The name

CLAVIR derives from the Latin clavis, meaning key. Beyond its literal meaning, clavis has long symbolized both the key to understanding and the ability to control complex systems.

We believe contact is the key variable of embodied intelligence. While vision provides observations of the world, contact reveals its underlying physical properties—force, compliance, friction, deformation, and constraints. These interactions determine how intelligent agents understand and manipulate the physical world.

Our research seeks to establish Contact Intelligence as a fundamental scientific layer connecting perception, reasoning, and action.