Development of a Robotic Carotid Blood Flow Measurement System - A Compact Ultrasonic Probe Manipulator Consisting of a Parallel Mechanism

Abstract

We developed a robot system for the wave intensity measurement of carotid blood flow using ultrasonic diagnostic equipment in order to reduce the inconvenience for the patient and doctor. The robot system has an ultrasonic probe manipulator consisting of a 6-DOF linear parallel link mechanism. There are two control modes for the robotic measurements: direct positioning by hand using virtual compliance control and remote control by using a 6-axis force/torque sensor. We confirmed that the probe manipulator works effectively to measure the blood flow by experiments using human subjects