Radiation Treatment Bench

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David led a team of four engineers to develop a new robotic bench for breast radiation treatments. The previous standard of care in the Case Medical School was to manually position patients using a bench with crude (5 degree increment) adjustable pitch. The alignment of the patient in the radiation room is critical to the treatment, and additional degrees of rotational freedom or better resolution can enhance the accuracy of the radiation beam and minimize unnecessary patient exposure.
David’s team developed a prototype bench, which offered continuous control over pitch and roll with two linear actuators. It was designed using high precision motor controllers, eddy current sensors, and radiation-grade electronics. In addition to enhanced control, the team developed a GUI and backend database to keep track of patient visits and seat angle presets.

David was the electrical lead and driving force of the group, organizing the team and holding everyone accountable. He was solely responsible for the motor controller code, the math (to transpose their linear motion into usable pitch and roll), and the GUI/database design and code, as well as the electronics parts selection, wiring, and system work. David used Visual C++ and stock motor controller DLLs to create the software.


Read David’s final report for more detail.

Download (PDF, 1.69MB)

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