GIVE
Member of Executive Meeting

KOBAYASHI Etsuko

01
・Special Assistant to the Dean, School of Engineering
・Professor, Department of Precision Engineering 

Research Summary

I conduct research on minimally invasive surgical support and daily living assistance systems using mechatronics technologies. In particular, my work focuses on surgical support robots, medical image analysis, and the mechanical modeling of soft tissues. By estimating tissue deformation and state from endoscopic images, I develop technologies that enable safe, high-precision surgical assistance and automation, while aiming for the social implementation of next-generation medical systems that integrate AI and robotics.

Laboratory Website

https://www.bmpe.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/

Biography

2000-2002 Research Associate, The University of Tokyo, School of Frontier Science
2002-2006 Lecturer, The University of Tokyo, School of Frontier Science
2006-2018 Associate Professor, The University of Tokyo, School of Engineering
2018-2020 Associate Professor, Tokyo Women’s Medical University, Institute of Advanced Biomedical Engineering and Science
2020-present Professor, The University of Tokyo, School of Frontier Science

Major Awards

  • ICRA-RAMI Best Poster Award (2024)
  • IPCAI ImFusion Machine Learning for CAI Award: Runner-up (2023)
  • Japan Society of Computer Aided Surgery Paper Award (2020, 2015, 2009, 2002)
  • Japan Society of Computer Aided Surgery CAS Young Investigator Award (Hitachi Medico Award), Silver Prize (2009)
  • German Innovation Award (Gottfried Wagner Prize 2008), 3rd Prize (2009)
  • Good Design Award, Japan Institute of Design Promotion (2002)
  • The Japan Society of Medical and Biological Engineering: Science News Award, Research Encouragement Award, Sakamoto Research Publication Grant Award, and Abe Award (2001)

Selected Publications

  • Takumi Matsumoto, Kazuaki Hara, Jack Grossman, Kodai Shiuchi, Ryutaro Takeda, Song Ho Chang, Qi An, Sakae Tanaka, Ichiro Sakuma, Etsuko Kobayashi, Validation of an Intraoperative Plantar Pressure System in Anesthetized Patients, Foot and Ankle Surgery, 2025
  • Qingchuan Ma; Etsuko Kobayashi; Kazuaki Hara; Junchen Wang; Ken Masamune; Hideyuki Suenaga, Surgeon Supervised Autonomous Surgical System for Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, vol.22, 2025
  • Jiahe Chen, Etsuko Kobayashi, Ichiro Sakuma, Naoki Tomii, SurgEM: A Vision-based Surgery Environment Modeling Framework for Constructing a Digital Twin towards Autonomous Soft Tissue Manipulation, The IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol9, no11, 9789- 9796 2024
  • Kenzo Yamamoto, Kazuaki Hara, Etsuko Kobayashi, Yuki Akagi, Ichiro Sakuma, Tissue damage force estimation in porcine small intestine from its elasticity,　International Journal of Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery, vol.18, pp.587-594, 2023
  • Etsuko. Kobayashi, Shuto. Tsuchiya, Yuki Akagi, Naoki Tomii, Keiichi Nakagawa, Kunihiro Inai, Yoshihiro Muragaki, Tatsuhide. Asano, Daeyoung Kim, A novel reaction force‐fluorescence measurement system for evaluating pancreatic juice leakage from an excised swine pancreas during distal pancreatectomy, Journal of Hepato Biliary-Pancreatic Sciences, vol.27, issue11, pp.877-886, 2020