Kinematic Optimization for the Design of a UR5 Robot End-Effector for Cardiac Tele-Ultrasonography

Abstract

Robotic tele-examination is mainstream for solving the nowadays worsening shortage of physicians. However, many solutions are based on custom robotic arms, whereas using COTS arms could reduce costs and make such systems affordable. In this paper, we address the problem of the design of an end-effector for cardiac tele-ultrasonography, assuming the use of a popular and low-cost industrial robot such as the Universal Robot UR5. We use a kinematic optimization based on the manipulability measure taking into account the position of the robot base with respect to the patient, the number of degrees of freedom (DoFs), and the size of the end-effector. The constraints of the problem are the full inclusion of the examination area in the workspace and the possibility to orient the probe correctly. The results of this study show that, although the arm has 6 DoFs, an additive DoF of the end-effector improves the manipulability measure by more than 100%.

Design optimization of medical robotic systems based on task performance metrics: A feasibility study for robotic guided vascular laser treatments

“…Design optimization strategies based on robot kinematics have been proposed to potentiate the robustness of robotic solutions (Ghoreishi et al, 2021; Griffa et al, 2021; Nisar et al, 2017; Sarac et al, 2017; Song et al, 2022). During a robotic handling task, the robot's movement must be safe and precise.…”

“…This index already proved to be useful for evaluating the manipulability of the robotic solution along a direction of the 3D space and determining suitable robotic postures to execute a specific task (Lachner et al, 2020; Siciliano et al, 2009). In this scope, the manipulability index has already been explored to optimize the design of tools and robots according to a well‐defined task trajectory (Chitalia et al, 2020; Griffa et al, 2021; Nisar et al, 2017; Sarac et al, 2017). However, the optimization procedures have traditionally relied on simple representations of the treatment, which do not consider important constraints such as collision avoidance and end‐effector tool design limits.…”

Kinematic Optimization for the Design of a Collaborative Robot End-Effector for Tele-Echography

“…We define a force manipulability metric based on the USG task and, based on this metric, we optimize the design of the end-effector in three cases: first, the endeffector is mounted on the UR5 robot and it has no DoFs with regard to the robotic arm's tip; second, one DoF is add by a rotational joint whose axis is perpendicular to the probe axis; and, third, the end-effector is mounted on the Panda robot with no additional DoFs. This work follows a preliminary study presented in [9], in which the general Yoshikawa manipulability index was adopted and the Franka Emika Panda robot was not considered. Concerning this work, we adopt an optimization metric more specific to the task, obtaining significantly different results.…”