A reference trajectory correction algorithm to improve the tracking accuracy of the robotic phantom system used in the quality assurance of the radiation therapy

Abstract

This paper proposes an algorithm to generate the augmented reference position trajectory for the realtime 3D robotic phantom system which is used in the quality assurance of the radiation therapy. Quality assuarance is the important clinical part of the radiation therapy which ensures the delivery of the prescribed dose to the tumor of the patient. High precision quality assurance can be a difficult task if the tumor exhibits respiratory induced motion inside the body of the patient, as the motion fluctuates along with time and it suffers large inter-patient difference. This paper presents several algorithms to modify and/or correct the reference tumor trajectory of the patient and generate the augmented reference trajectory sequence for the already existing and tuned control system of the robot manipulator to yield high precision tracking to the original tumor motion trajectory. Experimental validation has been carried out for four lung tumor trajectories in the clinical environment using equipments used in the radiotherapy treatment and it has been shown that the clinical demand on the precision of tumor motion tracking has been satisfied for all the four cases.

Keywords

• radiation therapy
• quality assurance
• phantom
• industrial robot manipulator
• reference augmentation