Moxibustion robot with automatic acupoint positioning function based on thermal imager

Abstract

The invention discloses a moxibustion robot with an automatic acupoint positioning function based on a thermal imager. The moxibustion robot comprises a multi-degree-of-freedom mechanical arm and a moxibustion module arranged at the end of the multi-degree-of-freedom mechanical arm. The multi-degree-of-freedom mechanical arm provides a spatial position moving function for the moxibustion module, the moxibustion module comprises a moxibustion instrument body providing a moxibustion function and a positioning module arranged in the moxibustion instrument body, and the positioning module comprises a thermal imager, a data processing module and at least one distance sensor. The method has the advantages of being simple, convenient, rapid, low in cost, intelligent and accurate, intelligent acupoint positioning can be achieved, and powerful technical support can be provided for achieving automatic acupoint selection and automatic physiotherapy functions of a traditional Chinese medicine rehabilitation physiotherapy robot in the aspect of autonomous acupoint selection; the method is of great significance to development of modern and intelligent traditional Chinese medicine physical therapy rehabilitation instruments; according to the invention, the acupoint positioning time and workload can be greatly reduced, unnecessary repeated labor is reduced, the efficiency is improved, and rapid acupoint selection is realized.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the field of modernization of traditional Chinese medicine, and in particular to a moxibustion robot with an automatic acupoint positioning function based on a thermal imager. Background Art

[0002] Physical therapy in traditional Chinese medicine (including acupuncture, massage, and cupping) is an important part of rehabilitation medicine in my country. It has a long history and unique treatment methods. Its core and soul is the theory of meridians and acupoints of the human body. The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine, which was written in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, mentioned that "meridians are the reason for life and death, for treating all kinds of diseases, and for adjusting deficiency and excess. They must be unobstructed." "The twelve meridians are the reason why people are born, why diseases are formed, why people are cured, why diseases arise, where learning begins and where work ends." In other words, the key to people's birth, survival, illness, and treatment is meridians. The development of traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years has proved that physical therapy based on the accurate location of meridians and acupoints will produce the best therapeutic effect. As stated in the Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine Lingshu, "It is the key to acupuncture. It is effective when the qi reaches it. The effect is reliable, like the wind blowing the clouds, and it is as clear as seeing the sky. The way of acupuncture is complete." It can be seen that the accuracy of acupoint selection cannot be ignored in the treatment effect of diseases. Traditional Chinese medicine physiotherapy relies on manual acupuncture point selection and treatment, which is highly subjective. The treatment methods are inherited from different schools and lack unified standards and rules. The efficacy also varies greatly, which restricts the development of modernization of Chinese medicine. Although some simple modern Chinese medicine physiotherapy products have appeared on the market, they all require manual assistance in acupuncture point selection, which is highly subjective and has a low degree of intelligence.

[0003] Therefore, based on the classical TCM theory of meridians and acupoints, combined with modern technology, breakthroughs in automatic acupoint selection technology and the development of a TCM rehabilitation therapy robot that can autonomously select acupoints along the meridians are of great significance to promoting the development of TCM in my country towards modernization and intelligence. Summary of the invention

[0004] The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a moxibustion robot with an automatic acupoint positioning function based on a thermal imager in view of the deficiencies in the above-mentioned prior art.

[0005] In order to solve the above technical problems, the technical solution adopted by the present invention is: a moxibustion robot with acupoint automatic positioning function based on a thermal imager, comprising a multi-degree-of-freedom mechanical arm and a moxibustion module arranged at the end of the multi-degree-of-freedom mechanical arm;

[0006] The multi-degree-of-freedom mechanical arm provides the moxibustion module with a function of spatial position movement, and the moxibustion module includes a moxibustion instrument body that provides the moxibustion function, and a positioning module arranged in the moxibustion instrument body, and the positioning module includes a thermal imager, a data processing module and at least one distance sensor;

[0007] The positioning module is used to locate the user's acupuncture point, so as to drive the moxibustion module to move to the positioning point through a multi-degree-of-freedom robotic arm, thereby performing moxibustion on the acupuncture point.

[0008] Preferably, the relative positions of the thermal imager and the distance sensor are known and fixed.

[0009] Preferably, the data processing module synchronously reads the detection data of the thermal imager and the distance sensor.

