Medical robot operation control method and system
Through millimeter-wave wireless communication and deterministic network technology, the problem of insufficient flexibility in operation and control of medical robots is solved, high bandwidth and low latency data transmission and precise control are realized, robot design is simplified, and resource utilization efficiency is improved.
Patent Information
- Application Number
- CN202510527733.9
- Authority / Receiving Office
- CN · China
- Patent Type
- Patents(China)
- Current Assignee / Owner
- Filing Date
- 2025-04-25
- Publication Date
- 2025-07-04
- Estimated Expiration
- 2045-04-25
AI Technical Summary
The existing medical robot systems lack operational control flexibility, transmission delay and bandwidth, making it difficult to meet the needs of high performance, high intelligence and high flexibility.
The millimeter-wave wireless communication module is used to replace traditional cables, combine deterministic network technology to realize high bandwidth and low latency transmission of ultrasonic data, and image processing and analysis are carried out in the remote processing system to generate accurate control instructions.
It improves the freedom of movement and operational flexibility of medical robots in complex environments, ensures low latency and high reliability of data transmission, simplifies robot design, reduces cost and power consumption, and improves resource utilization efficiency.
Smart Images

Figure CN120048099B_ABST
Abstract
Description
Technical Field
[0001] The present invention relates to the technical field of medical robots, and particularly to a method and system for operating and controlling a medical robot. Background Art
[0002] In recent years, with the rapid development of robot technology, artificial intelligence (AI), and network communication technology, medical robots have been increasingly widely used in the fields of surgical operations, diagnostic imaging, rehabilitation therapy, etc. Especially in minimally invasive interventional therapy and precise diagnosis, using robots to assist doctors in operations can improve the surgical precision, reduce trauma, lower doctor fatigue, and is expected to achieve remote coverage of high-quality medical resources. Due to its non-invasive, real-time, portable, and relatively low-cost advantages, ultrasonic imaging is often used as the main guiding means in these robot-assisted operation processes.
[0003] However, the existing ultrasonic-guided medical robot systems still face many challenges in technical implementation:
[0004] Restriction of wired connection: Traditionally, a multi-core cable is usually used to connect a conventional ultrasonic probe and a processing host to transmit a large amount of raw radio frequency or channel data. This wired connection limits the movement range and operation flexibility of the robot. Especially in a complex surgical environment, the cable is prone to entanglement, interference with the sterile area, and may cause unstable connection or damage due to dragging.
[0005] Restriction of traditional ultrasonic equipment: Conventional ultrasonic hosts are usually large in size, expensive, and their processing capabilities and algorithms are relatively fixed, making it difficult to efficiently integrate with lightweight and flexible robot end effectors. Integrating the entire ultrasonic host into the robot system will increase the system complexity and cost.
[0006] Contradiction between real-time performance and computing power: Precise robot control and real-time ultrasonic image processing (such as advanced beamforming, AI real-time analysis) both require powerful computing capabilities. If all calculations are placed in the embedded controller of the robot body, it will pose extremely high requirements on the size, weight, power consumption, and cost of the robot, and it is often difficult to achieve a balance between high performance and miniaturization, low power consumption. Limited by volume, power consumption, and heat dissipation, the computing power of the robot body is often insufficient, and the limited local computing power of the robot is difficult to support the most advanced real-time processing algorithms, restricting the image quality and intelligent level; if the data is transmitted to a remote server for processing, the traditional IP network transmission delay and jitter are difficult to meet the millisecond-level real-time requirements for medical operations.
[0007] Data Transmission Bottleneck: For data transmission between existing robots and remote servers, wired and wireless technologies can be adopted. However, traditional wired technologies have problems such as short transmission distance and poor user experience in ultrasonic scenarios, and are not suitable as the data access method for ultrasonic signals. When adopting traditional wireless technologies, considerations such as large bandwidth, miniaturization, low power consumption, and low cost of the acquisition device are required. However, among existing wireless technologies, the 5G uplink bandwidth is a bottleneck, and telecom operators need to customize dedicated lines. Even if expensive dedicated lines are used, the peak rate of a single device is limited (about 1 Gbps), which is difficult to meet the lossless raw data transmission. Moreover, the cost of 5G dedicated lines will be very high; although Wi-Fi 6 has improvements, the actual available high-bandwidth channels are limited, and the theoretical bandwidth upper limit after multi-stream aggregation (such as 1.2 Gbps) is difficult to stably reach in an actual interference environment and may not be sufficient to support multi-channel raw data streams; although terahertz and Li-Fi technologies have very high theoretical bandwidths, they are extremely sensitive to line-of-sight occlusion and have relatively high power consumption requirements for transmission, and are not suitable for robotic operation scenarios with flexible movement and possible occlusion. In addition, existing wireless technologies (including 5G and Wi-Fi) mainly rely on Best Effort IP network transmission, which is difficult to ensure the millisecond-level low latency and extremely low jitter required for medical operation control. Network congestion or interference may lead to control delays and instruction losses, endangering operation safety. Therefore, while meeting the requirements of ultra-high bandwidth, low power consumption, low cost, and miniaturization, it is necessary to solve the real-time and reliability problems of wireless transmission.
[0008] In summary, there are obvious multiple technical challenges in the existing technologies for realizing a high-performance, highly intelligent, and highly flexible ultrasonic-guided medical robot system, such as connection methods, computing power deployment, data transmission bandwidth, and real-time performance, which restrict the full play of its clinical application potential. Summary of the Invention
[0009] Based on this, the purpose of the present invention is to provide a medical robot operation control method and system to fundamentally solve the problem of insufficient flexibility in the operation control of existing medical robot operation control.
[0010] According to a medical robot operation control method of an embodiment of the present invention, the method includes:
[0011] Using at least one ultrasonic probe configured on the medical robot to collect ultrasonic data of the target area in real time;
[0012] Using a millimeter-wave communication module configured on the medical robot to send the collected ultrasonic data to a remote processing system through a preset wireless communication protocol;
[0013] Using the millimeter-wave communication module, receive the control instructions generated after the remote processing system processes the received ultrasonic data, where the control instructions include motion parameters and operation parameters;
[0014] Using a controller configured on the medical robot, drive the motion execution mechanism of the medical robot to adjust the current posture or spatial position according to the motion parameters in the received control instructions, and drive the designated operating device installed on the medical robot to perform a predetermined diagnostic assistance or treatment intervention operation according to the operation parameters in the received control instructions.
[0015] In addition, a method for operating and controlling a medical robot according to the above embodiments of the present invention may further have the following additional technical features:
[0016] Further, the step of using the millimeter-wave communication module configured on the medical robot to send the collected ultrasonic data to the remote processing system through a preset wireless communication protocol includes:
[0017] Using the millimeter-wave communication module configured on the medical robot, send the collected ultrasonic data to one of the multiple millimeter-wave access points deployed in the operating environment;
[0018] Using the millimeter-wave access point to transmit the received ultrasonic data to the remote processing system through a wired bearer network configured to support deterministic network functions.
[0019] Further, the step of using the millimeter-wave communication module configured on the medical robot to send the collected ultrasonic data to one of the multiple millimeter-wave access points deployed in the operating environment includes:
[0020] Using the millimeter-wave communication module configured on the medical robot to scan a preset millimeter-wave channel to discover beacon frames or probe responses sent by multiple available millimeter-wave access points in the operating environment;
[0021] The millimeter-wave communication module selects a target millimeter-wave access point from the discovered available millimeter-wave access points for connection based on a preset selection criterion;
[0022] The millimeter-wave communication module performs an authentication and association process with the selected target millimeter-wave access point to establish a wireless link;
[0023] The millimeter-wave communication module performs baseband processing on the collected ultrasonic data and up-converts the signal after baseband processing to a predetermined millimeter-wave operating frequency band, where the baseband processing includes channel coding and digital modulation;
[0024] The millimeter-wave communication module sends the up-converted millimeter-wave signal to the target millimeter-wave access point through the established wireless link.
[0025] Further, the steps for the millimeter-wave communication module to perform an authentication and association process with a selected target millimeter-wave access point to establish a wireless link include:
[0026] The millimeter-wave communication module executes a predefined authentication protocol with the selected target millimeter-wave access point to verify the identities of both parties and establish a security context;
[0027] The millimeter-wave communication module sends an association request to the target millimeter-wave access point and establishes a logical connection after receiving an association response;
[0028] The millimeter-wave communication module and the target millimeter-wave access point exchange beamforming training information including antenna direction information, and each calculates and adjusts the weight coefficients of the signal phase and / or amplitude of its own millimeter-wave phased array antenna according to the received beamforming training information to form a directional wireless link pointing to the other party.
