Real-Time Visual Servoing of a Robot Using Three-Dimensional Ultrasound

— This paper presents a robotic system capable of using three-dimensional ultrasound to guide a surgical instrument to a tracked target location. Tracking of both the surgical instrument and target was done using image based algorithms on the real-time 3D ultrasound data. The tracking techniques are shown to be especially amenable for execution on powerful graphics processor units. By harnessing a graphics card, it was possible to detect both a surgical instrument and a surgical target at a rate of 25 Hz. The high update rate permits the use of tracked instrument and target locations for controlling a robot. Validation of the system was done in a water tank, where the robot moved the instrument to the target site

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: ICRA
• Authors: Paul M. Novotny, Jeffrey A. Stoll, Pierre E. Dupont, Robert D. Howe
• Keywords: ICRA 2007, Robotics, Surgical Instrument, Surgical Target, Target Locations