[0010] Preferably, the method for automatically locating acupoints by the positioning module comprises the following steps:

[0011] S1, the thermal imager captures a thermal map of the observation area including the user, and the data processing module performs threshold segmentation on the thermal map collected by the thermal imager to extract a human body thermal map;

[0012] S2, performing morphological processing on the human body heat map to obtain a human body contour image;

[0013] S3, performing key point detection on the human body contour image, using the TPS algorithm to perform non-rigid matching between the human body contour image and the pre-established template acupoint image, and identifying the acupoints on the human body contour image;

[0014] S4. Analyze the detection data of the distance sensor to obtain the three-dimensional coordinates Q of the acupuncture points on the human body contour image in the coordinate system of the thermal imager Re ;

[0015] S5, according to the three-dimensional coordinate Q Re , obtain the three-dimensional coordinates Q of the acupuncture point in the coordinate system of the robot base J , complete the automatic positioning of acupoints.

[0016] Preferably, the template acupoint image includes pre-constructed standard key points and standard acupoint points, and by only matching the key points on the human body contour image with the standard key points on the template acupoint image, the corresponding acupoint points on the human body contour image can be inferred using the standard acupoint points on the template acupoint image.

[0017] Preferably, step S4 specifically includes:

[0018] S4-1. Note that the field of view of the thermal imager includes the horizontal field of view angle θ h and vertical field angle θ v , the image resolution is W*H, W represents width and H represents height;

[0019] S4-2. For any acupuncture point q in the image, obtain its pixel coordinates (x, y), and the center point of the image is recorded as

[0020] The horizontal angle offset from the acupoint q to the center of the image is

[0021] The vertical angle offset from the acupoint q to the center of the image

[0022] S4-3. Calculate the three-dimensional coordinates (Xq, Yq, Zq) of the acupuncture point q in the coordinate system of the thermal imager:

[0023] In the coordinate system of the thermal imager, the thermal imager is at the origin O, and the coordinate system OXYZ is established. The Z-axis direction is the distance measurement direction of the distance sensor, that is, the direction from the moxibustion module vertically downward to the user; the Y-axis is the horizontal direction extending from the base of the robotic arm toward the end;

[0024] The vertical distance between the thermal imager and the area corresponding to the human body contour image on the user's body measured by the distance sensor is d, and the three-dimensional coordinates (X q , Y q , Z q ):X q =dtan(δ x ), Y q =dtan(δ y ), Z q =d.

[0025] Preferably, step S5 specifically comprises: obtaining a transformation matrix R between the coordinate system of the thermal imager and the coordinate system of the end of the robotic arm 1 , the transformation matrix R of the coordinate system of the robot end and the robot base 2 , thus obtaining the transformation matrix R between the thermal imager and the robotic arm base coordinate system 12 , using the transformation matrix R 12 and the three-dimensional coordinates Q Re , get the three-dimensional coordinates Q of the acupuncture points on the human body contour image in the coordinate system of the robot base J ;

[0026] Complete automatic acupoint positioning according to the three-dimensional coordinates Q J The multi-degree-of-freedom robotic arm is controlled to drive the moxibustion module to move to the coordinate position.

[0027] Preferably, the distance sensors include at least three fixedly arranged at the bottom of the moxibustion instrument body and evenly distributed around the center of the moxibustion instrument body, and the average value of the measurements of all the distance sensors is taken as the distance measurement result output.

[0028] Preferably, the thermal imager is fixedly arranged at the bottom of the moxibustion instrument body.

[0029] Preferably, the moxibustion robot with automatic acupoint positioning function based on a thermal imager further includes a movable base, the multi-degree-of-freedom robotic arm is arranged on the movable base, and the movable base has a position fixing function.

[0030] The beneficial effects of the present invention are:

[0031] The present invention provides a moxibustion robot with an automatic acupoint positioning function based on a thermal imager, which has the characteristics of being simple, fast, low-cost, intelligent and accurate, and can realize intelligent acupoint positioning. In terms of autonomous acupoint selection, it can provide strong technical support for realizing the automatic acupoint selection and automatic physiotherapy functions of a traditional Chinese medicine rehabilitation and physiotherapy robot, and is of great significance for the development of modern and intelligent traditional Chinese medicine physiotherapy and rehabilitation equipment; the present invention can greatly reduce the acupoint positioning time and workload, reduce unnecessary repetitive labor, improve efficiency, and realize rapid acupoint selection;

[0032] The automatic acupoint positioning device provided in the present invention is simple and low in cost, and the corresponding method is highly efficient and accurate, and can quickly realize automatic positioning of acupoints, thereby realizing automated moxibustion through a multi-degree-of-freedom robotic arm. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0033] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the application of the moxibustion robot with automatic acupoint positioning function based on a thermal imager in Example 1 of the present invention;

[0034] Figure 2 This is a flow chart of automatic acupoint positioning in Example 1 of the present invention;

[0035] Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of a template acupoint image used in Example 1 of the present invention;

[0036] Figure 4 Schematic diagram of the field of view of the thermal imager in Example 1 of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0037] The present invention is further described in detail below in conjunction with embodiments so that those skilled in the art can implement the invention with reference to the description.

