A novel design of force-feedback master manipulator for remote ultrasound scanning

This paper presents a novel six-degree-of-freedom force feedback master manipulator for remote ultrasound scanning. Firstly, a new configuration based on a planar five-link mechanism is proposed, taking into account the practical needs of medical ultrasound scanning. This configuration has two operating modes and can provide three degrees of force feedback. Secondly, a hybrid force/position master-slave control system based on the kinetic model force feedback method is built, which can realize incremental master-slave control, variable proportional control, force feedback, and other functions. Finally, the positional accuracy, gravity balance effect, and force feedback performance of this master manipulator are verified through experiments. Experiments show that the average position error of this novel force feedback master manipulator is 1.18 mm, the average attitude error expressed in terms of Euler angles is 0.83°, and the maximum feedback force that can be provided is 12.1 N, which satisfies the requirements of ultrasonic scanning.