Department of Electrical and Information Engineering, Polytechnic University of Bari, 70126 Bari, BA, Italy.
Sensors (Basel). 2020 Feb 11;20(4):961. doi: 10.3390/s20040961.
In this paper we present a study of the repeatability of an innovative electromagnetic tracking system (EMTS) for surgical navigation, developed to overcome the state of the art of current commercial systems, allowing for the placement of the magnetic field generator far from the operating table. Previous studies led to the development of a preliminary EMTS prototype. Several hardware improvements are described, which result in noise reduction in both signal generation and the measurement process, as shown by experimental tests. The analysis of experimental results has highlighted the presence of drift in voltage components, whose effect has been quantified and related to the variation of the sensor position. Repeatability in the sensor position measurement is evaluated by means of the propagation of the voltage repeatability error, and the results are compared with the performance of the Aurora system (which represents the state of the art for EMTS for surgical navigation), showing a repeatability error about ten times lower. Finally, the proposed improvements aim to overcome the limited operating distance between the field generator and electromagnetic (EM) sensors provided by commercial EM tracking systems for surgical applications and seem to provide a not negligible technological advantage.
在本文中，我们研究了一种创新的电磁跟踪系统（EMTS）的可重复性，该系统用于手术导航，旨在克服当前商业系统的现状，允许将磁场发生器放置在远离手术台的位置。之前的研究导致了初步的 EMTS 原型的开发。描述了几个硬件改进，这导致信号生成和测量过程中的噪声降低，如实验测试所示。实验结果的分析突出了电压分量中存在漂移，其影响已被量化，并与传感器位置的变化相关。通过电压重复性误差的传播来评估传感器位置测量的重复性，并将结果与 Aurora 系统（代表手术导航用 EMTS 的最新水平）的性能进行比较，显示重复性误差大约低十倍。最后，提出的改进旨在克服商用 EM 跟踪系统在手术应用中提供的磁场发生器和电磁（EM）传感器之间的有限操作距离，并似乎提供了一个不可忽视的技术优势。
