A Robotic System for Soft Tissue Characterization

A Robotic System for Soft Tissue Characterization

  A miniature robotic system has been designed and fabricated to perform in vivo mechanical characterization of soft tissues. The tissue tester employs a stepper motor, which is controlled using micro-stepping techniques to prevent irregular rotation of motor shaft at low speeds. There is also a load cell to measure the reaction force of the tissue under test. At the end of tests session, data could be post elaborated on a PC with special software that reconstructs the force-displacement curves of the tissues being tested. Position and rate feedback are implemented with a digital encoder to minimize errors in motor control during the evaluation of typical viscoelastic phenomena of biological tissues. Calibration tests indicate that the force-displacement curves of the miniature robotic indenter are consistent with that obtained using an ordinary universal testing machine.