Vision Based Robot Assistance in TTTS Fetal Surgery

Abstract

This paper presents an accurate and robust tracking vision algorithm for Fetoscopic Laser Photo-coagulation (FLP) surgery for Twin-Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS). The aim of the proposed method is to assist surgeons during anastomosis localization, coagulation and review using a teleoperated robotic system. The algorithm computes the relative position of the fetoscope tool tip with respect to the placenta, via local vascular structure registration. The algorithm uses image features (local superficial vascular structures of the placenta's surface) to automatically match consecutive fetoscopic images. It is composed of three sequential steps: image processing (filtering, binarization and vascular structures segmentation); relevant Points Of Interest (POIs) seletion; and image registration between consecutive images. The algorithm has to deal with the low quality of fetoscopic images, the liquid and dirty environment inside the placenta jointly with the thin diameter of the fetoscope optics and low amount of environment light reduces the image quality. The obtained images are blurred, noisy and with very poor color components. The tracking system has been tested using real video sequences of FLP surgery for TTTS. The computational performance enables real time tracking, locally guiding the robot over the placenta's surface with enough accuracy.

Inteligencia artificial en la práctica de la ginecobstetricia, la investigación y redacción científica

“…El algoritmo de la IA calcula la posición relativa de la punta del fetoscopio con respecto a la placenta mediante el registro de la estructura vascular local y guía localmente al robot sobre la superficie de la placenta con suficiente precisión. Los robots controlados por los cirujanos pueden realizar movimientos más precisos que las manos humanas y evitar posibles complicaciones (17) .…”

Robot Assisted Fetoscopic Laser Coagulation: Improvements in Navigation, Re-Location and Coagulation

“…This transformation is defined by a scaling factor and a rotation and a displacement over the image plane. Although the VTA algorithm and its results have been previously published in [39], the following is a brief review of the methodology given its importance in the perception system and, therefore, in cognition and situation awareness. VTA can be divided into three sequential steps applied to each new image.…”

Cyclic Task-Based Affordable Robot for Medicine-Intake Purpose of COVID-19 Patient

“…Beyond the design and implementations, the necessity of artificial intelligence in medicine has been discussed in [11]. Even to perform fatal surgery, vision-based robot assistance has been tested in [12]. Besides, the advancements in [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] are also evolving the robotic assistance facts in medical science and applications.…”