Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

OpenIGTLink interface for state control and visualisation of a robot for image-guided therapy systems

  • Review Article
  • Published:
International Journal of Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

   The integration of a robot into an image-guided therapy system is still a time consuming process, due to the lack of a well-accepted standard for interdevice communication. The aim of this project is to simplify this procedure by developing an open interface based on three interface classes: state control, visualisation, and sensor. A state machine on the robot control is added to the concept because the robot has its own workflow during surgical procedures, which differs from the workflow of the surgeon.

Methods

A KUKA Light Weight Robot is integrated into the medical technology environment of the Institute of Mechatronic Systems as a proof of concept. Therefore, 3D Slicer was used as visualisation and state control software. For the network communication the OpenIGTLink protocol was implemented. In order to achieve high rate control of the robot the “KUKA Sunrise. Connectivity SmartServo” package was used. An exemplary state machine providing states typically used by image-guided therapy interventions, was implemented. Two interface classes, which allow for a direct use of OpenIGTLink for robot control on the one hand and visualisation on the other hand were developed. Additionally, a 3D Slicer module was written to operate the state control.

Results

Utilising the described software concept the state machine could be operated by the 3D Slicer module with 20 Hz cycle rate and no data loss was detected during a test phase of approximately \(270\,s\) (13,640 packages). Furthermore, the current robot pose could be sent with more than 60 Hz. No influence on the performance of the state machine by the communication thread could be measured.

Conclusion

Simplified integration was achieved by using only one programming context for the implementation of the state machine, the interfaces, and the robot control. Eventually, the exemplary state machine can be easily expanded by adding new states.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. http://aimlab.wpi.edu/research/projects/OpenIGTLink_Interface.

  2. http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/technotes/guides/jni/spec/jniTOC.html.

  3. http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/lang/Thread.html.

  4. https://github.com/SNRLab/LightWeightRobotIGT.

References

  1. Lemke HU, Vannier MW (2006) The operating room and the need for an IT infrastructure and standards. Int J Comput Assist Radiol Surg 1:117–121

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Tauscher S, Neff T, Ortmaier T (2013) Interface concept for the integration of a robot into an image-guided therapy system. In: Proceedings of the 27th International Congress on Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery (CARS 2013)

  3. Schreiber G, Stemmer A, Bischoff R (2010) The fast research interface for the KUKA lightweight robot. IEEE Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)

  4. Bzostek A, Kumar R, Hata N, Schorr O, Kikinis R, Taylor RH (2000) Distributed modular computer-integrated surgical robotic systems: implementation using modular software and networked systems. In: Medical image computing and computer-assisted intervention-MICCAI 2000. Springer, Berlin, pp 969–978

  5. Treichel T, Gessat M, Prietzel T, Burgert O (2012) DICOM for implantations-overview and application. J Digit Imaging 25(3):352–358

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Xia T, Baird C, Jallo G, Hayes K, Nakajima N, Hata N, Kazanzides P (2008) An integrated system for planning, navigation and robotic assistance for skull base surgery. Int J Med Robot Comput Assist Surg 4(4):321–330

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Tokuda J, Fischer GS, Papademetris X, Yaniv Z, Ibanez L, Cheng P, Hata N (2009) OpenIGTLink: an open network protocol for image-guided therapy environment. Int J Med Robot Comput Assist Surg 5(4):423–434

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Fedorov A, Beichel R, Kalpathy-Cramer J, Finet J, Fillion-Robin JC, Pujol S et al (2012) 3D Slicer as an image computing platform for the quantitative imaging network. Magn Reson Imaging 30(9):41–1323

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Egger J, Tokuda J, Chauvin L, Freisleben B, Nimsky C, Kapur T, Wells W (2012) Integration of the OpenIGTLink Network Protocol for image-guided therapy with the medical platform MeVisLab. Int J Med Robot Comput Assist Surg 8:282–290

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Elhawary H, Liu H, Patel P, Norton I, Rigolo L, Papademetris X et al (2011) Intraoperative real-time querying of white matter tracts during frameless stereotactic neuronavigation. Neurosurgery 68(2):16–506

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Tokuda J, Pan L, Lorenz CH, Jolesz FA, Tempany CM, Hata N (2012) Smartphone interface for interactive MRI, Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery (CARS 2012). In: 26th International Congress and Exhibition, June 27–30, Pisa, Italy

  12. Tokuda J, Fischer GS, DiMaio SP, Gobbi DG, Csoma C, Mewes PW, Fichtinger G, Tempany CM, Hata N (2010) Integrated navigation and control software system for MRI-guided robotic prostate interventions. Comput Med Imaging Graph 34(1):3–8

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Enquobahrie A, Cheng P, Gary K et al (2007) The image-guided surgery toolkit IGSTK: an open source C++ software toolkit. J Digit Imag 20(Suppl 1):21–33, 28

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Bartha L, Lasso A, Pinter C, Ungi T, Keri Z, Fichtinger G. (2013) Open-source surface mesh-based ultrasound-guided spinal intervention simulator. Int J Comput Assist Radiol Surg 8(6):1043–1051

  15. Tavares DM, de Paula Caurin GA (2010) Proposal for a device proxy using XIRP. In Industry Applications (INDUSCON), 2010 9th IEEE/IAS International Conference on, pp 1–6

  16. Mönnich H, Wörn H, Stein D (2012) OP sense-A robotic research platform for telemanipulated and automatic computer assisted surgery. In: Advanced Motion Control (AMC), 12th International Workshop on IEEE, pp 1–6

  17. Jakopec M, Rodriguez y Baena F, Harris SJ, Gomes P, Cobb J, Davies BL (2003) The hands-on orthopaedic robot. Robotics and Automation. IEEE Trans 19(5):902–911

    Google Scholar 

  18. Vlissides J, Helm R, Johnson R, Gamma E (1995) Design patterns: elements of reusable object-oriented software. Addison-Wesley, Reading

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Gregory Fischer and Nirav Patel from the WPI for the provision of the java implementation of OpenIGTLink igtlink4j as well as the Organizers of the NAMIC 2013 Summer Project Week. This work is supported in part by the National Institute of Health (R01CA111288, P01CA067165, P41RR019703, P41EB015898, R01CA124377, R01CA138586, R42CA137886, and U54EB005 149) and is funded by KUKA Laboratories GmbH (Augsburg, Germany).

Conflict of interest

The two co-authors Thomas Neff and Günter Schreiber are with KUKA Laboratories GmbH (Augsburg, Germany). Nobuhiko Hata is a member of the Board of Directors of AZE Technology, Cambridge, MA and has an equity interest in the company. AZE Technology develops and sells imaging technology and software. Nobuhiko Hata’s interests were reviewed and are managed by the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Partners HealthCare in accordance with their conflict of interest policies.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Mechatronic Systems, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Appelstrasse 11 a, 30167 , Hannover, Germany

    Sebastian Tauscher & Tobias Ortmaier

  2. Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Francis Street 75, Boston, MA , 02115, USA

    Junichi Tokuda & Nobuhiko Hata

  3. KUKA Laboratories GmbH, Zugspitzstrasse 140, 86165 , Augsburg, Germany

    Günter Schreiber & Thomas Neff

Authors
  1. Sebastian Tauscher
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Junichi Tokuda
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Günter Schreiber
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Thomas Neff
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Nobuhiko Hata
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Tobias Ortmaier
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sebastian Tauscher.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Tauscher, S., Tokuda, J., Schreiber, G. et al. OpenIGTLink interface for state control and visualisation of a robot for image-guided therapy systems. Int J CARS 10, 285–292 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11548-014-1081-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11548-014-1081-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation