedicated to advancing human-centered robotics and AI through interdisciplinary collaboration. This special issue highlights key research initiatives across several domains, including human-robot collaboration, cognitive robotics, and human assistive systems. The Robotics Research Division explores symbol emergence for natural communication and applies virtual reality (VR) technologies to model human-robot-environment interactions, aiming to optimize cognitive feedback and user experience. The Brain-Inspired AI Division investigates methods to enhance psychological well-being and self-efficacy using VR-based feedback in assistive contexts. The Tamagawa Robot Challenge Project links university-level research with primary and secondary education by leveraging robotics competitions and practical learning tools. Together, these efforts showcase the commitment of the center to foster next-generation robotics that supports the physical, cognitive, and emotional aspects of human life. This issue brings together selected studies that reflect the ongoing contribution of the center to the international research community.

1. [1] T. Taniguchi, T. Nagai, T. Nakamura, N. Iwahashi, T. Ogata, and H. Asoh, “Symbol emergence in robotics: A survey,” Advanced Robotics, Vol.30, Nos.11-12, pp. 706-728, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1080/01691864.2016.1164622
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3. [3] T. Inamura and Y. Mizuchi, “SIGVerse: A cloud-based VR platform for research on multimodal human-robot interaction,” Frontiers in Robotics and AI, Vol.8, Article No.549360, 2021. https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2021.549360
4. [4] F. Yang, W. Yin, T. Inamura, M. Bjorkman, and C. Peters, “Group behavior recognition using attention- and graph-based neural networks,” 24th European Conf. on Artificial Intelligence, pp. 1626-1633, 2020. https://doi.org/10.3233/FAIA200273
5. [5] Y. Mizuchi, Y. Tanno, and T. Inamura, “Designing evaluation metrics for quality of human-robot interaction in guiding human behavior,” Proc. of the 11th Int. Conf. on Human-Agent Interaction, pp. 39-45, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1145/3623809.3623835
6. [6] T. Inamura, H. Yamada, K. Morinaga, N. Yamanobe, R. Hanai, and Y. Domae, “Development and evaluation of a human-robot collaborative training system for retail stores using virtual reality and digital twin technologies,” J. Robot. Mechatron., Vol.37, No.2, pp. 478-487, 2025. https://doi.org/10.20965/jrm.2025.p0478
7. [7] T. Inamura, Y. Mizuchi, and H. Yamada, “VR platform enabling crowdsourcing of embodied HRI experiments – Case study of online robot competition,” Advanced Robotics, Vol.35, No.11, pp. 697-703, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1080/01691864.2021.1928551
8. [8] A. Sciutti, M. Beetz, T. Inamura, A. Korsah, J. Oh, G. Sandini, S. Shimoda, and D. Vernon, “The present and the future of cognitive robotics [tc spotlight],” IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine, Vol.30, No.3, pp. 160-163, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1109/MRA.2023.3293303
9. [9] H. Okada, T. Inamura, and K. Wada, “What competitions were conducted in the service categories of the world robot summit?,” Advanced Robotics, Vol.33, No.17, pp. 900-910, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1080/01691864.2019.1663608
10. [10] L. Contreras, T. Yamamoto, Y. Matsusaka, and H. Okada, “Towards general purpose service robots: World robot summit – Partner robot challenge,” Advanced Robotics, Vol.36, Nos.17-18, pp. 812-824, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1080/01691864.2022.2109428