Patent ID: 11864745
Assignee: GLOBUS MEDICAL INC.
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A | IPC A

Claim 0:
1. A surgical retractor for a surgical robot system, the surgical retractor comprising:
a retractor frame comprising a plurality of arms that are translatably and/or pivotably connected to the retractor frame;
a coupler configured to releasably attach the retractor frame to a robot arm of the surgical robot system;
a plurality of blades, each coupled to and extending away from a distal end of one of the arms; and
a sensor connected to the blades and configured to provide an indication of an amount of force and/or torque that is being applied to at least one of the blades from contact with material of a surgical site;
a location tracking system including a camera system;
wherein the sensor comprises:
at least one flexible member connected between the blades and the arms that allows elastic movement between the blades and the arms; and
a plurality of optical tracking markers trackable by the camera system, at least one of the plurality of tracking markers connected to at least one of the arms, and at least another one of the plurality of tracking markers connected to at least one of the blades, wherein the location tracking system determines the force exerted on the at least one blade relative to the at least one arm based on the change in orientation of the at least one tracking marker on the at least one arm relative to the at least one tracking marker on the at least one blade observed by the camera system,
wherein each of the flexible members is disposed between a proximal end of one of the blades and a distal end of one of the arms, and
wherein each of the flexible members is configured to bend and/or twist as force and/or torque is applied to the blades resulting in differing amounts of movement between the at least one the plurality of markers on the blades compared to movement of the at least one of the plurality of markers on the arms and to at least one of the plurality of markers on the retractor frame.