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(a) The Universal Robot UR5 robot and the adopted kinematic model without and with additional joint. (b) The Panda robot from Franka Emika along with the first and the last frames, Σ 0 and Σ 7 , respectively. q = [q 1 , . . . q n ] T and ˙ q = [ ˙ q 1 , . . . ˙ q n ] T are the joint angles vector and the vector of their time derivatives, respectively. The geometric Jacobians J of the three manipulators satisfies:
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Tele-examination based on robotic technologies is a promising solution to solve the current worsening shortage of physicians. Echocardiography is among the examinations that would benefit more from robotic solutions. However, most of the state-of-the-art solutions are based on the development of specific robotic arms, instead of exploiting COTS (co...
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... kinematics is similar to an anthropomorphic arm, with the noticeable difference that the last three R joints are not arranged in a spherical wrist fashion, so that all six joints contribute to both the translational and rotational motion of the end-effector [28]. A description of the kinematics of the robot is reported in Figure 3a, whereas Table 1 reports the Denavit-Hartenberg parameterization of the robot. In Figure 3a, Σ 6 and Σ 7 are the frames attached to the end-effector without and with additional joint, respectively. ...
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... description of the kinematics of the robot is reported in Figure 3a, whereas Table 1 reports the Denavit-Hartenberg parameterization of the robot. In Figure 3a, Σ 6 and Σ 7 are the frames attached to the end-effector without and with additional joint, respectively. ...
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... for the UR5, the wrist is not spherical, hence all joints contribute to both the position and orientation of the end-effector. The robot is shown in Figure 3, whereas Table 1 reports the Denavit-Hartenberg parameters as reported by the manufacturer. For the Panda robot, the same notation of the UR5 with additional DoF holds. ...
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... addition to these variables, we include the position of the patient with respect to the robot base in the optimization problem. To do that, we consider that the patient is steady with respect to the global frame Σ 0 attached to the base of the robot (see Figure 3) and that the pose of its reference frame Σ s with regard to Σ 0 is defined by To simplify the notation, when possible, we refer to x to mean the optimization array. ...
Citations
... To reduce the cost of RUSS, commercial robotic manipulators e.g., Universal Robot (University robot, Denmark) and Franka Emika Panda (Franka Emika GmbH, Germany) are often used as PSM (Filippeschi et al., 2021;Mathiassen et al., 2016) [see Fig. 3 (b) and (c)]. It is noteworthy that another typical standard robotic arm KUKA LBR iiwa (KUKA Robotics GmbH, Germany), with integrated joint torque sensors, is also commonly employed as a PSM (Schreiter et al., 2022b,a). ...
Ultrasound (US) is one of the most widely used modalities for clinical intervention and diagnosis due to the merits of providing non-invasive, radiation-free, and real-time images. However, free-hand US examinations are highly operator-dependent. Robotic US System (RUSS) aims at overcoming this shortcoming by offering reproducibility, while also aiming at improving dexterity, and intelligent anatomy and disease-aware imaging. In addition to enhancing diagnostic outcomes, RUSS also holds the potential to provide medical interventions for populations suffering from the shortage of experienced sonographers. In this paper, we categorize RUSS as teleoperated or autonomous. Regarding teleoperated RUSS, we summarize their technical developments, and clinical evaluations, respectively. This survey then focuses on the review of recent work on autonomous robotic US imaging. We demonstrate that machine learning and artificial intelligence present the key techniques, which enable intelligent patient and process-specific, motion and deformation-aware robotic image acquisition. We also show that the research on artificial intelligence for autonomous RUSS has directed the research community toward understanding and modeling expert sonographers' semantic reasoning and action. Here, we call this process, the recovery of the "language of sonography". This side result of research on autonomous robotic US acquisitions could be considered as valuable and essential as the progress made in the robotic US examination itself. This article will provide both engineers and clinicians with a comprehensive understanding of RUSS by surveying underlying techniques.
... Different robot design methodologies have been proposed using the combination of optimization algorithms and performance indices as objective functions. Some of them report algorithms such as MultiStart to optimize manipulability index [2], minimization of dexterity index [3], and exhaustive method to optimize volume, workspace, dexterity, and static efficiency [4]. Robot design proposals based on bio-inspired algorithms like particle swarm optimization (PSO) have been reported in the literature. ...
... From (1) L is the length sum of the links a i−1 and offsets d i−1 (2). ...
Robotic systems are essential to technological development in the industrial, medical, and aerospace sectors. Nevertheless, their use in different applications requires that the robot have the best possible execution efficiency. For this, a robot with specific optimized characteristics is necessary to impact the performance of the specific task. Different techniques have been used in robot optimization, the most widely used being genetic algorithms (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO). However, there are optimization algorithms with high convergence speeds inspired by animal behavior, whose application in robot optimization has not been reported. In this work, bio-inspired algorithms Harris hawks optimization (HHO) and Grey wolf optimizer (GWO) are applied to a six-degree-of-freedom (6DOF) robot arm design through kinematic optimization. The lengths of the main robot links are optimized to improve the workspace volume and obtain a better-conditioned robot using the structural length index (SLI) and global condition index (GCI) as objective functions. A comparison is made between the proposed algorithms and GA and PSO regarding convergence speed, computational load, and optimality. Similar behavior has been found for HHO, GWO, and PSO compared to GA for both indexes. For the GCI problem, an average improvement of 14% was found when optimizing an industrial robot arm. Furthermore, multiple runs experiment is performed to test the robustness of the algorithms. The results show that HHO is the best technique to obtain an optimal robot design because it needs less than ten iterations to provide a better result despite its computational load.
