Background

• First contact: RoManSy 5 (1984), Udine, Italy.
  Between Paolo Dario, Atsuo Takanishi and Ichiro Kato, co-founder of the WABOT project at Waseda University at the end of 70’s.

• Agreement between Waseda University (Advanced Research Centre for Science and Engineering) and SSSA (ARTS Lab) for a joint ‘Humanoid Project’, signed in 1995;

• Course ‘Bio-robotics’ by Prof. Paolo Dario, as Visiting Professor at  Waseda University, in 1995;

• Visit of Dr. Eugenio Guglielmelli at Waseda University as Visiting Researcher in 1996; Joint project ‘Friendly Robotics Network’, in 1996-1997

• Course ‘Bio-Robotics’ by Prof. Takanishi, as Visiting Professor at the SSSA, in 1999;

• Organization of HURO ’96 and HURO ’99 conferences at Waseda University, with joint participation in the Programme committees

• One-year post-doc JSPS Fellowship of Dr. Cecilia Laschi at the Humanoid Robotics Institute of  Waseda University as Visiting Researcher, in 2001-2002.

• November 2001: new agreement Waseda-SSSA, signed by Prof. Takayasu Okushima, and Prof. Riccardo Varaldo

• November 2001: agreement HRI-ARTS for collaborative research programme in the field of Humanoid Robotics, signed by Prof. Shuji Hashimoto and Prof. Paolo Dario

• November 2001: Italy-Japan 2001 Workshop: HUMANOIDS: A Techno-Ontological Approach