Asitha Lakruwan Kulasekera

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Lecturer at University of Moratuwa

Alarm fatigue in intensive care units (ICUs) is a substantial risk to patient safety because excessive and frequently false alerts desensitize caregivers, delaying essential responses. This study conducts a systematic assessment of the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to combat alarm fatigue, examining literature publishe...

The complexity and heterogeneity of critical illnesses in intensive care units (ICUs) pose substantial challenges to providing personalized care. This study examines the application of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) models, such as deep generative models (DGMs), large language models (LLMs), and reinforcement learning algorithms, to fac...

This poster addresses the critical issue of alarm fatigue in intensive care units (ICUs), where excessive false or clinically insignificant alarms desensitize caregivers, leading to delayed responses and compromised patient safety. It highlights the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to transform alarm management systems. A systema...

Soft robotic grippers are emerging as a promising solution for handling complex objects, offering enhanced flexibility in handling various tasks with a single gripper. This study presents a novel soft gripper which uses PneuNet based hybrid actuation to improve the grasping success in scenarios involving multi-shape object handling. The proposed ac...

Soft robotics is a subfield of robotics that concerns the design, control, and fabrication of robots composed of compliant materials, instead of rigid links [1]. Using softer materials similar to those found in living organisms, researchers have developed a variety of actuators that are lightweight, fast acting, and compliant. Soft actuators are tr...

Tremors are a common movement disorder that affects a person’s life adversely. With various drawbacks of current treatment methods, there is a need for a mechanical solution. The authors present a soft orthosis based on layer jamming for the suppression of hand tremors. A vacuum supplied to the layer jamming elements which contain a stack of layers...

Fixturing is one of the key subprocesses used in many industries such as aerospace, automobile and marine engineering. Most existing fixturing systems use pin-type end effectors which apply concentrated loads (See Fig. 1. (Left)) on objects resulting in geometrical distortions [1]. Granular jamming is a novel fixturing technique used in the field o...

Most contemporary soft actuators tend to have a large cross-sectional area that prevents easy integration in wearable devices. The need is to have actuators capable of being mounted in a small amount of space, conforming to human body contours with minimal obstruction that can deliver adequate force to move the human body. Hence, in developing assi...

Stroke, spinal cord injuries, or aging can lead to muscle weakness that can make a person’s life sedentary, either temporarily or permanently. Such persons need to be motivated to break their sedentary postures and attempt independent motion. A key motivator in this aspect is the ability to easily transition from seated to standing posture. If this...

The following paper presents a multi-parameter model for layer jamming mechanisms and its' validation with the experimental data. The proposed analytical model for the layer jamming mechanism can predict the mechanical behavior and helps in improving the controllability of the desired application. Contemporary models are not experimentally validate...

robotics is a novel disruptive technology that is revolutionizing the fields of robotics. Innovative use of compliant materials by researchers has elevated soft robotics over contemporary technologies. The Computational Sensing and Smart Machines (CSSM) laboratory of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Moratuwa, has been taking...

Here we present the conceptual design, initial test findings and a discussion of a soft orthosis for the suppression of hand tremors. The concept of a soft wearable device was brought forward to provide a method to suppress hand tremors in patients by avoiding the drawbacks of contemporary rigid orthotic devices. Patients with hand tremors face hug...

The following paper presents the concept of an earthworm like soft robot for pipe crawling for the inspection of tubes and its design, development, and fabrication process. The soft robot was designed to help in preventing accidents in the industry caused due to faulty pipelines as conventional robots are unable to move through pipes efficiently. T...

Tremors are the involuntary oscillations of a body part which occur due to diseases such as Parkinson’s Disease (PD), Essential tremor (ET) or stroke, which disturbs the activities of daily living (ADL). This paper presents an evaluation of hand tremor frequency among patients in Sri Lanka using a soft glove embedded with inertial measuring units (...

The following paper presents the concept of a layer jamming based soft glove for hand tremor suppression, its implementation, validation of the soft glove for hand tremor suppression and evaluation of the effect of layer jamming actuator placement. Wearable tremor suppression devices can avoid the side effects which occur due to available medical t...

Soft robotics is a major disruptive technology that is rapidly revolutionizing the world of robotics. As the design optimization of these soft robotic structures are still in its infancy, their designers have to resort to prototype testing. This paper describes how a novel casting method based on a 2D layered approach and thermal programming of pne...

This paper presents the development and human interaction evaluation of a Bowden cable based wearable fingertip tactile display. This device is designed to be used in the field of virtual reality and teleoperation to render different types of tactile sensations such as grip force, slipping, roughness and softness through delivering normal force, sk...

This paper presents a novel intelligent Automated Hospital Ward Management System (AHWMS) based on a mobile robotic platform named WDBOT for a hospital ward. The need of an automated system including an assisting robot for performing activities in the hospital system is great importance for doctors, nurses, patients and other healthcare assistants...

This paper is focused on proposing an enhanced controller for a hybrid drive mechanism in an Electrically Power Assisted Cycle (EPAC) to improve the battery energy utilization while maintaining the rider’s physical comfort. A real time data acquisition system was set up on a conventional bicycle using sensors and interfacing modules to verify the o...

Modern aerospace industries are continuously seeking novel technological solutions to survive in a highly volatile marketplace. The aerospace industry faces a number of difficulties such as minimizing cost, meeting challenging deadlines while maintaining safety. Currently, large volume, fixed position, dedicated supporting structures are used by th...

Conventional robot manipulators have singularities in their workspaces and constrained spatial movements. Flexible and soft robots provide a unique solution to overcome this limitation. Flexible robot arms have biologically inspired characteristics as flexible limbs and redundant degrees of freedom. From these special characteristics, flexible mani...

The paper focuses on proposing a dual layered, multi agent based control system for distributed control of a microgrid aimed at intentional islanding. The architecture consists of two layers; primary layer and secondary layer. The primary layer includes a User agent, a Distributed Generator (DG) agent and a Control agent. The secondary layer consis...

This paper presents the design and simulation of a quantum tunneling composite (QTC) based tactile sensor array for use in pressure distribution measurement. QTC exhibits a rapid reduction in resistance with applied force making it suited for use in force sensing applications. Properties of QTC are exploited to design a tactile sensor array capable...

This paper presents the design and simulation of a quantum tunneling composite (QTC) based tactile sensor structure for gripping force measurement. The design presents a tactile sensing element capable 1-DOF force sensing in the z-direction. QTC is a novel electrically conductive elastomeric matrix-nanostructured nickel powder composite. QTC has ex...

This paper proposes a novel dual layered multi agent system (MAS) control architecture for distributed control of a microgrid. The proposed MAS controller provides islanding capabilities to a microgrid during disturbances in the main utility grid. During islanded operation, the MAS is able to maintain the supply to the most critical local loads. If...

Microgrid is a small scale power system consisting of distributed small power facilities such as solar power, wind power and micro-turbines. The microgrid has been researched and encouraged actively in many countries, because of some merits such as an eco-friendly system, good quality power supply and energy security. Microgrid power generation sat...

The application of Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) in electrical power systems are becoming popular due to their inherent benefits such as increased autonomy, reactivity, proactivity and social ability. This paper reviews current research on the application of multi-agent systems in microgrid schemes. The paper is mainly focused on recent developments of...