LAUSR

Abstract Background and objective The purpose of this paper is to provide a method for supporting navigation in bronchoscopy based on measurements of absolute orientation of a tip of a bronchoscope and the length a bronchoscope is pushed in the lumen of an examined bronchial structure. Methods A hardware solution is designed and developed for collecting the data related to the absolute orientation of a tip of a bronchoscope and the length a bronchoscope is pushed in the lumen of an examined structure. A software which processes these data and visualizes in real-time the actual location of a bronchoscope tip in the lumen of a digital model of the examined structure (i.e. virtual bronchoscopy) is also designed and implemented. Results A calibration procedure is developed which constitutes a basis for the operation of the proposed system. A phantom of a tree-like structure is build, imitating the anatomy of a bronchial tree, and the proposed method of navigation is tested for the task of navigating in the lumen of the phantom to user-selected target locations. Conclusion A method has been proposed and tested for Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU)-based support of navigation in bronchoscopy.