[0038] It should be understood that the terms such as “having”, “including” and “comprising” used herein do not exclude the existence or addition of one or more other elements or combinations thereof.

[0039] Example 1

[0040] A moxibustion robot with acupoint automatic positioning function based on a thermal imager, comprising a multi-degree-of-freedom mechanical arm and a moxibustion module arranged at the end of the multi-degree-of-freedom mechanical arm;

[0041] The multi-degree-of-freedom robotic arm provides the function of spatial position movement for the moxibustion module. The moxibustion module includes a moxibustion instrument body that provides the moxibustion function and a positioning module arranged in the moxibustion instrument body. The positioning module includes a thermal imager, a data processing module and at least one distance sensor.

[0042] The positioning module is used to locate the user's acupuncture points, so that the moxibustion module can be driven to move to the positioning point through a multi-degree-of-freedom robotic arm to perform moxibustion on the acupuncture points.

[0043] Among them, the multi-degree-of-freedom robotic arm can be a conventional product, and its degrees of freedom must be sufficient to drive the moxibustion module to any position in space.

[0044] In this embodiment, the distance sensors include at least 6 fixedly arranged at the bottom of the moxibustion instrument body and evenly distributed around the center of the moxibustion instrument body, with the distance measurement direction facing downward, and the average value of all distance sensors measured is taken as the distance measurement result output.

[0045] In this embodiment, the thermal imager is fixedly arranged at the bottom of the moxibustion instrument body. The relative position between the thermal imager and the distance sensor is known and fixed.

[0046] In this embodiment, the data processing module periodically and synchronously reads the detection data of the thermal imager and the distance sensor.

[0047] When selecting acupuncture points for the user before starting moxibustion, the robotic arm is lifted to allow the thermal imager to capture the entire human body contour, and the human body contour is obtained through threshold segmentation and morphological processing. The human body acupuncture points are then inferred by matching the template image marked with key points and acupuncture points according to the TCM standard. The spatial position of each acupuncture point is inferred based on the resolution, field of view and other parameters of the thermal imager combined with the distance information of the ranging sensor, and ultimately the automatic positioning of the human body acupuncture points is achieved. The specific steps are as follows.

[0048] Reference Figure 2 In this embodiment, the method for automatically locating acupoints by the positioning module includes the following steps:

[0049] S1. The thermal imager captures the thermal map of the observation area including the user, and the data processing module performs threshold segmentation on the thermal map collected by the thermal imager to extract the human body thermal map;

[0050] Thermal imagers capture a thermal map of the entire observation area. Since there is a significant temperature difference between the human body and the background, the thermal map can clearly identify the human body outline;

[0051] S2, performing morphological processing on the human body heat map to obtain a human body contour image;

[0052] S3, performing key point detection on the human body contour image, using TPS algorithm (Thin Plate Spline interpolation, Thin Plate Spline) to perform non-rigid matching between the human body contour image and the pre-established template acupoint image, and identifying the acupoints on the human body contour image;

[0053] Among them, the template acupoint image includes pre-constructed standard key points and standard acupoint points. By only matching the key points on the human body contour image with the standard key points on the template acupoint image, the standard acupoint points on the template acupoint image can be used to infer the corresponding acupoint points on the human body contour image.

[0054] The key points are used to determine the characteristic points of the human body contour. The selection is based on the specific situation. In principle, the more characteristic points are selected, the more accurate the result will be. Figure 3 Taking the identification of acupuncture points on the back contour of the human body as an example, the selected key points include several points on the back shoulder and neck, several points on the waist and the center of the spine, etc.

