Kohei Honda 本田康平

Mobile Robotics Autonomous Driving Model Predictive Control Reinforcement Learning SLAM Visual Navigation

I develop planning and control methods for mobile intelligence — embodied agents that move and act reliably in the real world, from autonomous vehicles to humanoid robots. I am particularly interested in bridging model-based and learning-based approaches, combining the rigor of control theory with the adaptability of machine learning.

honda.kohei.k3[at]f.mail.nagoya-u.ac.jp ([at] → @)

Nagoya, Japan

News

May 2026 Selected as a Principal Investigator of the JST Moonshot R&D Goal 3 project "General-Purpose Autonomous Humanoids Growing through Multi-layered Instruction and Inheritance" (PM: Kento Kawaharazuka).
May 2026 "Distributed Multi-Vehicle Model Predictive Control with Polygon-aware Collision Avoidance in Constrained Environments" has been accepted to IEEE ITSC 2026.
Apr. 2026 New preprint "Reset-Free Reinforcement Learning for Real-World Agile Driving: An Empirical Study" is now available on arXiv.
Jan. 2026 Our tutorial and survey paper "Model Predictive Control via Probabilistic Inference" has been published in Annual Reviews in Control.

Career

Cross-appointed Research Scientist @Activity Understanding Team, CyberAgent AI Lab

Dec. 2024 - Present, Japan

Assistant Professor @Mobility System Group, Dept. Mechanical System Engineering, Nagoya University

Dec. 2024 - Present, Japan

Visiting Scholar @Mechanical Systems Control Lab, University of California, Berkeley

Mar. 2024 - Jul. 2024, USA

Research fellowship for the Overseas Challenge Program for Young Researchers (JSPS)

Research Fellow for Young Scientists (DC2), Japan Society for Promotion of Science

Apr. 2023 - Mar. 2024, Japan

Research fellowship and grant on Automatic Generation of MPCs for Autonomous Driving

Research Assistant @Nagoya University

Apr. 2021 - May. 2023, Japan

Joint research project with J-QuAD DYNAMICS, Inc.

Research Internship @OMRON SINIC X Corp.

Jul. 2022 - Mar. 2023, Japan

Research on an adaptive replanning strategy for autonomous mobile robots using Deep RL

Research Internship @Smart Mobility Research Team, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology

Jan. 2021 - Mar. 2021, Japan

Research on 3D LiDAR odometry estimation with trainable local geometric features

Part-time Software Engineer @MapIV, Inc.

Sept. 2019 - Apr. 2021, Japan

Develop a 3D mapping system and Implement autonomous driving vehicles using Autoware

Education

Ph.D. in Engineering, Nagoya University, Japan

2021 - 2024, Advisor: Prof. Tatsuya Suzuki, Dept. Mechanical System Engineering

M.S. in Engineering, Nagoya University, Japan

2019 - 2021, Advisor: Prof. Tatsuya Suzuki, Dept. Mechanical System Engineering

B.S. in Engineering (GPA: 3.75/4.0), Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan

2014 - 2019, Advisor: Prof. Yoshifumi Morita, Dept. Electrical and electronic engineering

Awards

計測自動制御学会 (SICE) システムインテグレーション部門若手奨励賞, Dec. 2024.
ロボティクス・メカトロニクス講演会2023 分野融合研究優秀表彰, May. 2024.
2023年度計測自動制御学会 (SICE) 学術奨励賞研究奨励賞, Mar. 2024.
IEEE Control Systems Society Japan Young Researcher Award, Mar. 2024.
第10回計測自動制御学会マルチシンポジウム制御部門マルチシンポジウム賞 (基礎分野), Mar. 2024.
第10回計測自動制御学会マルチシンポジウム制御部門奨励賞 (技術分野), Mar. 2024.
第12回企業と博士人材の交流会, 企業が選ぶ優秀な博士人材, 優秀賞 (122名中上位5名), Mar. 2023
IEEE Nagoya Section Excellent Student Award, Mar. 2021.
Tongali Business Plan Contest, Director General's Award for Promotion of Academic Research, 2019.
Nagoya Kogyoukai Award (Graduated B.S. with second honors), Mar. 2019.

Grants-in-Aid and Scholarship

JST Moonshot R&D Goal 3, "General-Purpose Autonomous Humanoids Growing through Multi-layered Instruction and Inheritance" (PM: Kento Kawaharazuka), Principal Investigator, Jul. 2026 - Nov. 2030
JSPS 研究活動スタート支援, 2025 - 2027
Tokai Pathways to Global Excellence (T-GEx), Apr. 2025 - Mar. 2030
JST ACT-X, Dec. 2024 - Mar. 2027
JSPS Overseas Challenge Program for Young Researchers, Apr. 2024 - Jul. 2024
JSPS Research Fellowship for Young Scientists (DC2), Apr. 2023 - Mar. 2025
Tateishi Science and Technology Foundation Research Grants (C), Apr. 2021 - Mar. 2024
Nagoya University Interdisciplinary Frontier Fellowship, Apr. 2021 - Mar. 2023 (Outstanding Fellow, 2022-2023)
Nagoya University DII Collaborative Graduate Program for Accelerating Innovation in Future Electronics Fellow, Apr. 2020-Aug. 2022

Patent

Control device for vehicle #US20230100017A1

Academic Activities

SICE中部支部, 庶務幹事, 2026 - Present
Associate Editor, Advanced Robotics, 2025 - Present
IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Nagoya Chapter, Secretary, 2025 - Present
第68回自動制御連合講演会, 実行委員, 2025
第31回ロボティクスシンポジア, プログラム委員, 2025

MISC

4th and 3rd place in the F1tenth autonomous vehicle competition at IEEE ICRA 2023 and IV 2023
「確率推論としての最適制御」SICE制御理論若手合宿 2024
「モデル予測経路積分制御 (MPPI) 入門」
「FlowMPPI解説」
「Model-based Diffusion解説」
Co-organizer of the F1tenth Japan competition at Nagoya University in 2024

Kohei Honda 本田 康平