Boundary condition generating large strain on breast tumor for nonlinear elasticity estimation.

We describe a robotic palpation system that determines whether a breast tumor is benign or malignant by measuring its nonlinear elasticity. Two indenters compress the breast from different directions to generate sufficient strain on the inner tumor, which simply represents clinical dynamic testing. The nonlinear elasticity of the inner tumor is estimated by correcting the reaction force data of the surrounding soft tissue. Here, we present the basic concept of our study and simulation results considering geometric conditions of the indenters using a finite element breast model. Indenters with variable width are applied to the breast at several contact positions in a simulation for comparison. Our results indicate that when the spring stiffness between the contact position of one indenter and the center of the tumor equals the spring stiffness between the contact position of the other indenter and the center of the tumor, a larger contact area (i.e., larger spring stiffness) provides larger strain acting on the inner tumor.