Development of teleassist biopsy system with remotely controlled robot arm

The purpose of this research is the construction of a teleassist biopsy system to inspect and treat patients with a remotely controlled robot arm. The system consists of the robot arm, two personal computers, and an ultrasonic imaging device. In this system, the image obtained from the ultrasonic imaging device is transferred to the computer. The route to pierce a target point in the image with a biopsy needle is calculated by the computer. Then this information is transferred to another computer to control the robot arm remotely. From experimental results of the agar phantom, the robot arm was able to pierce the target point in the agar phantom with the biopsy needle. In the next stage, the operation of the system and the control method of the robot arm will be improved for medical use.