Methods And Systems For Performing Image Registration In A Computer-Assisted Surgery System

1 . A surgical system comprising:

a patient tracker attached to a patient, the patient tracker comprising at least one hybrid marker having a radiological marker contained within an optical marker comprising a spherically shaped portion, the radiological marker located at a centroid of the optical marker, wherein the radiological marker defines a first diameter, and the optical marker has a spherical profile defining a second diameter larger than the first diameter;

a motion tracking system for tracking a location of the at least one hybrid marker; and

a computing device being configured to:

obtain a three-dimensional image of a patient's anatomy and the patient tracker attached to the patient;

identify a three-dimensional portion of the hybrid marker within a scan volume of the three-dimensional image;

determine a location of the hybrid marker within the scan volume based on the identified three-dimensional portion of the hybrid marker;

track the location of the hybrid marker in three-dimensional space using the motion tracking system while the patient tracker remains fixed to the patient; and

register the three-dimensional image of the patient's anatomy in three-dimensional space based on a known geometric relationship between the location of the hybrid marker within the scan volume and the location of the hybrid marker in three-dimensional space.

2 . The surgical system of claim 1 , further comprising an imaging device for performing a scan of the patient to obtain the three-dimensional image of the patient's anatomy.

3 . The surgical system of claim 1 , wherein the motion tracking system includes a localizer for detecting the hybrid marker to enable continuous real-time tracking of the patient tracker in three-dimensional space,

wherein based on the continuous real-time tracking of the patient tracker, the motion tracking system generates the three-dimensional space in a common coordinate system.

4 . The surgical system of claim 1 , wherein a ratio of the second diameter relative to the first diameter is at least 3:1.

5 . The surgical system of claim 4 , wherein based on the three-dimensional image of the patient's anatomy and the continuous real-time tracking of the patient tracker, the computing device is further configured to register the location of the hybrid marker in three-dimensional space.

6 . The surgical system of claim 1 , wherein determining the location of the hybrid marker within the scan volume based on the identified three-dimensional portion of the hybrid marker comprises finding a centroid of the hybrid marker.

7 . The surgical system of claim 1 , wherein the hybrid marker comprises a thermoplastic material that is doped with radiopaque material,

wherein the radiopaque material comprises at least one of barium, bismuth subcarbonate, barium sulfate, bismuth oxychloride, bismuth trioxide, tungsten and tantalum.

8 . The surgical system of claim 1 , wherein the hybrid marker comprises a light emitting source.

9 . The surgical system of claim 1 , further comprising a surgical robot including a robotic arm and an end effector coupled to the robotic arm, the surgical robot includes a controller that is configured to move at least one of the robotic arm and end effector to a pose in three-dimensional space relative to the location of an anatomical feature of the patient or the location of the hybrid marker that is identified within the scan volume of the three-dimensional image of the patient's anatomy.

10 . The surgical system of claim 9 , wherein the computing device is further configured to:

monitor the pose of the robotic arm by tracking a robot tracker, attached to the robotic arm, in three-dimensional space using the motion tracking system to determine whether the robot tracker moved relative to the hybrid marker; and

adjust the pose of the robotic arm based on a determination of movement of the robot tracker relative to at least one of the anatomical feature and hybrid marker.

11 . A surgical system, comprising:

a patient tracker attached to a patient, the patient tracker comprising at least one hybrid marker having a radiological marker contained within an optical marker comprising a spherically shaped portion, the radiological marker located at a centroid of the optical marker, wherein the radiological marker defines a first diameter, and the optical marker has a spherical profile defining a second diameter larger than the first diameter;

a surgical robot including a robotic arm and an end effector, the robotic arm includes a robot tracker attached to the robotic arm;

a motion tracking system for tracking a location of the at least one hybrid marker and a location of the robot tracker;

an imaging device configured to perform a three-dimensional image scan of the patient while the patient tracker is attached to at least one anatomical feature of the patient; and

a computing device being configured to:

track the location of the hybrid marker in three-dimensional space using the motion tracking system while the patient tracker remains attached to the patient;

track the location of the robot tracker in three-dimensional space using the motion tracking system while the robot track remains attached to the robotic arm;

monitor a pose of the robotic arm by tracking the robot tracker in three-dimensional space using the motion tracking system to determine whether the robot tracker moved relative to the hybrid marker; and

adjust the pose of the robotic arm based on a determination of a movement of the robot tracker relative to at least one of anatomical feature and hybrid marker.

12 . The surgical system of claim 11 , wherein the surgical robot further includes a controller that is configured to move at least one of the robotic arm and the end effector to a pose in three-dimensional space relative to the location of an anatomical feature of the patient that is identified within a scan volume of the three-dimensional image of the patient.

13 . The surgical system of claim 11 , wherein the optical marker comprises a spherically-shaped portion with a reflective coating over the spherically-shaped portion.

14 . The surgical system of claim 11 , wherein the radiological marker is located at a centroid of the spherically-shaped portion of the optical marker.

15 . The surgical system of claim 11 , wherein the surgical robot is configured to couple to the imaging device.

16 . The surgical system of claim 11 , wherein the motion tracking device includes a localizer. for tracking the location of the hybrid marker in three-dimensional space.

17 . The surgical system of claim 16 , wherein the localizer is configured to track the location of the hybrid marker in three-dimensional space while the patient tracker remains attached to the patient.

18 . The surgical system of claim 11 , wherein the computing device is further configured to:

obtain a three-dimensional image of a patient's anatomy and the patient tracker attached to the patient;

identify a three-dimensional portion of the hybrid marker within a scan volume of the three-dimensional image; and

determine the location of the hybrid marker within the scan volume based on the identified three-dimensional portion of the hybrid marker.

19 . The surgical system of claim 11 , wherein the computing device is further configured to display image data of the patient's anatomy obtained by the imaging device and the three-dimensional image of the patient's anatomy on a display device, where the three-dimensional image is augmented by a graphical representation of at least one additional object that is tracked by the motion tracking system in the same three-dimensional space in which the three-dimensional image of the patient's anatomy is registered.

20 . The surgical system of claim 11 , wherein a ratio of the second diameter relative to the first diameter is at least 3:1.