The OTELO project proposes the study and development of a fully integrated end-to-end mobile tele-echography system for population groups that are either temporarily or permanently not served locally by medical experts. The main drawback of current ultrasound techniques is that the quality of the examination highly depends on the operator's specialised skills which are lacking in most health centres. OTELO is a portable ultrasound probe holder robotic system, associated with new mobile communications technologies, that will reproduce the expert's hand movements during an ultrasound examination. Although being manipulated by non-specialised staff on the remote site, the slave system will bring, in real time, good image quality back to the expert site where force feedback control will be combined with virtual reality for the rendering of the distant environment.