Design of a Flexible Force-Sensing Platform for Medical Ultrasound Probes

Automated ultrasound scanning is a growing research field. However, existing platforms for mounting the ultrasound probe do not possess any soft, compliant properties that would ensure the safety of the patient. Moreover, many current ultrasound manipulators do not include tactile feedback or employ rather expensive commercial force sensors. This paper proposes the design of a flexible platform with soft joints. The device equips an ultrasound manipulator with both compliant behaviour and 6-axis force feedback without the need of a commercial force sensor. A general methodology was developed to derive the symbolic compliance matrix of such a flexible mechanism. Subsequently, a finite element analysis of the platform was carried out and the results were compared to the analytical solutions. The results show that force sensing based on the analytical method has an error of 5-16% compared to the FEA simulation, depending on the degree of freedom.