An integrated robotics and medical control device to quantify atheromatous plaques: experiments on the arteries of a patient

We study the income of an integrated robotics and medical device, using a force-control law to measure arterial distensibility and to reconstruct in 3D the atheromatous plaques in the arteries. During the medical control, sonographer holds the ultrasound probe attached on the end-effector of the robot and brings it onto the skin of the patient. Then, he can simply get an accurate measure of the arterial distension with a given applied force. He can also teach the robot a scan trajectory in order to reconstruct in 3D the artery. For this reconstruction the robot executes the learnt trajectory step by step, with a programmable and constant force on the artery, recording the Cartesian coordinates of the artery sections. At the same time, the control device synchronizes the recorded images on the patient heartbeat. The very precise set of images and the medical control can be reproduced later under the same conditions. The results are very encouraging and promising.