Realtime Robotic Radiation Oncology

Brian Murphy4th Electronic & Computer Engineering

Project Background

Oncology is the study of tumours in a body and aims to find out about their development, diagnosis, treatment and prevention.

Image of Radiation concentrating on Tumour

Radiation oncology is the treatment of tumours using radiation.

Radiation

As of now radiation is controlled by technicians who calculate the position of the tumour and then setup radiation beams to converge on the tumour

Project Background

What we want to do is to set up a robotic system which will accurately target a tumour within the body to a high degree of accuracy.

The system should also be able to cope with the movement of the body and then re-focus the radiation beams accordingly.

Project Aims

This project is based on a partially completed previous project to develop a real time system to optically track a ball in the field of view of a camera.

Once the ball was identified, a robotic arm with a torch attached will point towards the ball.

We want to develop this system to operate in real time to track a moving target.

What do we mean by a moving Target?

Project Milestones

Implement algorithms from previous project in Matlab.

Set up hardware test platform and calibrate the system so that the Matlab code can accurately estimate the position of the tumour (ball).

Commission Labview for image processing applications and set up cameras for image capture directly into Labview.

Project Milestones

Import image processing algorithms implemented in Matlab into Labview.

Create Labview program to control two servo-motors using the NIDAQ interface card. Two small pen-torches will be connected to the servo-motors to act as energy beams.

Make this system as efficient as possible to allow the two cameras and two servo-motors run in real time.

Project Approach

Hardware: Look over previous code and determine what the

code is doing and why it is doing it. Set up hardware and be able to use Matlab to

send basic control commands to it. Calibrate the system so Matlab code can

accurately estimate the position of the ball.

Project Approach

Labview Achieve familiarity and gain confidence with

Labview. Import Matlab algorithms into Labview. As Matlab is code based and Labview is graphical

based – need to validate Matlab results with Labview results.

Create program to control two-servo motors using NIDAQ card.

Project Approach

Finally: Integrate the servo-motor controllers to allow

system to estimate the location of the ball and move servo-motors to point beams directly to the ball.

Set up system to allow the two cameras and two servo-motors run in real time.

Questions?