The Development of A Cobot Driving Hyperspectral Imaging System for Clinical Diagnosis

Hyperspectral images contain spatial and spectral information that can be used for pathological condition identification, disease detection, or resection margin assessment during surgery. Developing hyperspectral detection systems that are convenient for clinical examination and surgical site use can help improve medical care quality. Collaborative robots (Cobot) with force sensors are highly safe and can keep humans and robotic arms safe when operating near humans. Nowadays, Cobot is used increasingly in clinical practice fields. In this study, a push-broom hyperspectral image acquisition system, driven by Cobot, targeted for medical applications in clinical practice fields was developed. A push-broom hyperspectral imager driven by a Cobot with multiple degrees of freedom can have high flexibility in the scan direction, position, and mode. The hyperspectral imager, used as the end effector of Cobot, can be easily switched to scan the patient's body parts under different body postures (e.g., standing, sitting, laying) with varying modes of scan (linear, swing, and orbiting). Using linear mode, this Cobot driving hyperspectral imager can obtain hyperspectral image data similar to those used in the industrial sorting line. The swing mode can let the push-broom scan have minimum imager/robotic arm motion when scanning. This feature allows a high spectral resolution push-broom imager to scan body parts in confined space. The orbiting mode can reduce the edge effects when scanning body parts with significant curvature. For patients with mobility impairment, hemiplegia, or under surgical operation, the scanning system can accommodate the patient’s postures to scan the patient's body parts. The system developed by this project will enable hyperspectral technology to be more widely used in clinical medical fields. This system can be used to assist doctors in performing visual assessments of surface symptoms and enable hyperspectral technology to be more commonly used in medical institutions.