阅读说明：本技术 射线防护装置及方法、放射治疗系统 (Ray protection device and method and radiotherapy system ) 是由 林伟 于 2021-03-04 设计创作，主要内容包括：本公开提供了一种射线防护装置及方法、放射治疗系统。本公开的射线防护装置包括：多轴机器人；设置于所述多轴机器人的末端的屏蔽组件,所述屏蔽组件包括至少一个屏蔽体,所述屏蔽体由射线吸收材料制成；以及设置于所述屏蔽组件上的多个射线剂量传感器,所述多个射线剂量传感器分别与所述多轴机器人通信连接,用于采集射线的辐射强度；所述多轴机器人被配置为获取所述多个射线剂量传感器采集到的辐射强度,并根据所述辐射强度来调整所述屏蔽组件的位置,以使所述屏蔽组件阻挡所述射线。(The disclosure provides a ray protection device and method and a radiotherapy system. The disclosed ray protection device includes: a multi-axis robot; a shielding assembly disposed at a distal end of the multi-axis robot, the shielding assembly including at least one shield made of a radiation absorbing material; the ray dosage sensors are arranged on the shielding assembly, are respectively in communication connection with the multi-axis robot and are used for acquiring the radiation intensity of rays; the multi-axis robot is configured to acquire the radiation intensity collected by the plurality of radiation dose sensors and adjust the position of the shielding component according to the radiation intensity so that the shielding component blocks the radiation.)

1. A radiation protection device comprising:

a multi-axis robot;

a shielding assembly disposed at a distal end of the multi-axis robot, the shielding assembly including at least one shield made of a radiation absorbing material; and

the ray dosage sensors are arranged on the shielding assembly, are respectively in communication connection with the multi-axis robot and are used for collecting the radiation intensity of rays;

the multi-axis robot is configured to acquire the radiation intensity collected by the plurality of radiation dose sensors and adjust the position of the shielding component according to the radiation intensity so that the shielding component blocks the radiation.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the radiation absorbing material comprises a heavy metal and barium sulfate.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the plurality of radiation dose sensors are disposed at an edge of an end face of the shielding assembly facing the radiation, or at an edge and a center of the end face of the shielding assembly facing the radiation.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising at least one camera disposed at an edge of an end face of the shielding assembly facing the ray in communicative connection with the multi-axis robot;

the multi-axis robot is configured to acquire an image acquired by the camera and adjust the position of the shielding component to an exit window which enables the image acquired by the camera to include the ray.

5. The device of any one of claims 1-4, further comprising at least one ranging sensor disposed at an edge of an end surface of the shielding assembly facing the rays, in communicative connection with the multi-axis robot, for acquiring a distance between the shielding assembly and an obstacle;

the multi-axis robot is configured to acquire the distance acquired by the distance measuring sensor and adjust the position of the shielding component to enable the distance acquired by the distance measuring sensor to be within a preset distance range.

6. The device of any one of claims 1-4, further comprising at least one pressure sensor disposed at an edge of the shield assembly in communicative connection with the multi-axis robot for acquiring contact pressure between the shield assembly and an obstacle;

the multi-axis robot is configured to acquire the contact pressure acquired by the pressure sensor, and adjust the position of the shielding component to enable the contact pressure acquired by the pressure sensor to be smaller than a preset pressure threshold value.

7. The apparatus of any one of claims 1-4, wherein the multi-axis robot comprises a control mechanism and a motion mechanism, the control mechanism for controlling motion of the motion mechanism;

the shielding assembly is arranged at the tail end of the movement mechanism;

the plurality of radiation dose sensors are respectively in communication connection with the control mechanism;

the control mechanism is configured to acquire the radiation intensity acquired by the plurality of radiation dose sensors, and control the movement of the movement mechanism according to the radiation intensity so as to adjust the position of the shielding assembly.

8. The apparatus of any of claims 1-4, wherein the shield assembly is removably disposed at a distal end of the multi-axis robot.

9. The apparatus of any of claims 1-4, wherein the shield assembly further comprises a housing, the at least one shield being secured in the housing.

10. A radiation therapy system comprising: a medical linear accelerator, a treatment couch and a radiation protection device according to any one of claims 1-9, the treatment couch being located between the medical linear accelerator and the radiation protection device;

the medical linear accelerator is used for generating rays;

the treatment bed is used for accommodating a patient;

the radiation protection device is used for blocking and absorbing the radiation passing through the body of the patient.

11. A method of radiation shielding, comprising:

acquiring radiation intensity of rays at different positions of the shielding assembly;

adjusting a position of the shielding assembly according to the radiation intensity to cause the shielding assembly to block the ray.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

before the ray is emitted, the position of the shielding component is adjusted to face an exit window of the ray.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein a locating mark is provided at the exit window;

the adjusting the position of the shielding assembly to face the exit window of the ray includes: and collecting the image of the emergent window by at least one camera arranged on the shielding assembly, and adjusting the position of the shielding assembly to enable the image collected by the at least one camera to comprise the positioning identifier.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein,

the acquiring the radiation intensity of the ray at different positions of the shielding assembly comprises the following steps: acquiring radiation intensities of the rays at a plurality of edges of the shielding assembly;

the adjusting the position of the shielding component according to the radiation intensity comprises: adjusting the position of the shielding component to enable the radiation intensity at the plurality of edges to be smaller than a preset radiation intensity threshold value.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein,

the acquiring the radiation intensity of the ray at different positions of the shielding assembly comprises the following steps: acquiring radiation intensities of the rays at a center and at a plurality of edges of the shielding assembly;

the adjusting the position of the shielding component according to the radiation intensity comprises: and adjusting the position of the shielding assembly to enable the radiation intensity at the edges to be smaller than the radiation intensity at the center and smaller than a preset radiation intensity threshold value.

16. The method according to any one of claims 11-15, further comprising:

and adjusting the position of the shielding assembly to enable the distance between the shielding assembly and the obstacle to be within a preset distance range.

