Purpose: We have previously developed the AutoFrame platform for automating the IMRT QA clinical workflow and achieved L3 automation for patient specific QA (PSQA). The goal of this study is to achieve L4 automation by incorporating a 6-axis robotic arm to externally control the Varian control console (VCC). Methods: The 6-axis robotic arm was programmed via Raspberry Pi to communicate with AutoFrame through subsystem ‘BotFlow’ so that it could receive commands that are processed from the subsystems ‘AutoFlow’ and ‘PyFlow’ of AutoFrame. The robot was mounted on a homemade custom frame clamped onto the VCC. With this integration, we were able to maintain the relative position between the robot and VCC so that the robot could consistently execute commands and sequentially press all buttons on the VCC required to complete the PSQA data collection. Results: We evaluated the capabilities of the 6-axis arm using real PSQA verification plans involving a minimum of 4 and a maximum of 9 button presses. In all tests, the 6-axis arm was able to execute the action group of each plan correctly and guide the robotic arm to press and hold each button consistently with enough force and accuracy. All beams were successfully delivered without interruption, and all data were successfully collected by the detector for PSQA analysis. Conclusion: We have further developed our AutoFrame platform and demonstrated that L4 automation of PSQA procedures can be achieved. Future work will focus on improving the system’s flexibility and stability and extending its operations to other QA tasks.
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