Team Members

Lotfi El Hafi(LEH)

President & Founder, PhD

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Lotfi El Hafi, PhD, is a Research Associate Professor at Ritsumeikan University, Japan. He received his MScEng in Mechatronics from the Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), Belgium, in 2013, and his PhD in Engineering from the Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST), Japan, in 2017, as a MEXT Scholar. He joined Ritsumeikan University as a Senior Researcher in 2017, became a Research Assistant Professor in 2019, and has served as a Research Associate Professor since 2023. His research interests include service robotics, artificial intelligence, and system integration, with a focus on multimodal interaction in extended reality. His work has earned several research awards, including the Best of IET and IBC 2016-2017, as well as the Best Paper Award at IEEE/SICE SII 2023, IEEE IRC 2024, and from RSJ Advanced Robotics (2025). He has also won numerous robotics competition prizes, including the 1st Place in the Airbus Shopfloor Challenge at IEEE ICRA 2016, the Finalist Prize in the Amazon Robotics Challenge 2017, and multiple 1st Place finishes in the WRS Future Convenience Store Challenge since 2018, including one at IEEE/RSJ IROS 2022. These achievements led to his appointment as a Specially Appointed Researcher of HSR Community by Toyota Motor Corporation from 2020 to 2022, and as a Research Advisor for Robotics Competitions at the Robotics Hub of Panasonic Corporation since 2019. He is an active member of RSJ and IEEE, and the President & Founder of Coarobo GK.

[Last updated: 2025]

Gustavo Garcia(TAV)

Vice President & Founder, PhD

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Gustavo Garcia received his MEng and PhD degrees from the Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST), Japan, in 2013 and 2016, respectively. He is currently an Associate Professor at the Emergent Systems Laboratory of Ritsumeikan University, Japan. He also serves as a Research Advisor for Robotics Competitions at the Robotics Hub of Panasonic Corporation and previously held a position as Assistant Professor in the Robotics Laboratory of the Division of Information Science at NAIST. He leads numerous research projects and teams in international robotics competitions, with achievements including First Place in the Airbus Shopfloor Challenge (2016), Finalist in the Amazon Robotics Challenge (2017), Second Place in the regional OpenCV AI Competition (2021), and multiple First Places in the WRS Future Convenience Store Challenge (2018-2022). His research interests include human-safe, efficient robot control, human-robot interaction, manipulation, and task planning.

[Last updated: 2025]

Felix von Drigalski(FVD)

Vice President & Founder, PhD

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Felix von Drigalski received his dual MSc from the Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT), Germany, in collaboration with the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon (INSA Lyon), France, and his PhD in Computer Science at the Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST), Japan, in 2013 and 2018, respectively. He is now a Senior Researcher at OMRON SINIC X Corporation, neighboring the University of Tokyo, where he leads numerous research projects and teams in international robotics competitions. His research interests include robotic manipulation, tactile sensing, and automated assembly. He is also a maintainer of the open-source motion planning software MoveIt.

[Last updated: 2019]

Sebastian Carrera(SCR)

Research & Development Engineer

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Sebastian Carrera is a software engineer with extensive hands-on experience, having started his programming career as a freelancer at the age of 18. He has developed business systems such as production and sales management tools, and more recently, contributed to the development of a scalable cloud-based robotics simulation platform during research internships at Mirai Innovation Research Institute and Coarobo GK in Japan. His interests span robotics, artificial intelligence, data science, and brain-machine interfaces.

[Last updated: 2025]

Yu Ishikawa(YUI)

Research Advisor, PhD

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Yu Ishikawa received her MSc and PhD degrees from the Nara Women's University (NWU), Japan, in 2014 and 2017, respectively, where she was a Postdoctoral Researcher for the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) until 2018. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the Center for Data Science Education and Research of Shiga University, Japan, where she collaborates with the industry to introduce engineers to the most recent techniques in the field of data science. Her principal research interests are data mining analysis and brain-machine interface technology.

[Last updated: 2021]

Luis Yoichi Morales(MSY)

Research Advisor, PhD

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Luis Yoichi Morales received his MEng and PhD degrees in robotics in 2006 and 2009, respectively, from the Intelligent Robot Laboratory of the University of Tsukuba, Japan, where he was a Postdoctoral Researcher until 2009. He is currently a Senior Researcher at Standard Cognition, United State, as well as a Cooperative Research Scientist for the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute (ATR), Japan, and a Designated Associate Professor at Nagoya University, Japan, since 2009 and 2016, respectively. His research interests include autonomous navigation, spatial cognition, human-computer interaction, and environment modeling. He is also a member of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) and the Robotics Society of Japan (RSJ).

[Last updated: 2021]

Pedro Uriguen(PUE)

Research Advisor, PhD

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Pedro Uriguen received his MEng and PhD degrees in 2018 and 2020, respectively, from the Robotics Laboratory of the Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST), Japan. His doctoral thesis focused on task planning and robotic manipulation in daily-life environments. Currently, he serves as a Senior Researcher at the Emergence Systems Laboratory of Ritsumeikan University. His research interests include robot control, service robotics, task planning, robotic manipulation, and robotics competitions.

[Last updated: 2021]

Shigeru Yoneda(YND)

Tax Advisor

JapanJapanese

Shigeru Yoneda is a dedicated professional in business taxation and consulting in Japan. He has expertise in tax compliance, advisory services, audit support, business planning, financial management, corporate establishment, and sales expansion. He prioritizes a customer-first approach to achieve mutual profitability.

[Last updated: 2023]

Yuri Shukoor Hayama(YSH)

Operating Officer

JapanJapaneseEnglish

Yuri Shukoor Hayama is a former employee of a securities firm and an international manufacturer, where she was in charge of brand public relations. She has five years of experience in bilingual Japanese-English environments, with strengths in marketing, communication, and cross-cultural exchange. Her work at Samsonite Japan included launching the company's first TV commercial, which led to a 220% year-on-year sales increase within two months. She also secured extensive media coverage, including The Nikkei and over 40 domestic magazines, contributing to significant public attention within Japan. She has been recognized for her strategic advertising, sponsorships, media and celebrity relations, and maintains strong ties with the Japanese fashion and media industries.

[Last updated: 2025]