Medical image computing and computer-aided medical interventions applied to soft tissues. Work in progress in urology

Until recently, Computer-Aided Medical Interventions (CAMI) and Medical Robotics have focused on rigid and non deformable anatomical structures. Nowadays, special attention is paid to soft tissues, raising complex issues due to their mobility and deformation. Mini-invasive digestive surgery was probably one of the first fields where soft tissues were handled through the development of simulators, tracking of anatomical structures and specific assistance robots. However, other clinical domains, for instance urology, are concerned. Indeed, laparoscopic surgery, new tumour destruction techniques (e.g. HIFU, radiofrequency, or cryoablation), increasingly early detection of cancer, and use of interventional and diagnostic imaging modalities, recently opened new challenges to the urologist and scientists involved in CAMI. This resulted in the last five years in a very significant increase of research and developments of computer-aided urology systems. In this paper, we propose a description of the main problems related to computer-aided diagnostic and therapy of soft tissues and give a survey of the different types of assistance offered to the urologist: robotization, image fusion, surgical navigation. Both research projects and operational industrial systems are discussed

Proceedings of Abstracts Engineering and Computer Science Research Conference 2019

© 2019 The Author(s). This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. For further details please see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Note: Keynote: Fluorescence visualisation to evaluate effectiveness of personal protective equipment for infection control is © 2019 Crown copyright and so is licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Under this licence users are permitted to copy, publish, distribute and transmit the Information; adapt the Information; exploit the Information commercially and non-commercially for example, by combining it with other Information, or by including it in your own product or application. Where you do any of the above you must acknowledge the source of the Information in your product or application by including or linking to any attribution statement specified by the Information Provider(s) and, where possible, provide a link to this licence: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/This book is the record of abstracts submitted and accepted for presentation at the Inaugural Engineering and Computer Science Research Conference held 17th April 2019 at the University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK. This conference is a local event aiming at bringing together the research students, staff and eminent external guests to celebrate Engineering and Computer Science Research at the University of Hertfordshire. The ECS Research Conference aims to showcase the broad landscape of research taking place in the School of Engineering and Computer Science. The 2019 conference was articulated around three topical cross-disciplinary themes: Make and Preserve the Future; Connect the People and Cities; and Protect and Care

Implementation of safe human robot collaboration for ultrasound guided radiation therapy

This thesis shows that safe human-robot-interaction and Human Robot Collaboration is possible for Ultrasound (US) guided radiotherapy. Via the chosen methodology, all components (US, optical room monitoring and robot) could be linked and integrated and realized in a realistic clinical workflow. US guided radiotherapy offers a complement and alternative to existing image-guided therapy approaches. The real-time capability of US and high soft tissue contrast allow target structures to be tracked and radiation delivery to be modulated. However, Ultrasound guided radiation therapy (USgRT) is not yet clinically established but is still under development, as reliable and safe methods of image acquisition are not yet available. In particular, the loss of contact of the US probe to the patient surface poses a problem for patient movements such as breathing. For this purpose, a Breathing and motion compensation (BaMC) was developed in this work, which together with the safe control of a lightweight robot represents a new development for USgRT. The developed BaMC can be used to control the US probe with contact to the patient. The conducted experiments have confirmed that a steady contact with the patient surface and thus a continuous image acquisition can be ensured by the developed methodology. In addition, the image position in space can be accurately maintained in the submillimeter range. The BaMC seamlessly integrates into a developed clinical workflow. The graphical user interfaces developed for this purpose, as well as direct haptic control with the robot, provide an easy interaction option for the clinical user. The developed autonomous positioning of the transducer represents a good example of the feasibility of the approach. With the help of the user interface, an acoustic plane can be defined and autonomously approached via the robot in a time-efficient and precise manner. The tests carried out show that this methodology is suitable for a wide range of transducer positions. Safety in a human-robot interaction task is essential and requires individually customized concepts. In this work, adequate monitoring mechanisms could be found to ensure both patient and staff safety. In collision tests it could be shown that the implemented detection measures work and that the robot moves into a safe parking position. The forces acting on the patient could thus be pushed well below the limits required by the standard. This work has demonstrated the first important steps towards safe robot-assisted ultrasound imaging, which is not only applicable to USgRT. The developed interfaces provide the basis for further investigations in this field, especially in the area of image recognition, for example to determine the position of the target structure. With the proof of safety of the developed system, first study in human can now follow

