Dr Dan Robbins

Dr Robbins is a Senior Lecturer, School of Allied Health and Social Care Research Lead, Undergraduate Medicine Research Lead, and Lead of the Biomechanics, Optics, Robotics and Imaging Research Group (BORI), part of ARU's Medical Technology Research Centre (MTRC). He has specialist knowledge of the structure and function of the human body, focussing on peripheral neurophysiology and vascular function. He is also a Charted Statistician via the Royal Statistical Society and a Clinical Biomechanist within the Mid and South Essex NHS Trust.

[email protected]

Find out more about ARU's Biomechanics, Optics, Robotics and Imaging Research Group

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Background

Before joining ARU, Dr Robbins taught at multiple higher education institutes, including the University of Greenwich, University of Bedfordshire and Imperial College London.

Prior to working in academia, Dr Robbins worked in clinical exercise, specialising in corrective exercise; his experience in the leisure industry included working within a GP referral scheme and interacting with health professionals such as physiotherapists and complementary therapists.

After leaving the leisure industry, Dr Robbins worked for the NHS at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in the department of Clinical Neurophysiology. This position involved performing intraoperative monitoring of surgical procedures, such as operations on the spine and/or peripheral nerves and working within outpatient clinics investigating muscle and nerve dysfunction via electromyography (EMG) and nerve conduction studies (NCS).

Research interests

• Anatomy and physiology
• Biomechanics of human movement
• Structure and function of muscles, bones and/or joints
• Peripheral vascular function
• Peripheral neurophysiology
• Signal processing, typically of biological signals
• Product validation, for example how products affect and/or measure the human body
• Medical statistics

Areas of research supervision

Completions:

• MSc (Research) The Relationship between Muscle Contraction Intensity and Myoelectrical Activity
• MSc (Research) Investigation in to the Coefficient of Friction of Manual Therapy Products
• MSc (Research) Investigating Clinical Taping Strategies for the Foot

Teaching

• Postgraduate Research Methods (Quantitative)
• Professional Doctorate in Health and Social Care (Quantitative Research Lead)
• MSc Physiotherapy (Course Lead for Anatomy and Physiology)
• MSc Occupational Therapy (Course Lead for Anatomy and Physiology)
• BSc (Hons) Medical Science
• BSc (Hons) Physiotherapy degree apprenticeship (Course Lead for Anatomy and Physiology)

Qualifications

• PhD Human Physiological and Biomechanical Responses to Vibration Exercise
• MSc Medical Statistics
• MSc (Research) Soft Tissue Plasticity, with Neurobiology and Neuromuscular Function
• MSc Biomechanics
• PgCert Gait Analysis
• PgCAP Academic Practice
• BSc (Hons) Sports Science with Fitness

Memberships, editorial boards

• Anatomical Society (Full member)
• Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM) (Full member)
• British Peripheral Nerve Society (BPNS) (Full member)
• Higher Education Academy (Fellow)
• NASM (National Academy of Sports Medicine) - Corrective Exercise Specialist
• Royal Statistical Society (Chartered Statistician)
• Editorial Board member – Gait & Posture

Selected recent publications

Journal articles

French, C., Robbins, D., Gernigon, M. and Gordon, D. (2025) 'The influence of cuff location on the oxygenation and reperfusion of the foot during ischemic preconditioning: A reliability study', Microvascular Research, 160, 104811.

Zhu, Y., Xiao, M., Robbins, D., Wu, X., Lu, W. and Hou, W. (2024) 'Walking representation and simulation based on multi-source image fusion and multi-agent reinforcement learning for gait rehabilitation', Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, 156, 102945.

French, C., Robbins, D., Gernigon, M. and Gordon, D. (2024) 'The effects of lower limb ischaemic preconditioning: a systematic review', Frontiers in Physiology, 14, 1323310.

