Patent ID: 9295524
Filing Date: 2016-03-29
CPC Classification: A61B

Claim Text:
1. A remote center manipulator for constraining a position of a surgical instrument during minimally invasive robotic surgery, the surgical instrument including an elongate shaft, the shaft having a distal working end configured for insertion into a body cavity of a patient through a remote center of manipulation, the remote center manipulator comprising: a base link configured to be held in a fixed position relative to the patient; an instrument holder configured to couple with the surgical instrument; and a linkage coupling the instrument holder to the base link, first and second links of the linkage being coupled to limit motion of the second link relative to the first link to rotation about a first axis intersecting the remote center of manipulation, the linkage further including three rotationally coupled rotary joints configured to generate constrained parallelogram motion of the linkage by which motion of the instrument holder is limited to rotation about a second axis intersecting the remote center of manipulation, the second axis not being coincident to the first axis, and third and fourth links of the linkage being coupled to limit motion of the fourth link relative to the third link to rotation about a third axis intersecting the remote center of manipulation, the third axis not being coincident to either of the first and the second axes.