title: Robot-assisted ultrasound imaging: overview and development of a parallel telerobotic system.
abstract: Ultrasound imaging is frequently used in medicine. The quality of ultrasound images is often dependent on the skill of the sonographer. Several researchers have proposed robotic systems to aid in ultrasound image acquisition. In this paper we first provide a short overview of robot-assisted ultrasound imaging (US). We categorize robot-assisted US imaging systems into three approaches: autonomous US imaging, teleoperated US imaging, and human-robot cooperation. For each approach several systems are introduced and briefly discussed. We then describe a compact six degree of freedom parallel mechanism telerobotic system for ultrasound imaging developed by our research team. The long-term goal of this work is to enable remote ultrasound scanning through teleoperation. This parallel mechanism allows for both translation and rotation of an ultrasound probe mounted on the top plate along with force control. Our experimental results confirmed good mechanical system performance with a positioning error of < 1 mm. Phantom experiments by a radiologist showed promising results with good image quality.
authors.affiliation: Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation, Children's National Medical Center , Washington, DC , USA.
authors.forename: Reza
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Monfaredi
authors.forename: Emmanuel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.forename: Bamshad
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Azizi Koutenaei
authors.forename: Brendan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Labrecque
authors.forename: Kristen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Leroy
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Goldie
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Louis
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Swerdlow
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Cleary
mesh_terms: D004867:Equipment Design; D004869:Equipment Safety; D006801:Humans; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D012371:Robotics / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D018084:Ultrasonography, Interventional / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D014584:User-Computer Interface
keywords: Ultrasound imaging; medical robotics; teleoperation