2011 Summer Project Week Patient Mounted Robot

Key Investigators

Massachusetts General Hospital and MIT: Conor James Walsh, Maryam Shokri, Faye Wu

Objective

The goal of this project is to port existing robot control software for Robopsy and integrate it into 3D slicer using OpenIGTLink.

Approach, Plan

The method performs robot/image registration using fiducial markers. The following modifications will be performed:

1. The controller code will be modified and connected to the OpenIGTLink.
2. The module will be modified to add widgets for performing the registration and robot control tasks.

Progress

1. Have used Skeleton Generator to generate template code for 3D Slicer module to collect fiducials. The registration algorithm was modified. The location of each fiducial marker on the robot was determined. The registration algorithm employs the position of markers on the robot and the fiducial positions which are collected from the image. The initial position for the needle holder was determined for the registration. The possibilities of adding GUI widgets to the registration module in the 3D slicer were discussed with collaborators.
2. Discussed employing of other available modules like segmentation in our module for generating semi-automatic registration technique. This technique incorporates user feedback and image segmentation for more accurate registration.
3. Installed the controller software on Linux and modified the C++ code to send the commands to the robot.
4. Discussed connecting the controller to the 3D slicer using OpenIGTLink.
5. IGTLoadableModules will be employed to integrate the controller code.