Design and Calibration of Dual Sensor: Towards Simultaneous Instrument Tracking and Deformable Shape Sensing in...

Area of Science:

• Medical robotics
• Computer-assisted surgery
• Sensing and imaging technologies

Background:

• Accurate tracking of surgical instruments and real-time shape assessment of deformable tissues are critical for computer-integrated surgery.
• Existing systems often struggle to provide both capabilities simultaneously, especially for non-rigid anatomical structures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and validate a novel dual sensor system designed for concurrent real-time 3D shape information of deformable objects and accurate pose tracking of medical instruments.
• To assess the system's design, fabrication, calibration, and accuracy for surgical applications.

Main Methods:

• Development of a dual sensor system comprising an optical localizer and two RGB-D sensors.
• Implementation of a one-time calibration methodology for the integrated system.
• Experimental evaluation of the dual sensor system's calibration accuracy and performance.

Main Results:

• The dual sensor system successfully integrates optical localization and RGB-D sensing.
• The system achieves real-time 3D shape scanning of deformable objects and accurate instrument pose tracking concurrently.
• Experimental results confirm the system's accuracy, deeming it suitable for intended surgical applications.

Conclusions:

• The presented dual sensor system offers a unique solution for simultaneous intra-operative shape scanning and instrument tracking.
• This technology holds significant potential for enhancing image-guided surgical navigation, robotic surgery, and automation in procedures involving non-rigid targets like breast or facial tissues.