Ultrasound guidance and robotic procedures: Actual and future intelligence

This chapter aims to discuss and explore robotic surgery with the assistance of ultrasound (US) guidance. It introduces the categories and principles of commonly used US imaging, followed by extensive discussions on the current state-of-the-art US-assisted surgical robot research works. Starting from tele-operation, human-robot cooperation, and automatic surgical robots, it summarizes the latest developments in the combination of US imaging and different forms of robots. In addition, this chapter also provides the future trends and challenges of US-assisted surgical robots. The application of advanced artificial intelligence technology and multimodality has brought tremendous potential for cooperation between the US and surgical robots. We hope this chapter provides significant conclusions and helps researchers to develop more reliable, stable, and effective US-guided surgical robots.