Hong-Wei Xu
許汯洧

2. Understanding of Ishiguro Laboratory and This Opportunity

I understand Ishiguro Laboratory not simply as a robotics laboratory, but as a research platform that investigates the future relationship between humans, robots, avatars, and society. Its work on humanoid robots, androids, avatars, social robots, multimodal interaction, generative AI, and large language models reflects a deeper research question: how intelligent machines can extend human presence, communication, social participation, and the understanding of what it means to be human.

From the laboratory introduction materials, Ishiguro Laboratory emphasizes advanced humanoid and android platforms, AI computing resources, international research collaboration, ATR-related research bases, and projects such as the Moonshot initiative for an Avatar-Symbiotic Society. The lab's recent direction also highlights multimodal integration, generative AI, large language models, social relationship modeling, embodiment, and intelligence. These topics are highly aligned with the future of human-centered robotics and AI.

For me, this opportunity is not only an overseas visit, but a research-oriented training experience that connects AI, humanoid robotics, human-robot interaction, healthcare assistance, and long-term international collaboration. The Moonshot project led by Prof. Hiroshi Ishiguro aims to realize an Avatar-Symbiotic Society where people can participate in social activities through cybernetic avatars beyond the limitations of time and space. This vision strongly connects with my interest in applying AI and robotics to healthcare, public safety, education, and social inclusion.

3. Motivation, Fit, and Expected Outcomes

My past research has focused on building deployable AI systems from sensing to implementation, including RGB-T multimodal sensing, thermal imaging calibration, embedded AI, public-health screening, biomedical detection, smart agriculture, and mobile robotic platforms. My previous proposal materials also position my research path around AI, computer vision, multimodal sensing, embedded systems, and robotic system integration. Therefore, I believe I am suitable for this opportunity because I can contribute a practical and research-driven perspective on how robots perceive humans and environments through multimodal sensing and edge intelligence.

My main motivation is to extend my previous work from perception-oriented AI systems toward more advanced human-robot interaction, social robotics, and embodied AI. In Ishiguro Laboratory, I hope to study how humanoid robots, androids, avatars, MLLMs, and VLA-related models can be integrated with real-world sensing systems. In return, I hope to contribute my experience in RGB-T perception, thermal calibration, multi-object tracking, embedded deployment, and health-related anomaly detection to possible research topics in healthcare-assistive robots, public-safety robots, and avatar-based remote interaction.

I also hope this opportunity can become a concrete starting point for my doctoral research. Possible outcomes include submissions to top-tier robotics or AI conferences such as IROS, ICRA, RSS, HRI, or AAAI, Q1 journal papers, patent applications, and system prototypes. In particular, the research direction may focus on multimodal robot perception, health-aware social robotics, RGB-T sensing for humanoid or service robots, and generative AI-based robot decision support.

After establishing a stronger research connection with Ishiguro Laboratory, I would also consider applying for the NSTC Graduate Student Study Abroad Program, commonly known as the Chien-Li-Ma Program, to further extend this opportunity into a longer-term international research collaboration. This would allow me to transform the initial exchange into sustained doctoral research, joint publications, patent development, and a stronger research bridge between NYCU BASIC Lab and Ishiguro Laboratory.