Device and method for assisting laparoscopic surgery—rule based approach

Abstract

A surgical controlling system comprising: a location estimating means to real-time locate the 3D spatial position of surgical tools, a movement detection means and movement database in communication with the location estimating means and with a control database and controller to control the position of surgical tools. The movement database stores 3D spatial positions of the surgical tools at the present time and at at least one previous time; movement has occurred if a present position is different from a previous position. In the control database are rules identifying tool movement as allowed or restricted, selected from: most used tool rule, right or left tool rule, field of view rule, no fly zone rule, route rule, environmental rule, operator input rule, proximity rule, collision prevention rule, history-based rule, tool-dependent allowed and restricted movement rule, preferred volume zone, preferred tool, movement detection rule, tagged tool rule, and change of speed rule.