Software architecture for robotically assisted and image-guided minimally invasive interventions

Although more sophisticated software and hardware components are becoming available, technology for the operating room and interventional suite can be slow to change. The integration of vendor specific software and hardware components remains difficult, and the resulting systems are limited in reuse, flexibility, interoperability, and maintainability. One potential solution to this problem is to develop open software architectures as a platform for rapidly integrating new technologies into the operating room. In an ongoing effort to develop modular software architectures for systems designed to assist in minimally invasive interventions, two systems are outlined here: a “needle driver” robot and an image-guided surgery system based of magnetic tracking of internal organ motion. To date, the robot system has been used to complete a cadaver study of nerve and facet block placement under joystick control of the interventionalist. The image-guided surgery system has been used in phantom studies of liver needle placement. Potential future developments include fluoroscopy servoing in which the robot will automatically align the needle along the C-arm trajectory and the integration of the robot and tracking systems.