Distribution of fiducial registration error in rigid-body point-based registration

Rigid-body point-based registration is frequently used in computer assisted surgery to align corresponding points, or fiducials, in preoperative and intraoperative data. This alignment is mostly achieved by assuming the same homogeneous error distribution for all the points; however, due to the properties of the medical instruments used in measuring the point coordinates, the error distribution might be inhomogeneous and different for each point. In this paper, in an effort to understand the effect of error distribution in the localized points on the performed registration, we derive a closed-form solution relating the error distribution of each point with the performed registration accuracy. The solution uses maximum likelihood estimation to calculate the probability density function of registration error at each fiducial point. Extensive numerical simulations are performed to validated the proposed solution.