# Autonomous Driving in the Lung using Deep Learning for Localization

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1907.08136 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.08136/

## Key facts

- Cited by 13 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 16 Jul 2019.

## Built on by (most cited first, 13 of 13)

- [EndoOmni: Zero-Shot Cross-Dataset Depth Estimation in Endoscopy by Robust Self-Learning from Noisy Labels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.05442/) (2024)
- [BronchoTrack: Airway Lumen Tracking for Branch-Level Bronchoscopic Localization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.12763/) (2024)
- [EndoMamba: An Efficient Foundation Model for Endoscopic Videos via Hierarchical Pre-training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.19090/) (2025)
- [BronchoPose: an analysis of data and model configuration for vision-based bronchoscopy pose estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.11982/) (2022)
- [Weakly Supervised Airway Orifice Segmentation in Video Bronchoscopy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.11468/) (2022)
- [DD-VNB: A Depth-based Dual-Loop Framework for Real-time Visually Navigated Bronchoscopy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.01683/) (2024)
- [PANS: Probabilistic Airway Navigation System for Real-time Robust Bronchoscope Localization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.05554/) (2024)
- [Airway Label Prediction in Video Bronchoscopy: Capturing Temporal Dependencies Utilizing Anatomical Knowledge](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.08318/) (2023)
- [BronchoCopilot: Towards Autonomous Robotic Bronchoscopy via Multimodal Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.01483/) (2024)
- [BREATH-VL: Vision-Language-Guided 6-DoF Bronchoscopy Localization via Semantic-Geometric Fusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.03713/) (2026)
- [Harnessing Foundation Models for Robust and Generalizable 6-DOF Bronchoscopy Localization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.24249/) (2025)
- [BronchoGAN: Anatomically consistent and domain-agnostic image-to-image translation for video bronchoscopy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.01387/) (2025)
- [BronchoLumen: Analysis of recent YOLO-based architectures for real-time bronchial orifice detection in video bronchoscopy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.11748/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide, and early diagnosis is critical to improving patient outcomes. To diagnose cancer, a highly trained pulmonologist must navigate a flexible bronchoscope deep into the branched structure of the lung for biopsy. The biopsy fails to sample the target tissue in 26-33% of cases largely because of poor registration with the preoperative CT map. To improve intraoperative registration, we develop two deep learning approaches to localize the bronchoscope in the preoperative CT map based on the bronchoscopic video in real-time, called AirwayNet and BifurcationNet. The networks are trained entirely on simulated images derived from the patient-specific CT. When evaluated on recorded bronchoscopy videos in a phantom lung, AirwayNet outperforms other deep learning localization algorithms with an area under the precision-recall curve of 0.97. Using AirwayNet, we demonstrate autonomous driving in the phantom lung based on video feedback alone. The robot reaches four targets in the left and right lungs in 95% of the trials. On recorded videos in eight human cadaver lungs, AirwayNet achieves areas under the precision-recall curve ranging from 0.82 to 0.997.