Dr. Jelizaveta Konstantinova

Jelizaveta Konstantinova, PhD, Prof. Eng.

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Email: Jelizaveta. Konstantinova @kcl.ac.uk

Biography

Jelizaveta Konstantinova received a professional bachelor degree and engineer qualification in mechatronics from Riga Technical University, Riga, Latvia, in 2010. She joined King’s College London in 2010 and obtained MSc degree in Robotics. From 2011 to 2015 she was working towards her PhD degree in Robotics within the Centre for Robotics Research, King’s College London. From 2015 she is a research associate at KCL working on EU FP7 project SQUIRREL.

Research Interest

  • Interactive Tactile Perception
  • Tactile Sensing
  • Medical Robotics
  • Biologically Inspired Methods
  • Behaviour-based Control
  • Learning from Tactile Demonstrations

Description of Research

The research is focused on the development and applications of tactile sensors for various fields of robotics, with the focus on medical tissue palpation and grasping. In particular, the job for SQUIRREL project involves the development of tactile and proximity sensors for multi-fingered robotic hands, as well as studies how to obtain additional information about objects stiffness and structure from sensory information.

The research of her PhD thesis was centred on soft tissue examination for medical applications, such as minimally invasive surgery (MIS), on the measurement of soft tissue mechanical and tactile properties, the analysis of methods and techniques, which are making the process feasible for real life applications. Tactile sensing is eliminated during MIS and its presence would increase an accuracy and quality of the surgery, by the means of evaluating soft tissue stiffness and detecting abnormalities, as well as minimising damage to internal organs using force control during manipulations (grasping, section etc.). The main aspects of research include the understanding of probing behaviour during soft tissue examination and the creation of biologically inspired probing device able to measure soft tissue parameters over continuous path.

PhD Thesis: “Tactile probing strategies for soft tissue examination” – May 2015

 

Publications

Journals 

Konstantinova, J.; Li, M.; Mehra, G.; Dasgupta, P.; Althoefer, K.; Nanayakkara, T., “Behavioral Characteristics of Manual Palpation to Localize Hard Nodules in Soft Tissues,” Biomedical Engineering, IEEE Transactions on , vol.61, no.6, pp.1651-1659, June 2014 (doi: 10.1109/TBME.2013.2296877)

Konstantinova, Jiang, A.; Althoefer, K.; Dasgupta, P.; Nanayakkara, T. “Implementation of Tactile Sensing for Palpation in Robot-Assisted Minimally Invasive Surgery,” IEEE Sensors, Journal, 2014 – accepted for publication on 10th of May, 2014 (doi: 10.1109/JSEN.2014.2325794)

M. Li, J. Konstantinova, E. L. Secco, A. Jiang, H. Liu, T. Nanayakkara, L.D. Senevirante, P. Dasgupta, K. Althoefer, H. A. Wurdemann, “Using visual cues to enhance haptic feedback for palpation on virtual model of soft tissue,” Medical & Biological Engineering & Computing, May 2015

Conferences

J. Konstantinova, A. Stilli, and K. Althoefer, “Fingertip Proximity Sensor with Realtime Visual-based Calibration”, in IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2016,- In Press

J. Konstantinova, G. Cotugno, P. Dasgupta, K. Althoefer, and T. Nanayakkara, “Autonomous Robotic Palpation of Soft Tissue using the Modulation of Applied Force”, in 2016 6th IEEE International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob), 30.06.2016, p. 323-328. (doi: 10.1109/BIOROB.2016.7523646)

J. Konstantinova, A. Stilli, and K. Althoefer, “Force and Proximity Fingertip Sensor to Enhance Grasping Perception”, in IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2015, p. 2118-2123. (doi: 10.1109/IROS.2015.7353659)

J. Konstantinova, M. Li, V. Aminzadeh, P. Dasgupta, K. Althoefer, and T. Nanayakkara, “Force-Velocity Modulation Strategies for Soft Tissue Examination” in IEEE International conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2013. (doi: 10.1109/IROS.2013.6696622)

J. Konstantinova, M. Li, V. Aminzadeh, K. Althoefer, P. Dasgupta, and T. Nanayakkara, Evaluating Manual Palpation Trajectory Patterns in Tele-Manipulation for Soft Tissue Examination, in IEEE Systems Men and Cybernetics, 2013. (doi: 10.1109/SMC.2013.714)

J. Konstantinova, K. Althoefer, P. Dasgupta, and T. Nanayakkara, “Salient Features of Soft Tissue Examination Velocity during Manual Palpation,” in Hamlyn Simposium 2013, p.41-42.

Konstantinova, J.; Min Li; Althoefer, K.; Dasgupta, P; Nanayakkara, T., “Palpation Strategies for Artificial Soft Tissue Examination, ” in  3rd Joint Workshop on New technologies for Computer/Robot Assisted Surgery,  11-13 Sept. 2013

Jelizaveta Zirjakova, Kaspar Althoefer, Prokar Dasgupta, Thrishantha Nanayakkara, ‘Probing behaviour for soft tissue stiffness measurement’, in 2012 World Congress of Endourology, September, 2012

Li M.; Faragasso, A.; Konstantinova, J.; Seneviratne, L.; Aminzadeh, V.; Dasgupta, P.; Althoefer, K., “A Novel Tumor Localization Method using Haptic Palpation Based on Soft Tissue Probing Data,” in 2014 IEEE International Conference on Robotics & Automation (ICRA), pp. 4188 – 4193,May 31 – June 7, 2014

G. Cotugno, J. Konstantinova, K. Althoefer, T. Nanayakkara, “On the dexterity of Robotic Manipulation: Are Robotic Hands Ill designed?”, in the 6th International Conference on Cognitive Science, June, 2014

Nantachai Sornkarn, Jelizaveta Konstantinova, Prokar Dasgupta, Kaspar Althoefer, Thrishantha Nanayakkara, “Palpation with Controllable Stiffness for Robot-assisted Minimally Invasive Surgery ,” in  International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2014,  Hong Kong 30 June  – 5 May, 2014

M. Li, J. Konstantinova, V. Aminzadeh, L. D. Seneviratne, P. Dasgupta, and K. Althoefer, “Real-time Visual Stiffness Feedback for Soft Tissue Palpation in a Telemanipulation Environment,” in Hamlyn Simposium 2013, p. 77-78.

Jichun Li, Jelizaveta Zirjakova, Wei Yao, Kaspar Althoefer, Prokar Dasgupta, Lakmal Seneviratne, ‘Passive robotic platform for three-dimensional scanning of ex-vivo soft tissue’, Advances in Reconfigurable Mechanisms and Robots I. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2012. p. 477-487.

Jichun Li, Hongbin Liu, Jelizaveta Zirjakova, Benjamin Challacombe, Prokar Dasgupta, Lakmal D Seneviratne, Kaspar Althoefer, ‘Clinical Study of Prostate Tumour Identification Using a Rolling Indenter Robot’, Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics, 1-2 July, 2012, p.85-86

Fabio Bianchi, Giulia Bartoli, Kya Shoar, Maria R. Armas Fernandez, Valerio Pereno, Jelizaveta Zirjakova, Allen Jiang, Thrishantha Nanayakkara, ‘Adaptive Internal Impedance Control for Stable Walking on Uncertain Visco-elastic Terrains’, in 2012 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2012, pp. 2465 – 2470

Experimental methodology to study human palpation

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjL9wwB5ZuQ]