K.T.M.U. Hemapala
Papers
9
Total Citations
92
H-Index
6
About
K.T.M.U. Hemapala is a multidisciplinary robotics researcher whose work spans two critically important humanitarian domains: assistive prosthetic technology and explosive ordnance disposal. With a career bridging engineering innovation and real-world humanitarian need, Hemapala has made significant contributions to improving quality of life for vulnerable populations worldwide. In the field of upper limb prosthetics, Hemapala's most influential work — the development of a multi-degree-of-freedom transhumeral robotic arm prosthesis (2017, 25 citations) — stands as a landmark achievement, introducing an anthropomorphic design capable of fifteen degrees-of-freedom and a novel parallel manipulator-based wrist mechanism that closely mimics human anatomy. This followed an earlier comprehensive review of upper extremity prosthetics (2013, 14 citations), establishing Hemapala as a thoughtful voice on the challenges and future directions of the field. Equally notable is Hemapala's sustained commitment to humanitarian demining, spanning over a decade of research into path planning algorithms, low-cost robotic systems, and practical blast-tested solutions for mine clearance in conflict-affected regions. His PSO-based firefighting robot navigation algorithm further demonstrates a broader expertise in autonomous robotic systems. Collectively, Hemapala's body of work reflects a researcher driven by tangible humanitarian impact rather than abstraction alone.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Development of a multi-DoF transhumeral robotic arm prosthesis25 citations · 2017
- 2
- 3Robots for Humanitarian Demining13 citations · 2017
- 4Humanitarian demining: path planning and remote robotic sweeping13 citations · 2009
- 5Power Tillers for Demining: Blast Test10 citations · 2007
- 6A Shortest Path Planning Algorithm for PSO Base Firefighting Robots9 citations · 2018
- 7Design and Development of a Landmines Removal Robot4 citations · 2012
- 8Lean robotics for humanitarian mine sweeping2 citations · 2009
- 9