Source: http://www.google.com/patents/US6459926?dq=7069184
Timestamp: 2015-05-25 08:50:27
Document Index: 66624098

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 300', 'art 300', 'art 300', 'art 300', 'art 300', 'art 300', 'art 300', 'art 300', 'art 300', 'art 300', 'art 300']

Patent US6459926 - Repositioning and reorientation of master/slave relationship in minimally ... - Google PatentsSearch Images Maps Play YouTube News Gmail Drive More »Sign inAdvanced Patent SearchPatentsThe invention provides robotic surgical systems which allow selectable independent repositioning of an input handle of a master controller and/or a surgical end effector without corresponding movement of the other. In some embodiments, independent repositioning is limited to translational degrees of...http://www.google.com/patents/US6459926?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US6459926 - Repositioning and reorientation of master/slave relationship in minimally invasive telesurgeryAdvanced Patent SearchPublication numberUS6459926 B1Publication typeGrantApplication numberUS 09/398,960Publication dateOct 1, 2002Filing dateSep 17, 1999Priority dateNov 20, 1998Fee statusPaidAlso published asUS7087049, US7806891, US20020128552, US20060241414Publication number09398960, 398960, US 6459926 B1, US 6459926B1, US-B1-6459926, US6459926 B1, US6459926B1InventorsWilliam C. Nowlin, Gary S. Guthart, J. Kenneth Salisbury, Jr., Gunter D. NiemeyerOriginal AssigneeIntuitive Surgical, Inc.Export CitationBiBTeX, EndNote, RefManPatent Citations (13), Non-Patent Citations (7), Referenced by (84), Classifications (13), Legal Events (4) External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, EspacenetRepositioning and reorientation of master/slave relationship in minimally invasive telesurgery
The present application is a continuation-in-part of and claims the benefit of priority from application Ser. No. 09/374,643, filed Aug. 16, 1999, and abandoned Jun. 29, 2000, for a “Cooperative Minimally Invasive Telesurgical System, ” and also claims the benefit of priority from Provisional Application Serial No. 60/116,891, filed Jan. 22, 1999, for “Dynamic Association of master and Slave in a Minimally Invasive Telesurgical System,” Provisional Application Serial No. 60/116,842, filed Jan. 22, 1999, for “Repositioning and Reorientation of Master/Slave Relationship in Minimally Invasive Telesurgery,” and Provisional Application Serial No. 60/109,359, filed Nov. 20, 1998, for “Apparatus and Method for Tracking and Controlling Cardiac Motion During Cardiac Surgery Without Cardioplegia,” the full disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
This application is related to the following patents and patent applications, the full disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference: PCT International Application No. PCT/US-98/19508, entitled “Robotic Apparatus”, filed on Sep. 18, 1998, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 60/111,713, entitled “Surgical Robotic Tools, Data Architecture, and Use”, filed on Dec. 8, 1998; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 60/111,711, entitled “Image Shifting for a Telerobotic System”, filed on Dec. 8, 1998; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 60/111,714, entitled “Stereo Viewer System for Use in Telerobotic System”, filed on Dec. 8, 1998; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 60/111,710, entitled “Master Having Redundant Degrees of Freedom”, filed on Dec. 8, 1998, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 60/116,891, entitled “Dynamic Association of Master and Slave in a Minimally Invasive Telesurgery System”, filed on Jan. 22, 1999; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,808,665, entitled “Endoscopic Surgical Instrument and Method for Use,” issued on Sep. 15, 1998.
As described in more detail in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No., 09/373,678 entitled “Camera Referenced Control In A Minimally Invasive Surgical Apparatus” and filed Aug. 13, 1999, the full disclosure of which incorporated herein by reference, a processor of master controller 200 will preferably coordinate movement of the input devices with the movement of their associated instruments so that the images of the surgical tools 100, as displayed to the operator, appear at least substantially connected to the input devices in the hands of the operator. Further levels of connection will also often be provided to enhance the operator's dexterity and ease of use of surgical instruments 100.
The positioning linkages or “set-up joints” are described in Provisional Application Serial No. 60/095,303, the full disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. Preferably, the set-up joints include joint sensors which transmit signals to the processor indicating the position of the remote center of rotation. It should be noted that the manipulator arm assemblies need not be supported by a single cart. Some or all of the manipulators may be mounted to a wall or ceiling of an operating room, separate carts, or the like. Regardless of the specific manipulator structures or their mounting arrangement, it is generally preferable to provide information to the processor regarding the location of insertion/pivot points of the surgical instruments into the patient body. The set-up joint linkages need not have joint drive systems but will often include a joint brake system, as they will often hold the manipulators in a fixed position during some or all of a surgical procedure.
