Bhagya Samarakoon

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Research Fellow at Singapore University of Technology and Design

The development of floor cleaning robots is an emerging area in robotics. Maximizing the area coverage is a foremost mission for a floor cleaning robot. Reconfigurable floor cleaning robots outperform floor cleaning robots with fixed morphology in the aspect of area coverage. A reconfigurable robot should be more flexible in changing its morphologi...

Complete area coverage is a crucial factor for a floor cleaning robot. Self-reconfigurable tiling robots have been introduced over robots with a fixed shape for floor cleaning since they improve the area coverage by the flexibility of shape-shifting in cluttered environments. The existing coverage methods of reconfigurable tiling robots follow the...

Floor cleaning robots have been developed to cope with the issues arisen with conventional cleaning methods that involve extensive human labor. hTetro is a self-reconfigurable floor cleaning robot that has been introduced to improve area coverage. Polyomino tiling theory is utilized by hTetro to plan area coverage. Energy usage and area coverage ar...

Service robots have been developed to enhance the living standard of people. Users of these service robots are not experts in robotic domain. Hence, they prefer to have human-friendly features in these service robots. These service robots often need to navigate toward their users when accomplishing service tasks demanded by the users. Therefore, th...

The false ceiling plenum is a common and essential part of building infrastructure. However, false ceiling infrastructure requires constant maintenance, which is cumbersome and dangerous for humans since they have to work at high heights and conduct repetitive actions for false ceiling panel replacement. As a solution, robots have been developed to...

Fumigation effectively manages pests, yet manual spraying poses long-term health risks to operators, making autonomous fumigation robots safer and more efficient. Path planning is a crucial aspect of deploying autonomous robots; it primarily focuses on minimizing energy consumption and maximizing operational time. The Payload and Energy-aware Tacti...

Generative AI (Gen-AI) revolutionizes design by leveraging machine learning to generate innovative solutions. It analyzes data to identify patterns, creates tailored designs, enhances creativity, and allows designers to explore complex possibilities for diverse industries. This study uses a Gen-AI design generation process to develop an urban lands...

Reconfigurable modular robots can be used in application domains such as exploration, logistics, and outer space. The robots should be able to assemble and work as a single entity to perform a task that requires high throughput. Selecting an optimum assembly position with minimum distance traveled by robots in an obstacle surrounding the environmen...

Complete coverage path planning (CCPP) is a trending research area in floor cleaning robotics. CCPP is often approached as an optimization problem, typically solved by considering factors, such as power consumption and time as key objectives. In recent years, the safety of cleaning robots has become a major concern, which can critically limit the p...

Robots are showing great impact and, in recent trends, appearing in areas such as education and entertainment. Robotic soccer is becoming more prevalent in competitions, furthering research in robotics and artificial intelligence. Reconfigurable robotics is used in application domains such as cleaning, multi-terrain locomotion, and logistical suppo...

The ability of reconfigurable robots to adapt to varying tasks and environments furnishes versatility and efficiency in their operations. In this article, tiling robots are introduced as a novel paradigm of shape‐morphing reconfigurable robots, defining them as polyform‐inspired machines capable of transforming between at least two polymorphic shap...

Liquid-carrying robots require slosh suppression methods to improve their performance. To design these systems requires effective slosh measurement. State-of-the-art slosh estimation methods have limitations, which include solely handling unidirectional motion or relying on theoretical models. This paper proposes a novel sensor array for measuring...

Regular exercise plays a crucial role in promoting overall well-being in today’s lifestyle. However, individuals often find it challenging to properly execute exercises, including maintaining correct postures and appropriate movement speeds. Robotic companions have emerged as potential solutions to assist and motivate users during exercise sessions...

In the era of autonomy, the integration of intelligent systems capable of navigating and perceiving their surroundings has become ubiquitous. Many sensors have been developed for environmental perceiving, with LIDAR emerging as a preeminent technology for precise obstacle detection. However, LIDAR has inherent limitations, impeding its ability to d...

Reconfigurable robots are deployed for applications demanding area coverage, such as cleaning and inspections. Reconfiguration per context, considering beyond a small set of predefined shapes, is crucial for area coverage performance. However, the existing area coverage methods of reconfigurable robots are not always effective and require improveme...

As autonomous cleaning robots advance, we expect certain features, such as higher area coverage and robustness. To explore these features and their challenges, we need tools and strategies that allow us to develop them rapidly. In this paper, we present lessons learned and results while performing 3 months long field trials on the autonomy of a sel...

Floor‐cleaning robots play a crucial role in both industrial and domestic spaces. However, these robots often face challenges due to hazardous components in their environment, which can cause them to fail and prevent them from performing at their best. This situation necessitates continuous research in the field of floor‐cleaning robots. However, m...

Cleaning is a fundamental routine task in human life that is now handed over to leading-edge technologies such as robotics and artificial intelligence. Various floor-cleaning robots have been developed with different cleaning functionalities, such as vacuuming and scrubbing. However, failures can occur when a robot tries to clean an incompatible di...

An emerging trend in utilizing service robots in a vast range of application areas could be seen nowadays as a promising effort to uplift the living standard. These service robots are intended to be used by non-expert users, and their service tasks often require navigation in human-populated environments. Thus, human-friendly navigation behavior is...

