Patent ID: 6858003

Claim:
A method of performing a surgical procedure on a beating heart of a patient, the method including: positioning an end effector in close proximity to a surgical site on the heart, at which site a surgical procedure is to be performed, the end effector being mounted on a robotically controlled arm; bracing the beating heart to at least reduce motion of the surgical site monitoring motion of the surgical site; computing end effector tracking command signals in response to monitored motion of the surgical site; forwarding the tracking command signals to actuators operatively associated with the robotically controlled arm to cause the arm to move the end effector generally to track motion of the surgical site; inputting an end effector movement command signal; forwarding the end effector movement command signal to the actuators to cause the end effector to move relative to the surgical site so as to perform at least part of the surgical procedure at the surgical sites directing an image capture device at the surgical site to capture least one image of the surgical site; and processing information related to the at least one image to create an image of the surgical site which appears as though the surgical site were generally stationary relative to the image capture device.