[0029] Further, the step for the millimeter-wave communication module to send the up-converted millimeter-wave signal to the target millimeter-wave access point through the established wireless link further includes:
[0030] The millimeter-wave communication module continuously monitors the wireless link quality parameters of the currently connected target millimeter-wave access point and periodically or based on trigger events scans the signal quality parameters of other neighboring available millimeter-wave access points;
[0031] When the wireless link quality parameters of the millimeter-wave communication module and the currently connected target millimeter-wave access point are lower than a preset handover threshold and the signal quality parameters of at least one neighboring available millimeter-wave access point are better than the current wireless link quality parameters, the millimeter-wave communication module selects the one with the best signal quality from the neighboring available millimeter-wave access points as the new target millimeter-wave access point;
[0032] The millimeter-wave communication module executes a fast handover protocol with the new target millimeter-wave access point to establish a new wireless link, and the fast handover protocol includes a fast authentication and association process.
[0033] Further, the step of using the millimeter-wave access point to transmit the received ultrasonic data to a remote processing system through a wired bearer network configured to support deterministic network functions includes:
[0034] Synchronize the time of network devices in the wired bearer network and the remote processing system using the Precision Time Protocol;
[0035] The network controller is used to calculate a fixed forwarding path for the ultrasonic data stream through the wired bearer network, and calculate and determine the network resources to be reserved for the ultrasonic data stream, where the network resources include bandwidth resources and buffer resources;
[0036] The network controller is used to configure the reserved network resources in the network devices on the fixed forwarding path, and configure the parameters of the periodic scheduling mechanism aligned with the synchronization time, where the periodic scheduling mechanism is selected from time-based gating scheduling or cyclic queue forwarding;
[0037] The network devices on the fixed forwarding path are used to control the ultrasonic data stream to be forwarded along the fixed forwarding path according to the configured reserved network resources and the parameters of the periodic scheduling mechanism according to the predetermined time rules, so as to provide data transmission with a predetermined delay upper limit and a predetermined jitter upper limit.
[0038] Further, the step of using the millimeter-wave communication module to receive the control instructions generated after the remote processing system processes the received ultrasonic data includes:
[0039] The remote processing system executes a digital beamforming algorithm to process the received ultrasonic data and reconstruct an ultrasonic image of the target area;
[0040] The remote processing system applies a pre-trained diagnostic analysis model to analyze the reconstructed ultrasonic image and identify the anatomical structures or mark potential lesion areas therein;
[0041] The remote processing system calculates and generates control instructions including motion parameters and operation parameters for guiding the medical robot to perform the next action according to the analysis results of the diagnostic analysis model and the currently preset treatment or diagnostic plan;
[0042] The remote processing system sends the generated control instructions to the millimeter-wave communication module configured on the medical robot through a preset wireless communication protocol;
[0043] The millimeter-wave communication module is used to receive the control instructions sent by the remote processing system.
[0044] Further, the specified operating device installed on the medical robot is a microwave ablation probe or a radiofrequency ablation electrode, and the operation parameters include power and time parameters;
[0045] The step of driving the motion execution mechanism of the medical robot to adjust the current posture or spatial position according to the motion parameters in the received control instructions, and driving the specified operating device installed on the medical robot to perform a predetermined diagnostic assistance or treatment intervention operation according to the operation parameters in the received control instructions specifically includes:
[0046] According to the motion parameters in the control instruction, drive the motion execution mechanism to move and position the end effector carrying the microwave ablation probe or radiofrequency ablation electrode to the target lesion position identified and confirmed by the remote processing system;
[0047] According to the operation parameters in the control instruction, drive the microwave ablation probe or radiofrequency ablation electrode to emit energy according to the power and time parameters set in the operation parameters, and perform thermal ablation operation.
[0048] Further, the designated operating device installed on the medical robot is a puncture needle with a driving mechanism, and the operation parameters include puncture depth and puncture type;
[0049] The steps of driving the motion execution mechanism of the medical robot to adjust the current posture or spatial position according to the motion parameters in the received control instruction, and driving the designated operating device installed on the medical robot to perform a predetermined diagnostic assistance or treatment intervention operation according to the operation parameters in the received control instruction specifically include:
[0050] According to the motion parameters in the control instruction, drive the motion execution mechanism to move and position the end effector carrying the puncture needle to the puncture target point position determined by the remote processing system;
[0051] According to the operation parameters in the control instruction, drive the driving mechanism of the puncture needle to perform a needle insertion action to a specified puncture depth, and perform tissue sample acquisition, targeted drug injection, or cyst puncture and drainage operation according to the puncture type after reaching the puncture depth.
[0052] Another object of an embodiment of the present invention is to provide a medical robot operation control system, the system includes:
[0053] At least one ultrasonic probe for real-time acquisition of ultrasonic data of the target area;
[0054] A millimeter-wave communication module connected to the ultrasonic probe for sending the acquired ultrasonic data to the remote processing system through a preset wireless communication protocol, and receiving the control instruction generated after the remote processing system processes the received ultrasonic data, the control instruction including motion parameters and operation parameters;
[0055] At least one motion execution mechanism for driving the medical robot body or its components to move;
[0056] At least one operating device installed on the medical robot body; and
[0057] A controller connected to the millimeter-wave communication module, the motion execution mechanism, and the operating device respectively, configured to drive the motion execution mechanism to adjust the current posture or spatial position according to the motion parameters in the received control instruction, and drive the specified operating device to perform a predetermined diagnostic assistance or treatment intervention operation according to the operation parameters in the received control instruction.
[0058] The medical robot operation control method provided by the embodiments of the present invention uses millimeter-wave wireless communication to replace traditional cables, completely eliminating the bondage of physical connections, significantly improving the mobility and operation flexibility of medical robots in complex environments such as operating rooms, and reducing the trouble and potential safety hazards brought by cable management; millimeter-wave communication provides an ultra-high bandwidth of Gbps level, which can transmit ultrasonic raw data without substantial compression or even losslessly in real time, retaining the most complete information, laying a foundation for high-quality processing by the remote processing system. Combining with deterministic network technology, it ensures low latency (millisecond level) and high reliability (extremely low jitter and packet loss rate) of data transmission, meeting the strict requirements of real-time control and medical operations for time determinacy; through precise analysis based on high-quality raw data and the remote processing system, the remote processing system can generate more accurate control instructions (motion parameters and operation parameters) to guide the medical robot to perform more precise positioning, scanning, and treatment operations (such as puncture, ablation); by moving complex calculations out of the robot body, it helps to simplify the design of the robot side, reduce its size, weight, power consumption, and cost, making it easier to integrate into existing medical devices or surgical procedures. At the same time, remote computing resources can be centrally managed and shared, improving resource utilization efficiency; it solves the problem of insufficient operation control flexibility of existing medical robots. Brief Description of the Drawings
[0059] Figure 1 It is a schematic flowchart of the medical robot operation control method in the first embodiment of the present invention;
[0060] Figure 2 It is a schematic structural diagram of the medical robot operation control system in the second embodiment of the present invention;
[0061] The following specific embodiments will further illustrate the present invention in conjunction with the above-mentioned drawings. Specific Embodiments
[0062] To facilitate the understanding of the present invention, the present invention will be described more comprehensively below with reference to the relevant drawings. Several embodiments of the present invention are given in the drawings. However, the present invention can be implemented in many different forms and is not limited to the embodiments described herein. On the contrary, these embodiments are provided to make the disclosure of the present invention more thorough and comprehensive.
[0063] It should be noted that when an element is referred to as being "fixed to" another element, it can be directly on the other element or there can also be an intermediate element. When an element is considered to be "connected to" another element, it can be directly connected to the other element or there may be an intermediate element at the same time. The terms "vertical", "horizontal", "left", "right" and similar expressions used herein are for illustrative purposes only.
[0064] Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the technical field to which this invention belongs. The terms used herein in the specification of the present invention are for the purpose of describing specific embodiments only and are not intended to limit the present invention. The term "and / or" used herein includes any and all combinations of one or more of the related listed items.
[0065] Embodiment 1
[0066] Please refer to Figure 1 , which shows the medical robot operation control method in the first embodiment of the present invention. For the sake of convenience of description, only the parts related to the embodiments of the present invention are shown. The medical robot operation control method provided by the embodiments of the present invention includes:
[0067] Step S10, using at least one ultrasonic probe configured on the medical robot to collect ultrasonic data of the target area in real time;
[0068] Among them, in one embodiment of the present invention, this method is applied to a medical robot operation control system, which includes a medical robot equipped with an ultrasonic probe, a millimeter-wave communication module, a multi-degree-of-freedom robotic arm (as a motion execution mechanism), a puncture needle and its end effector (as an operating device), a microwave ablation probe or a radiofrequency ablation electrode and its end effector (as an operating device), and a controller, as well as a plurality of edge computing servers (as a remote processing system) deployed inside the hospital and several millimeter-wave access points deployed in the operating room.
