Visual survoing using xPlane imaging of a 3D probe by pneumatic driven robot for ultrasound guided therapy

Ultrasound-guided needle placement such as radiofrequency ablation has been widely used for safe and low-invasive procedures. Meanwhile, an ultrasound probe has to be placed for monitoring tumor and needle positions. Therefore, we have developed a probe scanning robot using pneumatic actuators to automatically visualize a needle in 2D echogram plane. However, it was difficult that the system with a conventional 2D probe follows both the target tumor and the needle. Thus, focusing on xPlane imaging of a 3D probe, which provides two cross-sectional echograms in real-time, we developed an improved system to compensate three-dimensional motion of a target by the visual feedback.