17. The method according to any one of claims 11-15, further comprising:

adjusting the position of the shielding component until the contact pressure between the shielding component and the obstacle is smaller than a preset pressure threshold value.

18. A computer device, comprising:

a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored on the memory,

wherein the processor is configured to execute the computer program to implement the steps of the method of any one of claims 11-17.

19. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, wherein the computer program when executed by a processor implements the steps of the method of any of claims 11-17.

20. A computer program product comprising a computer program, wherein the computer program realizes the steps of the method of any one of claims 11-17 when executed by a processor.

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of medical protection technologies, and in particular, to a radiation protection device and method, and a radiation therapy system including the radiation protection device.

Background

The existing medical linear accelerator can generate high-energy rays with energy of more than 6 MeV. The rays are processed by the collimator and then irradiate the pathological change part of the patient to destroy pathological change cells, thereby achieving the treatment effect. Generally, such high-energy radiation has a strong penetrating effect, still has high radiation energy after passing through a human body, and can be diffused into the environment to cause radiation damage to other people (people other than a patient receiving radiation therapy) or objects.

The approaches described in this section are not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section. Similarly, unless otherwise indicated, the problems mentioned in this section should not be considered as having been acknowledged in any prior art.

Disclosure of Invention

It would be advantageous to provide a mechanism that alleviates, mitigates or even eliminates one or more of the above-mentioned problems.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a radiation protection device, comprising: a multi-axis robot; a shielding assembly disposed at a distal end of the multi-axis robot, the shielding assembly including at least one shield made of a radiation absorbing material; the ray dosage sensors are arranged on the shielding assembly, are respectively in communication connection with the multi-axis robot and are used for acquiring the radiation intensity of rays; the multi-axis robot is configured to acquire the radiation intensity collected by the plurality of radiation dose sensors and adjust the position of the shielding component according to the radiation intensity so that the shielding component blocks the radiation.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a radiation therapy system comprising: the medical linear accelerator, the treatment couch and the ray protection device are arranged, and the treatment couch is positioned between the medical linear accelerator and the ray protection device; the medical linear accelerator is used for generating rays; the treatment bed is used for accommodating a patient; the radiation protection device is used for blocking and absorbing the radiation passing through the body of the patient.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a radiation protection method including: acquiring radiation intensity of rays at different positions of the shielding assembly; adjusting a position of the shielding assembly according to the radiation intensity to cause the shielding assembly to block the ray.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer device including: a memory, a processor and a computer program stored on the memory, wherein the processor is configured to execute the computer program to implement the steps of the above-described ray protection method.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium is provided, on which a computer program is stored, wherein the computer program, when executed by a processor, implements the steps of the above-described ray protection method.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a computer program product is provided, comprising a computer program, wherein the computer program realizes the steps of the above-mentioned ray protection method when being executed by a processor.

According to the embodiment of the disclosure, the radiation intensity of rays at different positions of the shielding assembly can be collected by arranging the plurality of ray dosage sensors on the shielding assembly, the position of the shielding assembly is adjusted according to the radiation intensity, the position of the shielding assembly is adjusted to be capable of blocking the rays, and active tracking protection of the rays is realized. The shielding assembly comprises at least one shielding body made of a ray absorption material, and the shielding body can absorb rays blocked by the shielding body and prevent the rays from diffusing into the environment, so that other people and objects are protected from being damaged by radiation.

According to the embodiment of the disclosure, the position of the shielding component is dynamically adjusted in real time according to the radiation intensity collected by the plurality of dose sensors, so that active tracking protection of rays is realized. The rays are blocked and absorbed by the shielding assembly, so that the high-energy rays are prevented from directly irradiating the wall of the room. Therefore, the embodiment of the disclosure does not need to set a protective wall with a high thickness (generally more than 2 meters) for high-energy rays like the conventional scheme, but only needs to adopt a wall design meeting the protection requirement of common low-energy scattered rays (the wall thickness can be 30 centimeters or less), so that the wall thickness is greatly reduced, and the house space and the construction cost are greatly saved.

These and other aspects of the disclosure will be apparent from and elucidated with reference to the embodiments described hereinafter.

Drawings

In the drawings, like reference numerals refer to the same or similar parts or elements throughout the several views unless otherwise specified. The figures are not necessarily to scale. It is appreciated that these drawings depict only some embodiments in accordance with the disclosure and are not to be considered limiting of its scope.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a radiation therapy system and a radiation shield according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary shield assembly of the radiation shield apparatus shown in FIG. 1;

3A, 3B are schematic diagrams illustrating adjusting a position of a shield assembly according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a method of radiation shielding in accordance with an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary computer device that can be applied to the exemplary embodiments.

Detailed Description

In the following, only certain exemplary embodiments are briefly described. As those skilled in the art can appreciate, the described embodiments can be modified in various different ways, without departing from the spirit or scope of the present disclosure. Accordingly, the drawings and description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature, and not as restrictive.

In the present disclosure, unless otherwise specified, the use of the terms "first", "second", etc. to describe various elements is not intended to limit the positional relationship, the timing relationship, or the importance relationship of the elements, and such terms are used only to distinguish one element from another. In some examples, a first element and a second element may refer to the same instance of the element, and in some cases, based on the context, they may also refer to different instances.

The terminology used in the description of the various described examples in this disclosure is for the purpose of describing particular examples only and is not intended to be limiting. Unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, if the number of elements is not specifically limited, the elements may be one or more. As used herein, the term "plurality" means two or more, and the term "based on" should be interpreted as "based, at least in part, on". Further, the terms "and/or" and at least one of "… …" encompass any and all possible combinations of the listed items.

