Robotic control of an endoscope from blood vessel tree images

摘要

A robot guiding system employs a robot unit (10) and a control unit (20). The robot unit (10) includes an endoscope (12) for generating an intra-operative endoscopic image (14) of a blood vessel tree within an anatomical region, and a robot (11) for moving the endoscope (12) within the anatomical region. The control unit (20) includes an endoscope controller (22) for generating an endoscopic path within the anatomical region, wherein the endoscopic path is derived from a matching of a graphical representation of the intra-operative endoscopic image (14) of the blood vessel tree to a graphical representation of a pre-operative three-dimensional image (44) of the blood vessel tree. The control unit (20) further includes a robot controller (21) for commanding the robot (11) to move the endoscope (12) within the anatomical region in accordance with the endoscopic path.

主权项

1. A robot guiding system, comprising:
an endoscope including an endoscope camera configured to generate an intra-operative endoscopic image of an exterior of a subregion of a blood vessel tree within an anatomical region; a robot configured to move the endoscope within the anatomical region exterior to blood vessels of the blood vessel tree; an endoscope controller configured to:
generate an endoscopic path exterior to the blood vessels within the anatomical region, wherein the endoscopic path follows vessels of the blood vessel tree and the endoscopic path is derived from matching a graphical representation of the intra-operative endoscopic image of the subregion of the blood vessel tree to a graphical representation of a pre-operative three-dimensional image of the blood vessel tree,overlay the geometrical representation of the pre-operative three-dimensional image of the exterior of the blood vessel tree onto the intra-operative endoscopic image of the subregion of the blood vessel tree corresponding to the subgraph in accordance with the matching of the graphical representation of the intra-operative endoscopic image of the blood vessel tree to the graphical representation of the pre-operative three-dimensional image of the blood vessel tree, andgenerate the endoscopic path within the geometrical representation of the pre-operative three-dimensional image of the exterior of the blood vessel tree overlaid onto the intra-operative endoscopic image of the corresponding portion of the blood vessel tree; and a robot controller configured to command the robot to move the endoscope within the anatomical region exterior to the blood vessels in accordance with the endoscopic path; wherein the endoscopic controller is further configured to update the generating of the endoscopic path, the overlay, and the generating of the endoscopic path within the geometrical representation as the robot moves the endoscope within the anatomical region exterior to blood vessels of the blood vessel tree.