Prototyping and Initial Feasibility Study of Palpation Display Apparatus using Granular Jamming

Abstract

We designed a novel tactile display apparatus to facilitate medical palpation and early diagnosis of a possibly cancerous tumor to overcome the limitations of existing bulky systems. This paper introduces our first 3D printed soft prototype nodule. It encloses granular particles to physically simulate a lump under varying stiffness control. To support the design, we performed initial feasibility tests. A force-displacement graph was plotted to understand the behavior of the nodule. It is observed, under vacuum, particles are jammed together resulting in much higher stiffness compared to the normal condition where particles inside are not jammed leading to lesser stiffness.