Abstract
Optical ultrasound, where ultrasound is both generated and received using light, can be integrated in very small diameter instruments making it ideally suited to minimally invasive interventions. One-dimensional information can be obtained using a single pair of optical fibres comprising of a source and detector but this can be difficult to interpret clinically. In this paper, we present a robotic-assisted scanning solution where a concentric tube robot manipulates an optical ultrasound probe along a consistent trajectory. A torque coil is utilized as a buffer between the curved nitinol tube and the probe to prevent torsion on the probe and maintain the axial orientation of the probe while the tube is rotating. The design and control of the scanning mechanism are presented along with the integration of the mechanism with a fibre-based imaging probe. Trajectory repeatability is assessed using electromagnetic tracking and a technique to calibrate the transformation between imaging and robot coordinates using a known model is presented. Finally, we show example images of 3D printed phantoms generated by collecting multiple OpUS A-scans within the same 3D scene to illustrate how robot-assisted scanning can expand the field of view.
Highlights
O PTICAL Ultrasound (OpUS) is an emerging imaging modality where ultrasound is both generated and detected optically
The concentric tube manipulator allows the orientation of the sensor to be controlled about two axes while a torque coil between the OpUS sensor and the curved nitinol tube maintains the axial orientation of the sensor during scanning
This paper has presented the design, fabrication and initial characterisation of a concentric tube based scanning mechanism
Summary
O PTICAL Ultrasound (OpUS) is an emerging imaging modality where ultrasound is both generated and detected optically. The use of optical fibres has allowed for OpUS imaging probes to have exceptionally small diameters (< 1.0 mm) [1], [2]. For a single pair of optical fibres (transmitter and receiver), an A-scan can be formed comprised of depth information from ultrasound reflections along a single axis. OpUS, as an interventional imaging modality, has a number of potential advantages over conventional piezoelectric based ultrasound. The small diameter of optical fibres means that OpUS is naturally suited to minimally invasive interventions; it is electromagnetically compatible and the fibres can be produced at a relatively low cost. There is promising potential for OpUS to be used as an alternative to conventional ultrasound in endoluminal procedures where flexible instrumentation is needed, for example
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