Robosoft, a French firm that stands behind ESTELE, a remotely operated robotic echo system profiled by us back in April 2007, has just announced the world’s first robotised tele-ultrasound examination via satellite. According to the press release, the company has partnered with the European MARTE project (MOBILE And ROBOTISED TELEECHOGRAPHY) and Microsoft Robotics, which provided its Microsoft® Robotics Developer Studio software.
More from the announcement:
This demonstration was accomplished with an ESTELE robot entirely controlled by the robuBOX®.
For the demonstration, ROBOSOFT made the ESTELE robot available to the project partners. Within a month after familiarization with the software development tools for the robot, researchers at PRISME developed and implemented the software for internet communication via satellite between a control station in France and a remote robot carrying an ultrasound probe used to examine a patient onboard a ship sailing the Mediterranean.
"These kinds of projects show the soundness of the generic approach used in the robuBOX", says Vincent Dupourqué, CEO of ROBOSOFT. "The standard tele-ultrasound robot was originally delivered for use in a classic video-conferencing system over the phone lines. Thanks to the robuBOX development toolkit, included with the standard robot, a customer can add his own functionalities, and can also integrate the robot into a larger system". For this project, the PRISME Institute handled adapting the robot software using Microsoft® Robotics Developer Studio.
The ESTELE robot is an example of cooperation between research and industry: designed, developed, and patented by a public-sector research laboratory, it was industrialized and marketed under licence by ROBOSOFT. It is controlled by the robuBOX, a "universal robotics engine" adapted for the expanding market for service robots. Several robots equipped with preliminary versions of the robuBOX have already been deployed: Estele, the tele-ultrasound robot used in this project; robuCAB, an autonomous GPS guided vehicle; as well as general-purpose mobile platforms such as the robuLAB10 for domestic help or the robuROC for security and military applications. The robuBOX, which allows customers to build numerous advanced robotics applications, was developed and can be modified using Microsoft® Robotics Developer Studio (see http://www.microsoft.com/robotics).
Press release: World’s first robotised tele-ultrasound examination via satellite…
YouTube video (in French): ESTELE tele echography robot…
Flashback: ESTELE: Expert System for Tele Echography