ON THE KINEMATICS OF A NEW PARALLEL ROBOT FOR BRACHYTHERAPY

Abstract

An innovative approach in the treatment of cancer is brachytherapy, or local radiation therapy. This technique can deliver targeted doses in very specific body areas but the lack of a specialised device capable of placing the radiation source accurately inside the patient body is limiting the spread of this technique. The authors propose an innovative parallel robot working in cylindrical coordinates capable of reaching almost any point of interest in the thoracic-abdominal area of the human body. The geometrical model of the robot is computed along with the workspace generation emphasizing the importance of the relative position between the patient and the robot.