[0069] At the beginning of the operation, a doctor or technician specifies the target puncture or ablation area through the human-machine interface. According to the instruction, the controller of the medical robot drives the motion execution mechanism to move the ultrasonic probe near the target area. The transducer array built into the ultrasonic probe is activated by the controller and emits ultrasonic waves to the target area according to a preset transmission sequence (for example, emitting focused ultrasonic pulses). The ultrasonic probe receives the echo signals reflected or scattered by the tissue in the target area. The analog front-end (AFE) circuit closely connected to or integrated on the medical robot processes the echo signals received by each channel. The processing includes low-noise amplification, time gain compensation, anti-aliasing filtering, and analog-to-digital conversion. Among them, low-noise amplification is used to amplify weak echo signals; time gain compensation is used to compensate for signal attenuation according to depth; anti-aliasing filtering is used to filter out noise above the Nyquist frequency; analog-to-digital conversion is used to convert analog signals into digital signal streams at a high sampling rate (such as >60 MHz) and high bit width (such as 14 bits). At this time, the ultrasonic data of the target area collected by the ultrasonic probe is the original channel data or RF data, which contains the complete time-domain waveform information received by all transducer arrays, and the data volume is huge. For example, for a 128-element probe, it may reach several Gbps. Therefore, a large bandwidth is required for wireless data transmission.
[0070] Step S20: Use the millimeter-wave communication module configured on the medical robot to send the collected ultrasonic data to the remote processing system through a preset wireless communication protocol;
[0071] Among them, in an embodiment of the present invention, the step of using the millimeter-wave communication module configured on the medical robot to send the collected ultrasonic data to the remote processing system through a preset wireless communication protocol includes:
[0072] Use the millimeter-wave communication module configured on the medical robot to send the collected ultrasonic data to one of the multiple millimeter-wave access points deployed in the operating environment;
[0073] Use the millimeter-wave access point to transmit the received ultrasonic data to the remote processing system through a wired bearer network configured to support deterministic network functions.
[0074] Among them, it should be noted that during ultrasonic examination, good operation convenience is required. Considering that the size and weight of the millimeter-wave communication module may still be relatively large in a short period of time, if it is integrated with the ultrasonic probe, it will inevitably increase the weight and size of the probe, which will affect the operation convenience of the medical robot. On the other hand, during the process of the medical robot controlling the ultrasonic probe to continuously move for scanning, diagnosis or treatment, the possibility that the millimeter-wave signal emitted by the millimeter-wave communication module blocked by the medical robot is relatively large. For the above reasons, in an embodiment of the present invention, it is preferably to decouple the millimeter-wave communication module from the ultrasonic probe. At this time, the ultrasonic probe is connected to the millimeter-wave communication module through a wired link, so as to avoid the inconvenience brought by the extra weight of the millimeter-wave communication module to the operation and reduce the risk of signal occlusion. Specifically, the digital ultrasonic data stream is transmitted through a high-speed, flexible hybrid cable connecting the ultrasonic probe and the millimeter-wave communication module. This cable uses differential signal transmission (such as LVDS or a higher-speed interface standard) to ensure signal integrity and may simultaneously provide low-voltage DC power for the ultrasonic probe. At the same time, the millimeter-wave communication module is physically separated from the ultrasonic probe, for example, placed on a trolley beside the medical robot. Therefore, even if the ultrasonic probe is physically blocked in a certain direction, as long as the cable is okay, the ultrasonic data can reach the separately arranged millimeter-wave communication module, thereby effectively improving the problem of wireless path signal attenuation or interruption caused by the millimeter-wave communication module integrated on the ultrasonic probe being blocked during the movement of the medical robot.
[0075] Further, in an embodiment of the present invention, the steps of using the millimeter-wave communication module configured on the medical robot to send the collected ultrasonic data to one of the multiple millimeter-wave access points deployed in the operation environment include:
[0076] Using the millimeter-wave communication module configured on the medical robot to scan the preset millimeter-wave channels to discover beacon frames or probe responses sent by multiple available millimeter-wave access points in the operation environment;
[0077] The millimeter-wave communication module selects a target millimeter-wave access point to connect from the discovered available millimeter-wave access points based on a preset selection criterion;
[0078] The millimeter-wave communication module performs an authentication and association process with the selected target millimeter-wave access point to establish a wireless link;
[0079] The millimeter-wave communication module performs baseband processing on the collected ultrasonic data and up-converts the signal after baseband processing to a predetermined millimeter-wave operating frequency band. The baseband processing includes channel coding and digital modulation;
[0080] The millimeter-wave communication module sends the up-converted millimeter-wave signal to the target millimeter-wave access point through the established wireless link.
[0081] Specifically, after the millimeter-wave communication module is started, its control unit will instruct the millimeter-wave transceiver to perform passive or active scanning on a preset set of millimeter-wave channels according to a preset strategy (such as when idle, periodically, or according to network-side instructions) to configure the millimeter-wave channel list. Among them, passive scanning is to listen to the beacon frames periodically broadcast by the millimeter-wave access point. The beacon frames contain information such as the identifier (BSSID) of the millimeter-wave access point (AP, Access Point), network name (SSID), supported rate, security policy, and channel information. Active scanning is that the millimeter-wave communication module broadcasts probe request frames on each channel. At this time, the millimeter-wave access point that receives the request will reply with a probe response frame, providing information similar to the beacon frame. Finally, the millimeter-wave communication module constructs a list containing the available millimeter-wave access points around and their basic information. The millimeter-wave access point serves as a bridge to connect the millimeter-wave communication module and the wired network infrastructure. The millimeter-wave access point receives data from the millimeter-wave communication module through the millimeter-wave signal, and then forwards the data to the remote processing system through its wired interface (usually an Ethernet interface or a fiber optic interface). The millimeter-wave access point itself usually does not perform complex millimeter-wave signal processing. Its main responsibility is to establish and manage wireless connections, and forward data packets between the wireless (millimeter-wave communication module to millimeter-wave access point) and wired (millimeter-wave access point to remote processing system) networks.
[0082] Furthermore, after the control unit of the millimeter-wave communication module collects the information of all available millimeter-wave access points, it evaluates the millimeter-wave access points in the discovered millimeter-wave channel list according to one or more preset selection criteria (algorithms) and determines a target millimeter-wave access point for connection attempt. These selection criteria may include signal strength (RSSI), signal quality (SNR), AP load, or specific network requirements, etc. The signal strength selection criterion is to select the millimeter-wave access point with the strongest signal. The signal quality selection criterion is to select the millimeter-wave access point with the highest signal-to-noise ratio. The AP load selection criterion is that if the millimeter-wave access point broadcasts load information (such as the number of connected devices, channel utilization rate), then select the millimeter-wave access point with a lighter load. The specific network requirement criterion is to preferentially select the millimeter-wave access point that supports specific QoS capabilities or belongs to a specific network.
[0083] Further, the millimeter-wave communication module performs an authentication and association process with the selected target millimeter-wave access point to establish a wireless link. Further, the baseband processor within the millimeter-wave communication module receives a high-bitrate ultrasonic data stream from the wired link and performs channel coding (such as LDPC), adding redundant check bits to detect and correct possible bit errors in the wireless transmission at the receiving end, improving transmission reliability. Digital modulation (such as 64-QAM, 256-QAM) is also performed to map the encoded bit stream to the amplitude / phase state points of the millimeter-wave carrier. Further, the modulated digital baseband signal (I / Q signal) is sent to the millimeter-wave radio frequency transceiver. At this time, the millimeter-wave radio frequency transceiver mixes the modulated baseband signal with a high-frequency carrier (such as 60 GHz), shifting the signal spectrum to the predetermined millimeter-wave operating frequency band. Thus, through baseband processing and upconversion, the digital ultrasonic data is converted into a high-frequency analog signal suitable for wireless transmission and capable of being transmitted in the millimeter-wave band to resist channel noise and interference, ultimately generating a high-frequency millimeter-wave analog signal carrying ultrasonic data to be transmitted.
[0084] Further, the upconverted millimeter-wave signal is amplified by a power amplifier. At this time, the amplified signal is fed to the millimeter-wave phased array antenna of the millimeter-wave communication module, where the phased array antenna radiates the amplified millimeter-wave signal in the form of a directional beam towards the target millimeter-wave access point. The data transmission follows the MAC layer (Media Access Control) rules of the selected millimeter-wave wireless communication protocol, such as how to access the channel, frame format, etc., which will not be elaborated here.
[0085] Further, in an embodiment of the present invention, the steps for the millimeter-wave communication module to perform an authentication and association process with the selected target millimeter-wave access point to establish a wireless link include:
[0086] The millimeter-wave communication module executes a predefined authentication protocol with the selected target millimeter-wave access point to verify the identities of both parties and establish a security context;
[0087] The millimeter-wave communication module sends an association request to the target millimeter-wave access point and establishes a logical connection after receiving an association response;
[0088] The millimeter-wave communication module and the target millimeter-wave access point exchange beamforming training information containing antenna direction information, and each calculates and adjusts the weight coefficients of the signal phase and / or amplitude of its own millimeter-wave phased array antenna according to the received beamforming training information to form a directional wireless link pointing to each other.