A robot swarm assisting a human fire-fighter

Emergencies in industrial warehouses are a major concern for fire-fighters. The large dimensions, together with the development of dense smoke that drastically reduces visibility, represent major challenges. The GUARDIANS robot swarm is designed to assist fire-fighters in searching a large warehouse. In this paper we discuss the technology developed for a swarm of robots assisting fire-fighters. We explain the swarming algorithms that provide the functionality by which the robots react to and follow humans while no communication is required. Next we discuss the wireless communication system, which is a so-called mobile ad-hoc network. The communication network provides also the means to locate the robots and humans. Thus, the robot swarm is able to provide guidance information to the humans. Together with the fire-fighters we explored how the robot swarm should feed information back to the human fire-fighter. We have designed and experimented with interfaces for presenting swarm-based information to human beings

Aerospace medicine and biology: A continuing bibliography with indexes

This bibliography lists 161 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in November, 1987

GUARDIANS final report

Emergencies in industrial warehouses are a major concern for firefghters. The large dimensions together with the development of dense smoke that drastically reduces visibility, represent major challenges. The Guardians robot swarm is designed to assist fire fighters in searching a large warehouse. In this report we discuss the technology developed for a swarm of robots searching and assisting fire fighters. We explain the swarming algorithms which provide the functionality by which the robots react to and follow humans while no communication is required. Next we discuss the wireless communication system, which is a so-called mobile ad-hoc network. The communication network provides also one of the means to locate the robots and humans. Thus the robot swarm is able to locate itself and provide guidance information to the humans. Together with the re ghters we explored how the robot swarm should feed information back to the human fire fighter. We have designed and experimented with interfaces for presenting swarm based information to human beings

The Role of Edge Robotics As-a-Service in Monitoring COVID-19 Infection

Deep learning technology has been widely used in edge computing. However, pandemics like covid-19 require deep learning capabilities at mobile devices (detect respiratory rate using mobile robotics or conduct CT scan using a mobile scanner), which are severely constrained by the limited storage and computation resources at the device level. To solve this problem, we propose a three-tier architecture, including robot layers, edge layers, and cloud layers. We adopt this architecture to design a non-contact respiratory monitoring system to break down respiratory rate calculation tasks. Experimental results of respiratory rate monitoring show that the proposed approach in this paper significantly outperforms other approaches. It is supported by computation time costs with 2.26 ms per frame, 27.48 ms per frame, 0.78 seconds for convolution operation, similarity calculation, processing one-minute length respiratory signals, respectively. And the computation time costs of our three-tier architecture are less than that of edge+cloud architecture and cloud architecture. Moreover, we use our three-tire architecture for CT image diagnosis task decomposition. The evaluation of a CT image dataset of COVID-19 proves that our three-tire architecture is useful for resolving tasks on deep learning networks by edge equipment. There are broad application scenarios in smart hospitals in the future

Investigation of an ultra wideband noise sensor for health monitoring

Quick on-scene assessment and early intervention is the key to reduce the mortality of stroke and trauma patients, and it is highly desirable to develop ambulance-based diagnostic and monitoring devices in order to provide additional support to the medical personnel. We developed a compact and low cost ultra wideband noise sensor for medical diagnostics and vital sign monitoring in pre-hospital settings. In this work, we demonstrated the functionality of the sensor for respiration and heartbeat monitoring. In the test, metronome was used to manipulate the breathing pattern and the heartbeat rate reference was obtained with a commercial electrocardiogram (ECG) device. With seventeen tests performed for respiration rate detection, sixteen of them were successfully detected. The results also show that it is possible to detect the heartbeat rate accurately with the developed sensor

Aerospace Medicine and Biology: A continuing bibliography with indexes, supplement 220, June 1981

Approximately 137 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in May 1981 are recorded, covering a variety of topics in aerospace medicine and biology