# Searching Collaborative Agents for Multi-plane Localization in 3D Ultrasound

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.15273 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.15273/

## Key facts

- Cited by 14 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 30 Jul 2020.

## Built on by (most cited first, 14 of 14)

- [Deep reinforcement learning in medical imaging: A literature review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.05115/) (2021)
- [Self Context and Shape Prior for Sensorless Freehand 3D Ultrasound Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.00274/) (2021)
- [Searching Collaborative Agents for Multi-plane Localization in 3D Ultrasound](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.10626/) (2021)
- [Agent with Tangent-based Formulation and Anatomical Perception for Standard Plane Localization in 3D Ultrasound](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.00475/) (2022)
- [Uncertainty-aware Diffusion and Reinforcement Learning for Joint Plane Localization and Anomaly Diagnosis in 3D Ultrasound](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.23538/) (2025)
- [Towards deep observation: A systematic survey on artificial intelligence techniques to monitor fetus via Ultrasound Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.07935/) (2022)
- [Meta-Learning of NAS for Few-shot Learning in Medical Image Applications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.08951/) (2022)
- [Automatic facial axes standardization of 3D fetal ultrasound images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.02826/) (2024)
- [3D Heart Reconstruction from Sparse Pose-agnostic 2D Echocardiographic Slices](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.02411/) (2025)
- [Prototype Memory-Guided Training-Free Anomaly Classification and Localization in Prenatal Ultrasound](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.00744/) (2026)
- [HASA: Hybrid Architecture Search with Aggregation Strategy for Echinococcosis Classification and Ovary Segmentation in Ultrasound Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.06697/) (2022)
- [Adaptive Plane Reformatting for 4D Flow MRI using Deep Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.00727/) (2025)
- [Cross-Modal Ultrasound-MRI Learning for Fetal Brain Ventricular Volumetry and Abnormality Screening](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.14763/) (2026)
- [Deep Learning-based Intelligent Diagnosis of Congenital Uterine Anomalies in 3D Ultrasound](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.15225/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

3D ultrasound (US) is widely used due to its rich diagnostic information, portability and low cost. Automated standard plane (SP) localization in US volume not only improves efficiency and reduces user-dependence, but also boosts 3D US interpretation. In this study, we propose a novel Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (MARL) framework to localize multiple uterine SPs in 3D US simultaneously. Our contribution is two-fold. First, we equip the MARL with a one-shot neural architecture search (NAS) module to obtain the optimal agent for each plane. Specifically, Gradient-based search using Differentiable Architecture Sampler (GDAS) is employed to accelerate and stabilize the training process. Second, we propose a novel collaborative strategy to strengthen agents' communication. Our strategy uses recurrent neural network (RNN) to learn the spatial relationship among SPs effectively. Extensively validated on a large dataset, our approach achieves the accuracy of 7.05 degree/2.21mm, 8.62 degree/2.36mm and 5.93 degree/0.89mm for the mid-sagittal, transverse and coronal plane localization, respectively. The proposed MARL framework can significantly increase the plane localization accuracy and reduce the computational cost and model size.