In FIG. 10, the Cartesian space coordinate system is indicated generally by reference numeral 902. The origin of the system is indicated at 904. The system 902 is shown at a position removed from the endoscope 304. In the minimally invasive telesurgical system of the invention, and for purposes of identifying positions in Cartesian space, the origin 904 is conveniently positioned at the viewing end 306. One of the axes, in this case the Z—Z axis, is coincident with the viewing axis 307 of the endoscope. Accordingly, the X—X and Y—Y axes extend outwardly in directions perpendicular to the viewing axis 307.
It will be appreciated that in the case of angular displacement of the endoscope to vary the orientation of the displayed image as described above, the reference plane defined by the X—X and Y—Y axis is angularly displaced together with the endoscope.
When the remote center or fulcrum positions relative to the viewing end 306 of the endoscope 304 are determined, the coordinates in the X—X and Y—Y plane of the Cartesian coordinate system 902 are determined. It will be appreciated that these (X,Y) coordinates of each fulcrum 349 can vary depending on the chosen entry ports to the surgical site. The location of these entry ports can vary depending on the surgical procedure to be performed. It will further be appreciated that the (X,Y) coordinates of each fulcrum 349 can readily be determined with reference to the coordinate system 902 by means of the position sensors at the various pivot points on each robotic arm 112 since the endoscope 304 and the arms 310 are mounted on the same cart 300. Naturally, the endoscope arm 302 is also provided with appropriately positioned positional sensors. Thus, to determine the (X,Y) coordinates of each fulcrum 349, relative to the coordinate system 902, the position of the coordinate system 902 can be determined relative to any arbitrary point in space by means of the positional sensors on the endoscope arm 302 and the positions of each fulcrum relative to the same arbitrary point can readily be determined by means of the positional sensors on each robotic arm 112. The positions of each fulcrum 349 relative to the coordinate system 902 can then be determined by means of routine calculation.
An exemplary method and system for robotic movement of the endoscope using both of the master controllers is described in more detail in U.S. application Ser. No. 60/111,711, filed on Dec. 8, 1998, and entitled “Image Shifting for a Telerobotic System,” the full disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
It will be appreciated that the cart or trolley 300 and the robotic arm assemblies 395, 310, and 302 mounted thereon are not mechanically perfect structures. Thus, in computing the (X,Y) coordinates for each fulcrum 349 positional errors can arise due to, e.g., external forces such as gravity, mechanical misalignments, miscalibration and the like. The range of such positional errors which can arise is indicated in FIG. 22A. FIG. 22A indicates the x—x and y—y axes of the coordinate system 902. The circular part of the shaded area in FIG. 22A represents an area corresponding to an error range or margin resulting from such errors as described above. The parts of the shaded area diverging outwardly along the x—x axis and from the circular part represent regions where the positions of the fulcrums are too close to the x—x axis for an appropriate allocation to be made.
To determine whether or not the (X,Y) positions of the fulcrums 349 fall in the shaded area, a midpoint between the (X,Y) positions is transformed onto the x—x and y—y axis as indicated in FIG. 22A such that the midpoint coincides with the origin 904. With reference again to FIG. 22B of the drawings, should the positions of the fulcrums 349 fall outside the shaded error region, the next step as indicated by reference numeral 915 is performed. If not, an alternative method to allocate left and right position is followed as indicated by the step 917, as further described herein below.
The step 915 involves a selection or allocation of a right hand and left hand position to the slaves. Accordingly, the slave defining the fulcrum to the left of the x—x axis in FIG. 22A is assigned the left hand position and similarly the slave defining the fulcrum to the right of the x—x axis is assigned the right hand position.
Once the tool selector subroutine is activated, the operator will generally select the desired tools to be actively driven by the robotic system. The surgeon here intends to maintain control over Tool B, but wishes to reposition stabilizer 120. Optionally, operator O will select between the left and right input devices for association with the newly selected tool. Alternatively, the processor may determine the appropriate left/right association based on factors more fully described in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 60/116,891, filed on Jan. 22, 1999, and entitled “Dynamic Association Of Master And Slave In A Minimally Invasive Telesurgical System,” the fall disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Many of the steps described above will also be used when “handing-off” control of a tool between two masters in a tool hand-off subroutine 920, as illustrated in FIG. 24. Tool hand-off is again initiated by actuating an appropriate input device, such as by depressing foot pedal 208 b shown in FIG. 2.
