Intravascular Tracking of Micro-Agents Using Medical Ultrasound: Towards Clinical Applications

Scientific paper - Original scientific paper

• Author: Filip Šuligoj
• Author: Christoff M. Heunis
• Author: Sumit Mohanty
• Author: Sarthak Misra
• Author's institution: University of Zagreb; Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: TECHNICAL SCIENCES; Mechanical Engineering; General Mechanical Engineering (Construction)

Abstract (english)

Abstract—Objective: This study demonstrates
intravascular micro-agent visualization by utilizing
robotic ultrasound-based tracking and visual servoing
in clinically-relevant scenarios. Methods: Visual servoing
path is planned intraoperatively using a body surface
point cloud acquired with a 3D camera and the vessel
reconstructed from ultrasound (US) images, where both
the camera and the US probe are attached to the robot endeffector.
Developed machine vision algorithms are used
for detection of micro-agents from minimal size of 250m
inside the vessel contour and tracking with error recovery.
Finally, real-time positions of the micro-agents are used for
servoing of the robot with the attached US probe. Constant
contact between the US probe and the surface of the body
is accomplished by means of impedance control. Results:
Breathing motion is compensated to keep constant
contact between the US probe and the body surface,
with minimal measured force of 2.02N. Anthropomorphic
phantom vessels are segmented with an Intersection-
Over-Union (IOU) score of 0.930.05, while micro-agent
tracking is performed with up to 99.8% success rate at
28-36 frames per second. Path planning, tracking and
visual servoing are realized over 80mm and 120mm long
surface paths. Conclusion: Experiments performed using
anthropomorphic surfaces, biological tissue, simulation
of physiological movement and simulation of fluid flow
through the vessels indicate that robust visualization and
tracking of micro-agents involving human patients is an
achievable goal.

• Keywords (english): Microrobotics; Medical Robotics; Machine vision; Ultrasound imaging; Visual servoing
• Language: english
• Publication type: Scientific paper - Original scientific paper
• Publication status: Published
• Peer review: Peer review - international
• Publication version: Published version
• Journal title: IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering
• Numbering: vol. 69, no. 12, pp. 3739-3747
• p-ISSN: 0018-9294
• e-ISSN: 1558-2531
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/TBME.2022.3176746
• URN:NBN: urn:nbn:hr:235:162155
• Publication: 2022-12
• Document URL: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9780008/
• Type of resource: Text
• Access conditions: Open access
• Created on: 2024-07-09 07:01:30