Enabling technologies for robot assisted ultrasound tomography: system setup and calibration

Aalamifar, Fereshteh; Khurana, Rishabh; Cheng, Alexis; Taylor, Russell H.; Iordachita, Iulian; Boctor, Emad M.

doi:10.1117/12.2045516

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…While this approach has a high potential for certain applications, it still requires manual placement of the autonomous holding cage on the patient and does not enable fully automatic scanning. Using two robotic arms holding separate ultrasound probes, a system for 3D robotic tomographic imaging pioneers the idea of localized 3D tomographic ultrasound imaging [29]. With respect to an intra-operative setting, however, the positioning of two robotic arm seems challenging, which is why the major field of applications for this technique might lie in the imaging of smaller structures.…”

Section: B Automatic Data Acquisition Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards MRI-Based Autonomous Robotic US Acquisitions: A First Feasibility Study

Hennersperger

Fuerst

Virga

et al. 2017

IEEE Trans. Med. Imaging

158

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Robotic ultrasound has the potential to assist and guide physicians during interventions. In this work, we present a set of methods and a workflow to enable autonomous MRI-guided ultrasound acquisitions. Our approach uses a structured-light 3D scanner for patient-to-robot and image-to-patient calibration, which in turn is used to plan 3D ultrasound trajectories. These MRI-based trajectories are followed autonomously by the robot and are further refined online using automatic MRI/US registration. Despite the low spatial resolution of structured light scanners, the initial planned acquisition path can be followed with an accuracy of 2.46 ± 0.96 mm. This leads to a good initialization of the MRI/US registration: the 3D-scan-based alignment for planning and acquisition shows an accuracy (distance between planned ultrasound and MRI) of 4.47 mm, and 0.97 mm after an online-update of the calibration based on a closed loop registration.

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Section: B Automatic Data Acquisition Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards MRI-Based Autonomous Robotic US Acquisitions: A First Feasibility Study

Hennersperger

Fuerst

Virga

et al. 2017

IEEE Trans. Med. Imaging

158

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The goal was to design the configuration such that for this cylindrical phantom, the tracker and marker keep line of sight and also the marker remains in the tracker's field of measurement. More details of system components, sample configuration study, and mechanical designs are provided in our previous paper .…”

Section: System Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enabling technologies for robot assisted ultrasound tomography

Aalamifar

Khurana

Cheng

et al. 2016

Int J Med Robotics Comput Assist Surg

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Currently available ultrasound (US) tomography systems suggest utilizing cylindrical transducers that can be used for a specific organ. In this paper, our focus is on an alternative way of creating US tomographic images that could be used for other anatomies and more general applications. This system consists of two conventional US probes facing each other while one or several of the transducers in one probe can act as the transmitter and the rest as the receiver. Aligning the two US probes is a challenging task. To address this issue, we propose a robot assisted US tomography system in which one probe is operated freehanded and another by a robotic arm. In this paper, enabling technologies for this system are described. With the current prototype, a reconstruction precision of 4.12, 1.73, and 2.23 mm for the three calibrations, and an overall alignment repeatability in the range of 5-9 mm were achieved. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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“…For example, Zhang et al demonstrated the application of a 6-DOF robot with an in-hand 2D US probe that facilitates 3D US volume reconstruction [9]. Aalamifar et al introduced a calibrated robot-assisted US system, which employs visual tracking of movements to follow and align to a manually op-erated probe [10]. US probe calibration has been investigated by incorporating automatic calibration using a 6 degreesof-freedom (DOF) robot, a marker-based optical tracking system, and a US calibration phantom [11], [12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

RobUSt–An Autonomous Robotic Ultrasound System for Medical Imaging

et al. 2021

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Medical ultrasound (US) systems are widely used for the diagnosis of internal tissues. However, there are challenges associated with acquiring and interpreting US images, such as incorrect US probe placement and limited available spatial information. In this study, we expand the capabilities of medical US imaging using a robotic framework with a high level of autonomy. A 3D camera is used to capture the surface of an anthropomorphic phantom as a point cloud, which is then used for path planning and navigation of the US probe. Robotic positioning of the probe is realised using an impedance controller, which maintains stable contact with the surface during US scanning and compensates for uneven and moving surfaces. Robotic US positioning accuracy is measured to be 1.19±0.76mm. The mean force along US probe z-direction is measured to be 6.11±1.18N on static surfaces and 6.63±2.18N on moving surfaces. Overall lowest measured force of 1.58N demonstrates constant probe-to-surface contact during scanning. Acquired US images are used for the 3D reconstruction and multi-modal visualization of the surface and the inner anatomical structures of the phantom. Finally, K-means clustering is used to segment different tissues. Best segmentation accuracy of the jugular vein according to Jaccard similarity coefficient is measured to be 0.89. With such an accuracy, this system could substantially improve autonomous US acquisition and enhance the diagnostic confidence of clinicians.

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Enabling technologies for robot assisted ultrasound tomography: system setup and calibration

Cited by 7 publications

References 5 publications

Towards MRI-Based Autonomous Robotic US Acquisitions: A First Feasibility Study

Towards MRI-Based Autonomous Robotic US Acquisitions: A First Feasibility Study

Enabling technologies for robot assisted ultrasound tomography

RobUSt–An Autonomous Robotic Ultrasound System for Medical Imaging

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