Technology Blog

Feasibility studies conducted by Duke University bioengineers have demonstrated that a robot -- without any human assistance -- can locate a man-made, or phantom, lesion in simulated human organs, guide a device to the lesion and take multiple samples during a single session.

"Earlier this year we demonstrated that a robot directed by artificial intelligence can on its own locate simulated calcifications and cysts in simulated breast tissue with high repeatability and accuracy," said Kaicheng Liang, a former student in the laboratory of Stephen Smith, director of the Duke University Ultrasound Transducer Group at the Pratt School of Engineering and senior member of the research team. "Now we have shown that the robot can sample up to eight different spots in simulated human prostate tissue."
"One of the beauties of this system is that all of the hardware components are already on the market," Smith said. "We believe that this is the first step in showing that with some modifications, systems like this can be built without having to develop a new technology from scratch."
"We're now testing the robot on a human mannequin seated at the examining table whose breast is constrained in a stiff bra cup," Smith said.