Toronto, Aug 24 - Scientists have designed a touchy-feely robot that can detect tougher tumour tissue in half the time, and with 40 percent more accuracy than a human.

Researchers from the University of Western Ontario and Canadian Surgical Technologies and Advanced Robotics (CSTAR) in Ontario came up with the robotic option in minimally invasive surgery (MIS).

Canadian surgeons had developed new MIS techniques earlier to drastically cut down the size of the incision to just a tiny one cm.

Malignant tissue is usually stiffer than the surrounding tissue. Oncologists use scanning techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) scanning, pre-operatively to identify lesions.

But tissues may shift during surgery, making it hard to rely on the position identified by the scan.

So instead surgeons use gentle pressure (palpation) to confirm where the tumour is, or to locate further tumours not picked up through scanning.

But in MIS this can be very tricky due to access difficulties -- as the surgeon must attempt to feel for harder tissue using long, slim instruments via a very small incision.