Robotic assistance for ultrasound elastography providing autonomous palpation with teleoperation and haptic feedback capabilities

Detecting stiff tissue using ultrasound elastography has been used as a non-invasive technique in the assessment of important diseases. The real-time estimation of tissue elastic parameters depends on the continuous application of an appropriate palpation motion with an ultrasound probe, which can be achieved through the use of a robotic system. To complement ultrasound elastography and further profit from the information it provides, we propose to give to the clinician the ability to physically feel in real-time during the examination the stiffness of a tissue observed in the elastography image by rendering it with a haptic force feedback, enhancing therefore the capacity of the examiner to detect anomalies. We also propose in our robotic palpation system a teleoperation control of the ultrasound probe for navigation purpose during the tissue examination. Experimental results obtained on an abdominal phantom demonstrated the feasibility of our approach.