A dual-instrument Kalman-based tracker to enhance robustness of microsurgical tools tracking.

Purpose: The integration of a surgical robotic instrument tracking module within optical microscopes holds the potential to advance microsurgery practices, as it facilitates automated camera movements, thereby augmenting the surgeon's capability in executing surgical procedures.

Methods: In the present work, an innovative detection backbone based on spatial attention module is implemented to enhance the detection accuracy of small objects within the image. Additionally, we have introduced a robust data association technique, capable to re-track surgical instrument, mainly based on the knowledge of the dual-instrument robotics system, Intersection over Union metric and Kalman filter.