Patent ID: 11957301
Assignee: ASENSUS SURGICAL EUROPE SàRL
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A  G | IPC A  G

Claim 3:
4. A method of assisting an operator to perform a surgical procedure, comprising:
inserting a first surgical tool into a surgical environment of a human body;
real-time estimating a 3D spatial position of said at least one surgical tool within the surgical environment;
detecting if there is movement of said at least one surgical tool within the surgical environment by determining whether the 3D spatial position of first surgical tool at time tf is different than the 3D spatial position of said at least one surgical tool at time t0;
controlling the spatial position of said at least one surgical tool using a controller, wherein said controlling step includes
determining whether each of said detected movements is an ALLOWED movement or a RESTRICTED movement based on a proximity rule stored in a database in communication with the controller, said proximity rule configured to define using image processing a predetermined angle between the first surgical tool and a second surgical tool; said ALLOWED movements are movements which are within the range or out of the range of said predetermined angle, and said RESTRICTED movements which are out of the range or within the range of said predetermined distance.