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

Claim 11:
12. A surgical robot system comprising:
a robot having a robot base and a robot arm coupled to the robot base;
a 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 the robot arm;
a plurality of blades, each coupled to and extending away from a distal end of one of the arms;
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; and

a force and/or torque feedback determination unit configured to receive an output of the sensor, and to determine the amount of force and/or torque that is being applied to the at least one of the blades based on the received output;
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 tracking markers trackable by the camera system, at least one of the plurality of tracking markers connected to each of the arms and the blades,

wherein the camera system is configured to track movement of the plurality of tracking markers, and to output information indicating the relative movement,
wherein the force and/or torque feedback determination unit is coupled to receive the information from the camera system and to determine therefrom the amount of force and/or torque that is being applied to the at least one of the blades based on the tracked movement of the plurality of tracking markers,

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.