  A robotic trans-esophageal echocardiography (TEE) probe has been recently
developed to address the problems with manual control in the X-ray envi-ronment
when a conventional probe is used for interventional procedure guidance.
However, the robot was exclusively to be used in local areas and the
effectiveness of remote control has not been scientifically tested. In this
study, we implemented an Internet-of-things (IoT)-based configuration to the
TEE robot so the system can set up a local area network (LAN) or be configured
to connect to an internet cloud over 5G. To investigate the re-mote control,
backlash hysteresis effects were measured and analysed. A joy-stick-based
device and a button-based gamepad were then employed and compared with the
manual control in a target reaching experiment for the two steering axes. The
results indicated different hysteresis curves for the left-right and up-down
steering axes with the input wheel's deadbands found to be 15 deg and deg,
respectively. Similar magnitudes of positioning errors at approximately 0.5 deg
and maximum overshoots at around 2.5 deg were found when manually and
robotically controlling the TEE probe. The amount of time to finish the task
indicated a better performance using the button-based gamepad over
joystick-based device, although both were worse than the manual control. It is
concluded that the IoT-based remote control of the TEE probe is feasible and a
trained user can accurately manipulate the probe. The main identified problem
was the backlash hysteresis in the steering axes, which can result in
continuous oscillations and overshoots.
