Sensing body structures by an advanced robot system

The design of a robot system capable of carrying out complex sensory-motor sequences intended for collecting information on some body functions through palpation is proposed. The main features of the robot system, which consists of an articulated finger incorporating joint force and position sensors as well as piezoelectric polymer skin-like sensors, are discussed. The subroutine PALPATION, aimed at detecting hardened regions embedded in soft biological tissues through an exploratory procedure which replicates the operation of the physician´s finger, is presented. A simple model for the behavior of the piezoelectric polymer fingertip sensor is proposed, and preliminary experimental results indicating both the validity of the model and the feasibility of the proposed automated palpatory procedure are reported