Path Re-planning for Robotic Ultrasound Imaging of Bony Structures

Ultrasound (US) scanning has become increasingly popular in the medical industry as it provides radiation-free, compact and real time imaging solutions for diagnosis and intraoperative navigation during interventions such as pedicle screw placement (PSP).  Robotic ultrasound scanning systems have shown to increase the imaging quality by maintaining constant contact between the US probe and the skin surface. To image bones, US waves travel through the skin and reflect or deflect on the bone depending on the inclination of the surface. Reflection and hence intensity of the image is maximal when the incident US wave is perpendicular to the bone surface. Therefore, optimising the orientation of the US probe with respect to the underlying anatomy could be especially beneficial in visualising complex bony structures such as the lumbar spine in which features such as the spinous process are rarely visualised when scanning at an angle perpendicular to the skin. Therefore, this abstract presents a robotic path planning approach that optimises the orientation of the US probe to maximise the ultrasound image quality and hence the resulting 3D reconstructions of complex bony structures such as the lumbar spine.