Intuitive Surgical Operations, Inc.

Intuitive Surgical, Inc.

Gregory K Toth

Nitish Swarup

Thomas R Nixon

David Q Larkin

Steven J Colton

William C Nowlin

Gunter D Niemeyer

Robert G Younge

Gary S Guthart

Debra A Sillman

Giuseppe Maria Prisco

David W Bailey

Paul Millman

Christopher R Burns

Hubert Stein

Tom Nixon

Nitish Swamp

Vaughn Fuelling

Akash Patel

Robert P Sundstrom

Robert P Sunstrom

Robotic devices, systems, and methods for use in robotic surgery and other robotic applications, and/or medical instrument devices, systems, and methods includes both a reusable processor and a limited-use robotic tool or medical treatment probe. A memory the limited-use component includes machine readable code with data and/or programming instructions to be implemented by the processor. Programming of the processor can be updated by shipping of new data once downloaded by the processor from a component, subsequent components can take advantage of the updated processor without repeated downloading.

Tool memory-based software upgrades for robotic surgery

A slave manipulator manipulates a medical device in response to operator manipulation of an input device through joint control systems. The stiffness and strength of the slave manipulator are adjustable according to criteria such as the mode of operation of the slave manipulator, the functional type of the medical device currently being held by the slave manipulator, and the current phase of a medical procedure being performed using the slave manipulator by changing corresponding parameters of the control system. For safety purposes, such changes are not made until it is determined that it can be done in a smooth manner without causing jerking of the medical device. Further, an excessive force warning may be provided to surgery staff when excessive forces are being commanded on the slave manipulator for more than a specified period of time.

Medical robotic system with dynamically adjustable slave manipulator characteristics

Robotic devices, systems, and methods for use in robotic surgery and other robotic applications, and/or medical instrument devices, systems, and methods include both a reusable processor and a limited-use robotic tool or medical treatment probe. A memory on the limited-use component includes machine readable code with data and/or programming instructions to be implemented by the processor. Programming of the processor is updated by shipping of new data. Once downloaded by the processor from a component, subsequent components take advantage of the updated processor without repeated downloading.

A robotic system has arms, arm processors, arm supervisor, and system supervisor. Each arm includes nodes for controlling motors in the arm. Each node, including each arm processor, detects faults affecting the node, places the node into a safe state upon detecting a fault, propagates a fault notification, diagnoses the fault and classifies it, and sends an error message to the supervisor processor. The arm supervisor may detect faults affecting an arm and also perform fault reaction activities. The system supervisor handles the fault as either a system or local fault depending upon its class. For system faults, a fault notification is sent to the arm processors of non-failed arms so that the non-failed arms are placed in the safe state. For local faults, a degraded operation option is provided to a user and if the fault is classified as recoverable, a recovery option is provided to the user.

Fault reaction, fault isolation, and graceful degradation in a robotic system

A medical robotic system comprises a number of components that may be monitored to determine their preventive maintenance needs by recording usage-related information for the monitored components into associated non-volatile memories. When usage of the component exceeds a specified usage threshold, the system displays a warning message on its display screen to have preventive maintenance performed for the component. If the usage continues without such maintenance and exceeds a higher usage threshold, the system displays an error message on its display screen and the system transitions into an error state during which medical procedures are not allowed to be performed. The usage-related information may also be communicated to a remote computer which gathers and processes usage-related information from a number of medical robotic systems to estimate resource requirements for timely performing preventive maintenance on the medical robotic systems, and anticipated service revenues from such maintenance.

Method for tracking and reporting usage events to determine when preventive maintenance is due for a medical robotic system

Enhanced telepresence and telesurgery systems automatically update coordinate transformations so as to retain alignment between movement of an input device and movement of an end effector as displayed adjacent the input device. A processor maps a controller workspace with an end effector workspace, and effects movement of the end effector in response to the movement of the input device. This allows the use of kinematically dissimilar master and slave linkages. Gripping an input member near a gimbal point and appropriate input member to end effector mapping points enhance the operator's control. Dexterity is enhanced by accurately tracking orientational and/or angles of movement, even if linear movement distances of the end effector do not correspond to those of the input device.

Camera referenced control in a minimally invasive surgical apparatus

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Mountain View, CA, United States of America

Gregory K Toth