Sam Henson
PhD studentProfile
Sam is an EngD student at Lancaster University, funded through the STAND-UP Doctoral Focal Award in partnership with TG0. His research focuses on shared autonomy for remote robotic operation in nuclear decommissioning, where camera views often become unreliable during contact-rich tasks such as turning valves or inserting tools. He is developing a tele-visuotactile shared control framework that integrates high-resolution tactile sensing from dexterous robotic hands with visual feedback, allowing control to shift between operator and robot as a task moves from free motion into contact. Before starting his EngD, Sam completed a summer internship with Lancaster University and the UKAEA through the FOSTER programme. There he built a machine learning-based hand gesture recognition system for intuitive teleoperation of a UFactory xArm 6 and its gripper. He enjoys working across both custom hardware and software integration, and is motivated by testing ideas on real robotic platforms rather than in simulation alone.
Research Overview
- Shared autonomy and human-robot collaboration
- Teleoperation and remote robotic systems
- Robotics for nuclear decommissioning
- Safe and dependable autonomy in safety-critical environments
- Tactile sensing and visuo-tactile fusion
- Multimodal sensor fusion and attention-based learning
- Dexterous and contact-rich robotic manipulation
- Game theory-based shared control
- Operator cognitive load and human factors in teleoperation
- Machine learning applications in robotics
- Experimental validation on physical robotic platforms