Tele-Operated Robotic Manipulator based Contactless Heartbeat Measurement Mechanism

Use of tele-operated robotic manipulators for performing various medical tasks have become significant due to concerns regarding the spread of contagious diseases. The area that we have specifically targeted in this paper is the frequently taken heartbeat measurements. The key to accurately measuring patient's heartbeat using a robotic manipulator is adjusting the stethoscope by exerting correct amount of force through the end-effector. In this paper, we have designed a setup using a 6-Degree of Freedom (DOF) tele-operated robotic arm coupled with a force sensor, buzzer and a stethoscope. The idea is that the robot embedded with force sensor will palpate the patient for heartbeat reading and that force signal will generate sound feedback for the doctor operating at master site. Signal from the force sensor helps to achieve appropriate exertion force and adjustment of stethoscope on patient's body so as to get accurate heartbeat waveform on doctor's mobile phone. For this, manual experiments are performed to establish baseline force range. Experiments are also performed using both pendant and haptic device at master end. As a result, Force-Time graph are obtained in all experimental configurations while the heartbeat is monitored using stethoscope's mobile application. Thus, a contactless heartbeat measurement is achieved. Results from the setup shows the validity of the proposed procedure.