Robotic arm with X-ray source
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorG. S. Sampath Kumar
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An X-ray system includes a multiple degree of freedom robotic arm mounted to a surface of a radiology suite, the robotic arm having one or more telescoping arm members, an X-ray source mounted on an end effector of the multiple degree of freedom robotic arm, at least one X-ray detector, and a work station coupled to the robotic arm, X-ray source, and X-ray detector, wherein the work station is configured to compute robotic arm trajectories for at least one scanning procedure and to control the robotic arm, X-ray source, and X-ray detector to effect the at least one scanning procedure.
Claims17
An X-ray system comprising:
- a multiple degree of freedom robotic arm mounted to a surface of a radiology suite, the robotic arm having a plurality of telescoping arm members, wherein the plurality of telescoping arm members includes at least three arm members comprising a base arm member, an upper arm member, and a lower arm member each having independent telescoping capability;
- an X-ray source mounted on an end effector of the multiple degree of freedom robotic arm;
- at least one X-ray detector;
- and
- a work station coupled to the robotic arm, X-ray source, and X-ray detector, wherein the work station is configured to compute robotic arm trajectories for at least one scanning procedure and to control the robotic arm, X-ray source, and X-ray detector to effect the at least one scanning procedure;
- wherein the plurality of telescoping arm members of the robotic arm are independently rotatable around an axis, extendable and retractable to provide an X-ray source coverage area corresponding to dimensions of the radiology suite.
A method of X-ray imaging comprising:
- mounting a multiple degree of freedom robotic arm to a surface of a radiology suite, the robotic arm having a plurality of telescoping arm members, wherein the plurality of telescoping arm members includes at least three arm members comprising a base arm member, an upper arm member, and a lower arm member each having independent telescoping capability;
- mounting an X-ray source on an end effector of the multiple degree of freedom robotic arm;
- providing at least one X-ray detector positioned to receive radiation produced by the X-ray source;
- computing robotic arm trajectories for at least one scanning procedure and controlling the robotic arm, X-ray source, and X-ray detector to effect the at least one scanning procedure;
- independently rotating around an axis, extending and retracting the plurality of telescoping arm members of the robotic arm to provide an X-ray source coverage area corresponding to dimensions of the radiology suite.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.