Marahrens, N orcid.org/0000-0002-5982-4990, Scaglioni, B orcid.org/0000-0003-4891-8411, Jones, D orcid.org/0000-0002-2961-8483 et al. (3 more authors) (2022) Towards Autonomous Robotic Minimally Invasive Ultrasound Scanning and Vessel Reconstruction on Non-Planar Surfaces. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 9. 940062. ISSN 2296-9144
Abstract
Autonomous robotic Ultrasound (US) scanning has been the subject of research for more than 2 decades. However, little work has been done to apply this concept into a minimally invasive setting, in which accurate force sensing is generally not available and robot kinematics are unreliable due to the tendon-driven, compliant robot structure. As a result, the adequate orientation of the probe towards the tissue surface remains unknown and the anatomy reconstructed from scan may become highly inaccurate. In this work we present solutions to both of these challenges: an attitude sensor fusion scheme for improved kinematic sensing and a visual, deep learning based algorithm to establish and maintain contact between the organ surface and the US probe. We further introduce a novel scheme to estimate and orient the probe perpendicular to the center line of a vascular structure. Our approach enables, for the first time, to autonomously scan across a non-planar surface and navigate along an anatomical structure with a robotically guided minimally invasive US probe. Our experiments on a vessel phantom with a convex surface confirm a significant improvement of the reconstructed curved vessel geometry, with our approach strongly reducing the mean positional error and variance. In the future, our approach could help identify vascular structures more effectively and help pave the way towards semi-autonomous assistance during partial hepatectomy and the potential to reduce procedure length and complication rates.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022 Marahrens, Scaglioni, Jones, Prasad, Biyani and Valdastri. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). |
Keywords: | autonomous robotic ultrasound, robotic surgery, vessel reconstruction, tissue coupling estimation, non-planar scan surface, anatomy based navigation |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Electronic & Electrical Engineering (Leeds) > Robotics, Autonomous Systems & Sensing (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number EU - European Union 818045 EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) EP/R045291/1 EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) EP/V047914/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 20 Oct 2022 09:44 |
Last Modified: | 20 Oct 2022 09:44 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Frontiers Media |
Identification Number: | 10.3389/frobt.2022.940062 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:191958 |