In breast cancer screening, lesions may be found which need to be biopsied to check for malignancy. Some lesions are only visible on MRI, requiring an MRI-guided biopsy procedure. Current manual systems are inaccurate and time-consuming. To address these challenges, the Sunram 7, an MRI safe breast biopsy robot, was developed. Currently, the Sunram 7 is controlled via 3 joysticks. This makes targeting the robot to a specific spot complex and not intuitive. This thesis focuses on designing a safe and user-friendly optical tracking system for MRI-guided breast biopsies using the Sunram 7.
The optical tracking system, implemented in MATLAB, incorporates infrared-based tracking and additional features to improve safety and usability. Latency and accuracy experiments were conducted, with satisfactory latency performance and positive user feedback. However, accuracy measurements revealed room for improvement in targeting smaller lesions.
In conclusion, the optical tracking system offers a promising approach for controlling the Sunram 7 in MRI-guided breast biopsies, though accuracy enhancements are needed. This research contributes to advancing optical tracking systems in image-guided procedures and provides insight for future developments in biopsy robot control.