[0089] Specifically, the millimeter-wave communication module and the selected target millimeter-wave access point execute a predefined authentication protocol agreed upon by both parties. In a medical environment, where strong security is usually required, an EEAP-based protocol (such as EAP-TLS, EAP-PEAP) combined with a RADIUS server may be used for authentication, or standards such as WPA3-Enterprise based on certificates may be used to ensure that only authorized millimeter-wave communication modules can access the network and that the communication is encrypted. The authentication process involves message exchange to verify identities and generate a session key. At this time, both parties exchange certificates or credentials, verify each other's identities, and negotiate a session key for subsequent data encryption, ultimately establishing a secure context. After successful authentication, the millimeter-wave communication module sends an association request frame to the target millimeter-wave access point, requesting to join the network served by the millimeter-wave access point. If the millimeter-wave access point accepts the request, it will reply with an association response frame and assign an association ID to the millimeter-wave communication module. At this point, a logical connection is established between the millimeter-wave communication module and the millimeter-wave access point, and the millimeter-wave communication module logically joins the network served by the millimeter-wave access point, ensuring that only legitimate millimeter-wave communication modules can access the network and establishing an encrypted channel and a logical link for subsequent data transmission.
[0090] Further, after completing the above-mentioned authentication and logical connection, beamforming training is carried out. Specifically, a series of predefined beamforming training information containing antenna direction information is exchanged between the millimeter-wave communication module and the target millimeter-wave access point. The beamforming training information is some special signal sequences or training frames known to both parties in advance, which are used to detect the signal propagation effects in different directions. This process is usually two-way, that is, the millimeter-wave communication module sends training signals to the millimeter-wave access point, and the millimeter-wave access point also sends training signals to the millimeter-wave communication module. The training mechanism may include that the sender alternately transmits training signals in different preset directions (sectors), and the receiver measures the signal strength in each direction to find the best receiving sector. After finding the best sector, more refined beam adjustment can be carried out to further optimize the signal quality. The training signals may directly include the antenna configuration information of the sender or the recommended receiving direction information to accelerate the training process. Further, both the millimeter-wave communication module and the target millimeter-wave access point calculate the optimal phased array antenna weight coefficients (the complex gains of each antenna element, that is, amplitude and phase) according to the received training information (for example, which direction has the strongest signal and the highest signal-to-noise ratio) using internal algorithms (such as least mean square error LMS, recursive least squares RLS, etc.). And load the calculated weight coefficients into their respective phased array antenna controllers to adjust the phase and / or amplitude of the actual transmitted / received signals, so as to form a high-gain, narrow-beam, and precisely directed wireless link to the other party. Compared with omnidirectional antennas, higher signal gains (link budgets) can be obtained, supporting higher data rates and longer transmission distances, and reducing interference in other directions.
[0091] Further, in an embodiment of the present invention, the step of the millimeter-wave communication module sending the up-converted millimeter-wave signal to the target millimeter-wave access point through the established wireless link further includes:
[0092] The millimeter-wave communication module continuously monitors the wireless link quality parameters of the currently connected target millimeter-wave access point, and periodically or based on trigger events scans the signal quality parameters of other neighboring available millimeter-wave access points;
[0093] When the wireless link quality parameters of the millimeter-wave communication module and the currently connected target millimeter-wave access point are lower than the preset handover threshold, and the signal quality parameters of at least one neighboring available millimeter-wave access point are better than the current wireless link quality parameters, the millimeter-wave communication module selects the one with the best signal quality from the neighboring available millimeter-wave access points as the new target millimeter-wave access point;
[0094] The millimeter-wave communication module and the new target millimeter-wave access point execute a fast handover protocol to establish a new wireless link, and the fast handover protocol includes a fast authentication and association process.
[0095] Specifically, the control unit of the millimeter-wave communication module continuously monitors the quality parameters of the currently connected wireless link, such as RSSI, SNR, PER / BER, etc. Among them, RSSI is the signal strength, SNR is the signal-to-noise ratio, and PER / BER is the packet / bit error rate. At the same time, the millimeter-wave communication module will use the transmission gap or dedicated time window to periodically (for example, every few hundred milliseconds) or based on trigger events (for example, when the current link quality is lower than a certain warning threshold), briefly scan other channels and measure the signal quality of neighboring available millimeter-wave access points. Then, the current wireless link quality parameters are compared with one or more preset handover thresholds, and at the same time, the current wireless link quality parameters are compared with the signal quality parameters of other neighboring available millimeter-wave access points scanned. If the current wireless link quality parameters are lower than the preset handover threshold and there is a neighboring millimeter-wave access point whose signal quality parameter is better than the current link (usually, it is also required to be better than a specific threshold to avoid ping-pong handover), then from all neighboring millimeter-wave access points that meet the handover conditions, the neighbor with the best signal quality is selected as the new target millimeter-wave access point. Once the handover is decided, the millimeter-wave communication module immediately initiates the fast handover protocol with the new target millimeter-wave access point. The fast handover protocol includes a fast authentication and association process. Specifically, using the partial security context or cached key information established with the new target millimeter-wave access point before (for example, during the initial scan or with the assistance of the network side), a simplified and faster authentication and association process is executed. Specifically, if the network supports, the millimeter-wave communication module and the new target millimeter-wave access point may skip the complete EAP authentication using the master key or cached key information established with the authentication server before and complete some authentication steps with the potential target millimeter-wave access point before the handover. At the same time, using the information obtained from the previous scan or the fast beam training mechanism defined in the protocol, an optimized directional beam is quickly established with the new target millimeter-wave access point. After the handover is successful, the millimeter-wave communication module updates its transmission target and sends subsequent data packets to the new target millimeter-wave access point. Therefore, even in the case of deterioration of the original link caused by movement or occlusion, the millimeter-wave communication module can quickly and automatically switch to a better millimeter-wave access point to maintain the continuous and reliable transmission of the ultrasonic data stream.
[0096] Further, in an embodiment of the present invention, the step of using the millimeter-wave access point to transmit the received ultrasonic data to the remote processing system through a wired bearer network configured to support deterministic network functions includes:
[0097] Synchronize the time of the network devices and the remote processing system in the wired bearer network using the Precision Time Protocol;
[0098] Use a network controller to calculate a fixed forwarding path for the ultrasonic data stream through a wired bearer network, and calculate and determine the network resources to be reserved for the ultrasonic data stream. The network resources include bandwidth resources and buffer resources;
[0099] Use the network controller to configure the reserved network resources in the network devices on the fixed forwarding path, and configure the parameters of a periodic scheduling mechanism aligned with the synchronization time. The periodic scheduling mechanism is selected from time-based gating scheduling or cyclic queue forwarding;
[0100] Use the network devices on the fixed forwarding path to control the ultrasonic data stream to be forwarded along the fixed forwarding path according to the configured reserved network resources and the parameters of the periodic scheduling mechanism, in accordance with a predetermined time rule, so as to provide data transmission with a predetermined delay upper limit and a predetermined jitter upper limit.
[0101] Specifically, deploy the Precision Time Protocol (PTP-IEEE 1588) throughout the wired bearer network, and specify one or more master clocks in the network, usually high-precision and stable clock devices. All network devices (switches, routers) participating in deterministic forwarding and remote processing systems run the PTP protocol stack as PTP slave clocks or boundary clocks / transparent clocks. The slave clocks exchange PTP protocol messages with precise timestamps with the master clock, and use the path delay measurement mechanism to continuously adjust their local clocks to keep them highly consistent with the master clock time, achieving a synchronization accuracy at the nanosecond or microsecond level, providing a unified and precise time reference for all subsequent time-based scheduling operations.
[0102] Among them, when a deterministic connection needs to be established for the ultrasonic data stream, its network controller receives a request to establish a deterministic connection for the ultrasonic data stream (such as from the target millimeter-wave access point to a specific edge computing node), where the request includes a flow identifier, source / destination addresses, and QoS requirements (such as maximum latency, maximum jitter, required bandwidth). The network controller needs to know the real-time topology of the network and the current resource usage of network devices (link bandwidth occupancy, queue status, scheduling arrangements of existing deterministic flows, etc.). At this time, the network controller runs a constraint-based path calculation algorithm (such as an extended Dijkstra algorithm considering latency, hop count, and link bandwidth) to calculate a fixed forwarding path in the network topology that meets the QoS requirements and has available resources. The network controller checks the available resources of each node and link along the calculated fixed forwarding path, and calculates the network resources that need to be reserved for each node on the fixed forwarding path according to the characteristics of the data stream (such as average rate, maximum burst) and the characteristics of the selected path. The network resources specifically include bandwidth resources and buffer resources. The bandwidth resources ensure that each link on the path has sufficient available bandwidth (for example, peak rate); the buffer resources are how much queue buffer needs to be allocated on each network device to temporarily store the data packets of the ultrasonic data stream to prevent packet loss caused by instantaneous rate fluctuations or scheduling waits.
[0103] Furthermore, the network controller distributes the calculated fixed forwarding path information to each network device on the path through a control protocol, which is usually reflected in configuring specific flow table rules (matching the ultrasonic data stream, with the action of forwarding to the specified next hop) or Segment Routing information. Furthermore, the network controller converts the calculated bandwidth and buffer resource requirements into specific configuration commands (such as queue size settings, bandwidth limit parameters) and distributes them to the corresponding ports and queues of the corresponding network devices. Furthermore, the network controller distributes the calculated periodic scheduling mechanism parameters (such as GCL list or CQF queue allocation / forwarding timing) for the ultrasonic data stream to the hardware scheduler of the network device. At this time, by configuring the calculated path, resources, and scheduling rules into the network device, the network device is ready to perform deterministic forwarding.