... Most of the current research regarding ultrasonic robotics is in related to tele sonography (Swerdlow, 2017;Adams et al., 2021;Filippeschi et al., 2021) which is an interesting concept to consider in relation to obstetric ultrasound in cases where a distant specialist is required, but this is however not within the scope of this study. A recent study investigated multi-dimensional force and angle calibration; however, the study did not investigate forces related to obstetric US, but rather abdominal scans (Wang et al., 2021). ...
The ratio of experienced work-related musculoskeletal discomfort among obstetric sonographers has been reported to be as high as 80–90%. Risk factors are excessive probe contact forces long reach and static positions. Robot Assisted Ultrasound has potential to reduce the risks but in order to design such solutions, a critical need exists for a deeper understanding of the related risk factors. This involves quantification of the imposed transducer contact forces during obstetric scans. Thus, the objective of this study was to provide more accurate probe-contact force information through the recording of probe contact forces during scans of 40 pregnant women. Factors addressed were operator experience, subject Body Mass Index (BMI), foetus size, gestational age and the purpose of the scan. The BMI of the pregnant women had a significant correlation with the mean and maximum contact forces. The mean and maximum axial contact forces were 9.05 N and 37.63 N, respectively. The dependency of the applied transducer contact force versus the operator experience was found significant. The study results provide design information about required contact forces for robotic solutions to the ergonomic challenges of the sonographers.
Mobile manipulators have been widely used in modern industrial fields due to their advantages of large operating workspace and high motion dexterity. For the application, the path planning has been a core foundation for its motion control. However, as the environmental complexity and performance requirements increase, existing methods are limited by low execution efficiency, and lack of comprehensive consideration of motion performances. A motion planning technique is proposed for mobile manipulators with continuous trajectory task. In this technique, a hierarchical constraints dimension reduction (HCDR) strategy is presented based on the task decomposition and performance requirements analysis of each stage. HCDR strategy aims to improve the execution efficiency of the algorithm through local operations of performance constraints and the local simplification of the distance calculation at different stages of the task. Models of inverse kinematics and performance indexes are established to provide basis for constraint conditions, including distance models with different accuracy, manipulability index model and trajectory tracing error model. Two optimization strategies are presented to solve the motion planning problem considering the overall performance of the system. And simulation results show that the three-level strategy has the higher convergence efficiency than the bi-level strategy, as well as can guarantee the motion performance of the system.
Ultrasound (US) is one of the most widely used modalities for clinical intervention and diagnosis due to the merits of providing non-invasive, radiation-free, and real-time images. However, free-hand US examinations are highly operator-dependent. Robotic US System (RUSS) aims at overcoming this shortcoming by offering reproducibility, while also aiming at improving dexterity, and intelligent anatomy and disease-aware imaging. In addition to enhancing diagnostic outcomes, RUSS also holds the potential to provide medical interventions for populations suffering from the shortage of experienced sonographers. In this paper, we categorize RUSS as teleoperated or autonomous. Regarding teleoperated RUSS, we summarize their technical developments, and clinical evaluations, respectively. This survey then focuses on the review of recent work on autonomous robotic US imaging. We demonstrate that machine learning and artificial intelligence present the key techniques, which enable intelligent patient and process-specific, motion and deformation-aware robotic image acquisition. We also show that the research on artificial intelligence for autonomous RUSS has directed the research community toward understanding and modeling expert sonographers' semantic reasoning and action. Here, we call this process, the recovery of the "language of sonography". This side result of research on autonomous robotic US acquisitions could be considered as valuable and essential as the progress made in the robotic US examination itself. This article will provide both engineers and clinicians with a comprehensive understanding of RUSS by surveying underlying techniques. Additionally, we present the challenges that the scientific community needs to face in the coming years in order to achieve its ultimate goal of developing intelligent robotic sonographer colleagues. These colleagues are expected to be capable of collaborating with human sonographers in dynamic environments to enhance both diagnostic and intraoperative imaging.
With modern medicine and healthcare services improving in leaps and bounds, the integration of telemedicine has helped in expanding these specialised healthcare services to remote locations. Healthcare telerobotic systems form a component of telemedicine, which allows medical intervention from a distance. It has been nearly 40 years since a robotic technology, PUMA 560, was introduced to perform a stereotaxic biopsy in the brain. The use of telemanipulators for remote surgical procedures began around 1995, with the Aesop, the Zeus, and the da Vinci robotic surgery systems. Since then, the utilisation of robots has steadily increased in diverse healthcare disciplines, from clinical diagnosis to telesurgery. The telemanipulator system functions in a master–slave protocol mode, with the doctor operating the master system, aided by audio-visual and haptic feedback. Based on the control commands from the master, the slave system, a remote manipulator, interacts directly with the patient. It eliminates the requirement for the doctor to be physically present in the spatial vicinity of the patient by virtually bringing expert-guided medical services to them. Post the Covid-19 pandemic, an exponential surge in the utilisation of telerobotic systems has been observed. This study aims to present an organised review of the state-of-the-art telemanipulators used for remote diagnostic procedures and surgeries, highlighting their challenges and scope for future research and development.
