The Brigham and Women's Hospital, Inc.

Canon U.s.a., Inc.

Nobuhiko Hata

Takahisa Kato

Brian Ninni

Junichi Tokuda

Kemal Tuncali

Yasumichi Arimitsu

Franklin H King

Sang-Eun Song

Kazufumi Onuma

Kosuke Fujimoto

Fumitaro Masaki

Peter Tia

Ichiro Okumura

Kiyoshi Takagi

Peter D Jakab

Hidekazu Kose

Laurent Chauvin

Ferenc A Jolesz

Barret Daniels

HuaLei Shelley Zhang

Santosh Ganesan

Lydia G Olson

Gabor Kosa

A continuum robot having at least two independently manipulateable bendable section for advancing the robot through a passage, without contacting fragile elements within the passage, wherein the robot incorporates control algorithms that enable the continuum robot to operate and advance into the passage, as well as the systems and procedures associated with the continuum robot and said functionality.

Methods and apparatus for controlling a continuum robot

An apparatus for correction of a direction to which a tool channel or a camera moves or is bent in a case where a displayed image is rotated. The apparatus includes at least one memory and at least one processor that executes instructions stored in the memory to receive a directional command of a capturing direction of a camera, move the capturing direction of the camera according to the received directional command, detect a rotation amount of a captured image displayed on a monitor, wherein the captured image is captured by the camera, and correct, based on the detected rotation amount, directional information corresponding to a particular directional command or directional coordinate for moving the camera, wherein the directional information is used for moving the capturing direction of the camera.

Continuum robot apparatus, method, and medium

An endoscope imaging system comprises a robotic controlled steerable catheter and an imaging device removably arranged in a tool channel of the catheter. One or more sensors or markers are configured to map a positional relation of the catheter with respect to an orientation of the imaging device. A controller drives the steerable catheter to manipulate the distal end thereof, while the imaging device acquires an image of a subject or sample. While the imaging device acquires the image, a processor calculates a change in positional relation of the catheter with respect to the orientation of the imaging device based on information provided by the one or more sensors or markers. An output unit provides an indication for remapping the orientation of the steerable catheter with respect to the orientation of the imaging device.

Robotic endoscope probe having orientation reference markers

The disclosure of this application relates generally to medical devices and in particular to a steerable medical instrument applicable to guide interventional tools and instruments, such as percutaneous biopsy and ablations tools and endoscopes. The steerable medical instrument has an outer and an inner tube where the inner tube is movable at the proximal end and fixed at the distal end. At least one of the outer tube and inner tube has a plurality of openings, which creates deformable portions so that the outer and the inner tubes can bend by moving the inner tube at the proximal end.

Steerable medical instrument

There is provided a medical support device for holding and positioning a needle. This device is particularly useful for positioning needles in a less invasive puncture treatment. This device comprises two rotational elements and at least one needle guide attached to a rotational element and. The needle guide guides the direction of insertion of a needle-like instrument and includes a guide portion that guides a needle or other needle-like instrument where the puncture point of the needle in a first position is different from the puncture point when the needle guide guides the needle in a second position.

Medical support device

Exemplary methods, apparatus, and systems are disclosed for automated registration and motion compensation of patient-mounted needle guide medical devices using fiducial markers, and processing algorithms where a re-registration step is provided. These methods, apparati, and systems adaptively compensate for the displacement of the medical device and/or target location due to the patient movement or internal organ motion.

Registration and motion compensation for patient-mounted needle guide

The present invention provides a method and an apparatus for controlling a flexible manipulator including a plurality of bendable mechanisms via a control apparatus. The control apparatus includes a drive-mode selecting unit allows for the selection of a movement mode which may provide a bending movement, an angled view movement, or a remote center movement.

Method and apparatus for controlling manipulator

An apparatus including a tendon-driven device such as an endoscope comprising a bendable body, a tendon attached to and extending a length of said body, and an actuator that will actuate said tendon based on a control signal from a controller. The controller is configured to send said control signal to said actuator and comprises a forward-kinematic-mapping unit that estimates an angular displacement, wherein the kinematic-mapping unit is configured for: providing a tension value of the tendon to obtain a desired angular displacement wherein the tension has a nonlinear relationship with the desired angular displacement based on information of friction where the tension is greater that would be calculated without including the effect of friction. The friction coefficient may be determined as it changes over time.

Control apparatus and tendon-driven device

Exemplary relates to medical devices and in particular to a tool placement manipulator with multiple rotary guides and rotation bodies, the rotation bodies being free rotationally to the ring shaped rotary guides and rotational axis of the first rotary guide being slanted with respect to the rotational axis of the second rotary guide. The tool placement manipulator has at least one socket and at least one transmission element that transmits torques from the socket to rotation bodies.

Tool placement manipulator

An apparatus () includes a needle placement manipulator () and an attachment () for the manipulator. The manipulator includes a needle holder and a rotary mechanism. The rotary mechanism () has a remote center of motion (RCM:) and is configured to position a needle holder () such that the axis of the needle holder traces a conical region of coverage (), the conical region of coverage having the apex thereof at the RCM and the base thereof in a direction towards a subject of needle placement (). The attachment supports the guide mechanism and is configured to be mounted onto the subject of needle placement. The attachment includes a guide portion () configured to change an inclination of the rotary mechanism with respect to the subject of needle placement such that the axis of the needle holder intersects an insertion target () located outside of the conical region of coverage.

Placement manipulator and attachment for positioning a puncture instrument

Exemplary methods, apparatus, and systems are provided for automated detection and registration of medical images using fiducial markers and processing algorithms. By either clustering fiducial markers having a different number, size, shape, configuration, or material property or by using fiducial markers arranged in a ring shape, wherein their arrangement is asymmetric, and then applying a feature extraction to extract the fiducial marker objects, and registering the fiducial marker objects with a model of the fiducial frame, automatic registration can be achieved.

Fiducial markers, systems, and methods of registration

A positioning apparatus including a needle holder having a through hole for regulating needle placement and movement, a needle positioning unit, and an engagement member that fixes a position of the needle holder with respect to the needle positioning unit. The needle holder is either least partially detachably attached to the needle positioning unit or deformable. The positioning apparatus may be designed to accommodate the placement of multiple needles.

Needle positioning apparatus

A needle placement manipulator includes, a needle holder configured to hold a needle, a guide system configured to position the needle holder to a predetermined direction with respect to a subject of needle placement, an attachment including an attaching portion to which the guide system is attached and a setting portion on which an RF-coil is set. A base surface of the setting portion is configured to be disposed on the subject.

Needle placement manipulator with attachment for RF-coil

A system and method for automatic registration of medical images includes accessing image data of a subject and plurality of elongated fiducial markers arranged in an asymmetrical orientation and analyzing the image data to detect the elongated fiducial markers by applying a line filter to treat the elongated fiducial markers as lines within the image data. The system and method also includes matching the elongated fiducial markers within the image data to a model of the elongated fiducial markers, registering the image data with a coordinate system based on the matching, and generating a report indicating at least the registered image data.

Growing community of inventors

Newton, MA, United States of America

Nobuhiko Hata