A robot for ultrasound examinations

Abstract

This paper presents a new design of a slave robot carrying an US (ultrasound) probe for remote ultrasound examination, that will allow an ultrasound probe to be orientated and translated with respect to its axial direction. This robot will be integrated to a master-slave system called TERMI (Tele-Ecografía Robotizada de los Miembros Inferiores, in Spanish). The system will be controlled by a medical specialist to perform a remote diagnostic from ultrasound data. The patient will be in the slave site away from the physician. This system offers the advantage to supply medical assistance in places where there are not medical experts for the examination of patients. The research focuses in a new robot mechanical design to perform diagnostic of the venous thrombosis disease in lower members. The architecture consists of a rigid mechanism with four degrees of freedom, adapted to the dimensions of a linear ultrasound probe. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.