Automatic guidance of an ultrasound probe by visual servoing based on B-mode image moments

R. Mebarki (1) , A. Krupa (1) , Christophe Collewet (1)

1 Lagadic - Visual servoing in robotics, computer vision, and augmented reality

We propose a new visual servo approach to automatically control in real-time the full motion of a 2D ultrasound (US) probe held by a medical robot in order to reach a desired image of motionless soft tissue object in B-mode ultrasound imaging. Combinations of image moments of the observed object cross-section are used as feedback information in the visual control scheme. These visual features are extracted in real-time from the US image thanks to a fast image segmentation method. Simulations performed with a static US volume containing an egg-shaped object, and ex-vivo experiments using a robotized US probe that interacts with a motionless rabbit heart immersed in water, show the validity of this new approach and its robustness to different perturbations. This method shows promise for a variety of US-guided medical interventions that require real-time servoing.

Mots clés: SONDE ECHOGRAPHIQUE

Mots clés: MOMENTS

Domaines: Robotique [cs.RO]

R. Mebarki, A. Krupa, Christophe Collewet. Automatic guidance of an ultrasound probe by visual servoing based on B-mode image moments. Int. Conf. on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention, MICCAI'08, LNCS 5242, 2008, New York, France. pp.339-346. ⟨inria-00351873⟩