Efficient physics-based tracking of heart surface motion for beating heart surgery robotic systems

Purpose Tracking of beating heart motion in a robotic surgery system is required for complex cardiovascular interventions. Methods A heart surface motion tracking method is developed, including a stochastic physics-based heart surface model and an efficient reconstruction algorithm. The algorithm uses the constraints provided by the model that exploits the physical characteristics of the heart. The main advantage of the model is that it is more realistic than most standard heart models. Additionally, no explicit matching between the measurements and the model is required. The application of meshless methods significantly reduces the complexity of physics-based tracking. Results Based on the stochastic physical model of the heart surface, this approach considers the motion of the intervention area and is robust to occlusions and reflections. The tracking algorithm is evaluated in simulations and experiments on an artificial heart. Providing higher accuracy than the standard model-based methods, it successfully copes with occlusions and provides high performance even when all measurements are not available. Conclusions Combining the physical and stochastic description of the heart surface motion ensures physically correct and accurate prediction. Automatic initialization of the physics-based cardiac motion tracking enables system evaluation in a clinical environment.