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 Image Acquisition 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 Edge Detection 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?