cs.CVMar 2, 2026

Aligning Fetal Anatomy with Kinematic Tree Log-Euclidean PolyRigid Transforms

Authors: Yingcheng Liu, Athena Taymourtash, Yang Liu, Esra Abaci Turk, William M. Wells, Leo Joskowicz, P. Ellen Grant, Polina Golland

Organizations: Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, MIT, Cambridge, USA · California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA · Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA · The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

Abstract

Automated analysis of articulated bodies is crucial in medical imaging. Existing surface-based models often ignore internal volumetric structures and rely on deformation methods that lack anatomical consistency guarantees. To address this problem, we introduce a differentiable volumetric body model based on the Skinned Multi-Person Linear (SMPL) formulation, driven by a new Kinematic Tree-based Log-Euclidean PolyRigid (KTPolyRigid) transform. KTPolyRigid resolves Lie algebra ambiguities associated with large, non-local articulated motions, and encourages smooth, bijective volumetric mappings. Evaluated on 53 fetal MRI volumes, KTPolyRigid yields deformation fields with significantly fewer folding artifacts. Furthermore, our framework enables robust groupwise image registration and a label-efficient, template-based segmentation of fetal organs. It provides a robust foundation for standardized volumetric analysis of articulated bodies in medical imaging.

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