On mimicking human’s manipulation for robot-assisted spine ultrasound imaging

Purpose: This paper aims to develop a new robotic ultrasound system for spine imaging with more anthropomorphic scanning manipulation in comparison with previously reported techniques. Design/methodology/approach: The system evaluates the imaging quality of ultrasound (US) B-scans by detecting vertebral landmarks and groups the images with relatively low quality into several sub-optimal types. By imitating the scanning skills of sonographers, the authors defined a set of adjustment strategies for certain sub-optimal types. In this way, the robot can recollect the US images with high quality by adaptively adjusting the pose of the probe like a sonographer. Findings: The results from phantom experiments and in vivo experiments showed that the proposed method could improve the quality of B-scans during the scanning. The 3 D US volume reconstruction has also verified the feasibility of the proposed method. Originality/value: This paper demonstrates how to adapt a robotic spinal ultrasound scanning using a preliminary anthropomorphic approach.