A Real-Time Soft Robotic Patient Positioning System for Maskless Head-and-Neck Cancer Radiotherapy: An Initial Investigation

TL;DR

This paper introduces a real-time, soft robotic system utilizing visual-servoing and inflatable air bladders to accurately position a patient's head during radiotherapy, demonstrating precise control within 2mm.

Contribution

It presents a novel soft robotic patient positioning system with visual-servoing control for head alignment in radiotherapy, showing initial proof-of-concept for improved treatment accuracy.

Findings

Head position controlled within 2mm accuracy.

System successfully uses visual feedback for real-time adjustments.

Proof-of-concept for soft robotic positioning in medical applications.

Abstract

We present an initial examination of a novel approach to accurately position a patient during head and neck intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). Position-based visual-servoing of a radio-transparent soft robot is used to control the flexion/extension cranial motion of a manikin head. A Kinect RGB-D camera is used to measure head position and the error between the sensed and desired position is used to control a pneumatic system which regulates pressure within an inflatable air bladder (IAB). Results show that the system is capable of controlling head motion to within 2mm with respect to a reference trajectory. This establishes proof-of-concept that using multiple IABs and actuators can improve cancer treatment.