Force-Based Viscosity and Elasticity Measurements for Material Biomechanical Characterisation with a Collaborative Robotic Arm

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Beber, Luca, Lamon, Edoardo, Moretti, Giacomo, Saveriano, Matteo, Fambri, Luca, Palopoli, Luigi, Fontanelli, Daniele
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Beber, Luca
Lamon, Edoardo
Moretti, Giacomo
Saveriano, Matteo
Fambri, Luca
Palopoli, Luigi
Fontanelli, Daniele
author_facet Beber, Luca
Lamon, Edoardo
Moretti, Giacomo
Saveriano, Matteo
Fambri, Luca
Palopoli, Luigi
Fontanelli, Daniele
contents Diagnostic activities, such as ultrasound scans and palpation, are relatively low-cost. They play a crucial role in the early detection of health problems and in assessing their progression. However, they are also error-prone activities, which require highly skilled medical staff. The use of robotic solutions can be key to decreasing the inherent subjectivity of the results and reducing the waiting list. For a robot to perform palpation or ultrasound scans, it must effectively manage physical interactions with the human body, which greatly benefits from precise estimation of the patient's tissue biomechanical properties. This paper assesses the accuracy and precision of a robotic system in estimating the viscoelastic parameters of various materials, including some tests on ex vivo tissues as a preliminary proof-of-concept demonstration of the method's applicability to biological samples. The measurements are compared against a ground truth derived from silicone specimens with different viscoelastic properties, characterised using a high-precision instrument. Experimental results show that the robotic system's accuracy closely matches the ground truth, increasing confidence in the potential use of robots for such clinical applications.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_11133
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Force-Based Viscosity and Elasticity Measurements for Material Biomechanical Characterisation with a Collaborative Robotic Arm
Beber, Luca
Lamon, Edoardo
Moretti, Giacomo
Saveriano, Matteo
Fambri, Luca
Palopoli, Luigi
Fontanelli, Daniele
Robotics
Diagnostic activities, such as ultrasound scans and palpation, are relatively low-cost. They play a crucial role in the early detection of health problems and in assessing their progression. However, they are also error-prone activities, which require highly skilled medical staff. The use of robotic solutions can be key to decreasing the inherent subjectivity of the results and reducing the waiting list. For a robot to perform palpation or ultrasound scans, it must effectively manage physical interactions with the human body, which greatly benefits from precise estimation of the patient's tissue biomechanical properties. This paper assesses the accuracy and precision of a robotic system in estimating the viscoelastic parameters of various materials, including some tests on ex vivo tissues as a preliminary proof-of-concept demonstration of the method's applicability to biological samples. The measurements are compared against a ground truth derived from silicone specimens with different viscoelastic properties, characterised using a high-precision instrument. Experimental results show that the robotic system's accuracy closely matches the ground truth, increasing confidence in the potential use of robots for such clinical applications.
title Force-Based Viscosity and Elasticity Measurements for Material Biomechanical Characterisation with a Collaborative Robotic Arm
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.11133