[0104] Furthermore, when an ultrasonic data packet from a millimeter-wave access point arrives at a certain network device on the path, the network device first identifies the ultrasonic data stream that requires deterministic guarantee according to the packet header information (such as five-tuple, VLAN Tag, MPLS label, or specific field), and puts it into a designated queue with pre-configured resources. The forwarding engine of the network device operates strictly according to the configured periodic scheduling mechanism parameters and the synchronized clock. Since the bandwidth and buffer of the relevant queue have been reserved, and the transmission time window is exclusive or protected, the packet transmission will not be interfered by other (low-priority) traffic and will not be discarded due to insufficient resources. At this time, by precisely controlling the forwarding time and path of each packet at each network device node and ensuring the required resources, the end-to-end predetermined delay upper limit (the sum of fixed delays of each segment) and the predetermined jitter upper limit (the queuing jitter is eliminated or controlled within a very small range) are finally achieved.
[0105] It should be noted that the network controller is a logically independent (physically may be independently deployed or may run as software on a server or cloud platform) control plane entity. For example, the network controller can be an independent software application running on a dedicated server or virtual machine, and this server can be located in the hospital's data center or in the cloud. If the hospital's network adopts a software-defined network (SDN) architecture, the network controller can be integrated into the SDN controller, where the SDN controller itself is a platform for centralized network control. If the entire system is uniformly managed by the cloud platform, the network controller can also exist as a service module of the cloud platform. At this time, the network controller is a logically centralized control point that can communicate with relevant devices in the network (the wired interface side of the millimeter-wave access point, network devices (switches and routers), DPU / network cards of the remote processing system) to obtain network status, calculate paths and resources, and issue configuration instructions. The network controller is not located on the data forwarding path but interacts with the data plane devices through control protocols.
[0106] Among them, in an embodiment of the present invention, when the periodic scheduling mechanism is selected from time-based gated scheduling, the steps of configuring the periodic scheduling mechanism parameters aligned with the synchronization time include: The network controller calculates and distributes a gating list for the corresponding output port of each network device on the fixed forwarding path of the ultrasonic data stream. The gating list specifies the exact time points when the gate of the queue corresponding to the ultrasonic data stream is opened and closed within each scheduling cycle. Among them, the network controller calculates a gating list (GCL) for the relevant output port of each network device on the path (i.e., the ultrasonic stream will be sent from this port), and distributes and programs the gating list into the hardware scheduler of the network device through the control protocol. Among them, the gating list is a schedule that precisely defines at which time points the gate of the hardware queue assigned to the ultrasonic data stream should be opened within each repeated scheduling cycle, how long it should be opened, and at which time points it should be closed. Among them, the above steps of controlling the ultrasonic data stream to be forwarded along the fixed forwarding path on the network device according to the predetermined time rule include: The network device only opens the gate of the queue within the time window specified by the gating list to allow the ultrasonic data stream to be forwarded along the fixed forwarding path. Specifically, the hardware scheduler of the network device runs strictly according to the synchronization clock and the loaded gating list. When the time reaches the opening time point specified in the gating list for the queue, the hardware opens the gate of the queue. Within the time window when the gate is open, if there are data packets in the queue, they are sent out in order (usually FIFO) and following the fixed path rule. When the time reaches the closing time point specified by the gating list, the hardware scheduler closes the gate of the queue, and even if there are still data packets in the queue, the transmission is paused until the next assigned opening time window.
[0107] Among them, in an embodiment of the present invention, when the periodic scheduling mechanism is selected from cyclic queue forwarding, the steps of configuring the parameters of the periodic scheduling mechanism aligned with the synchronization time include: configuring a forwarding period for the network device. The network controller defines or configures a forwarding period for each network device on the path uniformly. At the same time, the controller may also need to configure in which (or which) cyclic queue the data packet should be processed. The above steps of controlling the ultrasonic data stream to be forwarded along a fixed forwarding path on the network device according to a predetermined time rule include: the network device caches the received ultrasonic data stream and delays it until a specific time point within the next or subsequent predetermined forwarding period to send the cached ultrasonic data stream along the fixed forwarding path. Specifically, when a data packet belonging to the ultrasonic data stream arrives at the network device, the network device puts it into a specific cache queue (usually associated with the next forwarding period) according to its arrival time and the configured forwarding period. The network device holds this data packet without forwarding it immediately until a predetermined time point in the next forwarding period (such as the start of the period or a fixed offset within the period), and then the network device takes out the data packet from the cache queue and sends it out according to the fixed path rule. This process ensures that the data packet experiences a fixed delay approximately equal to the forwarding period (or its multiple) at each node, thereby smoothing the jitter of the arrival time.
[0108] Furthermore, the specific workflow for the above millimeter-wave access point to transmit ultrasonic data through a wired bearer network is as follows: The target millimeter-wave access point receives the up-converted millimeter-wave signal from the millimeter-wave communication module through its millimeter-wave antenna. Further, the radio frequency front-end inside the target millimeter-wave access point amplifies, filters, and down-converts the signal to restore it to the baseband. Further, the baseband processing unit of the target millimeter-wave access point demodulates (such as QAM demodulation) and channel decodes (such as LDPC decoding) the baseband signal to restore the original digitized ultrasonic data stream. Further, the restored ultrasonic data stream is sent to the wired network interface of the target millimeter-wave access point (such as an SFP+ / QSFP port supporting Gigabit Ethernet or optical fiber), where if necessary, the target millimeter-wave access point may encapsulate the original ultrasonic data stream and package it into a standard network data packet (such as encapsulated in UDP / IP or a specific tunneling protocol), and the above encapsulation step can also be completed in the millimeter-wave communication module, in which case the target millimeter-wave access point only needs to forward it. Necessary header information may be added during encapsulation, including identifiers for identifying the data stream (such as VLAN ID, MPLS label, Flow Label, etc.), and possibly deterministic network-related metadata (if the protocol requires it to be carried in the data packet). The target millimeter-wave access point, as the boundary node between the wireless domain and the wired deterministic network, may act as the entrance to the deterministic network, or the first switch adjacent to the target millimeter-wave access point may act as the entrance to the deterministic network. If the entrance processing is performed here, the target millimeter-wave access point (or the first-hop switch) needs to perform flow classification, marking, and traffic shaping. Flow classification is used to identify that this is an ultrasonic data stream that requires deterministic guarantee, marking is used to assign a specific priority mark or flow identifier to the data packet, and traffic shaping is used to shape the data stream that may still have a small amount of bursts from the wireless link to make it smoother and meet the requirements of subsequent deterministic network scheduling. Further, the wired interface side of the target millimeter-wave access point (and all switches and routers on the subsequent path) are synchronized with the network master clock through PTP. When the data packet arrives at the first switch on the path, the switch determines the next hop and the output port to be used for the data packet according to the fixed forwarding path pre-distributed by the network controller. The data packet is placed in the high-priority queue of the output port, and the switch processes it according to the PTP synchronized clock and the periodic scheduling mechanism parameters configured by the network controller. If it is time-based gated scheduling, the switch waits until the time window corresponding to the queue opens before allowing the data packet to be sent out of the queue. If it is circular queue forwarding, the switch caches the data packet and delays it until a specific time point in the next predetermined period before sending it out.Among them, the data packet follows the fixed forwarding path specified by the network controller. On each switch / router that supports deterministic network functions on the path, the above scheduling and forwarding processes are repeated. At each node, the data packet is processed and forwarded according to the predetermined time rules. Since the network controller has reserved bandwidth and buffer resources, the data packet will not be lost due to network congestion or experience excessive queuing delays during transmission (except for the predictable delays introduced by the scheduling mechanism itself). After being transmitted through the deterministic wired bearer network, the ultrasonic data stream finally reaches the remote processing system. Due to the guarantee of the deterministic network, the arriving data stream has very low jitter and predictable, bounded end-to-end delay. The receiving node in the remote processing system receives the data packet, performs decapsulation (if necessary), and sends the recovered ultrasonic data to the upper-layer application or memory for processing.
[0109] Step S30: Use the millimeter-wave communication module to receive the control instructions generated after the remote processing system processes the received ultrasonic data. The control instructions include motion parameters and operation parameters.
[0110] Among them, in an embodiment of the present invention, the step of using the millimeter-wave communication module to receive the control instructions generated after the remote processing system processes the received ultrasonic data includes:
[0111] The remote processing system executes the digital beamforming algorithm to process the received ultrasonic data and reconstruct the ultrasonic image of the target area.
[0112] The remote processing system applies the pre-trained diagnostic analysis model to analyze the reconstructed ultrasonic image and identify the anatomical structures or mark potential lesion areas therein.
