Method and apparatus for automated control of an ultrasound transducer

Abstract

An apparatus and method for automatically controlling rotation of a transducer that is mechanically coupled to a motor are disclosed. The apparatus includes a motor controller coupled to the motor and a microprocessor. The motor controller includes a state-machine and an encoder. The microprocessor is coupled to the state-machine. Two methods for automatically controlling rotation of an ultrasound transducer are disclosed. The first method includes the steps of providing a microprocessor coupled to a motor controller, the motor controller comprising a state-machine and a speed setting circuit, and initializing the state-machine by providing a desired speed and a target position from the microprocessor. The first method further includes the step of automatically selecting the desired speed from the speed setting circuit in accordance with the initialized state-machine. The first method further includes rotating the ultrasound transducer at the selected speed. The second method for automatically controlling rotation of an ultrasound transducer includes the steps of storing a first speed, a second speed, a target position, and a preliminary target position in a state-machine, rotating the ultrasound transducer in a desired direction at the first speed, switching the rotation of the ultrasound transducer to the second speed when the ultrasound transducer reaches the preliminary target position, and stopping rotation of the ultrasound transducer when the ultrasound transducer reaches the target position.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.