Naoki Yokoyama

Naoki Yokoyama

Japan

Naoki Yokoyama is a PhD student in Robotics at Georgia Tech, advised by Professors Dhruv Batra and Sehoon Ha. His research focuses on developing intelligent robot assistants that can perceive and interact with their environment to accomplish complex tasks in the real world. He combines large-scale simulation for robust skill learning with foundation models pre-trained on internet data for semantic reasoning. His work has thus far involved sim-to-real transfer of models trained for robotic mobile manipulation and semantic navigation. He has had the opportunity to intern at leading AI research labs including Apple, Boston Dynamics AI Institute, Amazon Alexa AI, and Meta AI. His research has been recognized with awards including the ICRA Best Paper Award in Cognitive Robotics and the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Fellowship. He is passionate about creating robotic technologies that can meaningfully improve people's independence and quality of life.