Evaluation of Control Strategies for a Tele-manipulated Robotic System for Remote Trauma Assessment

摘要

Unintentional injury or trauma is among the leading causes of death in the United States with up to 29% of the prehospital trauma deaths attributed to uncontrolled hemorrhages. This paper reports and analyzes control strategies for a telemanipulated robotic system to enable remote Focused Assessment with Sonography for Trauma (FAST) en route to the hospital. We compare a hybrid telemanipulation technique which combines conventional position and rate control techniques to a position-based telemanipulated system. We also evaluate the performance of a force activated virtual fixture (VF) as an addition to the telemanipulation system to expand the potential of robotic trauma care towards rapidly initializing lifesaving diagnostics and treatment procedures. From human subject trials, it was found that the final tele-manipulated system allows the operators to easily position the probe in 25% less time than the position-based system, as well as perform a FAST exam while smoothly sweeping the probe at 70% smoother sweep velocities with a consistent contact force having a 150% lower standard deviation than a system without the VF.