With growing complexity in radiotherapy treatment delivery,it has become mandatory to check each and every treatment plan before implementing clinically.This process is currently administered by an independent seconda...With growing complexity in radiotherapy treatment delivery,it has become mandatory to check each and every treatment plan before implementing clinically.This process is currently administered by an independent secondary check of all treatment parameters and as a pre-treatment quality assurance (QA) check for intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and volumetric modulated arc therapy treatment plans.Although pre-treatment IMRT QA is aimed to ensure the correct dose is delivered to the patient,it does not necessarily predict the clinically relevant patient dose errors.During radiotherapy,treatment uncertainties can affect tumor control and may increase complications to surrounding normal tissues.To combat this,image guided radiotherapy is employed to help ensure the plan conditions are mimicked on the treatment machine.However,it does not provide information on actual delivered dose to the tumor volume.Knowledge of actual dose delivered during treatment aid in confirming the prescribed dose and also to replan/reassess the treatment in situations where the planned dose is not delivered as expected by the treating physician.Major accidents in radiotherapy would have been averted if real time dosimetry is incorporated as part of the routine radiotherapy procedure.Of late real-time dosimetry is becoming popular with complex treatments in radiotherapy.Realtime dosimetry can be either in the form of point doses or planar doses or projected on to a 3D image dataset to obtain volumetric dose.They either provide entrance dose or exit dose or dose inside the natural cavities of a patient.In external beam radiotherapy,there are four different established platforms whereby the delivered dose information can be obtained:(1)Collimator;(2)Patient;(3)Couch;and(4)Electronic Portal Imaging Device.Current real-time dosimetric techniques available in radiotherapy have their own advantages and disadvantages and a combination of one or more of these methods provide vital information about the actual dose delivered to radiotherapy patients.展开更多
This paper describes a real-time beam tuning method with an improved asynchronous advantage actor–critic(A3C)algorithm for accelerator systems.The operating parameters of devices are usually inconsistent with the pre...This paper describes a real-time beam tuning method with an improved asynchronous advantage actor–critic(A3C)algorithm for accelerator systems.The operating parameters of devices are usually inconsistent with the predictions of physical designs because of errors in mechanical matching and installation.Therefore,parameter optimization methods such as pointwise scanning,evolutionary algorithms(EAs),and robust conjugate direction search are widely used in beam tuning to compensate for this inconsistency.However,it is difficult for them to deal with a large number of discrete local optima.The A3C algorithm,which has been applied in the automated control field,provides an approach for improving multi-dimensional optimization.The A3C algorithm is introduced and improved for the real-time beam tuning code for accelerators.Experiments in which optimization is achieved by using pointwise scanning,the genetic algorithm(one kind of EAs),and the A3C-algorithm are conducted and compared to optimize the currents of four steering magnets and two solenoids in the low-energy beam transport section(LEBT)of the Xi’an Proton Application Facility.Optimal currents are determined when the highest transmission of a radio frequency quadrupole(RFQ)accelerator downstream of the LEBT is achieved.The optimal work points of the tuned accelerator were obtained with currents of 0 A,0 A,0 A,and 0.1 A,for the four steering magnets,and 107 A and 96 A for the two solenoids.Furthermore,the highest transmission of the RFQ was 91.2%.Meanwhile,the lower time required for the optimization with the A3C algorithm was successfully verified.Optimization with the A3C algorithm consumed 42%and 78%less time than pointwise scanning with random initialization and pre-trained initialization of weights,respectively.展开更多
Although computer architectures incorporate fast processing hardware resources, high performance real-time implementation of a complex control algorithm requires an efficient design and software coding of the algorith...Although computer architectures incorporate fast processing hardware resources, high performance real-time implementation of a complex control algorithm requires an efficient design and software coding of the algorithm so as to exploit special features of the hardware and avoid associated architecture shortcomings. This paper presents an investigation into the analysis and design mechanisms that will lead to reduction in the execution time in implementing real-time control algorithms. The proposed mechanisms are exemplified by means of one algorithm, which demonstrates their applicability to real-time applications. An active vibration control (AVC) algorithm for a flexible beam system simulated using the finite difference (FD) method is considered to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods. A comparative performance evaluation of the proposed design mechanisms is presented and discussed through a set of experiments.展开更多
