Patent ID: 9610689
Date: 2017-04-04
CPC Classifications: A61B,B25J,G05B

Claim:
1. A method for a manipulator arm, the manipulator arm comprising a movable distal portion that includes an end effector, a proximal portion coupled to a base, and a plurality of joints between the distal portion and the base, the plurality of joints having sufficient degrees of freedom to allow a range of differing joint states for a given state of the end effector, the method comprising: defining a position-based constraint of one or more joints of the plurality of joints within a joint space of the plurality of joints, the position-based constraint including one or more paths corresponding to a desired movement of the one or more joints within the joint space of the plurality of joints; receiving a manipulation command to move the end effector with a desired end-effector movement; calculating an end-effector displacing movement of the plurality of joints to effect the desired end-effector movement, wherein calculating the end-effector displacing movement of the plurality of joints comprises calculating joint velocities of the plurality of joints from directions that correspond to the end effector moving; calculating a tracking movement of the plurality of joints so as to move a position of the one or more joints of the plurality of joints towards the position-based constraint, wherein calculating the tracking movement of the plurality of joints comprises calculating joint velocities of the plurality of joints from directions that correspond to the end effector not moving; and driving the plurality of joints according to the calculated movements so as to effect the end-effector displacing movement concurrently with the tracking movement.