Founders
Lotfi El Hafi(LEH)
President & Founder, PhD
lotfi@coarobo.com
Lotfi El Hafi is the President & Founder of Coarobo GK, where he is now fully dedicated to growing the company. 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 served as a Research Associate Professor from 2023 to 2026. 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 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 the 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.
[Last updated: 2026]
Gustavo Garcia(TAV)
Vice President & Founder, PhD
tavo@coarobo.com
Gustavo Garcia is a Vice President & Founder of Coarobo GK. He concurrently serves as Chief Executive Officer of G-ROBO KK and as a Specially Appointed Associate Professor at The University of Osaka, Japan. From 2021 to 2026, he was a Research Associate Professor at Ritsumeikan University and a Research Advisor for Robotics Competitions at the Robotics Hub of Panasonic Corporation. He received his MEng and PhD degrees from the Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST), Japan, in 2013 and 2016, respectively, 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 1st Place in the Airbus Shopfloor Challenge (2016), Finalist in the Amazon Robotics Challenge (2017), 2nd Place in the regional OpenCV AI Competition (2021), and multiple 1st Places in the WRS Future Convenience Store Challenge (2018-2025). His research interests include human-safe, efficient robot control, human-robot interaction, manipulation, and task planning.
[Last updated: 2026]
Felix von Drigalski(FVD)
Vice President & Founder, PhD
felix@coarobo.com
Felix von Drigalski is a Vice President & Founder of Coarobo GK. He is concurrently the Global CTO of Mujin, where he leads research and development, platform architecture, and innovation strategy from the company's Tokyo headquarters. He joined Mujin in 2021 as a System Engineer, was promoted to Lead Product Engineer in 2022, and assumed the Global CTO role in 2025. Prior to Mujin, he was a Senior Researcher at OMRON SINIC X Corporation in Tokyo from 2018 to 2021, and concurrently a Visiting Researcher at the Emergent Systems Laboratory of Ritsumeikan University in 2021. He 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, in 2013, and his PhD in Computer Science from the Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST), Japan, in 2018. His research interests include robotic manipulation, tactile sensing, and automated assembly. He is a former maintainer of the open-source motion planning software MoveIt.
[Last updated: 2026]
Staff
Sebastian Carrera(SCR)
Research & Development Engineer
sebastian@coarobo.comSebastian Carrera is a Research & Development Engineer at Coarobo GK. He 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 contributed to the development of a scalable cloud-based robotics simulation platform during prior 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: 2026]
Clément Perissé(CPS)
Research & Development Intern
clement@coarobo.com
Clément Perissé is a Research & Development Intern at Coarobo GK. He is also an engineering student at Supmicrotech (École nationale supérieure de mécanique et des microtechniques) in France, specializing in robotics and mechatronic systems. He completed his first internship at the University of Toulon, France, where he worked on an unsupervised machine learning algorithm (K-means++) for AI applications. In 2025, he worked as a research intern at Tokyo Denki University, contributing to the development of a robotic drawing arm integrated with AI. During his studies, he has developed several robotics projects, including a robotic head, a self-balancing robot, and a Cubli 1D robot. He has also participated in the French National Robotics Cup.
[Last updated: 2026]
Partners
Shigeru Yoneda(YND)
Tax Advisor
info@athis.jp
Shigeru Yoneda serves as the Tax Advisor for Coarobo GK. He is the founder and director of Yoneda Accounting Office, established in 2003 in Seika, Kyoto, Japan. As a licensed tax accountant, he provides tax filing, tax consultation, and tax audit support, along with a broad range of consulting services such as business planning, cash flow management, subsidy advice, corporate establishment guidance, insurance based risk management, management seminars, negotiations with financial institutions, sales channel referrals, and IPO support. Serving clients ranging from individuals to large corporations, he upholds a field first and customer first philosophy.
[Last updated: 2026]
Alumni
Yu Ishikawa(YUI)
Research Advisor, PhD
info@coarobo.comYu Ishikawa formerly served as a Research Advisor to Coarobo GK. She 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 served as an Assistant Professor at the Center for Data Science Education and Research of Shiga University from 2018 to 2023, and is currently a Lecturer at the Faculty of Data Science of Kyoto Women's 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: 2026]
Luis Yoichi Morales(MSY)
Research Advisor, PhD
info@coarobo.comLuis Yoichi Morales formerly served as a Research Advisor to Coarobo GK. He 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 AI, United States, 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: 2026]
Pedro Uriguen(PUE)
Research Advisor, PhD
info@coarobo.com
Pedro Uriguen formerly served as a Research Advisor to Coarobo GK. He 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. He served as a Senior Researcher at Ritsumeikan University from 2021 to 2024, and as a Program-Specific Researcher at Kyoto University from 2024 to 2025. He is currently a Specially Appointed Assistant Professor at The University of Osaka, Japan. His research interests include robot control, service robotics, task planning, robotic manipulation, and robotics competitions.
[Last updated: 2026]
Yuri Shukoor Hayama(YSH)
Operating Officer
info@coarobo.comYuri Shukoor Hayama formerly served as the Operating Officer of Coarobo GK. She 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: 2026]