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Download PDFOpen PDF in browserTowards Autonomous Robotic Ultrasound Scanning Using Pneumatically Attachable Flexible RailsEasyChair Preprint 82212 pages•Date: June 10, 2022AbstractRobotic-assisted partial nephrectomy (RAPN) is a surgi- cal procedure that employs robotics to remove a portion of diseased kidney. During the procedure, a drop-in Ultrasound (US) probe is used to identify the resec- tion margins. Although the robot facilitates the task, the scanning of the kidney proves challenging due to slippage and requires a highly skilled surgeon. In this work, we investigate autonomous control during the US scanning using the PAF rails, specifically using fibre-optic shape-sensing data as the input for path- planning. First, we present the design and fabrication of the sensorized PAF rail; then we assess the performance of real-time curvature sensing with the sensorized PAF rail system on rigid and soft phantoms; finally, we demonstrate how the PAF rail local shape data can be used to plan a trajectory and autonomously guide an intraoperative US probe.We autonomously guided an ultrasound probe during the scan of a kidney phantom from the sensed curvature of the PAF rails. Here, we present promising results but, further study is needed to improve the US trajectory accuracy as we made several assumptions. Namely, curvature uniformity along the width of the rail, we manually positioned the probe perpendicular to the rail to reduce the problem from 3-D to 2-D planning, and we did not account for the offset between the US probe and the PSM1 tip.Overall, we demonstrate the applicability of shape sens- ing in soft robotics to automate an intraoperative robotic US scan. In a further study, we aim to perform multiple US swipe sequences to enhance the US scan quality and compare the robot performance against clinical standards. Keyphrases: Curvature sensing, Fibre Optics, Laparoscopy, Medical Robots and Systems, Robotic-assisted partial nephrectomy, Shape sensing, Soft Sensors, Soft robot applications, Soft robot materials and design, da Vinci Research Kit, soft actuators, surgical robotics Download PDFOpen PDF in browser |
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