BronchOpt : Vision-Based Pose Optimization with Fine-Tuned Foundation Models for Accurate Bronchoscopy Navigation

TL;DR

This paper introduces BronchOpt, a vision-based framework utilizing fine-tuned foundation models for accurate, domain-invariant bronchoscopy navigation, supported by a new synthetic dataset for standardized evaluation.

Contribution

It presents a novel pose optimization method with a domain-invariant encoder and a synthetic benchmark dataset for bronchoscopy navigation.

Findings

Achieves 2.65 mm translational error and 0.19 rad rotational error on synthetic data.

Demonstrates strong cross-domain generalization on real patient data.

Provides a publicly available synthetic dataset for benchmarking.

Abstract

Accurate intra-operative localization of the bronchoscope tip relative to patient anatomy remains challenging due to respiratory motion, anatomical variability, and CT-to-body divergence that cause deformation and misalignment between intra-operative views and pre-operative CT. Existing vision-based methods often fail to generalize across domains and patients, leading to residual alignment errors. This work establishes a generalizable foundation for bronchoscopy navigation through a robust vision-based framework and a new synthetic benchmark dataset that enables standardized and reproducible evaluation. We propose a vision-based pose optimization framework for frame-wise 2D-3D registration between intra-operative endoscopic views and pre-operative CT anatomy. A fine-tuned modality- and domain-invariant encoder enables direct similarity computation between real endoscopic RGB frames and CT-rendered depth maps, while a differentiable rendering module iteratively refines camera poses through depth consistency. To enhance reproducibility, we introduce the first public synthetic benchmark dataset for bronchoscopy navigation, addressing the lack of paired CT-endoscopy data. Trained exclusively on synthetic data distinct from the benchmark, our model achieves an average translational error of 2.65 mm and a rotational error of 0.19 rad, demonstrating accurate and stable localization. Qualitative results on real patient data further confirm strong cross-domain generalization, achieving consistent frame-wise 2D-3D alignment without domain-specific adaptation. Overall, the proposed framework achieves robust, domain-invariant localization through iterative vision-based optimization, while the new benchmark provides a foundation for standardized progress in vision-based bronchoscopy navigation.