Proton therapy treatment room controls using a Linux control system

The Indiana University Cyclotron Facility (IUCF) is in the process of completing the building of the Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute (MPRI). The design of MRPI´s proton therapy system required the development of several control systems responsible for delivery of proton beam to a patient and patient positioning. One such control system is the Treatment Room Controller. This system allows for management of the other control systems, and is the primary user interface to the proton therapy system. This control system was developed with a Linux operating system, the KDE/QT widget sets for the user interface, and the KDevelop IDE. The control software uses the unixODBC API to provide an interface to a MySQL database for record and verify functions and for history functions. The control system also uses the Comedi driver library so that a National Instruments PCI DAQ card can be used to interface to various treatment room devices.