Jensen Rajesh, a 3rd-year student in Biomedical Engineering and a member of the Queen Mary Centre for Undergraduate Research (QMCUR), supervised by Dr Thilina Lalitharatne, has co-authored a paper accepted for presentation at RoboSoft 2026 (IEEE-RAS International Conference on Soft Robotics) in Kanazawa, Japan.

The paper, titled: “Sensorised Residual Limb Phantoms: An Exploratory Study Towards Developing Physical Twins of Residual Limbs for Prosthetic Socket Testing”, addresses a critical challenge in soft robotics. It targets the problem of painful and inefficient prosthetic socket fitting by enabling prosthetic arms to be tested and refined on a sensorised soft residual-limb phantom using quantitative force measurements, rather than requiring direct testing on amputees.

The research team developed a sensorised phantom using Ecoflex silicone instrumented with eight Force Sensitive Resistors (FSRs). This setup enables the repeatable measurement of local contact forces at the prosthetic socket–limb interface. By integrating the phantom with a UR5 robotic manipulator, the team established a physical testing platform capable of simulating representative upper-limb daily motions, such as horizontal lifts and vertical swings. This approach achieved consistent and motion-correlated force sensor responses, reliably capturing directional pressure changes and load redistribution during dynamic movements.

Jensen will present his contribution to this work at the upcoming conference in Kanazawa. Reflecting on this opportunity, he commented:

“I’m very excited about this achievement and about the opportunity to build on this work using the knowledge gained throughout the project. Attending RoboSoft will be a valuable experience, as I’m looking forward to engaging with researchers doing outstanding work in the field. I would like to express my sincere thanks to Professor Thilina for supervising this project, as well as to Giuseppe Viola for his support and for recommending me as part of QMCUR. I am also deeply thankful to Chenhao Hong and Saitarun Nadipineni for their incredible support throughout the project.”

QMCUR congratulates Jensen and thanks Dr Lalitharatne for his continued openness in hosting undergraduate students in his group and for his excellent supervision, as evidenced by the repeated significant outputs of his undergraduate students. This testifies to the important contributions they can make to research when given the opportunity and appropriately guided.