Robotized US imaging system

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for autonomously recording one or more ultrasound images during an ultrasound procedure. The method comprises controlling a robotic system to move an ultrasound probe relative to a patient’s body and receiving a plurality of ultrasound frames from the ultrasound probe during the movement of the ultrasound probe. Each of the plurality of ultrasound frames is associated with a respective ultrasound probe pose. The method further comprises determining a quality score for each of the plurality of ultrasound frames and identifying a recording pose. The method may further comprise controlling a robotic system to move the ultrasound probe relative to a patient’s body, based on an image-based search algorithm using as input at least one of: the determined quality scores and the plurality of ultrasound frames, and, optionally, the respective ultrasound probe poses. The method further comprises identifying a recording pose using the determined quality scores, the recording pose being a first respective ultrasound probe pose associated with a first ultrasound frame of the plurality of ultrasound frames. The method further comprises controlling the robotic system to move the ultrasound probe to the recording pose and recording the one or more ultrasound images while the ultrasound probe is positioned at the identified recording pose. + Fig. 1