Development of an Electromagnetic Tracking System for Surgical Instruments Positioning

Electromagnetic tracking systems are widely used in image-guided surgery to detect the position of surgical instrument in the patient's anatomical 3D model. The present study proposes the development and evaluation of a new EMTS able to provide a wide tracking volume. The innovation of this EMTS mainly consists in the design of a suitable Field Generator (FG), including five coils properly arranged in order to increase the magnetic field and, as a consequence, the sensor sensitivity in the working volume. Different methods to convert sensor voltage values in the Cartesian coordinates were investigated and compared in term of position accuracy. The results of experimental tests show good performances of the developed system that allows to increase the distance between sensor and FG with respect to currently EMTS on markets, ensuring a high accuracy of the measurement.