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About

Hasitha Wegiriya is a researcher at the forefront of bioinspired robotics and tactile sensing, specializing in the development of whisker-inspired sensors for mobile robots. Drawing inspiration from the mammalian vibrissal system—particularly the complex sensory architecture of rodent whisker follicles—Wegiriya has pioneered multimodal whisker sensors capable of texture discrimination and terrain identification. Their most cited work, "A Stiffness Controllable Multimodal Whisker Sensor Follicle for Texture Comparison" (2019, 25 citations), introduces a follicle design that integrates multiple sensory receptors to capture tactile stimuli across different frequencies, mirroring biological organization. In a subsequent study (2021, 8 citations), Wegiriya demonstrated how nonlinear vibration dynamics in compliant whiskers can enable accurate terrain classification during steady-state robot motion, using a simple Hall effect sensor. This work bridges nonlinear dynamics and practical robotics, offering a low-cost, robust solution for mobile robot navigation. Wegiriya has also contributed to the field of embodied intelligence, proposing methods to guide physical adaptations in robots based on phase portraits (2019). Their research sits at the intersection of biomechanics, nonlinear dynamics, and soft robotics, with clear applications in search-and-rescue, environmental monitoring, and autonomous exploration.