A Novel Ultrasound Robot With Force/Torque Measurement and Control for Safe and Efficient Scanning

Xianqiang Bao; Shuangyi Wang; Lingling Zheng; Richard James Housden; Joseph V. Hajnal; Kawal Rhode

doi:10.1109/TIM.2023.3239925

A Novel Ultrasound Robot With Force/Torque Measurement and Control for Safe and Efficient Scanning

Xianqiang Bao, Shuangyi Wang^*, Lingling Zheng, Richard James Housden, Joseph V. Hajnal, Kawal Rhode

^*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

Medical ultrasound (US) is of increasing importance in medical diagnosis and intraoperative assistance and possesses great potential advantages when integrated with robotics. However, some concerns, including the operation efficiency, operation safety, image quality, and comfort of patients, remain after introducing robotics into medical ultrasound. In this article, an ultrasound robot integrating a force control mechanism, force/torque measurement mechanism, and online adjustment method is proposed to overcome the current limitations. The ultrasound robot can measure operating forces and torques, provide adjustable constant operating forces, eliminate great operating forces introduced by accidental operations, and achieve various scanning depths based on clinical requirements. The proposed ultrasound robot would potentially facilitate sonographers to find the targets quickly, improve operation safety and efficiency, and decrease patients' discomfort. Simulations and experiments were carried out to evaluate the performance of the ultrasound robot. Experimental results show that the proposed ultrasound robot is able to detect operating force in the z -direction and torques around the x - and y -directions with errors of 3.53%, 6.68%, and 6.11% F.S., maintain the constant operating force with errors of less than 0.57 N, and achieve various scanning depths for target searching and imaging. This proposed ultrasound robot has good performance and would potentially be used in medical ultrasound.

Original language	English
Article number	4002012
Journal	IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT
Volume	72
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/TIM.2023.3239925
Publication status	Published - 26 Jan 2023

Keywords

Force measurement
operation safety
robotic ultrasonography
ultrasound image
ultrasound robot

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10.1109/TIM.2023.3239925

A_Novel_Ultrasound_Robot_With_Force_Torque_Measurement_and_Control_for_Safe_and_Efficient_ScanningLicence: CC BY

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title = "A Novel Ultrasound Robot With Force/Torque Measurement and Control for Safe and Efficient Scanning",

abstract = "Medical ultrasound (US) is of increasing importance in medical diagnosis and intraoperative assistance and possesses great potential advantages when integrated with robotics. However, some concerns, including the operation efficiency, operation safety, image quality, and comfort of patients, remain after introducing robotics into medical ultrasound. In this article, an ultrasound robot integrating a force control mechanism, force/torque measurement mechanism, and online adjustment method is proposed to overcome the current limitations. The ultrasound robot can measure operating forces and torques, provide adjustable constant operating forces, eliminate great operating forces introduced by accidental operations, and achieve various scanning depths based on clinical requirements. The proposed ultrasound robot would potentially facilitate sonographers to find the targets quickly, improve operation safety and efficiency, and decrease patients' discomfort. Simulations and experiments were carried out to evaluate the performance of the ultrasound robot. Experimental results show that the proposed ultrasound robot is able to detect operating force in the z -direction and torques around the x - and y -directions with errors of 3.53%, 6.68%, and 6.11% F.S., maintain the constant operating force with errors of less than 0.57 N, and achieve various scanning depths for target searching and imaging. This proposed ultrasound robot has good performance and would potentially be used in medical ultrasound.",

keywords = "Force measurement, operation safety, robotic ultrasonography, ultrasound image, ultrasound robot",

author = "Xianqiang Bao and Shuangyi Wang and Lingling Zheng and Housden, {Richard James} and Hajnal, {Joseph V.} and Kawal Rhode",

note = "Funding Information: This work was supported in part by the National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Center at Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London, in part by the Wellcome/EPSRC Center for Medical Engineering under Grant WT 203148/Z/16/Z, in part by the Wellcome Trust IEH Award under Grant 102431, in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 62003339, and in part by the InnoHK Program. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 1963-2012 IEEE.",

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AU - Wang, Shuangyi

AU - Zheng, Lingling

AU - Housden, Richard James

AU - Hajnal, Joseph V.

AU - Rhode, Kawal

N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported in part by the National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Center at Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London, in part by the Wellcome/EPSRC Center for Medical Engineering under Grant WT 203148/Z/16/Z, in part by the Wellcome Trust IEH Award under Grant 102431, in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 62003339, and in part by the InnoHK Program. Publisher Copyright: © 1963-2012 IEEE.

PY - 2023/1/26

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N2 - Medical ultrasound (US) is of increasing importance in medical diagnosis and intraoperative assistance and possesses great potential advantages when integrated with robotics. However, some concerns, including the operation efficiency, operation safety, image quality, and comfort of patients, remain after introducing robotics into medical ultrasound. In this article, an ultrasound robot integrating a force control mechanism, force/torque measurement mechanism, and online adjustment method is proposed to overcome the current limitations. The ultrasound robot can measure operating forces and torques, provide adjustable constant operating forces, eliminate great operating forces introduced by accidental operations, and achieve various scanning depths based on clinical requirements. The proposed ultrasound robot would potentially facilitate sonographers to find the targets quickly, improve operation safety and efficiency, and decrease patients' discomfort. Simulations and experiments were carried out to evaluate the performance of the ultrasound robot. Experimental results show that the proposed ultrasound robot is able to detect operating force in the z -direction and torques around the x - and y -directions with errors of 3.53%, 6.68%, and 6.11% F.S., maintain the constant operating force with errors of less than 0.57 N, and achieve various scanning depths for target searching and imaging. This proposed ultrasound robot has good performance and would potentially be used in medical ultrasound.

AB - Medical ultrasound (US) is of increasing importance in medical diagnosis and intraoperative assistance and possesses great potential advantages when integrated with robotics. However, some concerns, including the operation efficiency, operation safety, image quality, and comfort of patients, remain after introducing robotics into medical ultrasound. In this article, an ultrasound robot integrating a force control mechanism, force/torque measurement mechanism, and online adjustment method is proposed to overcome the current limitations. The ultrasound robot can measure operating forces and torques, provide adjustable constant operating forces, eliminate great operating forces introduced by accidental operations, and achieve various scanning depths based on clinical requirements. The proposed ultrasound robot would potentially facilitate sonographers to find the targets quickly, improve operation safety and efficiency, and decrease patients' discomfort. Simulations and experiments were carried out to evaluate the performance of the ultrasound robot. Experimental results show that the proposed ultrasound robot is able to detect operating force in the z -direction and torques around the x - and y -directions with errors of 3.53%, 6.68%, and 6.11% F.S., maintain the constant operating force with errors of less than 0.57 N, and achieve various scanning depths for target searching and imaging. This proposed ultrasound robot has good performance and would potentially be used in medical ultrasound.

KW - Force measurement

KW - operation safety

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A Novel Ultrasound Robot With Force/Torque Measurement and Control for Safe and Efficient Scanning

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