Real-time Motion Stabilization with B-mode Ultrasound Using Image Speckle Information and Visual Servoing

Abstract

We develop visual servo control to stabilize the image of moving soft tissue in B-mode ultrasound (US) imaging. We define the target region in a B-mode US image, and automatically control a robot to manipulate an US probe by minimizing the difference between the target and the most recently acquired US image. We exploit tissue speckle information to compute the relative pose between the probe and the target region. In-plane motion is handled by image region tracking and out-of-plane motion recovered by speckle tracking using speckle decorrelation. A visual servo control scheme is then applied to manipulate the US probe to stabilize the target region in the live US image. In a first experiment involving only translational motion, an US phantom was moved by one robot while stabilizing the target with a second robot holding the US probe. In a second experiment, large 6-DOF motions were manually applied to an US phantom while a 6-DOF medical robot was automatically controlled to compensate for the probe displacement. The obtained results support the hypothesis that automated motion stabilization shows promise for a variety of US-guided medical procedures such as prostate cancer brachytherapy.

Epipolar Geometry for Vision-guided Laser Surgery

“…In both cases the acquisition rate reached 500 Hz. In (Krupa et al, 2009) authors have used visual servoing and speckle information in ultrasound images at 12 Hz to stabilize a probe in a region of interest. Simulation experiment have been used to validate the developments.…”

Tracking and Characterization of Fragments in a Beating Heart Using 3D Ultrasound for Interventional Guidance

“…The objectives of the present study are (1) to demonstrate the utility of 3D transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) in tracking a target moving rigorously against a dynamic background; (2) to develop real-time tracking of the fragments; and (3) to analyze its motion in the context of a robotic system. The use of 3D ultrasound for interventional systems is a fairly recent development due to high cost, low resolution, and inability to access real-time data streams [2]. In [7], markers were attached to an instrument to allow for imagebased tracking.…”

Automatic Tracking of an Organ Section with an Ultrasound Probe: Compensation of Respiratory Motion

“…In another work [2], the three translations of a XYZ stage robot equipped with two US probes and a HIFU transducer are controlled to follow a kidney stone while compensating for physiological motions during a lithotripsy procedure. In [3], an approach based on the speckle correlation observed in successive US images is detailed. However, a region of fully developped speckle has to be segmented and a step of learning of the speckle decorrelation curves is required.…”

“…The considered applications are for instance the assistance for diagnoses or hepatic tumor biopsies where the liver and the tumors mainly undergo the respiratory motion [8]. Other clinic applications, such as prostate cancer brachytherapy have been identified in [3] that could benefit from such robotic image stabilization. To deal with the low quality of the US images, we propose to directly use the intensity of the image as visual feature, which has been successfully applied in camera-based visual servoing [10].…”