In a radiation therapy scene, rays have a strong penetrating effect, and still have high radiation energy after passing through a human body, so that radiation damage can be caused to other people or objects. To avoid the radiation from spreading into the environment, the following two approaches are currently commonly used:

the first scheme is to directly paste heavy metal materials such as lead blocks on the wall body. Taking lead block as an example, lead block has good shielding performance for X-ray, and is an ideal ray shielding material. In order to block the radiation of 6 MeV-15 MeV energy level, a lead block with a thickness of at least 100mm is required. The advantage of this scheme can furthest reduce the thickness of the wall body in radiotherapy room, practices thrift the infrastructure space. However, a large amount of lead materials are adopted to wrap and shield the wall, so that on one hand, the amount of the required lead blocks is very large, and on the other hand, because the lead materials are soft, an auxiliary steel support is required to be erected to ensure that the lead blocks cannot collapse. The construction cost is very high, and the practicability is poor.

Another solution is to provide a barite concrete protective wall. The scheme is the current main radiotherapy room ray shielding scheme. The shielding coefficient ratio of barite concrete to lead is about 1: 14. In order to ensure complete shielding of the radiation, the design thickness of a main protective wall (the main protective wall refers to a wall body which can be directly irradiated by the radiation, and for a square radiotherapy room, the main protective wall generally comprises six wall bodies, namely a roof, a ground and four side wall bodies of the radiotherapy room) of the barite concrete wall is required to be more than 2.5 meters, and for the radiation of 15Mev energy level, the thickness of the wall body is required to be 3.5 meters. In addition, in order to avoid the radiation from leaking out of the radiotherapy room, a U-shaped or S-shaped labyrinth protection wall made of a radiation shielding material is arranged at the entrance of the radiotherapy room. The advantage of this scheme is that material cost is lower than the plumbous material, and protective wall body can regard as the bearing wall to use, and the shortcoming needs additionally to occupy a large amount of spaces and builds protective wall (including main protective wall and lost protective wall) for available space receives very big restriction when a lot of hospitals construct or rebuild the radiotherapy room, can't find the place even and satisfy most basic radiotherapy room construction space requirement.

Therefore, the radiation protection scheme for actively tracking and blocking the rays is provided, the rays are prevented from being diffused into the environment, and the space of a house and the construction cost can be saved.

Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic view of a radiation therapy system 100 and a radiation protection device 200 according to an exemplary embodiment. The radiation therapy system 100 is used to deliver radiation therapy to a patient. As shown in fig. 1, the radiation therapy system 100 includes a medical linear accelerator 110, a treatment couch 120, and a radiation shield 200, the treatment couch 120 being located between the medical linear accelerator 110 and the radiation shield 200.

The medical linear accelerator 110 is used to generate radiation 116. Radiation 116 is used to deliver radiation therapy to a tumor or other lesion in a patient. The radiation generated by the medical linear accelerator 110 may be X-rays, electron rays, or the like. The parameters of the ray energy, the emergent diameter and the like can be set according to the disease condition of the patient (including the position, the size, the severity and the like of the focus). For example, the energy of the radiation may be set to 6MeV, 10MeV, 15MeV, or the like, and the exit diameter of the radiation may be set to 5cm, 6cm, 8cm, or the like.

The couch 120 is configured to receive a patient 122. The couch 120 is generally movable and adjustable in height, tilt angle, etc. to facilitate radiation to a lesion in a patient at different locations.

The radiation shield 200 is used to block and absorb radiation 116 that passes through the patient's body. As mentioned above, the radiation for radiotherapy generated by the medical linear accelerator 110 is high-energy radiation, has strong penetrability, and still has high radiation energy after passing through the body of the patient. Such as diffusion into the environment, can cause radiation damage to others and objects. By providing the radiation protection device 200 according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, the radiation 116 passing through the body of the patient can be blocked and absorbed, and the radiation damage to other people or objects caused by the radiation can be avoided.

The radiation protection device 200 of the embodiment of the present disclosure is described in detail below with reference to fig. 1 to 3B.

As shown in fig. 1, the radiation protection apparatus 200 includes a multi-axis robot 210, a shielding assembly 220 disposed at a distal end 212 of the multi-axis robot 210, and a plurality of radiation dose sensors 230 disposed on the shielding assembly 220. Wherein the shielding assembly 220 includes at least one shield 222, the shield 222 being made of a radiation absorbing material. The plurality of radiation dose sensors 230 are respectively in communication connection with the multi-axis robot 210 and are used for acquiring radiation intensity of radiation. The multi-axis robot 210 is configured to acquire the radiation intensity collected by the plurality of radiation dose sensors 230 and adjust the position of the shielding assembly 220 according to the radiation intensity so that the shielding assembly 220 blocks the radiation.

The structure of the radiation protection device 200 is described in detail below.

The multi-axis robot 210 is also called an industrial robot arm, a manipulator, or the like, and is a mechanical electronic device capable of simulating a function of a human hand. The end 212 of the multi-axis robot 210 may mount a tool having a function, which is commonly referred to as an "end-effector" of the multi-axis robot. The multi-axis robot 210 may move the end effector in space as required to perform certain operations. The axes of the multi-axis robot 210 correspond to "joints", the bar-like structures connected to the axes correspond to "arms", and the end effector corresponds to "hands". The rotation and displacement of the axes of the multi-axis robot 210 may move the "arms" in space, thereby moving the end effector to a desired position to perform certain operations. The multi-axis robot 210 shown in fig. 1 is a five-axis robot.

According to some embodiments, the multi-axis robot 210 includes a control mechanism for controlling the movement of the movement mechanism and a movement mechanism.

The control mechanism comprises an upper computer, a control cabinet and the like. The upper computer is used for interacting with a user, such as compiling and debugging related programs, checking the running state of the movement mechanism and the like. The control cabinet further comprises a wireless communication module, an I/O interface for connecting I/O equipment such as a sensor, a power distribution board for providing power for each shaft motor, a driver for driving each shaft motor of the robot to move, and the like. In some embodiments, the host computer may be integrated in the control cabinet, i.e., the control cabinet includes the host computer therein.

The motion mechanism comprises various shafts, arms, hands (i.e. the tail end 212), motors for driving the shafts to move, transmission parts and the like.

In the radiation protection device 200 of the disclosed embodiment, the shielding component 220 is disposed at the end 212 of the multi-axis robot 210, and serves as an end effector of the multi-axis robot 210 for blocking and absorbing radiation. Specifically, the shielding assembly 220 is provided at the end of the movement mechanism of the multi-axis robot 210.

