Kohji Masuda | PubMed Health

PubMed2003

Development of a tele-echography system by using an echographic diagnosis robot.

We have developed a tele-diagnosis system of echography (tele-echography system) using an Echographic Diagnosis Robot. The examiner moves the robot by using a control device at a distance from the patient and obtaining the echogram and the situation around the patient. The examiner and the patient locations are connected by a wireless local area network. Remote control is realized by the Object Request Broker (ORB) technique. We experimentally verified possibility of our system for clinical use. The robot was safe and stable even when there was slight movement of the patient and an adult patient never felt any discomfort due to the robot weight. Remote diagnosis of echograms was proved to be possible with sufficient image quality after a skilled examiner got used to controlling the robot. Since the required bandwidth of this system was at most 1Mbps, we confirmed the ability of this system for mobile robotic telemedicine.

Humans↗

PubMed2003

Robot-based tele-echography: the TER system.

This paper presents a master-slave robotized system enabling a remote echographic diagnosis. The expert holds a virtual probe placed on a haptic device; he moves this virtual probe in order to control the motion of the real probe positioned on the body of the patient located remotely. The real probe is placed on a lightweight and user-friendly slave robot and moved by it. The contact force between the probe and the patient is fed back to the operator allowing him to have a haptic virtual environment. The aim of this haptic control is to preserve the medical expert proprioception in order to the facilitate hand-eye coordination necessary to echographic examination. In this paper we present the architecture of the system and experimental results.

France↗