Faculty of Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan.
Int J Comput Assist Radiol Surg. 2020 Aug;15(8):1323-1333. doi: 10.1007/s11548-020-02130-1. Epub 2020 Feb 27.
The shortage of obstetricians and gynecologists has intensified in developed countries. Our long-term goal is to develop a robotic prenatal care platform for automatic ultrasound (US) scanning to improve the workflow efficiency of obstetricians and gynecologists. This paper develops a hardware platform for the positioning of the US probe to obtain diagnostic US images while satisfying safety requirements of the fetus and pregnant woman.
The proposed system includes a mechanism that maintains the contact force in a certain range and passively adjusts the US probe posture relative to the body surface. The system is designed according to clinical survey data. For proof of concept, we conducted a robotic US scan with an agar phantom and three pregnant women under the operation of a physician.
Experimental results show the passive US scan motion followed the phantom surface with an acceptable contact force (< 15 N). Clinical trials were safely carried out with observations of fetal body parts.
Our proposed platform acquired US images with satisfactory contact forces in the phantom study. The feasibility of the platform was demonstrated in a clinical study.
在发达国家，妇产科医生短缺的问题已经加剧。我们的长期目标是开发一种用于自动超声（US）扫描的机器人产前护理平台，以提高妇产科医生的工作流程效率。本文开发了一种用于定位 US 探头的硬件平台，以获取诊断性 US 图像，同时满足胎儿和孕妇的安全要求。
所提出的系统包括一种机制，该机制可将接触力保持在一定范围内，并可被动地调整 US 探头相对于体表的姿势。该系统是根据临床调查数据设计的。为了验证概念，我们在医生的操作下，使用琼脂模型和三名孕妇进行了机器人 US 扫描。
实验结果表明，被动 US 扫描运动跟随仿体表面，接触力可接受（<15N）。临床研究中安全地进行了胎儿身体部位的观察。
我们提出的平台在仿体研究中获得了具有满意接触力的 US 图像。该平台的可行性已在临床研究中得到证实。
