RoboPatient combines AR and robotics to train medics

The project, RoboPatient, will also build up an archive which will suggest which techniques are more likely to be successful in a given case.

GPs often use physical examinations, touching and probing the abdomen to detect conditions such as an enlarged liver, swollen intestines, and at a more advanced level, to detect possible tumours.

Doctors use a range of methods, changing the amount of pressure they apply, the shape and configuration of their fingers, and using various tapping techniques, to arrive at a diagnosis, said Dr Thrishantha Nanayakkara, reader in design engineering and robotics at the Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial College.

It is a difficult technique to demonstrate to students, and opportunities to practice on real patients are limited.

For the RoboPatient project, which began this month (1 September), Dr Nanayakkara’s team have developed a prototype robotic patient in which silicone rubber laid down in layers is used to realistically simulate soft tissue with various conditions such as swollen organs, or hard nodules. Sensors embedded in the “organs” record pressure applied during an examination, and the time taken to reach a diagnosis. A finite element tissue model to allows the sensor data to be displayed visually.