Visual servoing in medical robotics: a survey. Part II: tomographic imaging modalities - techniques and applications

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Intraoperative application of tomographic imaging techniques provides a means of visual servoing for objects beneath the surface of organs. METHODS: The focus of this survey is on therapeutic and diagnostic medical applications where tomographic imaging is used in visual servoing. To this end, a comprehensive search of the electronic databases was completed for the period 2000-2013. RESULTS: Existing techniques and products are categorized and studied, based on the imaging modality and their medical applications. This part complements Part I of the survey, which covers visual servoing techniques using endoscopic imaging and direct vision. CONCLUSION: The main challenges in using visual servoing based on tomographic images have been identified. 'Supervised automation of medical robotics' is found to be a major trend in this field and ultrasound is the most commonly used tomographic modality for visual servoing.