Autonomous robotic point of care ultrasound imaging
AssigneesThe Johns Hopkins University, University of Maryland, Baltimore
InventorsAxel Krieger, Thorsten Roger Fleiter, Lidia Al-Zogbi
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Abstract
A system for and method of autonomously robotically acquiring an ultrasound image of an organ within a bony obstruction of a patient is presented. The techniques include acquiring an electronic three-dimensional patient-specific representation of the bony obstruction of the patient; obtaining an electronic representation of a target location in or on the organ within the bony obstruction of the patient; determining, automatically, position and orientation of an ultrasound probe to acquire an image of the target location; and directing, autonomously, and by a robot, the ultrasound probe on the patient to acquire the image of the target location based on the position and orientation.
Claims20
A method of autonomously robotically acquiring an ultrasound image of an organ within a bony obstruction of a patient, the method comprising:
- acquiring an electronic three-dimensional patient-specific representation of the bony obstruction of the patient;
- obtaining an electronic representation of a target imaging location in or on the organ within the bony obstruction of the patient;
- determining, automatically, a position and orientation of an ultrasound probe to acquire an image of the target imaging location, wherein the determining comprises determining the position and orientation based on a weighted function of a plurality of material densities, wherein the weighted function comprises a non-zero weight for bone material, a non-zero weight for air material, and a non-zero weight for soft tissue material, and wherein the weighted function comprises weights for pixels of the electronic three-dimensional patient-specific representation in between a point of contact of the ultrasound probe and the target imaging location;
- and
- directing, autonomously, and by a robot, the ultrasound probe on the patient to acquire the image of the target imaging location based on the position and orientation.
A system for autonomously robotically acquiring an ultrasound image of an organ within a bony obstruction of a patient, the system comprising:
- an electronic processor that executes instructions to perform operations comprising:
- acquiring an electronic three-dimensional patient-specific representation of the bony obstruction of the patient,
- obtaining an electronic representation of a target imaging location in or on the organ within the bony obstruction of the patient, and
- determining, automatically, a position and orientation of an ultrasound probe to acquire an image of the target imaging location, wherein the determining comprises determining the position and orientation based on a weighted function of a plurality of material densities, wherein the weighted function comprises a non-zero weight for bone material, a non-zero weight for air material, and a non-zero weight for soft tissue material, and wherein the weighted function comprises weights for pixels of the electronic three-dimensional patient-specific representation in between a point of contact of the ultrasound probe and the target imaging location;
- and
- a robot communicatively coupled to the electronic processor, the robot comprising an effector couplable to an ultrasound probe, the robot configured to direct the ultrasound probe on the patient to acquire the image of the target imaging location based on the position and orientation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.