KINEMATIC ANALYSES OF A NEW MEDICAL ROBOT FOR 3D VASCULAR ULTRASOUND EXAMINATION

Abstract

Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is a common vascular disease which can have serious consequences for older people. Owing to the complexity of the vessels in the lower limbs, current PAD medical robots are not desirable to diagnose PAD in this area. The kinematic model of a novel six-axis serial-parallel robot for 3D vascular ultrasound examination of the lower limbs is presented in this paper. The prototype of the robot is described, and then the direct and inverse kinematic problems are solved in closed form.