As can be seen most clearly in FIGS. 1 and 25B, cart 300 supports first and second tools 100 a, 100 b for manipulating tissues (more may be used but are not shown) and first scope 306 a, while auxiliary cart 300A supports second scope 306 b (and/or other manipulator tools, not shown). The arms of cart 300 preferably extend over the patient from the patient's left side, and the instruments extend through aperture pattern 930. The instrument shafts are generally angled to extend radially outwardly from aperture pattern 930 in a “spoked wheel” arrangement to minimize interference between the manipulators. The exemplary arrangement has scopes 306 a, 306 b extending through apertures defining the top and bottom (anterior and posterior relative to the patient) positions of aperture pattern 930, while the manipulation tool shafts define left and right (inferior and superior relative to the patient) positions. Second scope 306 b may be positioned through a lower, more dorsal aperture than shown, with the patient optionally being supported on a table having an edge RE which is recessed adjacent aperture pattern 930 to avoid interference between the auxiliary cart manipulator and the table.
Suturing and exposure of the aorta and coronary artery or arteries may at least in part be performed while viewing the more anterior-to-posterior field of view provided from first scope 306 a, as may portions of all other steps throughout the CABG procedure. When the surgeon desires to change views between first and second image capture devices, the surgeon may initiate the view change procedure by activating a view change input device, possibly in the form of yet another foot switch. The tissue manipulation tools will be briefly fixed in position, and the display will shift between the image capture devices—for example, from the image provided from first scope 306 a, to the image provided from second scope 306 b. Optionally, the processor can reconfigure the coordinate transformations between the masters and the end effectors when changing between two different image capture devices to re-establish an at least substantially connected relationship. This transformation modification is similar to the process described above for a change in scope position, but will generally also accommodate the differences in support structure of the image capture devices. In other words, for example, the master and/or slave kinematics 408, 412 (see FIG. 11) may be redefined to maintain a correlation between a direction of movement of the input device 210 and a direction of movement of an image of the end effector 102 as shown in display 202 when viewing the end effector from a different scope. Similarly, when moving second scope 306 b (supported by auxiliary cart 300A) as a slave after a scope change from scope 306 a (which is supported by cart 300), the slave kinematics 412, slave input/output 414, and slave manipulator geometry 416 may all be different, so that the control logic between the master and slave may be revised as appropriate.
More easily implemented approaches might allow the operator O to switch views between scopes 306 a and 306 b without major software revisions. Using software developed to perform telesurgery with a single master control station 200 coupled to a single three arm cart 300 (see FIG. 1), switching the view to scope 306 b from scope 306 a might be accomplished while maintaining the substantially connected relationship by “fooling” the processor of the master control station into believing that it is still viewing the surgery through scope 306 a. More accurately, the processor may be fed signals which indicate that the middle set-up joint 395 and/or manipulator arm 302 of cart 300 are supporting scope 306 a at the actual orientation of scope 306 b. This may be accomplished by decoupling the position sensing circuitry of the middle set-up joint and/or manipulator of cart 300 from the processor, and instead coupling an alternative circuit that transmits the desired signals. The alternative “fooling” circuit may optionally be in the form of a sensor system of an alternative set-up joint and/or manipulator 302, which might be manually configured to hold a scope at the orientation of scope 306 b relative to cart 300, but which need not actually support anything. The image may then be taken from scope 306 b supported by auxiliary cart 300A, while the slave position signals xs (See FIG. (11) are taken from the alternative set-up joint. As described above, so long as the orientation of the end effectors relative to the scope are accurately known, the system can easily accommodate positional corrections (such as by the translational clutching procedure described above).
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KENNETH JR.;AND OTHERS;REEL/FRAME:010450/0601;SIGNING DATES FROM 19991106 TO 19991116Owner name: INTUITIVE SURGICAL, INC. 1340 WEST MIDDLEFIELD ROAOwner name: INTUITIVE SURGICAL, INC. 1340 WEST MIDDLEFIELD ROAFree format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:NOWLIN, WILLIAM C.;GUTHART, GARY S.;SALISBURY, J. KENNETH JR.;AND OTHERS;REEL/FRAME:010450/0601;SIGNING DATES FROM 19991106 TO 19991116RotateOriginal ImageGoogle Home - Sitemap - USPTO Bulk Downloads - Privacy Policy - Terms of Service - About Google Patents - Send FeedbackData provided by IFI CLAIMS Patent Services