The shielding assembly 220 includes at least one shield 222, the shield 222 being made of a radiation absorbing material for blocking and absorbing the radiation 116. The radiation absorbing material includes, but is not limited to, heavy metals (e.g., lead, gold, silver, or alloy materials, etc.), barium sulfate (barite), and the like. The number, thickness (the letter t in fig. 2 represents the thickness of the shielding assembly 220), end surface area (the surface where the shaded portion in fig. 2 is located is the end surface of the shielding assembly 220), and material of the shielding body 222 included in the shielding assembly 220 may be determined according to the energy and size of the radiation 116 to be shielded. For example, the end surface area of the shield assembly 220 may be designed according to the maximum collimator opening size of the medical linear accelerator 110. The collimator opening size, i.e., the spot size of the emitted radiation 116, gradually diverges the radiation 116 as the radiation 116 propagates, and the projected area gradually increases. The end face area of the shield assembly 220 should preferably be larger than the projected area of the radiation 116 emitted using the largest collimator opening size. The thickness of the shielding assembly 220 (i.e., the sum of the thicknesses of the shielding bodies 222 included in the shielding assembly 220) can be designed according to the energy of the radiation emitted by the medical linear accelerator 110, and generally, the greater the energy of the radiation, the greater the thickness of the shielding assembly 220 in the case of the same radiation absorbing material is required. The thickness of the shielding assembly 220 should preferably be sufficient to absorb the maximum energy of radiation emitted by the medical linear accelerator 110. For example, in some scenarios, the shielding assembly 220 may be configured to include a 30cm thick shield of lead material, which is generally sufficient to substantially absorb radiation of various energies emitted by the medical linear accelerator 110.

According to some embodiments, the shielding assembly 220 is detachably disposed at the distal end 212 of the multi-axis robot 210, thereby facilitating selection and replacement of the shielding assembly 220, i.e., selecting an appropriate shielding assembly 220 according to the energy, size, etc. of the radiation 116 emitted by the medical linear accelerator 110.

According to some embodiments, as shown in fig. 2, the shield assembly 220 further includes a housing 224, the at least one shield 222 being secured within the housing 224. The housing 224 supports and protects the shield 222. The shield 224 may be secured to the housing 224, for example, by bolting, riveting, or the like.

A plurality of radiation dose sensors 230 are disposed on the shield assembly 220. The plurality of radiation dose sensors 230 are respectively in communication with the multi-axis robot 210 for acquiring the radiation intensity of the radiation 116. The plurality of radiation dose sensors 230 may communicate the collected radiation intensity to the multi-axis robot 210. Accordingly, the multi-axis robot 210 is configured to acquire the radiation intensity collected by the plurality of radiation dose sensors 230 and adjust the position of the shielding assembly 220 according to the radiation intensity such that the shielding assembly 220 blocks the radiation 116.

Specifically, the plurality of radiation dose sensors 230 are each communicatively connected to a control mechanism of the multi-axis robot 210. For example, wirelessly connected to the control cabinet, or connected by wire to an I/O interface in the control cabinet, etc. The plurality of radiation dose sensors 230 continuously collect radiation intensity and transmit the collected radiation intensity to a control mechanism of the multi-axis robot 210. The control mechanism is configured to acquire the radiation intensity collected by the plurality of radiation dose sensors 230 and control the mechanism to move according to the radiation intensity, thereby adjusting the position of the shielding assembly 220.

According to some embodiments, a plurality of radiation dose sensors 230 may be disposed at edges of an end face of the shielding assembly 220 facing the radiation 116. For example, as shown in fig. 2, four radiation dose sensors 230, i.e., radiation dose sensors 230-1 to 230-4, may be disposed on the shielding assembly 220, and the four radiation dose sensors are respectively disposed at four corners of an end surface of the shielding assembly 220 facing the radiation 116 (specifically, at four corners of the shielding body 222 facing the radiation 116). The radiation dose sensor 230 is disposed at the edge of the shielding assembly 220 to facilitate determining whether radiation leakage is likely to occur, i.e., whether the shielding assembly 220 can block the radiation 116. For example, if the intensity of the radiation collected by at least one of the radiation dose sensors 230-1 to 230-4 disposed at the edge is large, which indicates that there is a possibility of radiation leakage, the shielding assembly 220 cannot completely block the radiation 116, and the position of the shielding assembly 220 needs to be further adjusted until the intensities of the radiation collected by all the radiation dose sensors 230 disposed at the edge are less than the preset radiation intensity threshold. The radiation intensity threshold may be set to 0, for example, or to some other small value.

According to other embodiments, a plurality of radiation dose sensors 230 may be disposed at the edges and at the center of the end face of the shielding assembly 220 facing the radiation 116. For example, as shown in fig. 2, five radiation dose sensors 230, namely, radiation dose sensors 230-1 to 230-5, may be disposed on the shielding assembly 220, wherein the radiation dose sensors 230-1 to 230-4 are respectively disposed at four corners of an end surface of the shielding assembly 220 facing the radiation 116 (specifically, at four corners of the shielding body 222 facing the radiation 116), and the radiation dose sensor 230-5 is disposed at a center of the end surface of the shielding assembly 220 facing the radiation 116 (specifically, at a center of the shielding body 222 facing the radiation 116). Locating radiation dose sensors 230 at the edges and center of the shielding assembly 220 facilitates determining whether radiation leakage is currently likely to occur, i.e., whether the shielding assembly 220 is able to block the radiation 116. For example, if the radiation intensity collected by at least one of the plurality of radiation dose sensors 230 disposed at the edge is large, which indicates that there is a possibility of radiation leakage, the shielding assembly 220 cannot completely block the radiation 116, and the position of the shielding assembly 220 needs to be further adjusted until the radiation intensities collected by all the radiation dose sensors 230 disposed at the edge are smaller than the radiation intensity collected by the radiation dose sensor 230 at the center and smaller than the preset radiation intensity threshold. The radiation intensity threshold may be set to 0, for example, or to some other small value. If the radiation intensity collected by the radiation dose sensor 230-5 disposed at the center is relatively large, and the radiation intensity collected by the radiation dose sensors 230-1 to 230-4 disposed at the edges is not high, or the collected radiation intensity value is small, it indicates that the radiation 116 can be completely blocked by the shielding assembly 220, and no radiation leakage occurs.

The plurality of radiation dose sensors 230 are disposed at different positions of the shielding assembly 220, and can acquire radiation intensities at different positions of the shielding assembly 220 to obtain distribution of the radiation 116 at different positions of the shielding assembly 220. From this distribution, the direction of the radiation 116 can be inferred, and the position of the shielding assembly 220 can be adjusted to block the radiation 116.

Fig. 3A and 3B are schematic diagrams illustrating exemplary embodiments for adjusting the position of the shielding assembly 220 according to the intensity of radiation collected by the plurality of radiation dose sensors 230.

In fig. 3A, the radiation intensities collected by the radiation dose sensors 230-1 to 230-5 are r1 to r5, respectively, and r1> r2> r5> r4> r 3. The intensity distribution of the radiation collected by each sensor is not uniform, the intensity of the radiation collected by the sensors 230-1 and 230-2 is larger, and the intensity of the radiation collected by the sensors 230-3 and 230-4 is smaller, which indicates that the position of the ray 116 is closer to the edge where the sensors 230-1 and 230-2 are located, i.e., the left side of the shielding assembly 220 may have ray leakage, and the position of the shielding assembly 220 needs to be adjusted. Referring to the distribution of the radiation intensity, the shielding assembly 220 may be moved to the left (the moving direction is shown by arrow a), and/or the shielding assembly 220 may be rotated clockwise (the rotating direction is shown by arrow b). The adjusted position of the shield assembly 220 is shown in fig. 3B.

As shown in FIG. 3B, the radiation dose sensors 230-1 to 230-5 again collect radiation intensities, which are r1 to r5, respectively, and r5> > r1 ≈ r2 ≈ r3 ≈ r4 ≈ 0 (">" indicates a much larger value and "≈" indicates a nearly equal value). The intensity of the radiation collected by the radiation dose sensor 230-5 at the center is large and the intensity of the radiation collected by the radiation dose sensors 230-1 to 230-4 at the edges is approximately equal to 0, indicating that the radiation 116 is almost perpendicular to the shielding assembly 220, and the shielding assembly 220 can block the radiation 116 without radiation leakage.

According to some embodiments, radiation shield apparatus 200 further includes at least one camera 240. The camera 240 is disposed at an edge of an end surface of the shielding assembly 220 facing the ray 116 and is in communication with the multi-axis robot 210. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, radiation shield 200 includes two cameras 240-1 and 240-2, respectively disposed at the midpoints of the left and right edges of the end face of shield assembly 220 facing radiation 116, specifically, the left and right edges of housing 224. Positioning the camera at the edge of the shielding assembly 220 facing the radiation 116 ensures that the camera 240 has a larger field of view, and avoids the camera 240 being obstructed by obstacles (e.g., the treatment couch 120, the patient 122, and other devices or structures in the room) in the propagation path of the radiation 116.

The camera 240 may transmit the acquired image to the multi-axis robot 210. Accordingly, the multi-axis robot 210 is configured to acquire an image acquired by the camera 240, adjust the position of the shielding assembly 220 according to the image, and adjust the position of the shielding assembly 220 to the exit window 112 that includes the ray 116 in the image acquired by the camera 240. Referring to fig. 1, the exit window 112 refers to a window on the medical linear accelerator 110 for exiting the radiation 116.

Adjusting the position of the shielding assembly 220 to enable the image captured by the camera 240 to include the exit window 112 before the exit window 112 emits the rays 116 may initially align the shielding assembly 220 with the exit window 112, enabling coarse adjustment of the position of the shielding assembly 220. Because the shielding assembly 220 is aligned with the exit window 112, after the exit window 112 emits the rays 116, the shielding assembly 220 can block most, if not all, of the rays 116, thereby preventing the rays 116 from leaking into the environment. Further, after the exit window 112 emits the radiation, the position of the shielding component 220 may be adjusted according to the radiation intensity collected by the plurality of radiation dose sensors 230, so as to achieve fine adjustment of the position of the shielding component 220, enable the shielding component 220 to better shield and absorb the radiation 116, achieve a better radiation protection effect, and avoid the radiation 116 leaking into the environment.

According to some embodiments, in order to facilitate identifying whether the exit window 112 is included in the image captured by the camera 240, even for visually locating the exit window 112, a locating mark 114 is provided at the exit window 112. The positioning mark 114 may be, for example, a two-dimensional code for easy detection and recognition. When it is recognized that the image acquired by the camera 240 includes the positioning mark 114, that is, the visual positioning of the exit window 112 is completed, the position of the shielding component 220 is adjusted to face the exit window 112.

Specifically, each camera 240 is in communication with a control mechanism of the multi-axis robot 210. For example, wirelessly connected to the control cabinet, or connected by wire to an I/O interface in the control cabinet, etc. Each camera 240 continuously captures images and transmits the captured images to the control mechanism of the multi-axis robot 210. The control mechanism is configured to acquire the image acquired by each camera 240, determine the direction angle and distance of the exit window 112 through image recognition, and further adjust the position of the shielding component 220 until the exit window 112 is included in the image acquired by the camera 240 (specifically, the positioning mark 114 set at the exit window 112 is included in the image).

According to some embodiments, the radiation protection device 200 further comprises at least one ranging sensor 250. The distance measuring sensor 250 is disposed at an edge of an end surface of the shielding assembly 220 facing the ray 116, and is in communication connection with the multi-axis robot 210 for collecting a distance between the shielding assembly 220 and an obstacle. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the radiation protection device 200 includes four ranging sensors 250-1 to 250-4 respectively disposed at four corners of an end surface of the shielding assembly 220 facing the radiation 116, and in particular, at four corners of the housing 224. The ranging sensor 250 may be, for example, a radar (including but not limited to ultrasonic or laser ranging). The obstruction may be, for example, any person or object on the propagation path of the radiation 116 that does not reach the shielding assembly 220, including but not limited to the patient 122, the couch 120, and other objects in the radiation therapy room.

The ranging sensor 250 may transmit the collected distance to the multi-axis robot 210. Accordingly, the multi-axis robot 210 is configured to acquire the distance acquired by the distance measuring sensor 250, adjust the position of the distance measuring sensor 250 according to the distance, and adjust the position of the shielding assembly 220 so that the distance acquired by the distance measuring sensor 250 is within a preset distance range.

The distance range may be set by one skilled in the art as a practical matter, for example, in a radiation treatment scenario, the ray 116 needs to pass through the patient undergoing radiation treatment before the ray 116 reaches the shielding assembly 220, i.e., the obstruction on the propagation path of the ray 116 is the patient. Accordingly, the ranging sensor 250 may acquire the distance between the shield assembly 220 and the patient. In view of the effectiveness of radiation protection, shielding component 220 should be as close to ray 116 as possible; in view of the patient's therapeutic experience, the shield assembly 220 should be as far away from the patient as possible, at least not touching the patient. The position of the shielding assembly 220 can be adjusted to a suitable distance range, for example, to a distance range of 5cm to 10cm from the patient, i.e., a predetermined distance range of 5cm to 10cm, by taking both factors into consideration.

Specifically, each of the ranging sensors 250 is in communication with a control mechanism of the multi-axis robot 210. For example, wirelessly connected to the control cabinet, or connected by wire to an I/O interface in the control cabinet, etc. Each ranging sensor 250 continuously collects the distance to the obstacle and transmits the collected distance to the control mechanism of the multi-axis robot 210. The control mechanism is configured to acquire the distance acquired by each ranging sensor 250 and adjust the position of the shielding assembly 220 according to the distance, adjusting the shielding assembly 220 until the distance to the obstacle is within a preset distance range.

According to some embodiments, the radiation protection device 200 further comprises at least one pressure sensor 260. The pressure sensor 260 is disposed at an edge of the shielding assembly 220, and is in communication connection with the multi-axis robot 210 for acquiring a contact pressure between the shielding assembly 220 and an obstacle. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the radiation protection device 200 includes two pressure sensors 260-1 and 260-2, respectively disposed on a surface of the shielding assembly 220, particularly, at an edge of the housing 224, for sensing whether an external object is collided. It should be noted that the pressure sensor 260 may also be disposed on the shielding body 222, and the pressure sensor 260 disposed on the shielding body 222 is not shown in fig. 2 for clarity and simplicity of the drawing.

The pressure sensor 260 may transmit the collected contact pressure to the multi-axis robot 210. Accordingly, the multi-axis robot 210 is configured to acquire the contact pressure acquired by the pressure sensor 260 and adjust the position of the shielding assembly 220 such that the contact pressure acquired by the pressure sensor 260 is less than a preset pressure threshold. The pressure threshold may be set to 0, for example, or to some other smaller value. The shielding assembly 220 is adjusted to a position where the contact pressure collected by the pressure sensor 260 is smaller than a preset pressure threshold, so that the shielding assembly 220 can be prevented from colliding with obstacles in the environment.

Specifically, each pressure sensor 260 is communicatively connected to a control mechanism of the multi-axis robot 210. For example, wirelessly connected to the control cabinet, or connected by wire to an I/O interface in the control cabinet, etc. Each pressure sensor 260 continuously collects a contact pressure with the obstacle (when the shield assembly 220 is not in contact with the obstacle, the collected contact pressure is 0 or a small value), and transmits the collected contact pressure to the control mechanism of the multi-axis robot 210. The control mechanism is configured to acquire the contact pressure collected by each pressure sensor 260, adjust the position of the shielding assembly 220 according to the contact pressure, and adjust the shielding assembly 220 so that the contact pressure with the obstacle is less than a preset pressure threshold value, thereby avoiding collision between the shielding assembly 220 and the obstacle.

According to this ray protection device of this disclosed embodiment, through set up a plurality of ray dosage sensors on shielding subassembly, can gather the radiation intensity of ray at shielding subassembly's different positions, adjust shielding subassembly's position according to radiation intensity, adjust shielding subassembly's position to can block the ray, realize the initiative tracking protection to the ray. The shielding assembly comprises at least one shielding body made of a ray absorption material, and the shielding body can absorb rays blocked by the shielding body and prevent the rays from diffusing into the environment, so that other people and objects are protected from being damaged by radiation.

According to the embodiment of the disclosure, the position of the shielding component is dynamically adjusted in real time according to the radiation intensity collected by the plurality of dose sensors, so that active tracking protection of rays is realized. The rays are blocked and absorbed by the shielding assembly, so that the high-energy rays are prevented from directly irradiating the wall of the room. Therefore, the embodiment of the disclosure does not need to set a protective wall with a high thickness (generally more than 2 meters) for high-energy rays like the conventional scheme, but only needs to adopt a wall design meeting the protection requirement of common low-energy scattered rays (the wall thickness can be 30 centimeters or less), so that the wall thickness is greatly reduced, and the house space and the construction cost are greatly saved.

Based on the ray protection device of the embodiment of the disclosure, the disclosure also provides a corresponding ray protection method. FIG. 4 shows a flow diagram of a ray-protection method 400 according to an example embodiment. Method 400 is performed in a radiation protection device (e.g., radiation protection device 200 in fig. 1), and in particular, by a multi-axis robot (e.g., multi-axis robot 210 in fig. 1) in a radiation protection device. That is, the subject of execution of method 400 is a radiation protection device (e.g., radiation protection device 200 in fig. 1), and in particular, a multi-axis robot (e.g., multi-axis robot 210 in fig. 1) in a radiation protection device.

As shown in fig. 4, method 400 includes steps 410 and 420. In step 410, the radiation intensities of the radiation at different locations of the shielding assembly are acquired. In step 420, the position of the shielding component is adjusted according to the radiation intensity so that the shielding component blocks the ray. The shielding assembly comprises at least one shielding body made of a radiation absorbing material, which can absorb the radiation blocked by the shielding body and prevent the radiation from leaking into the environment. The structure of the shielding assembly can refer to fig. 1 to fig. 3B and the related text description, and is not repeated herein.

According to the ray protection method disclosed by the invention, the radiation intensity of the ray at different positions of the shielding assembly is obtained, the position of the shielding assembly is adjusted according to the radiation intensity, the position of the shielding assembly is adjusted to be capable of blocking the ray, and the active tracking protection of the ray is realized. The shielding assembly comprises at least one shielding body made of a ray absorption material, and the shielding body can absorb rays blocked by the shielding body and prevent the rays from diffusing into the environment, so that other people and objects are protected from being damaged by radiation.

According to the ray protection method disclosed by the invention, the position of the shielding component is dynamically adjusted in real time according to the radiation intensity acquired by the plurality of dosage sensors, so that the active tracking protection of rays is realized. The rays are blocked and absorbed by the shielding assembly, so that the high-energy rays are prevented from directly irradiating the wall of the room. Therefore, the embodiment of the disclosure does not need to set a protective wall with a high thickness (generally more than 2 meters) for high-energy rays like the conventional scheme, but only needs to adopt a wall design meeting the protection requirement of common low-energy scattered rays (the wall thickness can be 30 centimeters or less), so that the wall thickness is greatly reduced, and the house space and the construction cost are greatly saved.

According to some embodiments, prior to step 410, method 400 further comprises the steps of: before the ray is emitted, the position of the shielding component is adjusted to face the exit window of the ray.

According to some embodiments, the exit window is provided with a positioning mark, and accordingly, the step of adjusting the position of the shielding component to the exit window facing the rays further comprises: the image of the emergent window is collected by at least one camera arranged on the shielding assembly, and the position of the shielding assembly is adjusted to enable the image collected by the camera arranged on the shielding assembly to include the positioning identification by the multi-axis robot.

The specific process of adjusting the position of the shielding assembly to face the exit window of the ray may refer to the above description about the camera 240, and is not described herein again.

According to some embodiments, with reference to the aforementioned fig. 1, 2, the radiation intensity at different positions of the shielding assembly is acquired by a plurality of radiation dose sensors disposed at the edges of the shielding assembly. Accordingly, step 410 further comprises: radiation intensities of the rays at a plurality of edges of the shielding assembly are acquired. Step 420 further includes: and adjusting the position of the shielding assembly to enable the radiation intensity at the edges to be smaller than a preset radiation intensity threshold value.

According to some embodiments, referring to the aforementioned fig. 1, 2, the radiation intensity at different positions of the shielding assembly is acquired by a plurality of radiation dose sensors disposed at the edges and at the center of the shielding assembly. Accordingly, step 410 further comprises: the radiation intensity of the radiation at the center and at a plurality of edges of the shielding assembly is acquired. Step 420 further includes: and adjusting the position of the shielding assembly to ensure that the radiation intensity at the edges is smaller than the radiation intensity at the center and smaller than a preset radiation intensity threshold value.

For a specific setting manner of the radiation dose sensor and a specific method for adjusting the position of the shielding assembly according to the radiation intensity collected by the radiation dose sensor, reference may be made to the above description about the shielding assembly 220 and the radiation dose sensor 230, and details are not repeated here.

According to some embodiments, the method 400 further comprises the steps of: and adjusting the position of the shielding assembly to enable the distance between the shielding assembly and the obstacle to be within a preset distance range.

For a specific method of adjusting the position of the shielding assembly to make the distance between the shielding assembly and the obstacle within the preset distance range, reference may be made to the above description of the distance measuring sensor 250, and details thereof are not repeated here.

According to some embodiments, the method 400 further comprises the steps of: and adjusting the position of the shielding component until the contact pressure between the shielding component and the obstacle is smaller than a preset pressure threshold value.

The specific method for adjusting the position of the shielding assembly until the contact pressure between the shielding assembly and the obstacle is smaller than the preset pressure threshold value may refer to the above description about the pressure sensor 260, and is not repeated herein.

It should be understood that the steps of the radiation protection method 400 described above may correspond to the respective modules in the radiation protection apparatus 200 described with reference to fig. 1 and 2. Thus, the operations, features and advantages described above with respect to the apparatus 200 are equally applicable to the method 400. Certain operations, features and advantages may not be described in detail herein for the sake of brevity.

The exemplary radiation protection method 400 described above is performed by the radiation protection apparatus 200, and in particular, by the multi-axis robot 210 in the radiation protection apparatus 200. Generally, the control mechanism of the multi-axis robot 210 includes an upper computer, and a corresponding computer program is deployed in the upper computer. The upper computer can cause the multi-axis robot 210 to execute the ray protection method 400 according to the embodiment of the present disclosure by reading and executing the computer program.

Accordingly, according to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is also provided a computer device comprising a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored on the memory. The processor is configured to execute a computer program to implement the steps of the above-described ray-protection method embodiments.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is also provided a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program which, when executed by a processor, implements the steps of the above-described ray protection method embodiments.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is also provided a computer program product comprising a computer program which, when executed by a processor, performs the steps of the above-described ray protection method embodiments.

Illustrative examples of such computer devices, non-transitory computer-readable storage media, and computer program products are described below in connection with FIG. 5.

Fig. 5 illustrates an example configuration of a computer device 500 that may be used to implement the methods described herein. For example, the control mechanism (specifically, the upper computer in the control mechanism) of the multi-axis robot 210 shown in fig. 1 may include an architecture similar to the computer device 500.

Computer device 500 may be a variety of different types of devices, such as a server of a service provider, a device associated with a client (e.g., a client device), a system on a chip, and/or any other suitable computer device or computing system. Examples of computer device 500 include, but are not limited to: a desktop computer, a server computer, a notebook or netbook computer, a mobile device (e.g., a tablet, a cellular or other wireless telephone (e.g., a smartphone), a notepad computer, a mobile station), a wearable device (e.g., glasses, a watch), an entertainment device (e.g., an entertainment appliance, a set-top box communicatively coupled to a display device, a gaming console), a television or other display device, an automotive computer, and so forth. Thus, the computer device 500 may range from a full resource device with substantial memory and processor resources (e.g., personal computers, game consoles) to a low-resource device with limited memory and/or processing resources (e.g., traditional set-top boxes, hand-held game consoles).

The computer device 500 may include at least one processor 502, memory 504, communication interface(s) 506, display device 508, other input/output (I/O) devices 510, and one or more mass storage devices 512, which may be capable of communicating with each other, such as through a system bus 514 or other appropriate connection.

Processor 502 may be a single processing unit or multiple processing units, all of which may include single or multiple computing units or multiple cores. The processor 502 may be implemented as one or more microprocessors, microcomputers, microcontrollers, digital signal processors, central processing units, state machines, logic circuitry, and/or any devices that manipulate signals based on operational instructions. Among other capabilities, the processor 502 can be configured to retrieve and execute computer-readable instructions stored in the memory 504, mass storage device 512, or other computer-readable medium, such as program code for an operating system 516, program code for an application 518, program code for other programs 520, and so forth.

Memory 504 and mass storage device 512 are examples of computer-readable storage media for storing instructions that are executed by processor 502 to implement the various functions described above. By way of example, the memory 504 may generally include both volatile and nonvolatile memory (e.g., RAM, ROM, and the like). In addition, mass storage device 512 may generally include a hard disk drive, solid state drive, removable media, including external and removable drives, memory cards, flash memory, floppy disks, optical disks (e.g., CD, DVD), storage arrays, network attached storage, storage area networks, and the like. Memory 504 and mass storage device 512 may both be referred to herein collectively as memory or computer-readable storage media, and may be non-transitory media capable of storing computer-readable, processor-executable program instructions as computer program code that may be executed by processor 502 as a particular machine configured to implement the operations and functions described in the examples herein.

A number of program modules may be stored on the mass storage device 512. These programs include an operating system 516, one or more application programs 518, other programs 520, and program data 522, and they may be loaded into memory 504 for execution. Examples of such application programs or program modules may include, for instance, computer program logic (e.g., computer program code or instructions) for implementing the ray protection method 400 of embodiments of the present disclosure.

Although illustrated in fig. 5 as being stored in memory 504 of computer device 500, modules 516, 518, 520, and 522, or portions thereof, may be implemented using any form of computer-readable media that is accessible by computer device 500. As used herein, "computer-readable media" includes at least two types of computer-readable media, namely computer storage media and communication media.

Computer storage media includes volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data. Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, Digital Versatile Disks (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other non-transmission medium which can be used to store information for access by a computer device.

In contrast, communication media may embody computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data in a modulated data signal, such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism. Computer storage media, as defined herein, does not include communication media.

Computer device 500 may also include one or more communication interfaces 506 for exchanging data with other devices, such as over a network, a direct connection, and so forth, as previously discussed. Such communication interfaces may be one or more of the following: any type of network interface (e.g., a Network Interface Card (NIC)), wired or wireless (such as IEEE 802.11 wireless lan (wlan)) wireless interface, a global microwave access interoperability (Wi-MAX) interface, an ethernet interface, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface, a cellular network interface, a bluetooth interface, a Near Field Communication (NFC) interface, and so forth. The communication interface 506 may facilitate communication within a variety of networks and protocol types, including wired networks (e.g., LAN, cable, etc.) and wireless networks (e.g., WLAN, cellular, satellite, etc.), the Internet, and so forth. The communication interface 506 may also provide for communication with external storage devices (not shown), such as in storage arrays, network attached storage, storage area networks, and the like.

In some examples, a display device 508, such as a monitor, may be included for displaying information and images to a user. Other I/O devices 510 may be devices that receive various inputs from a user and provide various outputs to the user, and may include touch input devices, gesture input devices, cameras, keyboards, remote controls, mice, printers, audio input/output devices, and so forth.

It will be understood that in this specification, the terms "center," "longitudinal," "lateral," "length," "width," "thickness," "upper," "lower," "front," "rear," "left," "right," "vertical," "horizontal," "top," "bottom," "inner," "outer," "clockwise," "counterclockwise," "axial," "radial," "circumferential," and the like, indicate an orientation or positional relationship or dimension based on that shown in the drawings, which terms are used for convenience of description only and do not indicate or imply that the device or element being referred to must have a particular orientation, be constructed and operated in a particular orientation, and therefore should not be considered limiting to the scope of the disclosure.

In the present disclosure, unless otherwise expressly stated or limited, the terms "mounted," "connected," "secured," and the like are to be construed broadly and can, for example, be fixedly connected, detachably connected, or integral; the connection can be mechanical connection, electrical connection or communication; either directly or indirectly through intervening media, either internally or in any other relationship. The specific meaning of the above terms in the present disclosure can be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art as appropriate.

In the present disclosure, unless expressly stated or limited otherwise, the first feature "on" or "under" the second feature may comprise the first and second features being in direct contact, or may comprise the first and second features being in contact, not directly, but via another feature in between. Also, the first feature being "on," "above" and "over" the second feature includes the first feature being directly on and obliquely above the second feature, or merely indicating that the first feature is at a higher level than the second feature. The first feature being "under," "below," and "beneath" the second feature includes the first feature being directly under and obliquely below the second feature, or merely indicates that the first feature is at a lower level than the second feature.

This description provides many different embodiments or examples that can be used to implement the present disclosure. It should be understood that these various embodiments or examples are purely exemplary and are not intended to limit the scope of the disclosure in any way. Those skilled in the art can conceive of various changes or substitutions based on the disclosure of the specification of the present disclosure, which are intended to be included within the scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, the protection scope of the present disclosure should be subject to the protection scope defined by the appended claims.