[0113] The remote processing system calculates and generates control instructions including motion parameters and operation parameters for guiding the next action of the medical robot according to the analysis results of the diagnostic analysis model and the currently preset treatment or diagnostic plan.
[0114] The remote processing system sends the generated control instructions to the millimeter-wave communication module configured on the medical robot through the preset wireless communication protocol.
[0115] Use the millimeter-wave communication module to receive the control instructions sent by the remote processing system.
[0116] Specifically, the remote processing system receives the raw ultrasonic data stream from the robot and first runs a high-performance digital beamforming algorithm to synthesize multi-channel data into high-definition two-dimensional or three-dimensional ultrasonic images in real time. The digital beamforming algorithm can include Delay-and-Sum (DAS), advanced beamforming. In Delay-and-Sum, the signals of each received channel are appropriately delay-compensated and then added together to form a beam at the desired focus. Advanced beamforming uses more complex algorithms, such as minimum variance beamforming, coherent plane wave compounding, filter-based beamforming, or deep learning-based AI beamforming, to improve image resolution, contrast, and frame rate. At this time, the reconstructed ultrasonic image data can be the grayscale value matrix of the B-mode image, the velocity / variance map of color Doppler, or spectral Doppler data, etc. Further, the reconstructed ultrasonic image is fed into one or more pre-trained diagnostic analysis models to identify the anatomical structures therein or mark potential lesion areas. These diagnostic analysis models perform segmentation, detection / localization, measurement, and classification tasks. Segmentation is to automatically outline important anatomical structures (such as organ boundaries, blood vessels) or regions of interest (ROIs); detection / localization is to identify and mark potential lesions (such as tumors, stones, cysts) and output their precise spatial coordinates (relative to the ultrasonic image coordinate system); measurement is to automatically measure the identified structures or lesions (such as diameter, volume, blood flow velocity, etc.); classification is to make a preliminary judgment on the benign or malignant nature of the lesions or distinguish their types. At this time, the diagnostic analysis model analyzes the reconstructed ultrasonic image and outputs structured information, such as the names and position coordinates of the identified anatomical structures; the marked potential lesion areas (bounding boxes, segmentation masks), sizes, morphological feature descriptions, possible benign or malignant scores; the positions and directions of key blood vessels and nerves; whether the current image is a standard diagnostic section and how to adjust the probe to obtain a standard section; and various automatically calculated biophysical parameters (such as lesion diameter, volume, blood flow velocity, etc.).
[0117] Furthermore, the remote processing system receives the analysis results of the diagnostic analysis model and the currently preset treatment or diagnostic plan, calculates the actions that the robot needs to perform next, and converts them into specific control instructions. Specifically, first, the remote processing system receives the structured information processed by the diagnostic analysis model. Then, the remote processing system obtains the top-level goals and constraints of the current task, which can be set by the doctor before the operation or input in real time through the human-machine interaction interface. For example, they include: 1. Task types, such as "puncture biopsy", "radiofrequency ablation", "targeted injection", "automatically scan a specific area", etc. 2. Target objects, such as which specific lesion or structure identified by the specified diagnostic analysis model is the target of this operation. 3. Operation parameter ranges / constraints, such as the allowable puncture angle range, maximum puncture depth, ablation power / time window, safety margin (important structures that need to be avoided), etc. Furthermore, the remote processing system can also obtain information such as the current pose (end effector position and orientation), joint angles, and force feedback of the medical robot, and the above information can be uploaded periodically by the medical robot. Furthermore, the remote processing system decomposes the top-level task into a series of subtasks or states according to the preset treatment / diagnostic plan type. For example, the puncture biopsy task can be decomposed into moving to the entry point, adjusting the pose to align with the target, performing the puncture, obtaining the sample, and withdrawing the needle. Then, it evaluates whether the current state meets the prerequisite conditions for executing the next subtask, such as whether clear target positioning information has been received, whether the medical robot is in place, and whether the safety constraints are met. Furthermore, the remote processing system determines the target pose that the end effector of the medical robot needs to reach based on the target position identified by the diagnostic analysis model and the preset treatment or diagnostic plan. For example, for puncture, the skin entry point pose and the needle tip target pose need to be determined; for ablation, the center pose of the effective action area of the probe needs to be determined. Furthermore, the remote processing system calls a path planning algorithm to calculate a safe, collision-free, and operation requirement-compliant motion trajectory from the current pose of the medical robot to the target pose. The path planning algorithms include: 1. Sampling-based methods: such as RRT (Rapidly-exploring Random Trees), RRT*, etc., which are suitable for complex environments. 2. Search-based methods: such as A*, D* Lite, etc., which are suitable for structured environments or known maps. 3. Optimization methods: such as trajectory optimization algorithms, which can generate smoother or energy-optimal paths under the satisfaction of constraints. When planning, the kinematic constraints, joint limitations, speed / acceleration limitations of the medical robot need to be considered, and the safety margin information identified by the diagnostic analysis model is used to avoid important structures.Further, the remote processing system converts the calculated motion trajectory (a series of pose points) of the end effector into a target angle sequence for each joint through inverse kinematics of the robot, and encapsulates the calculated target joint angles, target end poses, trajectory point sequences, or specific motion patterns (such as uniform linear motion, specific scanning patterns) as motion parameters. Further, the remote processing system determines specific operation parameters according to the task type (ablation, puncture, injection, etc.) and the analysis results of the diagnostic analysis model (such as lesion size, location, nature), in combination with the preset operation parameter range and the possible clinical guideline knowledge base. For example, for ablation, based on the tumor size and shape, it may be necessary to calculate the optimal power, time, and possibly multiple ablation sites. For puncture, the puncture depth (based on the target point depth and safety margin) and puncture type (biopsy / injection / aspiration) are determined. For injection, the injection dose and rate are determined. Further, the determined parameters (such as power value, time value, depth value, operation type code, etc.) are encapsulated as operation parameters. Further, the remote processing system combines the calculated motion parameters and / or operation parameters, and encapsulates them according to the predefined control instruction protocol format; further adds necessary metadata, such as instruction sequence number, timestamp, target actuator identifier, priority, etc.; and finally generates the final control instruction data packet.
[0118] Among them, the amount of generated control instruction data is usually much smaller than the uplink ultrasound data, but still needs to be transmitted reliably and with low latency. The remote processing system hands the instruction data to its network interface controller (NIC). If the downlink is also configured with a deterministic network, the control instruction data packet will be marked with corresponding timestamps and priority tags, and sent through the reserved path and scheduling mechanism to ensure its low latency and high reliability. The instruction data packet is transmitted through the wired network to the millimeter-wave access point currently connected to the medical robot. The millimeter-wave access point receives the instruction data packet, performs necessary baseband processing (encoding, modulation), and then sends the signal through the directional millimeter-wave link established with the robot. Since it is the downlink, the millimeter-wave access point is the sender and the medical robot is the receiver. The antenna of the millimeter-wave communication module on the robot (usually a phased array antenna that has been beamformed to align with the millimeter-wave access point) receives the millimeter-wave signal from the millimeter-wave access point. The received signal undergoes low-noise amplification and down-conversion back to the baseband. The baseband processor performs demodulation (such as QAM demodulation) and channel decoding (such as LDPC decoding) to recover the original control instruction data bit stream. The millimeter-wave communication module performs integrity verification on the received data (such as CRC verification). After the verification passes, the data packet is parsed according to the predefined protocol format, and each field of the control instruction (instruction ID, parameters, etc.) is extracted. The millimeter-wave communication module transfers the parsed valid control instruction data to the controller of the medical robot through an internal bus (such as PCIe, SPI, or Ethernet).
[0119] Step S40: Using the controller configured on the medical robot, drive the motion execution mechanism of the medical robot to adjust the current posture or spatial position according to the motion parameters in the received control instruction, and drive the designated operating device installed on the medical robot to perform a predetermined diagnostic assistance or treatment intervention operation according to the operation parameters in the received control instruction;
[0120] Among them, in an embodiment of the present invention, the designated operating device installed on the medical robot is a microwave ablation probe or a radiofrequency ablation electrode, and the operation parameters include power and time parameters;
[0121] The steps of driving the motion execution mechanism of the medical robot to adjust the current posture or spatial position according to the motion parameters in the received control instruction, and driving the designated operating device installed on the medical robot to perform a predetermined diagnostic assistance or treatment intervention operation according to the operation parameters in the received control instruction specifically include:
[0122] According to the motion parameters in the control instruction, drive the motion execution mechanism to move and position the end effector carrying the microwave ablation probe or the radiofrequency ablation electrode to the target lesion position identified and confirmed by the remote processing system;
[0123] According to the operation parameters in the control instruction, drive the microwave ablation probe or the radiofrequency ablation electrode to emit energy according to the power and time parameters set in the operation parameters, and perform a thermal ablation operation.
