Professor Daisuke Chugo of the School of Engineering received the CLAWAR Association Best Technical Paper Award - 2nd Prize for his paper at the 27th issue of the International Conference Series on Climbing and Walking Robots and the Support Technologies (CLAWAR2024) held in Kaiserslautern, Germany, from September 4 to September 6, 2024. The authors of the three best papers out of the 80 papers presented at the conference receive prizes, and Prof. Chugo's paper was highly evaluated for its scholarship, practicality, and applicability, which resulted in him winning 2nd Prize.

The title of the paper authored by Prof. Chugo and his team, entitled “Development of Gait Rehabilitation Robot to Promote Voluntary Movements for Normal Walking," proposed a robot that can safely and effectively rehabilitate post-stroke hemiplegic patients for normal gait training. The research is characterized by the fusion of ergonomics and mechanical engineering to design a robot that realizes more effective rehabilitation by analyzing human movements in which a large number of muscles move in coordination. A wide range of researchers specializing in mechanical and control engineering, information engineering, nursing science, and service engineering from many universities participated in this research.

Commenting on the award, Prof. Chugo said, "Our laboratory is conducting research to better understand humans, in which many muscles move in coordination, and to apply this knowledge to robots that assist people in their daily lives. In order to conduct this kind of research, it is important not only for us, experts in the field of engineering, but also for physical therapists, patients who understand our research, and everyone in the field to cooperate with us. We are very happy to receive this award, which we believe is an encouragement to everyone who participated in this project. We will continue to work on the development of gentle technology that is close to people."