Development of a force-displacement controlled medical tele-analyzer

In a medical analysis in which a doctor cannot approach the patient directly, e.g. in a case of dangerous and infectious disease, or in a case that an expert doctor is far away from patient, tele-monitor and tele-analysis are necessary. Among the six sensations; only visibility and audibility are transmittable remotely. Transmission of tactile sensation is still under investigation. In this paper, a prototype of force-displacement controlled medical tele-analyzer is proposed and developed. A medical doctor analyses patient's abdominal mass remotely by pressing his fingers and hand on a doctor side of the developed system. An array of potentiometers is applied to sense the motion done by doctor's fingers and hand on a specific area. The system then transmits the motion/operation to the other side, patient-side, of the system. The motion of the doctor's fingers and hand is repeated and reacted to the patient. In the patient-side subsystem, displacement actuators, stepping motors, follow the displacement sensed by potentiometers. The resultant force of the motion sensed at the patient-side subsystem is then transmitted back to the doctor so that the doctor feels as if he is pressing on the abdomen. Information of the forces on the displacement actuators of the remote system is sensed by an array of beam-type load cells equipped on the displacement actuators. Force actuators, DC motors, generate forces following what is sent from the patient-side subsystem. The system helps a medical doctor in abdominal mass analysis remotely.