[0124] Specifically, the controller on the medical robot receives a control instruction for an ablation task. The controller parses the instruction and extracts the motion parameters and operation parameters. The motion parameters are the target pose (position coordinates and attitude angles), which corresponds to the target point that the end effector of the robot (carrying the ablation probe / electrode) needs to reach, ensuring that the tip or effective action area of the microwave ablation probe or radiofrequency ablation electrode is aligned with the center of the lesion or the predetermined ablation area. The operation parameters include ablation power and ablation duration. The controller uses the robot kinematic model (forward and inverse kinematics) to calculate the joint motion trajectories required to reach the target pose from the current joint angles. The controller sends control signals (e.g., target angle, speed, or torque instructions) to the servo drivers of each joint. The servo drivers drive the motors to rotate, and through the transmission mechanism, drive the various joints of the robotic arm to move. The controller continuously reads the feedback of each joint encoder to form a closed-loop control, ensuring that the robotic arm moves smoothly and precisely along the calculated trajectory. When the actual pose of the end effector of the robotic arm (calculated based on the encoder feedback) reaches or is very close to the target pose in the instruction, the controller determines that the positioning is completed. This process may also be fine-tuned or safety-checked in combination with the feedback of vision or force sensors. The accuracy of the positioning directly affects the effect and safety of the ablation treatment. After the positioning is completed, usually, the operator needs to perform a final confirmation through the human-machine interface, or the system automatically performs a safety check (e.g., confirming that the probe position is stable and there are no important blood vessels around, etc.). After receiving the trigger signal for ablation (from remote instruction confirmation or local operator confirmation), the controller sends an instruction to the controller of the microwave generator or radiofrequency generator connected to the robot according to the operation parameters in the instruction, sets the output power, starts an internal timer, sets the timing duration, and sends a "start emission" instruction to the microwave generator or radiofrequency generator. At this time, the microwave / radiofrequency generator delivers energy to the microwave ablation probe or radiofrequency ablation electrode carried at the end of the robot according to the set power through the cable. The microwave ablation probe or radiofrequency ablation electrode acts on the target lesion tissue with the energy, generating heat that causes the tissue to coagulate and necrose. The controller monitors the timer. When the timing reaches the set time, the controller immediately sends a "stop emission" instruction to the microwave / radiofrequency generator. The microwave / radiofrequency generator stops outputting energy, and the thermal ablation operation is completed. The controller records the actual ablation time and power and receives the status feedback from the microwave / radiofrequency generator (such as actual output power, impedance monitoring, etc.).
[0125] Wherein, in an embodiment of the present invention, the designated operating device installed on the medical robot is a puncture needle with a driving mechanism, and the operation parameters include puncture depth and puncture type;
[0126] Driving the motion execution mechanism of the medical robot to adjust the current posture or spatial position according to the motion parameters in the received control instruction, and driving the designated operating device installed on the medical robot to perform a predetermined diagnostic assistance or treatment intervention operation according to the operation parameters in the received control instruction specifically includes:
[0127] According to the motion parameters in the control instruction, driving the motion execution mechanism to move and position the end effector carrying the puncture needle to the puncture target point position determined by the remote processing system;
[0128] According to the operation parameters in the control instruction, driving the driving mechanism of the puncture needle to perform a needle insertion action to a specified puncture depth, and performing tissue sample acquisition, targeted drug injection or cyst puncture and drainage operations according to the puncture type after reaching the puncture depth.
[0129] Specifically, the medical robot controller receives and parses instructions, extracts motion parameters and operation parameters. The motion parameters include the target pose of the puncture entry point (usually a point on the skin surface and the corresponding puncture angle), and the three-dimensional coordinates of the puncture target point (relative to the robot coordinate system or the image coordinate system). Further, the motion parameters may also include intermediate path points or trajectory equations for guiding the puncture needle to advance along a predetermined safe path. The operation parameters include the puncture depth and the puncture type. The puncture depth is the final depth that the tip of the needle needs to reach, starting from the entry point. The puncture type specifies the operation to be performed after reaching the target depth, such as "Biopsy" (biopsy sampling), "Injection" (drug injection), "Aspiration" (aspiration / drainage). First, according to the target pose of the entry point in the positioning parameters, the controller drives the motion execution mechanism (robotic arm) to move the end effector carrying the puncture needle guiding device to the predetermined puncture point on the skin surface, and adjusts the pose so that the axis of the puncture needle is aligned with the puncture direction calculated by the remote system and pointing to the target point. This process also involves kinematic calculations and closed-loop servo control. After the positioning and alignment are completed, operator confirmation or an automatic system safety check may be required. After receiving the trigger signal to perform the puncture, the controller sends a control signal to the puncture needle driving mechanism (usually a precision linear motor or a pneumatic / hydraulic cylinder) according to the puncture depth in the operation parameters, instructing it to drive the puncture needle to advance along the aligned axis at a preset speed (which may also be one of the operation parameters). The controller continuously monitors the feedback from the position sensors (such as encoders, grating scales) of the driving mechanism, and calculates the depth that the tip of the needle has entered in real time. When the feedback depth reaches the target puncture depth set by the instruction, the controller stops the needle advancing action of the driving mechanism. During the needle advancing process, force feedback may be combined for safety monitoring to prevent excessive resistance. After reaching the target puncture depth, the controller performs corresponding actions according to the puncture type in the operation parameters. When the puncture type is biopsy sampling, the controller sends a trigger signal to the biopsy mechanism (such as a cutting cannula or a spring-loaded sampling groove) built into the puncture needle to quickly complete a cutting and sample capture action. When the puncture type is drug injection, the controller opens the injection pump or valve connected to the puncture needle and injects the drug according to the preset dose and rate (which may also be operation parameters). When the puncture type is aspiration / drainage, the controller connects a negative pressure source to the puncture needle and performs an aspiration operation to drain cyst fluid or pus. After completing the specified operation, the controller usually instructs the puncture needle driving mechanism to safely withdraw the puncture needle along the original path.
[0130] In summary, in the above embodiments of the present invention, the operation control method of the medical robot replaces the traditional cable with millimeter-wave wireless communication, completely eliminating the restraint of physical connection, significantly improving the mobility and operation flexibility of the medical robot in complex environments such as operating rooms, and reducing the trouble and potential safety hazards brought by cable management; through millimeter-wave communication, it provides an ultra-high bandwidth of Gbps level, which can transmit ultrasonic raw data without significant compression or even losslessly in real time, retaining the most complete information, laying a foundation for high-quality processing by the remote processing system. Combining with deterministic network technology, it ensures low latency (millisecond level) and high reliability (extremely low jitter and packet loss rate) of data transmission, meeting the strict requirements of real-time control and medical operations for time determinacy; through precise analysis based on high-quality raw data and the remote processing system, the remote processing system can generate more accurate control instructions (motion parameters and operation parameters) to guide the medical robot to perform more precise positioning, scanning, and treatment operations (such as puncture, ablation); by moving complex calculations out of the robot body, it helps to simplify the design of the robot end, reduce its size, weight, power consumption, and cost, making it easier to integrate into existing medical devices or surgical procedures. At the same time, remote computing resources can be centrally managed and shared, improving resource utilization efficiency; it solves the problem of insufficient operation control flexibility of existing medical robots.
[0131] Embodiment 2
[0132] Please refer to Figure 2 , which is a schematic structural diagram of a medical robot operation control system provided by the second embodiment of the present invention. For the convenience of description, only the parts related to the embodiments of the present invention are shown. The system includes:
[0133] At least one ultrasonic probe 10 for collecting ultrasonic data of the target area in real time;
[0134] A millimeter-wave communication module 20 connected to the ultrasonic probe, for sending the collected ultrasonic data to the remote processing system through a preset wireless communication protocol, and receiving the control instructions generated after the remote processing system processes the received ultrasonic data. The control instructions include motion parameters and operation parameters;
[0135] At least one motion execution mechanism 30 for driving the medical robot body or its components to move;
[0136] At least one operating device 40 installed on the medical robot body; and
[0137] A controller 50 connected to a millimeter-wave communication module 20, a motion actuator 30, and an operating device 40 respectively is configured to drive the motion actuator 30 to adjust the current posture or spatial position according to the motion parameters in the received control instruction, and drive the specified operating device 40 to perform a predetermined diagnostic assistance or treatment intervention operation according to the operation parameters in the received control instruction.
[0138] For the medical robot operation control system provided by the embodiments of the present invention, the implementation principle and the technical effects produced are the same as those of the foregoing method embodiments. For the sake of brief description, for the parts not mentioned in the device embodiments, reference may be made to the corresponding contents in the foregoing method embodiments.
[0139] In the description of this specification, the description with reference to terms such as "one embodiment", "some embodiments", "example", "specific example", or "some examples" means that the specific features, structures, materials, or characteristics described in connection with the embodiment or example are included in at least one embodiment or example of the present invention. In this specification, the schematic representations of the above terms do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment or example. Moreover, the specific features, structures, materials, or characteristics described may be combined in any one or more embodiments or examples in a suitable manner.
[0140] The above-described embodiments only represent several implementation manners of the present invention. The description is relatively specific and detailed, but it should not be construed as a limitation on the scope of the present invention. It should be noted that for those of ordinary skill in the art, without departing from the concept of the present invention, several modifications and improvements can still be made, and these all belong to the protection scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention should be subject to the appended claims.
