Abstract: The rotating gantry is a crucial component of proton radiotherapy equipment, characterized by its large mass, size, and moment of inertia. During operation, it is essential to ensure smooth acceleration, deceleration, start-up, and precise positioning. To address the positioning control requirements of the rotating gantry, the hardware and software components of the control system were selected and designed. The system's control model was studied, and parameters were tuned. A PLC-based positioning control system for the proton therapy rotating gantry was developed. Field test results show that the developed positioning control system can ensure an angular positioning accuracy of 0.0113˚ within an angle range of -180˚ to 180˚ and a rotational speed of 1 r/min, meeting the operational requirements of the proton radiotherapy equipment.
Team Introduction
Team group photo
The Equipment Digital Control Research Group at Huazhong University of Science and Technology is led by Professor Gong Shihua and consists of 6 doctoral students and 4 master's students. The team is affiliated with the "National Engineering Research Center for Digital Manufacturing Equipment" at the School of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and its main research areas include equipment automation control, CNC technology, and vision servo systems.
Research Background
This paper's topic originates from the sub-project "Proton Therapy Rotary Gantry" of the National Key Research and Development Program "Research and Development of Proton Radiotherapy Equipment Based on Superconducting Cyclotron" (Project No.: 2016YFC0105306).
In recent years, radiotherapy has played a vital role in the treatment of malignant tumors. Among them, proton therapy, after a long period of exploration, has become a cutting-edge research topic in the field of radiotherapy. The rotating gantry is an important component of proton radiotherapy equipment. Its main characteristics are large mass, large size, and large moment of inertia, thus placing higher demands on motor selection and motion control system design.
This paper focuses on the positioning control technology of the rotating gantry of proton radiotherapy equipment and develops a PLC-based positioning control system for the rotating gantry of proton radiotherapy to meet the working requirements of the proton radiotherapy equipment.
Interpretation of Research Findings
This paper addresses the challenges of a large proton therapy gantry, including its large mass, size, moment of inertia, and high positioning accuracy requirements. A high-inertia proton therapy gantry positioning control system was designed and developed. Field experiments verified that this system can guarantee an angular positioning accuracy of 0.0113˚ within an angle range of -180˚ to 180˚ and a rotational speed of 1 rpm, meeting the positioning requirements of the gantry and ensuring the smooth operation of the proton radiotherapy equipment.
Research route
Research Roadmap
This paper focuses on the positioning control technology of a proton therapy rotating gantry. To ensure its positioning accuracy and motion performance, and considering multiple motion modes and system reliability requirements, a PLC-based proton therapy rotating gantry positioning control system was developed. The hardware and software components were selected and designed, its motion control model was studied, and the parameters were tuned. Finally, the field test of the proton therapy rotating gantry verified that the positioning control system can meet the control requirements of the radiotherapy process.
Read the full text
