The robot and the satellite for tele-operating echographic examination in Earth isolated sites, or onboard ISS.

Abstract

The system was tested at Tours Hospital on 105 patients. A complete investigation (visualization) of all the organs requested for different clinical cases was obtained in 76% of the cases with the robot, and 87% at the reference echography: In 11% of the cases, at least one of the organ visualized at reference echo could not be investigated by the robot, thus the diagnostic was not done. The number of repositioning was higher for the robot (6.5 +/- 2) than for the reference echo (5.1 +/- 2 = or > 24% more with robot). The duration of the examination was higher with the robot (16 +/- 10 min) than for the reference echography (11 +/- 4 min = or > +43% with the robot compare to reference echography. The system was also tested successfully using satellite links in a limited number of cases (approx 30).