文摘With growing complexity in radiotherapy treatment delivery,it has become mandatory to check each and every treatment plan before implementing clinically.This process is currently administered by an independent secondary check of all treatment parameters and as a pre-treatment quality assurance (QA) check for intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and volumetric modulated arc therapy treatment plans.Although pre-treatment IMRT QA is aimed to ensure the correct dose is delivered to the patient,it does not necessarily predict the clinically relevant patient dose errors.During radiotherapy,treatment uncertainties can affect tumor control and may increase complications to surrounding normal tissues.To combat this,image guided radiotherapy is employed to help ensure the plan conditions are mimicked on the treatment machine.However,it does not provide information on actual delivered dose to the tumor volume.Knowledge of actual dose delivered during treatment aid in confirming the prescribed dose and also to replan/reassess the treatment in situations where the planned dose is not delivered as expected by the treating physician.Major accidents in radiotherapy would have been averted if real time dosimetry is incorporated as part of the routine radiotherapy procedure.Of late real-time dosimetry is becoming popular with complex treatments in radiotherapy.Realtime dosimetry can be either in the form of point doses or planar doses or projected on to a 3D image dataset to obtain volumetric dose.They either provide entrance dose or exit dose or dose inside the natural cavities of a patient.In external beam radiotherapy,there are four different established platforms whereby the delivered dose information can be obtained:(1)Collimator;(2)Patient;(3)Couch;and(4)Electronic Portal Imaging Device.Current real-time dosimetric techniques available in radiotherapy have their own advantages and disadvantages and a combination of one or more of these methods provide vital information about the actual dose delivered to radiotherapy patients.
文摘This paper describes a real-time beam tuning method with an improved asynchronous advantage actor–critic(A3C)algorithm for accelerator systems.The operating parameters of devices are usually inconsistent with the predictions of physical designs because of errors in mechanical matching and installation.Therefore,parameter optimization methods such as pointwise scanning,evolutionary algorithms(EAs),and robust conjugate direction search are widely used in beam tuning to compensate for this inconsistency.However,it is difficult for them to deal with a large number of discrete local optima.The A3C algorithm,which has been applied in the automated control field,provides an approach for improving multi-dimensional optimization.The A3C algorithm is introduced and improved for the real-time beam tuning code for accelerators.Experiments in which optimization is achieved by using pointwise scanning,the genetic algorithm(one kind of EAs),and the A3C-algorithm are conducted and compared to optimize the currents of four steering magnets and two solenoids in the low-energy beam transport section(LEBT)of the Xi’an Proton Application Facility.Optimal currents are determined when the highest transmission of a radio frequency quadrupole(RFQ)accelerator downstream of the LEBT is achieved.The optimal work points of the tuned accelerator were obtained with currents of 0 A,0 A,0 A,and 0.1 A,for the four steering magnets,and 107 A and 96 A for the two solenoids.Furthermore,the highest transmission of the RFQ was 91.2%.Meanwhile,the lower time required for the optimization with the A3C algorithm was successfully verified.Optimization with the A3C algorithm consumed 42%and 78%less time than pointwise scanning with random initialization and pre-trained initialization of weights,respectively.
文摘Although computer architectures incorporate fast processing hardware resources, high performance real-time implementation of a complex control algorithm requires an efficient design and software coding of the algorithm so as to exploit special features of the hardware and avoid associated architecture shortcomings. This paper presents an investigation into the analysis and design mechanisms that will lead to reduction in the execution time in implementing real-time control algorithms. The proposed mechanisms are exemplified by means of one algorithm, which demonstrates their applicability to real-time applications. An active vibration control (AVC) algorithm for a flexible beam system simulated using the finite difference (FD) method is considered to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods. A comparative performance evaluation of the proposed design mechanisms is presented and discussed through a set of experiments.