McKenna, M., Elghazaly, H., Bergman, H., Wingate, L., Robbins, D., Davies, A. H. and Thapar, A. (2023) 'Meta-analysis of duplex surveillance following lower limb endovascular intervention', Journal of Endovascular Therapy, 15266028231215215.

Tomelleri, A., van der Geest, K. S., Khurshid, M. A., Sebastian, A., Coath, F., Robbins, D., ... and Dasgupta, B. (2023) 'Disease stratification in GCA and PMR: state of the art and future perspectives', Nature Reviews Rheumatology, 19(7), pp. 446-459.

Zhu, Y., Lu, W., Zhang, R., Wang, R. and Robbins, D. (2022) 'Dual-channel cascade pose estimation network trained on infrared thermal image and groundtruth annotation for real-time gait measurement', Medical Image Analysis, 79, 102435.

Hawkey, A. and Robbins, D. (2020) 'Effects of vibration on mechanical efficiency during cycling', Asian Exercise and Sport Science Journal, 4(2).

Book chapters

Lindley, S., Robbins, D. and Robinson, A. (2022) 'Assessment of Muscle Function'. In: Chockalingam, N. (Ed.) (2022) Technologies and Techniques in Gait Analysis: Past, present and future. Institution of Engineering & Technology, 1st ed., pp. 109-138.

Robbins, D. (2022) 'Muscle Biomechanics'. In: Innocenti, B. and Galbusera, F. (Eds.) (2022) Human Orthopaedic Biomechanics. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Robbins, D. and Goss-Sampson, M. (2016) 'Skeletal Articulations and Movement'. In: Rieger, T., Jones, B. and Jiménez, A. (Eds.) (2016) EuropeActive's Essentials for Personal Trainers. Illinois: Human Kinetics.

Robbins, D. (2014) 'An introduction to signal processing using MatLab and Microsoft Excel'. In: Naik, G. R. (Ed.) (2014) Applications, Challenges, and Advancements in Electromyography Signal Processing. Antwerp: IGI Global.

Robbins, D. and Zeinstra, E. (2014) 'Muscle Action'. In: Rieger, T., Naclerio, F., Jiménez, A. and Moody, J. (Eds.) (2014) Foundations for Exercise Professionals. Illinois: Human Kinetics.

Recent presentations and conferences

• Taniacao, M. H., Robbins, D., Nobbenhuis, M., Ind, T., Chandrasekaran, D., 2021. The impact of obesity on the surgical outcome in women with early-stage endometrial cancer who underwent minimal invasive robotically assisted surgery: A retrospective cohort study. British and Irish Robotic Gynaecology Society (BIARGS) Annual Conference. London. Poster Presentation.
• Hawkey, A., Hockey, P., Bedford, K., and Robbins, D., 2017. Investigating the effects of vibration on mechanical efficiency during cycling. BASES-FEPSAC Conference, East Midlands Conference Centre, Poster presentation.
• Howes, E., Moss, R., McCarthy, J., and Robbins, D., 2017. The influence of manual therapy mediums on coefficient of friction. Clinical Biomechanics conference, University of Staffordshire. Oral Presentation.
• Bateman, C., Moss, R., McCarthy, J., and Robbins, D., 2017. Static vs. dynamic analysis of the foot. Clinical Biomechanics conference, University of Staffordshire. Oral Presentation.
• Lane, C., McCarthy, J., and Robbins, D., 2017. Investigating the relationship between surface EMG amplitude and muscle contraction force. Clinical Biomechanics conference, University of Staffordshire. Oral Presentation.
• Christopher Bateman, Callum Carter, Lucy Hammond & Dan Robbins, 2017. Hip rotation & footprint index. BASES Student Conference, University of St Mark and St John poster presentation.
• Lauren Howard, Charlotte Poynter, Samantha Barry-Wilson & Daniel Robbins, 2017. Taping pressures of experienced and novice MSK therapists. BASES Student Conference, University of St Mark and St John Poster Presentation.