The University of Bristol has developed a new robot that can carry out clinical breast examinations (CBE) to help detect and diagnose breast cancer early.

The manipulator, designed by a robotics team at the university, is able to apply specific forces similar to those used by human examiners.

The university said that the robot uses sensor technology to detect lumps at larger depths than before, adding that when combined with other techniques such as ultrasound scanning, it could help detect breast cancer in women accurately and early.

The robotics team suggested that the manipulators could be located in easily accessible places such as pharmacies and health centres to help women easily monitor their breast health.

The team said it aims to combine CBE techniques learned from professionals with AI and fully equip the manipulator with sensors to determine the effectiveness of the whole system at identifying potential cancer risks.

George Jenkinson, who authored the research, said that there have been a few attempts in the past to use technology to perform a CBE, but advances in sensor technology have improved the standard.

“We hope that the research can contribute to and complement the arsenal of techniques used to diagnose breast cancer, and to generate a large amount of data associated with it that may be useful in trying to identify large scale trends that could help diagnose breast cancer early,” continued Jenkinson. “One advantage that some doctors have mentioned anecdotally is that this could provide a low-risk way to objectively record health data. This could be used, for example, to compare successive examinations more easily, or as part of the information packet sent to a specialist if a patient is referred for further examination.”

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