An Anatomy-Aware Shared Control Approach for Assisted Teleoperation of Lung Ultrasound Examinations

Although fully autonomous systems still face challenges due to patients' anatomical variability, teleoperated systems appear to be more practical in current healthcare settings. This paper presents an anatomy-aware control framework for teleoperated lung ultrasound. Leveraging biomechanically accurate 3D modelling, the system applies virtual constraints on the ultrasound probe pose and provides real-time visual feedback to assist in precise probe placement tasks. A twofold evaluation, one with 5 naive operators on a single volunteer and the second with a single experienced operator on 6 volunteers, compared our method with a standard teleoperation baseline. The results of the first one characterised the accuracy of the anatomical model and the improved perceived performance by the naive operators, while the second one focused on the efficiency of the system in improving probe placement and reducing procedure time compared to traditional teleoperation. The results demonstrate that the proposed framework enhances the physician's capabilities in executing remote lung ultrasound, reducing more than 20% of execution time on 4-point acquisitions, towards faster, more objective and repeatable exams.