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Item type:Publication, Access status: with files , An AI based mobile robot for autonomous ultrasound in legal medicineComprehensive 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.Publicationtype: Journal Article11 8 - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Access status: without files , 6D robotic OCT scanning of curved tissue surfacesOptical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive volumetric imaging modality with high spatial and temporal resolution. Imaging larger tissue regions requires moving the OCT probe to cover the target area. Handheld scanning approaches rely on overlapping volumes for stitching, whereas, robotic scanning approaches often restrict motion to pure translations to avoid full hand-eye calibration - a challenging problem given the OCT probe's small field of view. These registration- or translation-based stitching strategies, however, struggle when imaging curved tissue surfaces. We propose a fiducial marker enabling full six-degree-of-freedom hand-eye calibration for a robot-mounted OCT probe. Our method produces highly repeatable transform estimates and, in experiments on two phantom surfaces, enables consistent robotic scanning of large, curved geometries. Because the approach does not depend on image-based registration, it avoids error accumulation along scanning paths and outperforms conventional purely translational robotic scanning.Publicationtype: Conference Paper9 - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Access status: with files , A mobile robotic approach to autonomous surface scanning in legal medicinePurpose : Comprehensive legal medicine documentation includes internal and external examination of the corpse. Typically, this documentation is conducted manually during conventional autopsy. Systematic digital documentation would be desirable, especially for external wound examination, which is becoming more relevant for legal medicine analysis. For this purpose, RGB surface scanning has been introduced. While manual full-surface scanning using a handheld camera is time-consuming and operator-dependent, floor or ceiling-mounted robotic systems require specialized rooms. Hence, we consider whether a mobile robotic system can be used for external documentation. Methods : We develop a mobile robotic system that enables full-body RGB-D surface scanning. Our work includes a detailed configuration space analysis to identify the environmental parameters that must be considered for a successful surface scan. We validate our findings through an experimental study in the lab and demonstrate the systems application in legal medicine. Results : Our configuration space analysis shows that a good trade-off between coverage and time is reached with three robot base positions, leading to a coverage of 94.96 %. Experiments validate the effectiveness of the system in accurately capturing body surface geometry with an average surface coverage of 96.90±3.16 % and 92.45±1.43 % for a body phantom and actual corpses, respectively. Conclusion : This work demonstrates the potential of a mobile robotic system to automate RGB-D surface scanning in legal medicine, complementing post-mortem CT scans for inner documentation. Our results indicate that the proposed system can contribute to more efficient, autonomous legal medicine documentation, reducing the need for manual intervention.Publicationtype: Journal Article16 9 - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Access status: with files , Gender and age-related decline in lower limb standing muscle strength: benchmarking for rehabilitation assessment(Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI), 2025-12-22); ; This study aimed to demonstrate a novel sensor-based measuring stand for objective assessment of multi-directional lower limb muscle strength and to establish essential, age- and gender-stratified normative benchmarks. This cross-sectional study measured relative leg strength (N/kg) across six standing movements in 99 healthy, non-professional athletes (males and females aged 20–30, 40–50, and 60–70 years). Results confirmed that men exhibited significantly greater strength than women across all six directions (17% to 35% difference). Furthermore, a marked age-related decline was consistently observed in both sexes, with the largest and most clinically relevant differences (often exceeding 30%) concentrated in the transition to the 60–70-year range. Methodologically, these findings are limited to demonstrating age-related differences rather than longitudinal decline and are specific to an active, healthy cohort. This study demonstrates the sensor-based stand as an efficient, objective tool for comprehensive strength assessment, but its clinical utility is prospective and requires further validation against diverse and pathological patient populations.Publicationtype: Journal Article10 8 - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Access status: with files , A digital twin for robotic post mortem tissue sampling using virtual reality(IEEE, 2025-09-10); ; ; ; Studying tissue samples obtained during autopsies is the gold standard when diagnosing the cause of death and for understanding disease pathophysiology. Recently, the interest in post mortem minimally invasive biopsies has grown which is a less destructive approach in comparison to an open autopsy and reduces the risk of infection. While manual biopsies under ultrasound guidance are more widely performed, robotic post mortem biopsies have been recently proposed. This approach can further reduce the risk of infection for physicians. However, planning of the procedure and control of the robot need to be efficient and usable. We explore a virtual reality setup with a digital twin to realize fully remote planning and control of robotic post mortem biopsies. The setup is evaluated with forensic pathologists in a usability study for three interaction methods. Furthermore, we evaluate clinical feasibility and evaluate the system with three human cadavers. Overall, 132 needle insertions were performed with an off-axis needle placement error of 5.30±3.25 mm. Tissue samples were successfully biopsied and histopathologically verified. Users reported a very intuitive needle placement approach, indicating that the system is a promising, precise, and low-risk alternative to conventional approaches.Publicationtype: Journal Article46 15