A modular control concept for a flat-panel ultrasound robot

Laparoscopic resection of kidney cancer has become more and more popular. Still, intraoperatively the surgeon has little information on the inside of the surgical field, increasing the risk of not completely resecting the tumor. Ultrasonography can overcome this problem. Therefore, we proposed a flat-panel ultrasound robot to motorize a transcutaneous ultrasound probe. In this manuscript we present three methods to steer the robot: a) telemanipulation, b) offline control, and c) autonomous mode. For telemanipulation we developed a joystick console. In offline control mode the robot is controlled by the computer and follows a predefined path. In autonomous mode the robot aligns it ultrasound probe automatically with the surgical field. In an experiment we were able to show that the robot can be manually steered significantly faster by a computer/mouse than with the joystick console. Additionally, the experiment unveiled that information on the current position of the the ultrasound probe helps the user significantly to pinpoint a target object with the robot.