New approach for abnormal tissue localization with robotic palpation and mechanical property characterization

Robotic palpation is of major interest as a medical technique that could replace subjective palpation and tactile sensation by yielding precisely controlled palpation to tissues and quantitative tactile feedback acquisition. Palpation results and biomechanics based mechanical property characterization are possible solutions that could enable the acquisition of objective and quantitative information on abnormal tissue localization during diagnosis and surgery. This paper presents an integrated approach for robotic palpation and mechanical property characterization. To validate the proposed methods, robotic palpation experiments on silicone soft-tissue phantoms with embedded hard inclusions were performed using a robotic palpation system, and the force responses of the phantoms were measured. Furthermore, we carried out a numerical analysis simulating the experiments and estimating the objective and quantitative properties of the tissues.