| Title |
An AI-based mobile robot for autonomous ultrasound in legal medicine |
| Authors |
Grube, Sarah ; Latus, Sarah ; Moebius, Dustin ; Fischer, Martin ; Raudonis, Vidas ; Heinemann, Axel ; Ondruschka, Benjamin ; Schlaefer, Alexander |
| DOI |
10.1109/ACCESS.2026.3713969 |
| Full Text |
|
| Is Part of |
IEEE Access.. Piscataway, NJ : IEEE. 2026, vol. 14, art. no. 108851, p. 108851-108865.. ISSN 2169-3536 |
| Keywords [eng] |
Autonomous robotic agents ; autonomous systems ; forensic imaging ; legal medicine ; medical imaging ; medical robotics ; robotic systems and software ; robotic ultrasound ; ultrasound imaging |
| Abstract [eng] |
Comprehensive documentation of internal tissue structures plays an important role in legal medicine. Although ultrasound is widely used in medical diagnostics as a powerful modality for injury detection and documentation, its integration into legal medicine workflows remains limited. Potential reasons include physical strain and infection risks due to manual probe placement at different locations along the body. Robotic ultrasound systems have been proposed to address such challenges. However, current systems are typically restricted to specific target regions and are limited in mobility and autonomy, complicating their clinical integration and fully autonomous, task-level operation. We therefore propose a mobile robotic system for autonomous ultrasound scanning across the body. The system localizes the body, estimates internal target structures, moves to reach the target structure, and performs ultrasound scans. We evaluate the system in three stages. First, we assess the accuracy and robustness of target localization and scan path planning across different body types. Second, we conduct experiments with a body phantom to evaluate the repeatability of covering target structures. Third, we demonstrate the system in a real legal medicine setting. Our experiments demonstrate that the system can approach the body, define the scan path, and acquire reproducible ultrasound images of target structures. These results demonstrate the feasibility of fully autonomous ultrasound imaging across multiple anatomical regions using a mobile robotic system. Beyond legal medicine, the proposed mobile system offers perspectives for autonomous imaging in broader clinical settings such as telemedicine and infectious disease settings, supporting remote diagnostics while reducing infection risks. |
| Published |
Piscataway, NJ : IEEE |
| Type |
Journal article |
| Language |
English |
| Publication date |
2026 |
| CC license |
|
