Trust, Safety and Efficacy of Autonomous Robotic Ultrasound Vascular Imaging Collection on Human Subjects

Abstract

This paper describes the safety and efficacy of an autonomous robotic system to collect ultrasound (US) images of the peripheral vasculature of 31 human participants, while also assessing their trust and comfort with the procedure. The procedure used a custom restraint mechanism and robotic arm guided by RGB-D imaging to collect clinically meaningful US images of human vasculature in the peripheral forearm safely and autonomously. All initial presses and scanned trajectories were executed under a safety force threshold (13N), included vasculature in imaging (from trajectory selected by non-clinician), and had a full scan completion success rate of greater than 80%. Participants indicated increased trust and perception of safety in the robotic system after the procedure. The positive findings suggest that careful attention to patient safety and well-designed patient/robot interactions can positively affect human-robot interaction and change the perception of robotic systems in medical contexts.

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