IBA - Automation of tests of stopping distances and accuracy of a robotic patient positioner with a laser tracker

Abstract

As a medical institution, IBA is requested to comply with medical standards. To verify them, it repeatedly needs to acquire a large amount of data through tests. These tests aim at checking the performances of the stopping distances of a robotic patient positioner. However, performing the tests manually is particularly repetitive and time-consuming. IBA thus wanted to automate these tests. This automation is the subject of this master thesis.

A complete automatic test system was developed. It allows for quickly retrieving stopping distance measurements at very low cost compared to the manual case. The final system also appears to be reliable, functional and user-friendly. Its development can be divided in two main parts: hardware and software developments.

The hardware development consisted in developing an electrical cabinet aiming at safely and properly interfacing all the test components together. These components are then piloted with the software part.

Once the system functional, the reliability of the measurements was checked. The automatic results appear to be either similar or more accurate than the manual ones.