Intuitive Surgical Operations, Inc.

Ashwinram Suresh

Joey Chau

Brandon D Itkowitz

Lawton N Verner

Grant M Kadokura

Sean Duffy

Ehsan Noohi Bezanjani

Gabriel Francis Brisson

Craig Tsuji

Jason W Hemphill

Andrew Cullen Waterbury

Hsien-Hsin Liao

Harsukhdeep Singh Ratia

Zhou Ye

Brian Luptak

Sarthak Ghosh

Keith Watza

Clifford N Bargar

Control cables in a surgical instrument are kept parallel to the instrument's longitudinal axis to prevent transverse forces from the cables being sensed by a transverse force sensor in the instrument. A surgical instrument includes an elongated hollow shaft having a longitudinal center axis. Multiple cables extend within the shaft. A force sensor includes a beam disposed within the shaft and one or more strain gauges disposed on the beam. A proximal anchor is disposed within the shaft and in contact with a proximal end of the beam. A distal anchor is at the distal end of the shaft and in contact with a distal end of the beam. A cable guide is disposed within the shaft to constrain portions of the multiple cables disposed alongside the beam to movement parallel to the center axis, and so prevent force from the moving cables causing transverse force on the beam.

Surgical instrument with sensor aligned cable guide

A method is provided to control actuation of a click event by a hand-actuated selector moveably mounted to a mount structure, comprising: in a first control state, imparting a maintaining force to the hand-actuated selector; in a second control state, imparting a haptic force to the hand-actuated selector that increases as a function of increasing displacement of the hand-actuated selector from the neutral displacement position; imparting a click event signal to cause an occurrence of the click event at a display system, in a third control state, imparting a haptic force to the hand-actuated selector that decreases in magnitude to a reduced magnitude.

Interaction between user-interface and instrument motion controller

A surgical tool is provided that includes a hollow shaft and a cable extending within the shaft such that the cable is isolated from external forces imparted to the shaft; the shaft and a carriage are included as links of a 4-bar linkage that also includes first and second side links that are rotatably mounted to the carriage at respective first and second distal pivot axes and that are rotatably mounted to the shaft at respective first and second proximal pivot axes; the segment of the cable extends between a distal pulley rotatably at the carriage and a proximal pulley rotatably mounted at the shaft and a segment of the cable extends within the shaft; a distance between the first distal and first proximal pivot axes matches a distance between an axis of the distal pulley axis and an axis of the proximal pulley such that a rocking motion of the 4-bar linkage due to external force upon the shaft exerts no force upon the cable.

Decoupling tool shaft from cable drive load

A force sensor is provided for use with an instrument. Accordingly, the force sensor includes a beam and a set of half-bridges that are arranged on the surface of the beam. Two of the half-bridges include tension resistors, while the other two half-bridges compression resistors. The half-bridges are arranged on the beam surface such that redundant measurements of orthogonal components of a force imparted to the beam can be made using four different combinations of three of the half-bridges.

Spread bridge XY force sensor

A system to control the interaction between a user-interface of a teleoperated surgical system and an input device of the teleoperated surgical system, the system comprising a first master controller communicatively coupled to the teleoperated surgical system, a feedback control communicatively coupled to the first master controller, and a display device communicatively coupled to the teleoperated surgical system and configured to display the user interface. The feedback control is configured to restrict the movement of the first master controller based on a state of the user interface changing from a previous state.

Interaction between user-interface and master controller

A system for controlling a user interface of a teleoperated surgical system, the system comprises a first master controller communicatively coupled to the teleoperated surgical system; and a display device communicatively coupled to the teleoperated surgical system and configured to display a graphical user interface; and wherein the first master controller is configured to transmit a first input signal to an interface controller, the first input signal caused by manual manipulation of the first master controller, the interface controller to use the first input signal to update a graphical user interface presented by the display device.

User-interface control using master controller

A force sensor comprising a beam having a longitudinal axis and a proximal end portion and a distal end portion; a first Wheatstone bridge disposed on a first face of the beam, including multiple tension gauge resistors and multiple compression gauge resistors; a second Wheatstone bridge disposed on the first face of the beam, including multiple tension gauge resistors and multiple compression gauge resistors; wherein at least one tension gauge resistor and at least one compression gauge resistor from each of the first and second Wheatstone bridges is disposed at a proximal end portion of the beam; wherein at least one tension gauge resistor and at least one compression gauge resistor from each of the first and second Wheatstone bridges is disposed at a distal end portion of the beam.

Split bridge circuit force sensor

Implementations relate to hand presence sensing at a control input device. In some implementations, a control input device includes a base member, a handle coupled to the base member and configured to be manually contacted at a grip portion of the handle and moved by a hand of a user in one or more degrees of freedom, one or more control input sensors configured to detect positions or orientations of the handle in the one or more degrees of freedom, and a presence sensor coupled to the base member. The presence sensor has a sensing field, and at least a portion of the sensing field is located proximate to the handle.

Hand presence sensing at control input device

A medical device includes a shaft, a beam, a hard stop structure, and a link. A proximal end portion of the beam is coupled to the distal end portion of the shaft and a distal end portion of the beam is coupled to the link. A strain sensor is on the beam. A hard stop structure includes a proximal end portion, a distal end portion, and first opposing stop surfaces. The proximal end portion of the hard stop structure is coupled to a distal end portion of the shaft, and the distal end portion of the hard stop structure is coupled to the link. The first opposing stop surfaces are positioned to limit a lateral range of motion of the distal end of the beam with reference to the proximal end of the beam in a first direction by the first stop surfaces contacting one another.

Hard stop that produces a reactive moment upon engagement for cantilever-based force sensing

A computer-assisted medical system includes a manipulator arm and a controller. The controller includes a computer processor and is configured to determine a kinematic configuration, the kinematic configuration being prior to an installation of a replacement tool on the manipulator arm. The kinematic configuration is of the manipulator arm and a previous tool attached to the manipulator arm and with an end effector of the previous tool located at an insertion location. The controller is further configured to determine a reference geometry of the previous tool in the kinematic configuration, determine an insertion trajectory for the replacement tool based on the reference geometry, and facilitate an insertion of the replacement tool toward a target location of the insertion trajectory by controlling the replacement tool to move in accordance with the insertion trajectory.

Guided tool change

A circuit is provided that includes a strain gauge resistor having a center axis and multiple conductor layer segments and a trim region extending along the center axis; wherein a first portion of the strain gauge resistor is located on one side of the center axis and a second portion of the strain gauge resistor is located on an opposite side of the center axis.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Ashwinram Suresh