Patent ID: 8335590

Claim:
A medical robotic system comprising: an image capturing device manipulatable relative to a first reference frame in a first plurality of degrees-of-freedom; a first master control device manipulatable relative to a second reference frame in a second plurality of degrees-of-freedom; and a controller adapted to: command manipulation of the image capturing device in each of the first plurality of degrees-of-freedom according to input received from the first master control device using less than all of the second plurality of degrees-of-freedom; initially determine and periodically update a set-point for an unused one of the second plurality of degrees-of-freedom of the first master control device, wherein the periodic updating is performed by sensing a position of the unused one of the second plurality of degrees-of-freedom of the first master control device, estimating a feedback error resulting from controlling the manipulation of the image capturing device wherein the feedback error effects a change in the set-point of the unused one of the second plurality of degrees-of-freedom of the first master control device, and determining the updated set-point using the sensed position and the estimated feedback error, and wherein the set-point is a state of the unused one of the second plurality of degrees-of-freedom of the first master control device and the set-point changes as one or more of the used ones of the second plurality of degrees-of-freedom of the first master control device is used to command manipulation of the image capturing device; and adjust an attribute of the image capturing device in response to manipulation of the first master control device in the unused one of the second plurality of degrees-of-freedom of the first master control device relative to the periodically updated set-point.