Auris Health, Inc.

Han Sen Medical, Inc.

Teresa Miller

Neal A Tanner

Jeffery B Alvarez

Sean Paul Walker

Enrique Romo

Gregory J Stahler

Francis T Macnamara

Gene Reis

Christopher M Sewell

Francis MacNamara

J Scot Hart, Jr

Kamini Balaji

Dave Camarillo

Aaron M Weiss

Greg Stahler

Jeffrey B Alvarez

Chris Carlson

Jeff Alvarez

Alan Lau Yu

Systems and methods for introducing and driving flexible members in a patient's body are described herein. In one embodiment, a robotic method includes positioning a flexible elongated member that has a preformed configuration, wherein at least a part of the flexible elongated member has a first member disposed around it, and wherein the first member includes a first wire for bending the first member or for maintaining the first member in a bent configuration, releasing at least some tension in the first wire to relax the first member, and advancing the first member distally relative to the flexible elongated member while the first member is in a relaxed configuration.

Systems and methods for positioning an elongate member inside a body

A robotic surgical system configured for the articulation of a catheter comprises an input device, a control computer, and an instrument driver having at least one motor for displacing the pull-wire of a steerable catheter wherein the control computer is configured to determine the desired motor torque or tension of the pull-wire of a catheter based on user manipulation of the input device. The control computer is configured to output the desired motor torque or tension of the pull-wire to the instrument driver, whereby at least one motor of the instrument driver implements the desired motor torque to cause the desired pull-wire tension to articulate the distal tip of the catheter. The present embodiment further contemplates a robotic surgical method for the articulation of a steerable catheter wherein an input device is manipulated to communicate a desired catheter position to a control computer and motor torque commands are outputted to an instrument driver. The robotic system may further comprise a torque sensor. The robotic system may also incorporate closed loop feedback in which data from the torque measuring device is used to ensure that the torque in the motor or tension in the pull-wire closely matches the motor torque command from the control computer.

Torque-based catheter articulation

Systems and method are disclosed whereby elongate medical instruments may be registered to adjacent tissue structures and other structures, and may be navigated and operated in a coordinated fashion to maximize ranges of motion, ease of use, and other factors. A method for registering an instrument relative to nearby structures may comprise moving a portion of the instrument between two in situ positions, tracking movement during this movement with both a kinematic model and also a localization sensor based configuration, determining the orientation of the tracked portion relative to both the instrument coordinate system used in the kinematic modeling and also a localization coordinate reference frame, and adjusting the orientation of the instrument coordinate reference frame to minimize the difference between determined orientations using the kinematic model and localization sensors. Methods and configurations for navigating coupled and registered instrument sets are also disclosed.

Automated alignment

Growing community of inventors

Palo Alto, CA, United States of America

Teresa Miller