Claims
1. A method for operating and controlling a medical robot, characterized in that, The method includes: Using at least one ultrasonic probe configured on a medical robot to collect ultrasonic data of a target area in real time; Using a millimeter-wave communication module configured on the medical robot to send the collected ultrasonic data to a remote processing system via a preset wireless communication protocol; Using the millimeter-wave communication module to receive a control instruction generated after the remote processing system processes the received ultrasonic data, where the control instruction includes motion parameters and operation parameters; Using a controller configured on the medical robot to drive a motion execution mechanism of the medical robot to adjust the current posture or spatial position according to the motion parameters in the received control instruction, and to drive a specified operation device installed on the medical robot to perform a predetermined diagnostic assistance or treatment intervention operation according to the operation parameters in the received control instruction; The step of using the millimeter-wave communication module configured on the medical robot to send the collected ultrasonic data to the remote processing system via a preset wireless communication protocol includes: Using the millimeter-wave communication module configured on the medical robot to send the collected ultrasonic data to one of a plurality of millimeter-wave access points deployed in the operation environment; Using the millimeter-wave access point to transmit the received ultrasonic data to the remote processing system via a wired bearer network configured to support deterministic network functions; The step of using the millimeter-wave communication module configured on the medical robot to send the collected ultrasonic data to one of a plurality of millimeter-wave access points deployed in the operation environment includes: Using the millimeter-wave communication module configured on the medical robot to scan a preset millimeter-wave channel to discover beacon frames or probe responses sent by a plurality of available millimeter-wave access points in the operation environment; The millimeter-wave communication module selects a target millimeter-wave access point for connection from the discovered available millimeter-wave access points based on a preset selection criterion; The millimeter-wave communication module performs an authentication and association process with the selected target millimeter-wave access point to establish a wireless link; The millimeter-wave communication module performs baseband processing on the collected ultrasonic data and up-converts the signal after baseband processing to a predetermined millimeter-wave operating frequency band, where the baseband processing includes channel coding and digital modulation; The millimeter-wave communication module sends the up-converted millimeter-wave signal to the target millimeter-wave access point via the established wireless link.
2. The medical robot operation control method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The step of the millimeter-wave communication module performing an authentication and association process with the selected target millimeter-wave access point to establish a wireless link includes: The millimeter-wave communication module performs a predefined authentication protocol with the selected target millimeter-wave access point to verify the identities of both parties and establish a security context; The millimeter-wave communication module sends an association request to the target millimeter-wave access point and establishes a logical connection after receiving an association response; The millimeter-wave communication module exchanges beamforming training information including antenna direction information with the target millimeter-wave access point, and each calculates and adjusts the weight coefficients of the signal phase and / or amplitude of its own millimeter-wave phased array antenna according to the received beamforming training information to form a directional wireless link pointing to each other.
3. The medical robot operation control method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The step of the millimeter-wave communication module sending the up-converted millimeter-wave signal to the target millimeter-wave access point through the established wireless link further includes: The millimeter-wave communication module continuously monitors the wireless link quality parameters of the currently connected target millimeter-wave access point, and periodically or based on trigger events scans the signal quality parameters of other neighboring available millimeter-wave access points; When the wireless link quality parameters of the millimeter-wave communication module and the currently connected target millimeter-wave access point are lower than the preset handover threshold, and the signal quality parameters of at least one neighboring available millimeter-wave access point are better than the current wireless link quality parameters, the millimeter-wave communication module selects the one with the best signal quality from the neighboring available millimeter-wave access points as the new target millimeter-wave access point; The millimeter-wave communication module and the new target millimeter-wave access point execute a fast handover protocol to establish a new wireless link, and the fast handover protocol includes a fast authentication and association process.
4. The medical robot operation control method according to claim 1, wherein The step of using the millimeter-wave access point to transmit the received ultrasonic data to the remote processing system through a wired bearer network configured to support deterministic network functions includes: Using the Precision Time Protocol to synchronize the time of network devices in the wired bearer network and the remote processing system; Using the network controller to calculate a fixed forwarding path for the ultrasonic data stream through the wired bearer network, and calculating and determining the network resources required to be reserved for the ultrasonic data stream, where the network resources include bandwidth resources and buffer resources; Using the network controller to configure the reserved network resources in the network devices on the fixed forwarding path, and configuring the parameters of a periodic scheduling mechanism aligned with the synchronized time, where the periodic scheduling mechanism is selected from time-based gated scheduling or cyclic queue forwarding; Using the network devices on the fixed forwarding path to control the ultrasonic data stream to be forwarded along the fixed forwarding path according to the configured reserved network resources and periodic scheduling mechanism parameters according to a predetermined time rule, so as to provide data transmission with a predetermined delay upper limit and a predetermined jitter upper limit.
5. The medical robot operation control method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The step of using the millimeter-wave communication module to receive the control instructions generated after the remote processing system processes the received ultrasonic data includes: The remote processing system executes a digital beamforming algorithm to process the received ultrasonic data and reconstruct an ultrasonic image of the target area; The remote processing system applies a pre-trained diagnostic analysis model to analyze the reconstructed ultrasonic image and identify the anatomical structures or mark potential lesion areas therein; The remote processing system calculates and generates control instructions including motion parameters and operation parameters for guiding the medical robot to perform the next action according to the analysis results of the diagnostic analysis model and the currently preset treatment or diagnostic plan; The remote processing system sends the generated control instructions to the millimeter-wave communication module configured on the medical robot through a preset wireless communication protocol; Using the millimeter-wave communication module to receive the control instructions sent by the remote processing system.
6. The medical robot operation control method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The specified operating device installed on the medical robot is a microwave ablation probe or a radiofrequency ablation electrode, and the operating parameters include power and time parameters; The steps of driving the motion execution mechanism of the medical robot to adjust the current posture or spatial position according to the motion parameters in the received control instruction, and driving the specified operating device installed on the medical robot to perform a predetermined diagnostic assistance or treatment intervention operation according to the operating parameters in the received control instruction specifically include: According to the motion parameters in the control instruction, driving the motion execution mechanism to move and position the end effector carrying the microwave ablation probe or the radiofrequency ablation electrode to the target lesion position identified and confirmed by the remote processing system; According to the operating parameters in the control instruction, driving the microwave ablation probe or the radiofrequency ablation electrode to emit energy according to the power and time parameters set in the operating parameters to perform a thermal ablation operation.
7. The medical robot operation control method according to claim 1, wherein The specified operating device installed on the medical robot is a puncture needle with a driving mechanism, and the operating parameters include the puncture depth and the puncture type; The steps of driving the motion execution mechanism of the medical robot to adjust the current posture or spatial position according to the motion parameters in the received control instruction, and driving the specified operating device installed on the medical robot to perform a predetermined diagnostic assistance or treatment intervention operation according to the operating parameters in the received control instruction specifically include: According to the motion parameters in the control instruction, driving the motion execution mechanism to move and position the end effector carrying the puncture needle to the puncture target point position determined by the remote processing system; According to the operating parameters in the control instruction, driving the driving mechanism of the puncture needle to perform a needle insertion action to a specified puncture depth, and performing a tissue sample acquisition, targeted drug injection or cyst puncture and drainage operation according to the puncture type after reaching the puncture depth.
8. A medical robot operation control system, characterized in that, The system includes: At least one ultrasonic probe for real-time acquisition of ultrasonic data of the target area; A millimeter-wave communication module connected to the ultrasonic probe for sending the acquired ultrasonic data to the remote processing system through a preset wireless communication protocol, and receiving a control instruction generated after the remote processing system processes the received ultrasonic data, the control instruction including motion parameters and operating parameters; At least one motion execution mechanism for driving the medical robot body or its components to move; At least one operating device installed on the medical robot body; and A controller respectively connected to the millimeter-wave communication module, the motion execution mechanism and the operating device for driving the motion execution mechanism to adjust the current posture or spatial position according to the motion parameters in the received control instruction and driving the specified operating device to perform a predetermined diagnostic assistance or treatment intervention operation according to the operating parameters in the received control instruction; The millimeter-wave communication module is further configured to send the acquired ultrasonic data to one of a plurality of millimeter-wave access points deployed in the operating environment; The millimeter-wave access point is configured to transmit the received ultrasonic data to the remote processing system through a wired bearer network configured to support deterministic network functions; The millimeter-wave communication module is further configured to: Scan a preset millimeter-wave channel to discover beacon frames or probe responses sent by multiple available millimeter-wave access points within the operating environment; Select a target millimeter-wave access point from the discovered available millimeter-wave access points for connection based on a preset selection criterion; Execute an authentication and association process with the selected target millimeter-wave access point to establish a wireless link; Perform baseband processing on the collected ultrasonic data and up-convert the signal after baseband processing to a predetermined millimeter-wave operating frequency band, where the baseband processing includes channel coding and digital modulation; Transmit the up-converted millimeter-wave signal to the target millimeter-wave access point through the established wireless link.
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