Kinematic Optimization for the Design of a UR5 Robot End-Effector for Cardiac Tele-Ultrasonography

Robotic tele-examination is mainstream for solving the nowadays worsening shortage of physicians. However, many solutions are based on custom robotic arms, whereas using COTS arms could reduce costs and make such systems affordable. In this paper, we address the problem of the design of an end-effector for cardiac tele-ultrasonography, assuming the use of a popular and low-cost industrial robot such as the Universal Robot UR5. We use a kinematic optimization based on the manipulability measure taking into account the position of the robot base with respect to the patient, the number of degrees of freedom (DoFs), and the size of the end-effector. The constraints of the problem are the full inclusion of the examination area in the workspace and the possibility to orient the probe correctly. The results of this study show that, although the arm has 6 DoFs, an additive DoF of the end-effector improves the manipulability measure by more than 100%.