[0055] S4. Analyze the detection data of the distance sensor to obtain the three-dimensional coordinates Q of the acupuncture points on the human body contour image in the coordinate system of the thermal imager Re :

[0056] S4-1. Note that the field of view of the thermal imager includes the horizontal field of view angle θ h and vertical field angle θ v , the image resolution is W*H, W represents width and H represents height;

[0057] S4-2. For any acupuncture point q in the image, obtain its pixel coordinates (x, y), and the center point of the image is recorded as

[0058] The horizontal angle offset from the acupoint q to the center of the image is

[0059] The vertical angle offset from the acupoint q to the center of the image

[0060] S4-3. Calculate the three-dimensional coordinates (Xq, Yq, Zq) of the acupuncture point q in the coordinate system of the thermal imager:

[0061] In the coordinate system of the thermal imager, the thermal imager is at the origin O, and the coordinate system OXYZ is established. The Z-axis direction is the distance measurement direction of the distance sensor, that is, the direction from the moxibustion module vertically downward to the user; the Y-axis is the horizontal direction extending from the base of the robotic arm toward the end;

[0062] The vertical distance between the thermal imager and the area corresponding to the human body contour image on the user's body measured by the distance sensor is d, and the three-dimensional coordinates (X q , Y q , Z q ):X q =dtan(δ x ), Y q =dtan(δ y ), Z q =d.

[0063] S5. Obtain the transformation matrix R between the coordinate system of the thermal imager and the coordinate system of the end of the robotic arm 1 , the transformation matrix R of the coordinate system of the robot end and the robot base 2 , thus obtaining the transformation matrix R between the thermal imager and the robotic arm base coordinate system 12 , using the transformation matrix R 12 and the three-dimensional coordinates Q Re , get the three-dimensional coordinates Q of the acupuncture points on the human body contour image in the coordinate system of the robot base J ;

[0064] Complete automatic acupoint positioning according to the three-dimensional coordinates Q J The multi-degree-of-freedom robotic arm is controlled to drive the moxibustion module to move to the coordinate position.

[0065] The thermal imager is fixed at the end of the robotic arm, and its relative position is known and fixed. The transformation matrix between the thermal imager coordinate system and the robotic arm end coordinate system can be obtained. At the same time, the forward kinematics solution based on the robotic arm link parameters can be used to obtain the transformation matrix of the robotic arm end relative to the robotic arm base coordinate system. Finally, the transformation matrix of the thermal imager relative to the robotic arm base coordinate system is calculated, and the spatial position of the acupoint is converted into the spatial position in the robot's coordinate system, ultimately realizing the functions of automatic positioning and automatic physical therapy of human acupoints.

[0066] In this embodiment, the thermal imager can be used to monitor the temperature of the moxibustion site on the human body during moxibustion. The thermal imager data is the temperature value of each pixel point of the thermal imaging image. During moxibustion, the temperature of the moxibustion site on the human body will be significantly higher than other positions. Therefore, the position with the highest temperature among each pixel point is generally the moxibustion site. Therefore, it is only necessary to obtain the maximum temperature of the thermal imager to realize temperature monitoring of the moxibustion site.

[0067] In this embodiment, the moxibustion robot with automatic acupoint positioning function based on a thermal imager also includes a movable base, and the multi-degree-of-freedom robotic arm is arranged on the movable base. The movable base has a position fixing function. Specifically, a universal wheel with a locking function is arranged at the bottom of the base.

[0068] When in use, the user lies on the physiotherapy bed, and the moxibustion head can be fixed with moxibustion sticks for moxibustion. After the base is pushed to the appropriate position, the universal wheels at the bottom are locked. After the positioning module realizes automatic acupoint positioning, the multi-degree-of-freedom robotic arm is controlled according to the positioning results to drive the moxibustion module to move to the acupoint for moxibustion. During the moxibustion process, the thermal imager can be used to detect the temperature of the moxibustion site on the human body to avoid damage caused by excessive temperature.

[0069] Although the embodiments of the present invention have been disclosed as above, they are not limited to the applications listed in the specification and the implementation modes. They can be fully applied to various fields suitable for the present invention. For those familiar with the art, additional modifications can be easily implemented. Therefore, without departing from the general concept defined by the claims and the scope of equivalents, the present invention is not limited to specific details.

Claims

1. A moxibustion robot with automatic acupoint positioning function based on a thermal imager, characterized in that: It comprises a multi-degree-of-freedom mechanical arm and a moxibustion module arranged at the end of the multi-degree-of-freedom mechanical arm; The multi-degree-of-freedom mechanical arm provides the moxibustion module with a function of spatial position movement, and the moxibustion module includes a moxibustion instrument body that provides the moxibustion function, and a positioning module arranged in the moxibustion instrument body, and the positioning module includes a thermal imager, a data processing module and at least one distance sensor; The positioning module is used to locate the user's acupuncture point, so as to drive the moxibustion module to move to the positioning point through a multi-degree-of-freedom robotic arm, thereby performing moxibustion on the acupuncture point.

