(Web Desk) - An ultra-sensitive robotic 'finger' that could help detect breast cancer is being developed by scientists.
Experts have created a device with a sophisticated sense of touch that can take patient pulses and check for abnormal lumps.
The technology could make it easier for doctors to detect diseases such as breast cancer early on, when they are more treatable.
And it may also help patients feel at ease during physical examinations that can seem uncomfortable and invasive, the researchers said.
While rigid robotic fingers already exist, experts have raised concerns that these devices might not be up to the delicate tasks required in a doctor's office setting.
Some have raised potential safety issues, including a fear that overzealous robotic fingers could rupture lumps during examinations.
To get around this the team, from the University of Science and Technology of China, developed a simple device that contains conductive fibre coils with two parts.
It includes a coil wound on each air chamber of the device's bending actuators – the parts the allow it to move – and a twisted liquid metal fibre mounted at the fingertip.
They found that by measuring how the device's electrical current flows they could monitor, in real time, how far the finger bends as it touches an object and the force at the fingertip.
Tests shows the device could sense a feather brushing against its fingertip, could detect a glass rod, and even identify three lumps embedded in a large silicone sheet.
While mounted on a robotic arm, the finger also correctly located an artery on a participant's wrist and took their pulse.
Writing in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science the researchers said: 'Humans can easily recognise the stiffness of diverse objects by simply pressing it with their finger.
'Similarly, since the [device] has the ability to sense both its bending deformation and the force at the fingertip, it can detect stiffness similar to our human hand by simply pressing an object.'
In addition to taking pulses and examining simulated lumps, the researchers found that the robotic finger can type 'like a human hand', spelling out the word 'hello'.
Author Hongbo Wang said: 'By further development to improve its efficiency, we also believe that a dexterous hand made of such fingers can act as a 'Robodoctor' in a future hospital, like a physician.
'Combined with machine learning, automatic robot examination and diagnosis can be achieved, particularly beneficial for these underdeveloped areas where there is a serious shortage in health workers.'