The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 07, 2017
Filed:
Sep. 15, 2014
Intuitive Surgical Operations, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Amir Belson, Los Altos, CA (US);
Paul DeWitt Frey, Redwood City, CA (US);
Christine Wei Hsien McElhaney, San Carlos, CA (US);
James Craig Milroy, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Robert Matthew Ohline, Redwood City, CA (US);
Joseph M. Tartaglia, Morgan Hill, CA (US);
INTUITIVE SURGICAL OPERATIONS, INC., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
A system for determining the shape of a surgical instrument includes an elongate instrument body having a selectively steerable distal tip, a pair of automatically controlled segments proximal to the selectively steerable distal tip, and a joint that couples the pair of adjacent automatically controlled segments together. An actuator changes an angle of the joint and a position encoder provides information associated with the joint angle. A controller receives the information associated with the angle of the joint and generates a three dimensional model of a shape of the instrument. A method for determining the three dimensional shape of an instrument includes providing axial position data to a controller, providing angular position data to the controller from a respective segment controller, and generating a three-dimensional model of a shape of said instrument using the axial position data and the angular position data.