Image-guided navigation system for robot-based vessel intervention surgery based on conventional single plane C-Arm

Remote-controlled interventional robots are widely studied in recent years to reduce the radiation exposure of operators in catheter-based vessel intervention surgery (VIS). Compared with manual operation, robot-based surgery relies more on image-guided navigation information. As the conventional C-Arm is used widely and has poor navigation capacity, the application of interventional robot is limited. In this paper, a new image-guided navigation system for interventional robots is proposed. This system provides useful navigation information based on single plane fluoroscopy x-ray images, which could improve the accuracy and efficiency of robot-based VIS under conventional C-Arm system. To validate the system, phantom-based and animal experiments are performed. The accuracy of 3D reconstruction is tested by comparing the distance between reconstructed positions with real values, and the efficacy of the system is testified by performing simulating robot-based VIS. Experimental results show that this navigation system has adequate accuracy and can indeed improve the efficiency of VIS.