Medical imaging apparatus having multiple subsystems, and operating method therefor

A medical imaging apparatus comprising:

• a plurality of apparatus sub-systems;
• a control computer configured to control the plurality of apparatus subsystems in coordination to conduct a scan sequence to acquire medical imaging data from an examination subject;
• said control computer being configured to receive a control protocol that is assigned to said scan sequence;
• in said control computer, determining sequence control data for said control protocol that define different functional sub-sequences of said scan sequence to be performed respectively by said apparatus subsystems;
• in said control computer, assigning respectively different effective volumes of the examination subject to the respective functional sub-sequences;
• in said control computer, determining current ambient conditions of said medical imaging examination apparatus that affect said sequence control data and said effective volumes;
• in said control computer, calculating and storing control signals that will be provided from said control computer to said apparatus subsystems in order to execute said scan sequence dependent on said determined sequence control data, the determined effective volumes, and the determined current ambient conditions, by executing an algorithm in said control computer that optimizes the functional sub-sequences locally in the examination subject at least with regard to a sub-region of the respective effective volumes;
• said control computer being configured to implement a plausibility check in said algorithm in order to identify faults resulting from errors that occur when calculating said control signals from said determined sequence control data, by placing respective control signals calculated for different effective volumes in relation to each other according to interactions between different sequence control data that respectively define said different functional sub-sequences;
• and
• said control computer being configured to make the stored control signals available at an output of the control computer, when said plausibility check does not identify faults therein, as an electronic signal in a form for operating the subsystems of the medical imaging examination apparatus according to the stored control signals.

A non-transitory, computer-readable data storage medium encoded with programming instructions, said storage medium being loaded into a control computer of a medical imaging examination apparatus that comprises a plurality of apparatus sub-systems, said programming instructions causing said control computer to:

• receive a control protocol that is assigned to a scan sequence in which said control computer will control the plurality of apparatus subsystems in coordination to conduct the scan sequence to acquire medical imaging data from an examination subject;
• determine sequence control data for said control protocol that define different functional sub-sequences of said scan sequence to be performed respectively by said apparatus subsystems;
• assign respectively different effective volumes of the examination subject to the respective functional sub-sequences;
• determine current ambient conditions of said medical imaging examination apparatus that affect said sequence control data and said effective volumes;
• calculate and store control signals that will be provided from said control computer to said apparatus subsystems in order to execute said scan sequence dependent on said determined sequence control data, the determined effective volumes, and the determined current ambient conditions, by executing an algorithm in said control computer that optimizes the functional sub-sequences locally in the examination subject at least with regard to a sub-region of the respective effective volumes;
• implement a plausibility check in said algorithm in order to identify faults resulting from errors that occur when calculating said control signals from said determined sequence control data, by placing respective control signals calculated for different effective volumes in relation to each other according to interactions between different sequence control data that respectively define said different functional sub-sequences;
• and
• make the stored control signals available at an output of the control computer when said plausibility check does not identify faults therein as an electronic signal in a form for operating the subsystems of the medical imaging examination apparatus according to the stored control signals.