2. The moxibustion robot with automatic acupoint positioning function based on a thermal imager according to claim 1, characterized in that: The relative positions of the thermal imager and the distance sensor are known and fixed.

3. The moxibustion robot with automatic acupoint positioning function based on a thermal imager according to claim 2, characterized in that: The data processing module synchronously reads the detection data of the thermal imager and the distance sensor.

4. The moxibustion robot with automatic acupoint positioning function based on a thermal imager according to claim 3, characterized in that: The method for automatically locating acupoints by the positioning module comprises the following steps: S1, the thermal imager captures a thermal map of the observation area including the user, and the data processing module performs threshold segmentation on the thermal map collected by the thermal imager to extract a human body thermal map; S2, performing morphological processing on the human body heat map to obtain a human body contour image; S3, performing key point detection on the human body contour image, using the TPS algorithm to perform non-rigid matching between the human body contour image and the pre-established template acupoint image, and identifying the acupoints on the human body contour image; S4. Analyze the detection data of the distance sensor to obtain the three-dimensional coordinates Q of the acupuncture points on the human body contour image in the coordinate system of the thermal imager Re ; S5, according to the three-dimensional coordinate Q Re , obtain the three-dimensional coordinates Q of the acupuncture point in the coordinate system of the robot base J , complete the automatic positioning of acupoints.

5. The moxibustion robot with automatic acupoint positioning function based on a thermal imager according to claim 4, characterized in that: in, The template acupoint image includes pre-constructed standard key points and standard acupoint points. By matching the key points on the human body contour image with the standard key points on the template acupoint image, the corresponding acupoint points on the human body contour image can be inferred using the standard acupoint points on the template acupoint image.

6. The moxibustion robot with automatic acupoint positioning function based on a thermal imager according to claim 5, characterized in that: Step S4 specifically includes: S4-1. Note that the field of view of the thermal imager includes the horizontal field of view angle θ h and vertical field angle θ v , the image resolution is W*H, W represents width and H represents height; S4-2. For any acupuncture point q in the image, obtain its pixel coordinates (x, y), and the center point of the image is recorded as The horizontal angle offset from the acupoint q to the center of the image is The vertical angle offset from the acupoint q to the center of the image S4-3. Calculate the three-dimensional coordinates (Xq, Yq, Zq) of the acupuncture point q in the coordinate system of the thermal imager: In the coordinate system of the thermal imager, the thermal imager is at the origin O, and the coordinate system OXYZ is established. The Z-axis direction is the distance measurement direction of the distance sensor, that is, the direction from the moxibustion module vertically downward to the user; the Y-axis is the horizontal direction extending from the base of the robotic arm toward the end; The vertical distance between the thermal imager and the area corresponding to the human body contour image on the user's body measured by the distance sensor is d, and the three-dimensional coordinates (X q , Y q , Z q ):X q =dtan(δ x ), Y q =dtan(δ y ), Z q =d.

7. The moxibustion robot with automatic acupoint positioning function based on a thermal imager according to claim 6, characterized in that: Step S5 specifically includes: obtaining the conversion matrix R1 between the coordinate system of the thermal imager and the coordinate system of the end of the robot arm, and the conversion matrix R2 between the coordinate system of the end of the robot arm and the base of the robot arm, thereby obtaining the conversion matrix R 12 , using the transformation matrix R 12 and the three-dimensional coordinates Q Re , get the three-dimensional coordinates Q of the acupuncture points on the human body contour image in the coordinate system of the robot base J ; Complete automatic acupoint positioning according to the three-dimensional coordinates Q J The multi-degree-of-freedom robotic arm is controlled to drive the moxibustion module to move to the coordinate position.

8. The moxibustion robot with automatic acupoint positioning function based on a thermal imager according to claim 1, characterized in that: The distance sensors include at least three fixedly arranged at the bottom of the moxibustion instrument body and evenly distributed around the center of the moxibustion instrument body, and the average value of the measurements of all the distance sensors is taken as the distance measurement result output.

9. The moxibustion robot with automatic acupoint positioning function based on a thermal imager according to claim 1, characterized in that: The thermal imager is fixedly arranged at the bottom of the moxibustion instrument body.

10. The moxibustion robot with automatic acupoint positioning function based on a thermal imager according to claim 1, characterized in that: It also includes a movable base, the multi-degree-of-freedom mechanical arm is arranged on the movable base, and the movable base has a position fixing function.

Images