A "robot finger" could soon be performing routine physical patient examinations, reports New Atlas, and yes, in addition to surface work, it's going inside "dark, warm places" for diagnostic purposes.
Their BSF, short for bioinspired soft finger, consists of a bending actuation body and integrated multimodal sensing. It has a finger-like, semicircular shape with a PneuNet (pneumatic networks) structure, a class of soft actuator made up of a series of channels and chambers inside an elastomer. The BSF bends inward when it's pressurized as these air chambers expand. Its total length is 129 mm (5.08 inches). … Given the complexities of the human hand, even the most advanced robotic hands are still well behind in matching its capabilities. So, for the USTC team to achieve comparable-to-human tactile sensing for palpation – which is feeling about for abnormalities – and proprioception – the ability to sense the movement and location of our body parts – in a soft robotic finger is a pretty big deal.
From Toward human-like touch sense via a bioinspired soft finger with self-decoupled bending and force sensing, published in Cell Reports Physical Science.
"We demonstrated that the BSF can press and 'feel' the stiffness of an object and perform safe and accurate robotic palpation similar to that performed by a doctor," said the researchers. "Moreover, the BSD mounted on a [six-degrees-of-freedom] robotic arm can locate the artery at a participant's wrist and take [pulses] for real-time analysis. These findings highlight the potential of a 'robodoctor' to perform physical examinations in the future."
Certain law enforcement types looking at this and smiling as they remember exactly how qualified immunity works.
