By Stephen Beech via SWNS
An ultra-sensitive robotic “finger” can take the pulse of doctors’ patients and even check for abnormal lumps.
The soft robotic device with a sophisticated sense of touch can perform “routine” medical examinations, according to Chinese scientists.
They say such technology could make it easier for doctors to detect diseases such as breast cancer early on when they are more treatable.
It may also help patients feel at ease during physical examinations that can seem uncomfortable and invasive, according to a study published in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science.
Study author Dr. Hongbo Wang said: “By further development to improve its efficiency, we also believe that a dexterous hand made of such fingers can act as a ‘Robodoctor’ in a future hospital, like a physician.
“Combined with machine learning, automatic robotic examination and diagnosis can be achieved, particularly beneficial for these undeveloped areas where there is a serious shortage in health workers.”
While rigid robotic fingers already exist, experts have raised concerns that such devices might not be up to the delicate tasks required in a doctor’s surgery.
Some have raised potential safety issues, including a fear that overzealous robotic fingers could rupture lumps during examinations.
More recently, scientists have developed lightweight, safe, and low-cost soft robotics that can recreate the movements of human hands.
But those devices haven’t been able to sense the complex properties of objects they touch the way real fingers do.
Dr. Wang, a sensing technologies researcher at the University of Science and Technology of China, said: “Despite the remarkable progress in the last decade, most soft fingers presented in the literature still have substantial gaps compared to human hands.”
H noted that, until now, robotic fingers have not been ready to handle “real world” scenarios.
To overcome the challenge, the Chinese research team developed a simple device that contains conductive fiber coils with two parts: a coil wound on each air chamber of the device’s bending actuators – the parts that enable it to move, and a twisted liquid metal fibre mounted at the fingertip.
By measuring properties that affect how the device’s electrical current flows, the researchers found that they could monitor, in real-time, how far the finger bends as it touches an object and the force at the fingertip.
The team said, in that way, the device could perceive an object’s properties as effectively as human touch.
To test the device, the researchers started by brushing a feather against its fingertip.
Dr. Wang said: “The magnified view clearly shows the resistance change, indicating its high sensitivity in force sensing.”
The team then tapped and pushed the fingertip with a glass rod and bent the finger repeatedly, observing that the device’s sensors accurately perceived the type and quantity of force they applied.
To test the finger’s medical abilities, they mounted it on a robotic arm and watched as it identified three lumps embedded in a large silicone sheet, pressing on them like a doctor would.
While mounted on the robotic arm, the finger also correctly located an artery on a participant’s wrist and took their pulse.
Dr. Wang said: “Humans can easily recognize the stiffness of diverse objects by simply pressing it with their finger.
“Similarly, since the [device] has the ability to sense both its bending deformation and the force at the fingertip, it can detect stiffness similar to our human hand by simply pressing an object.”
As well as taking pulses and examining simulated lumps, the Chinese team found that the robotic finger can type “like a human hand,” spelling out the word “hello.”
By using additional sensors to create even more flexibility in the robotic finger’s joints, allowing the device to move in multiple directions just like a human finger, the researchers say it may be ready to perform “effective and efficient” medical examinations in the near future.
Dr. Wang added: “We hope to develop an intelligent, dexterous hand, together with a sensorised artificial muscle-driven robotic arm, to mimic the unparalleled functions and fine manipulations of the human hands.”
