Patent ID: 8568302

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, by a controller, a roll command, wherein the controller is coupled to a medical instrument, wherein the medical instrument comprises a plurality of articulatable segments, wherein each articulatable segment of the plurality of articulatable segments includes a serial combination of a plurality of links, wherein each link of the plurality of links is coupled to an adjacent link of the plurality of links by a joint; determining, by the controller, roll of each of the plurality of articulatable segments, articulatable segment by articulatable segment, wherein the determining decouples the plurality of articulatable segments; and sending, by the controller, at least one command to transmit roll to each of the articulatable segments from a proximal end of the articulatable segment to the distal end of the articulatable segment while maintaining each of the plurality of articulatable segments within a boundary region of that articulatable segment, wherein the boundary region is generated by the controller.