Robot-aided cleaning auditing is pioneering research that uses autonomous robots to assess a region’s cleanliness level by analyzing the dirt samples collected from various locations. Since the dirt sample gathering process is more challenging, adapting a coverage planning strategy from a similar domain for cleaning is non-viable. Alternatively, a...

Service robots with social interactive features are developed to cater to the demand in various application domains. These robots often need to approach toward users to accomplish typical day-to-day services. Thereby, the approaching behavior of a service robot is a crucial factor in developing social interactivity between users and the robot. In t...

Emerging technologies and robotics solutions for cleaning applications are rapidly progressing nowadays. Reconfigurable robots that can change shapes are introduced to overcome the limitations of fixed-shape robots. Reconfigurable robots should be capable of moving through narrow spaces with the help of continuous shape-changing to improve the cove...

Mobile robots are deployed in the built environment at increasing rates. However, lack of considerations for a robot-inclusive planning has led to physical spaces that would potentially pose hazards to robots, and contribute to an overall productivity decline for mobile service robots. This research proposes the use of an adapted Failure Mode and E...

False ceilings are often utilised in residential and commercial spaces as a way to contain and conceal necessary but unattractive building infrastructure, including mechanical, electrical, and plumbing services. Concealing such elements has made it difficult to perform periodic inspection safely for maintenance. To complement this, there have been...

Multistorey buildings are rapidly constructing with the current world development. Cleaning of these buildings is a major concern due to several issues such as scarcity of labor. Cleaning robots are developed to cope with these issues. Among these cleaning robots, staircase cleaning robots play a vital role in a multistorey building. Therefore, thi...

Regular Ship hull maintenance is an essential for sustainability. The maintenance work of ship hulls that involve human labor suffers from many shortcomings. Maintenance robots have been introduced for drydocks to eliminate these shortcomings. An energy-efficient Complete Coverage Path Planning (CCPP) is a crucial requirement from a ship hull maint...

During a viral outbreak, such as COVID-19, autonomously operated robots are in high demand. Robots effectively improve the environmental concerns of contaminated surfaces in public spaces, such as airports, public transport areas and hospitals, that are considered high-risk areas. Indoor spaces walls made up most of the indoor areas in these public...

Frequent inspections are essential for drains to maintain proper function to ensure public health and safety. Robots have been developed to aid the drain inspection process. However, existing robots designed for drain inspection require improvements in their design and autonomy. This paper proposes a novel design of a drain inspection robot named R...

Area coverage is a crucial factor for a robot intended for applications such as floor cleaning, disinfection, and inspection. Robots with fixed shapes could not realize an adequate level of area coverage performance. Reconfigurable robots have been introduced to overcome the limitations of fixed-shape robots, such as accessing narrow spaces and cov...

Frequent inspections are essential for false ceilings to maintain the service infrastructures, such as mechanical, electrical, and plumbing, and the structure of false ceilings. Human-labor-based conventional inspection procedures for false ceilings suffer many shortcomings, including safety concerns. Thus, robot-aided solutions are demanded for fa...

This paper proposes a novel method based on Fuzzy Logic Systems (FLSs) optimized to maximize the area coverage of a tiling robot by reconfiguring per an obstacle considering the “Infi” concept. The consideration of an infinite number of reconfigurable shapes by a tiling robot is defined as the “Infi” concept. The major advantage of the proposed met...

Vertical gardens have emerged alongside the increase in urban density and land scarcity to reintegrate greenery in the built environment. Existing maintenance for vertical gardens is labour-intensive, time-consuming and is being increasingly complemented by robotic applications. While research has been focused on enhancing robot design to improve p...

Buildings are constructed for accommodating living and industrial needs. Floor cleaning robots have been developed to cater to the demand of these buildings. Area coverage and coverage time are crucial performance factors of a floor cleaning robot. Reconfigurable tiling robots have been introduced over fixed shape robots to improve area coverage in...

Infectious diseases are caused by pathogenic microorganisms, whose transmission can lead to global pandemics like COVID-19. Contact with contaminated surfaces or objects is one of the major channels of spreading infectious diseases among the community. Therefore, the typical contaminable surfaces, such as walls and handrails, should often be cleane...

This work is inspired by motion control of cleaning robots, operating in certain endogenous environments, and performing various tasks like door cleaning, wall sanitizing, etc. The base platform’s motion for these robots is generally similar to the motion of four-wheel cars. Most of the cleaning and maintenance tasks require detection, path plannin...

Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) are one of the most used controllers for automated facilities nowadays. Hence, knowledge of PLC programming and system implementation is essential for automation related education curricula. This paper proposes an Interactive Learning Platform (ILP) for PLCs. The design specifications of the proposed ILP have b...

Development of intelligent service robots is a growing research area within the field of robotics. Users of these service robots expect human-like interaction abilities from the robots. These service robots must be capable of navigating in human populated environments by considering the comfort of the people for having smooth interaction with the u...

Intelligent service robots are used at a significant level to uplift the living standards of domestic users. These robots are expected to possess human-friendly interactive features. Service robots should be able to provide a variety of tasks to support independent living of users in domestic environments. Therefore, a service robot often needs to...

Power transformers are vital assets in electric power systems, as they are essential in maintaining a reliable supply and very high in cost. Nowadays, society has become more and more dependent on the availability of power, putting pressure on the reliability, availability and cost efficiency of power supply. These assets operate under high electri...