Intraoperative tracking method

1. A method to determine an actual surgical pathway of a patient based on a planned surgical pathway, comprising:

retrieving a first two-dimensional image of the patient associated with information collected at a first point in time, wherein a spatial relationship between the patient and an apparatus in an operating room is described by a first coordinate system;

modifying a three-dimensional model of the patient including the planned surgical pathway with a first set of modification parameter values, wherein the three-dimensional model is described by a second coordinate system and constructed by information collected at a second point in time earlier than the first point in time;

retrieving a second two-dimensional image from the modified three-dimensional model;

computing a first correlation between the first two-dimensional image and the second two-dimensional image; and

in response to the first correlation exceeding a threshold, transforming the planned surgical pathway in the second coordinate system to the first coordinate system based on the first set of modification parameter values to determine the actual surgical pathway.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the modifying the three-dimensional model includes scaling the three-dimensional model, rotating the three-dimensional model or moving the three-dimensional model based on the set of modification parameter values.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second two-dimensional image is a projection of the modified three-dimensional model.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the patient is on an operating table in the operating room at the first point in time, and the patient is under a medical image scan at the second point in time.

5. The method of claim 1 , in response to the first correlation not exceeding the threshold, further comprising:

modifying the three-dimensional model of the patient including the planned surgical pathway with a second set of modification parameter values,

retrieving a third two-dimensional image from the three-dimensional model modified with the second set of modification parameter values;

computing a second correlation between the first two-dimensional image and the third two-dimensional image; and

in response to the second correlation exceeding a threshold, transforming the planned surgical pathway in the second coordinate system to the first coordinate system based on the second set of modification parameter values to identify the actual surgical pathway.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising performing edge detection on the first two-dimensional image and the second two-dimensional image.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the edge detection is performed before the computation of the correlation.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing a set of executable instructions which, in response to execution by a processor in one of one or more surgical system, cause the processor to perform a method to determine an actual surgical pathway of a patient based on a planned surgical pathway, the method comprising:

retrieving a first two-dimensional image of the patient associated with information collected at a first point in time, wherein a spatial relationship between the patient and an apparatus in an operating room is described by a first coordinate system;

modifying a three-dimensional model of the patient including the planned surgical pathway with a first set of modification parameter values, wherein the three-dimensional model is described by a second coordinate system and constructed by information collected at a second point in time earlier than the first point in time;

retrieving a second two-dimensional image from the modified three-dimensional model;

computing a first correlation between the first two-dimensional image and the second two-dimensional image; and

in response to the first correlation exceeding a threshold, transforming the planned surgical pathway in the second coordinate system to the first coordinate system based on the first set of modification parameter values to identify the actual surgical pathway.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the modifying the three-dimensional model includes scaling the three-dimensional model, rotating the three-dimensional model or moving the three-dimensional model based on the set of modification parameter values.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the second two-dimensional image is a projection of the modified three-dimensional model.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the patient is on an operating table in the operating room at the first point in time, and the patient is under a medical image scan at the second point in time.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8 , in response to the first correlation not exceeding the threshold, the method further comprising:

modifying the three-dimensional model of the patient including the planned surgical pathway with a second set of modification parameter values,

retrieving a third two-dimensional image from the three-dimensional model modified with the second set of modification parameter values;

computing a second correlation between the first two-dimensional image and the third two-dimensional image; and

in response to the second correlation exceeding a threshold, transforming the planned surgical pathway in the second coordinate system to the first coordinate system based on the second set of modification parameter values to identify the actual surgical pathway.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8 , the method further comprising performing edge detection on the first two-dimensional image and the second two-dimensional image.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13 , wherein the edge detection is performed before the computation of the correlation.

15. A surgical system configured to determine an actual surgical pathway of a patient based on a planned surgical pathway, comprising:

a storage system;

a robotic arm;

an image collection apparatus; and

a processor, wherein the processor is configured to

retrieve a first two-dimensional image of the patient associated with information collected by the image collection apparatus at a first point in time from the storage system, wherein a spatial relationship between the patient and the robotic arm is described by a first coordinate system;

modify a three-dimensional model of the patient including the planned surgical pathway with a first set of modification parameter values, wherein the three-dimensional model is described by a second coordinate system and constructed by information collected at a second point in time earlier than the first point in time;

retrieve a second two-dimensional image from the modified three-dimensional model from the storage system;

compute a first correlation between the first two-dimensional image and the second two-dimensional image;

in response to the first correlation exceeding a threshold, transform the planned surgical pathway in the second coordinate system to the first coordinate system based on the first set of modification parameter values to identify the actual surgical pathway; and

instruct the robotic arm to perform the surgery based on the actual surgical pathway.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the three-dimensional model is modified with a scaling factor, a rotation degree, and/or a translation vector.

17. The system of claim 15 , wherein the image collection apparatus is fixed with the robotic arm.

18. The system of claim 15 , wherein the image collection apparatus is configured to take a plurality of images while the robotic arm is moving.

19. The system of claim 15 , wherein the patient is on an operating table in the operating room at the first point in time, and the patient is under a medical image scan at the second point in time.

20. The system of claim 15 , wherein the processor is further configured to perform an edge detection operation on the first two-dimensional image and the second two-dimensional image.