Electromagnetic distortion detection and compensation

1. A method of compensating for electromagnetic (EM) distortion, comprising:

determining a reference position of a distal end of an instrument at a first time based on EM location data, the instrument comprising one or more EM sensors configured to generate the EM location data indicative of a position of the distal end of the instrument;

determining that the distal end of the instrument at a second time is static, the second time being subsequent to the first time;

determining that the EM location data corresponding to the second time is indicative of the position of the distal end of the instrument at the second time having changed from the reference position by greater than a threshold distance; and

determining a compensated position of the distal end of the instrument based on the EM location data and the determination that the position of the distal end of the instrument at the second time has changed from the reference position by greater than a threshold distance.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining that the distal end of the instrument at a second time is static is based at least in part on image data from a camera at or near the distal end of the instrument.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining that the EM location data corresponding to the second time is indicative of the position of the distal end of the instrument at the second time having changed from the reference position by greater than a threshold distance is based at least in part on a change in quality indicator.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining a distortion vector proportional to an amount of EM distortion caused by movement of a source of the EM distortion,

wherein the determination of the compensated position is further based on the distortion vector.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:

determining that the distal end of the instrument at a third time is non-static, the third time being subsequent to the second time;

determining that the distortion vector is greater than the threshold distance;

in response to determining that the distal end of the instrument at the third time is non-static and that the distortion vector is greater than the threshold distance, generating a reference offset based on the distortion vector; and

determining a compensated position of the distal end of the instrument at the third time based on the EM location data and the reference offset.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:

determining that the compensated position at the third time is less accurate than an uncompensated position determined based on the EM location data without compensation; and

in response to determining that the compensated position at the third time is less accurate than the uncompensated position, resetting the reference offset.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

filtering distortion patterns from the EM location data using a custom filter or machine learning.

8. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed, cause at least one computing device to:

determine a reference position of a distal end of an instrument at a first time based on electromagnetic (EM) location data, the instrument comprising one or more EM sensors configured to generate the EM location data indicative of a position of the distal end of the instrument;

determine that the distal end of the instrument at a second time is static, the second time being subsequent to the first time;

determine that the EM location data corresponding to the second time is indicative of the position of the distal end of the instrument at the second time having changed from the reference position by greater than a threshold distance; and

determine a compensated position of the distal end of the instrument based on the EM location data and the determination that the position of the distal end of the instrument at the second time has changed from the reference position by greater than a threshold distance.

9. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the determination that the distal end of the instrument at a second time is static is based at least in part on image data from a camera at or near the distal end of the instrument.

10. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the determination that the EM location data corresponding to the second time is indicative of the position of the distal end of the instrument at the second time having changed from the reference position by greater than a threshold distance is based at least in part on a change in quality indicator.

11. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8 , further having stored thereon instructions that, when executed, cause the at least one computing device to:

determine a distortion vector proportional to an amount of EM distortion caused by movement of a source of the EM distortion,

wherein the determination of the compensated position is further based on the distortion vector.

12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11 , further having stored thereon instructions that, when executed, cause the at least one computing device to:

determine that the distal end of the instrument at a third time is non-static, the third time being subsequent to the second time;

determine that the distortion vector is greater than the threshold distance;

in response to determining that the distal end of the instrument at the third time is non-static and that the distortion vector is greater than the threshold distance, generate a reference offset based on the distortion vector; and

determine a compensated position of the distal end of the instrument at the third time based on the EM location data and the reference offset.

13. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 12 , further having stored thereon instructions that, when executed, cause the at least one computing device to:

determine that the compensated position at the third time is less accurate than an uncompensated position determined based on the EM location data without compensation; and

in response to determining that the compensated position at the third time is less accurate than the uncompensated position, reset the reference offset.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8 , further having stored thereon instructions that, when executed, cause the at least one computing device to:

filter distortion patterns from the EM location data using a custom filter or machine learning.

15. A system, comprising:

an instrument comprising a set of one or more electromagnetic (EM) sensors, the EM sensors configured to generate EM location data indicative of a position of a distal end of the instrument;

one or more processors; and

at least one computer-readable memory in communication with the one or more processors and having stored thereon computer-executable instructions to cause the one or more processors to:

determine a reference position of the distal end of the instrument at a first time based on the EM location data;

determine that the distal end of the instrument at a second time is static, the second time being subsequent to the first time;

determine that an EM distortion has occurred based on the reference position at the first time and the EM location data corresponding to the second time based at least in part on a threshold distance; and

determine a compensated position of the distal end of the instrument based on the EM location data and the determination that an EM distortion has occurred based on the reference position and the EM location data corresponding to the second time based at least in part on a threshold distance.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the determining that the distal end of the instrument at a second time is static is based at least in part on image data from a camera at or near the distal end of the instrument.

17. The system of claim 15 , wherein the determining that an EM distortion has occurred is based at least in part on a change in quality indicator.

18. The system of claim 15 , wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the one or more processors to:

determine a distortion vector proportional to an amount of EM distortion caused by movement of a source of the EM distortion,

wherein the determination of the compensated position is further based on the distortion vector.

19. The system of claim 18 , wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the one or more processors to:

determine that the distal end of the instrument at a third time is non-static, the third time being subsequent to the second time;

determine that the distortion vector is greater than the threshold distance;

in response to determining that the distal end of the instrument at the third time is non-static and that the distortion vector is greater than the threshold distance, generate a reference offset based on the distortion vector; and

determine a compensated position of the distal end of the instrument at the third time based on the EM location data and the reference offset.

20. The system of claim 19 , wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the one or more processors to:

determine that the compensated position at the third time is less accurate than an uncompensated position determined based on the EM location data without compensation; and

in response to determining that the compensated position at the third time is less accurate than the uncompensated position, reset the reference offset.