A novel robotic tactile mass detector with application in clinical breast examination

This paper presents a novel tactile sensing robot designed to detect breast lesions with minimum invasiveness to the tissue while providing exact documentation to make therapeutic and surgical decisions. The robot named "Robotic Tactile Breast Mass Identifier (Robo-Tac-BMI) consists of an indentation probe controlled by a robotic system and a visualization interface to manipulate the end-effecter. Geometrical maps of the test points with related tension-relaxation curves are provided during clinical examinations. Utilizing the curves, three functional stiffness parameters are extracted locally for each test point. These parameters are employed to provide objective information to facilitate the surgeon's task in the diagnostic procedure. Computational analysis is proposed for a real breast tissue model to study the capability of artificial tactile sensing in the mass detection. Indications of the mass existence are determined and employed as the basis of the Robo-Tac-BMI design and construction. Clinical trials are executed by the Robo-Tac-BMI on 161 cases. The results show that the robot has the potential to provide tissue mechanical properties unlike the conventional screening modalities carried out either by the surgeon or the imaging techniques which are not quantitative and lack documentation. Sonography with and without mammography is chosen as the "gold standard" tests.