A-SEE: Active-Sensing End-effector Enabled Probe Self-Normal-Positioning for Robotic Ultrasound Imaging Applications.

ABSTRACT: Conventional manual ultrasound (US) imaging is a physically demanding procedure for sonographers. A robotic US system (RUSS) has the potential to overcome this limitation by automating and standardizing the imaging procedure. It also extends ultrasound accessibility in resource-limited environments with the shortage of human operators by enabling remote diagnosis. During imaging, keeping the US probe normal to the skin surface largely benefits the US image quality. However, an autonomous, real-time, low-cost method to align the probe towards the direction orthogonal to the skin surface without pre-operative information is absent in RUSS. We propose a novel end-effector design to achieve self-normal-positioning of the US probe. The end-effector embeds four laser distance sensors to estimate

SUBMITTER: Ma X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10266708 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature