An analysis of the treatment couch and control system dynamics for respiration-induced motion compensation.

Sophisticated methods for real-time motion compensation include using the linear accelerator, MLC, or treatment couch. To design such a couch, the required couch and control system dynamics need to be investigated. We used an existing treatment couch known as the Hexapod to gain insight into couch dynamics and an internal model controller to simulate feedback control of respiration-induced motion. The couch dynamics, described using time constants and dead times, were investigated using step inputs. The resulting data were modeled as first and second order systems with dead time. The couch was determined to have a linear response for step inputs < or = 1 cm. Motion data from 12 patients were obtained using a skin marker placed on the abdomen of the patient and the marker data were assumed to be an exact surrogate of tumor motion. The feedback system was modeled with the couch as a second-ordersystem and the controller as a first order system. The time constants of the couch and controller and the dead times were varied starting with parameters obtained from the Hexapod couch and the performance of the feedback system was evaluated. The resulting residual motion under feedback control was generally <0.3 cm when a fast enough couch was simulated.