○ International Award

Mr. Ryota AOYANAGI
He received his B.Eng. degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Meiji University, Kanagawa,
Japan in 2024. He is currently pursuing his M.Eng. degree in Electrical Engineering at the same
university. His research interests include collision avoidance and cooperative control for quadrotor UAVs.

Assoc. Prof. Tatsuya IBUKI
He received his B.Eng., M.Eng., and Ph.D.Eng. degrees from Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan
in 2008, 2010, and 2013, respectively. He was a JSPS Research Fellow from 2012 to 2013, an Assistant Professor with Tokyo Institute of Technology from 2013 to 2020, a Visiting Scholar with Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA in 2019, and a Senior Assistant Professor with Meiji University, Kanagawa from 2020 to 2024, where he has been an Associate Professor with the Department of Electronics and Bioinformatics since 2024. He received the SICE International Young Authors Award in 2021, the 13th SICE Control Division Conference Award in 2019, and so on. His research interests include cooperative control of robotic networks, fusion of control theory and machine learning, and vision-based estimation and control.

受賞論文「Adaptive Cruise Control of Quadrotor UAVs Considering a Following Vehicle Based on Distributed Quadratic Programming」
This paper proposes a distributed adaptive cruise control(ACC) method for quadrotor UAVs that considers both preceding and following quadrotors. The method employs an optimal control approach based on a quadratic programming (QP) problem with a collision avoidance constraint formulated through a parameter-adaptive control barrier function (PACBF). Unlike conventional automotive ACC methods,which consider only the preceding vehicle, the proposed method accounts for the following quadrotor in addition to the preceding one. This allows the preceding quadrotor to accelerate to avoid a collision. Using PACBFs for collision avoidance constraints and considering both preceding and following quadrotors improve the feasibility of the QP problem. In addition, distributed control is realized by solving the optimization problem locally on each quadrotor. The proposed method is applied to ACC in linear quadrotor platooning, and its effectiveness is demonstrated through simulation.

Prof. Hiroyuki NAKAMOT
He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. from Kobe University, Japan, in 1997, 1999, and 2009, respectively.
From 1999 to 2011, he was with the Hyogo Prefectural Institute of Technology , wherehewasa Researcher and became a Chief Researcher in 2008. From 2011 to 2016, he was with the Graduate School of System Informatics, Kobe University, as an Assistant Professor. From 2016 to 2025, he was with the same institution as an Associate Professor, where he is currently a Professor. From 2017 to 2018, he was with the Laboratory of Vibration and Acoustics,INSA-Lyon, France, as a Guest Researcher. His current
research interests include tactile sensors, human perception,and their practical applications.

Mr. Takahiro AOKI
He received his B.E. and M.E. inSystem Inf ormatics f rom Kobe University, Japan, in 2023 and 2025,
respectively. He is currently with KOEI TECMO GAMES Co., Ltd. His research interests include human perception and measurement engineering.

受賞論文「A Method for Determining the Causal Relationship etween Food Texture and Physical Features in Mastication」

Food texture is a key factor influencing palatability. This study proposes a method to identify causal relationships between instrumental measurements and sensory evaluations of food texture. Twelve food samples, classified into three groups, and ten texture descriptors were examined to characterize texture changes during mastication. A measurement system consisting of a force sensor, an accelerometer, and a microphone was used to record data over twelve compression cycles. In parallel, sensory evaluation data were obtained across twelve chewing cycles using the temporary dominance of sensations method. Causal relationships between features extracted from the measurement data and texture descriptors from sensory evaluations were assessed using the Granger causality test with a vector autoregression model. Most identified causal relationships were found to be reasonable based on our understanding of texture perception and sensory attributes.

○ Young Author’s Award

Mr. Goku SAWADA
He received his B.E. degree in Electrical, Information and Physics Engineering from Tohoku University,
Japan, in 2024.Currently, He is pursuing an M.S.in Electrical Engineering at Tohoku University, Japan.
His research focuses on the control principles underlying various locomotion patterns of quadrupeds.

受賞論文「A Simple Head-Trunk-Limb Coordination Control Capable of Three Types of Quadruped Galloping」
Gallop is the fastest gait employed by quadruped animals,ith variations in flight timing which haracterize periods when all limbs are off the ground. For example, horses take off with their forelimbs, deer with their hindlimbs, and cheetahs utilize both forelimbs and hindlimbs for takeoff. While previous studies have investigated gallop dynamics with various flight timings using analytical or optimization approaches, the underlying control mechanisms that determine these flight timings remain insufficiently explored. In this study, we aimed to understand the control mechanism underlying galloping gaits. We hypothesized that variations in head and trunk movements are responsible for the variations in flight timing during gallop. Using a quadruped model featuring head-trunklimb coordination control, our simulation successfully replicated the three types of galloping. Our results suggest that the strength of head and trunk actuation serves as a determinant for flight timing variations in gallop gait.