Real-time Robotic Radiation Oncology

Brian Murphy

Electronic and Computer Engineering

NUI Galway

Overview

• Project Background• Aims• System Overview:

– Image Acquisition– Image Processing– Hardware– Demonstration Environment

• Final System

Project Background

• Radiation oncology is the study of tumors in a body and aims to find out about their development, diagnosis, treatment and prevention.

Project Background

• External beam radiation therapy is the most common type of radiation treatment.

Project Background

• Problems with external beam radiotherapy:– Tumor prone to movement.– Patient prone to movement.

• Problem with movement:– Higher area around the tumor must be exposed to

radiation to ensure that any movement of the tumor will lead to it being treated no matter where it moves to.

– Reduced dose of radiation.

Project Background

• Image Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT).

Aims

• To prove that a radiation beam can track a moving tumor in real-time.

• To represent a tumor, a ball will be used and to simulate a radiation beam a laser beam will be used.

System Overview

ImageAcquisition

Image Processing

Robotic Control

Image Acquisition

Device

Pan and Tilt Laser

Image Acquisition

• Two parts to image acquisition:– Hardware

• Logitech Quickcam.

– Software• IMAQ Vision in Labview.

Image Processing

• Various edge detection techniques tried:– Canny Edge Detection.– Different Filter Types.

Canny EdgeDetection

Prewitt Filtering

Image Processing

• Moving Objects.– Follow moving ball and detect movement

around ball.• IMAQ Count Objects.

Robotic Control

• The robotic control consists of two sections:– Hardware

• Pan and Tilt assembly and Parallax servo controller.

• Software– Interface with Labview.

Demonstration Environment

• Lego Mindstroms NXT Robotic Kit.

• Controls movement of the ball.

Final System

• Ball movement is monitored to high degree of accuracy.

• Pan and Tilt assembly running in real-time from Labview.

Questions?