It can be viewed on YouTube(Japanese).
https://youtube.com/live/ioSLYqZ5Wms?feature=share
The 21st Kisoi Motohiro Award Ceremony
On Saturday the 10th January 2026, International Rescue System Institute held the 21st Kisoi Motohiro Award Ceremony in Nagata-ku, Kobe, an area seriously damaged by the great Hanshin Awaji Earthquake 31 years before.
This year, the Kisoi Motohiro Award for Academic Achievement was awarded to Associate Professor Kono Hitoshi of Tokyo Denki University. The Kisoi Motohiro Award for Technical Achievement was awarded to Jun Fujita of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Ltd. and Ayaka Watanabe of Sanritz Automation Co., Ltd.
These awards recognize Associate Prof. Kono’s”Study on Semi-Autonomous Mobile Robot Control of Rescue Robot Using Transfer Reinforcement Learning,” Mr. Fujita’s “Research and Development of Firefighting Robots Applicable to Large-Scale Petroleum Complex Fires Enabling Unmanned Water Discharge Near the Fire Source,” and Ms. Watanabe’s “Development of Heat-Resistant Technologies to Adapt the Inspection and Monitoring Crawler Robot ARTHUR for Firefighting Use.”
(Mr. Fujita (Left) and Ms. Watanabe (Right) Given Award)
(From the Left: IRS Director Prof. Takamori, IRS President Prof. Tadokoro, Mr. Fujita, Ms. Watanabe, IRS Vice President Prof. Matsuno, and Emeritus Prof. Asama)
The recipients of the Kisoi Motohiro Awards for Academic Achievement and Technical Achievement each receive 100,000-yen prize money, a certificate and a commemorative trophy, and presented by the selection committee members.
The recipients of the awards for encouragement, which focus on the younger generation, are as follows. “Fornax” – Tsang Ho Wan, Lee Ho Ming, Keong Ka Ching, Hung Sin Hei received the Robocup Junior IRS award, Osaka Institute of Technology team “UP-RP”- Yusuke Nishimoto, Haruku Inoue, Aoi Tomita, Nazuna Numamoto, Akihiro Kinuta, and Ryuto Kumita received the Rescue Robot Contest Award, and Yusei Haraguchi of Osaka University received the Award for the Study of Robotics. After the award ceremony, the winners of Rescue Robot Contest and The Study of Robotics each gave a presentation about their research.
IEEE IROS 2025 Best Paper Award on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics in memory of Motohiro Kisoi was given to Reuben O Brien, Augus Lynch, and Minas Liarokapis of the University of Auckland, New Zealand. They received their award in October 2025 in Hangzhou, China and did not attend this ceremony in Japan.
Finally, the recipient of the Award for Technical Achievement Mr. Fujita and Ms. Watanabe gave talks on their fields of research.
(Recipients of the Award for Technical Achievement, Ms. Watanabe (Left) and Mr. Fujita (Right))
The ceremony closed with a warm applause for the highly acclaimed achievements in their respective fields.
(From the Left of the Back Row: Prof. Kinugasa of SICE Rescue Robotics Committee, Prof. Masutani of Rescue Robot Contest Executive Committee, IRS Vice President Prof. Matsuno, IRS President Prof. Tadokoro, IRS Director Prof. Takamori, Prof. Asama. The Middle Row: Member of UP-RP (Rescue Robot Contest Award). From the Left of the Front Row: Mr. Nishimoto (Rescue Robot Contest Award), Ms. Watanabe and Mr. Fujita (Kisoi Motohiro Award for Technical Achievement), Mr. Haraguchi (Award for the Study of Robotics), and Mr. Tokumitsu (RoboCup Junior IRS Award))