Moving intelligence
Autonomous mobility
How pedestrians and passengers understand and respond to vehicle intent.
Vishal Chauhan
Doctoral Candidate
Tsukada Laboratory Department of Creative Informatics
The University of Tokyo
Designing interactions for autonomous vehicles, robots, and the smart cities they move through — so humans and machines share space better, with Human Intelligence(HI) in the lead.
- Human–Computer Interaction (HCI)
- Robotics
- Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Smart Cities & Urban Mobility
About
I'm an HCI researcher studying how humans interact with autonomous vehicles, robots, and intelligent systems — and how these systems can communicate back more clearly. My doctoral work at The University of Tokyo centers on the Smart Pole Interaction Unit (SPIU), an infrastructure-based eHMI I designed to make communication between pedestrians, autonomous vehicles, and robots safer and more intuitive in the spaces they share. I build with AI, but I design for Human Intelligence — the judgment, context, and care that machines don't have.
Along the way, I've been lucky to work alongside inspiring researchers and labs in Japan, Singapore, Canada, Norway, and beyond — collaborations that continue to shape how I think about future cities and the ways humans and machines share them.
Before my PhD, I completed my Master at The University of Tokyo and my Bachelor split between Vel Tech University (India) and Nanyang Technological University (Singapore). I also contribute to Tier IV's open-source autonomous driving platform, working with their engineering team.
Now — exploring human–AV interaction · open to faculty conversations from late 2026 · 16 countries down, with a dream to reach all 195.
Watch the crossing — that loop is my thesis. And hover the underlined words: the sketch listens. Dark mode turns it into Tokyo at night.
Recent
News.
- Aug–Sep 2026 Will deliver a talk titled “Who Goes First? Reducing Pedestrian Decision-Making Burden with Infrastructure-Side eHMI in Shared Spaces” at the CIV Summer School 2026 in Miyazaki, Japan.
- Apr 2026 Two papers at CHI 2026 in Barcelona — both received Honourable Mention Awards 🏆.
- Mar 2026 New paper accepted at HCII 2026: Colored Shared Spaces.
- Nov 2025 Presented VRST 2025 in Montréal: cross-cultural VR evaluation of SPIU.
Research agenda
Human intelligence for an autonomous world.
I design how people understand, trust, and collaborate with autonomous vehicles, robots, and connected urban environments—using emerging technologies to create safer and more meaningful everyday interactions.
Research signal
How can people read a vehicle’s intent?
01 / Mobility
Move along the signal path · tap or use the arrow keys
Embodied intelligence
Human–robot interaction
How robots communicate, navigate, and cooperate with people in everyday environments.
Urban intelligence
Intelligent urban environments
How interactive infrastructure coordinates people and machines across future cities.
Emerging technologies The shared research foundation
AI / LLM & VLM
VR / XR prototyping
Human studies
Real-world deployment
Across cultures
People · machines · environments
Human judgment in the lead
Service
Peer review.
- Conference IROS, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.
- Journal IJHCS, International Journal of Human–Computer Studies.
Teaching & mentoring
Teaching & mentoring.
IST Research Assistant · Creative Evolution Project
Curating events and promotional videos for IST School's Creative Evolution Project; designing activities as a volunteer to foster inclusivity; running research-talk sessions among students.
M-BIC Mobility Business Innovation Contest
Team lead for an interdisciplinary student team competing on a mobility business challenge.
Contact
Get in touch.
vishal@tsukada-lab:~$ whoami
- name
- Vishal Chauhan
-
vishalchauhan (at) g.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp
vishalchauhan (at) outlook.sg - lab
-
Tsukada Laboratory · 4F, I-REF, Bldg. ,
Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo
1-1-1, Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8657 Japan - tokyo
- --:-- JST · 35.7128° N, 139.7626° E
- open to
- Feel free to reach out — always happy to chat about a potential collaboration.
- find me
- Google Scholar · ORCID · ResearchGate · GitHub · LinkedIn