94 results about "Surgical manipulator" patented technology

A surgical manipulator (10) can manipulate a medical tool (12) with one or more degrees of freedom. In preferred embodiments, the manipulator (10) is a parallel mechanism including a plurality of arms (21, 22) pivotally supporting a medical tool (12), with the orientation of the medical tool (12) being adjusted by varying the position of joints (23, 24) mounted on the arms (21, 22). The motions of the joints (23, 24) can be controlled such that the tool (12) is pivoted about a virtual pivot point located within the body wall of a patient (30). The manipulator (10) can enhance the dexterity of an operator and enable the operator to perform medical procedures more easily than by hand.

The present invention provides a surgical manipulator including a manipulator arm, an end-effector held by the robotic arm, surgical tools held by the end-effector and manipulator joints, particularly right-angle drive devices for transmitting rotational motion in one axis to a perpendicular axis.

A navigation system for use with a surgical manipulator operable in manual or semi-autonomous modes. The navigation system includes a tracker for attaching to the patient and a localizer to receive signals from the tracker or transmit signals to the tracker. The navigation system includes a navigation processor that runs a plurality of software modules.

The present invention provides a surgical manipulator including a manipulator arm, an end-effector held by the robotic arm, surgical tools held by the end-effector and manipulator joints, particularly right-angle drive devices for transmitting rotational motion in one axis to a perpendicular axis.

A robotic control system is placed in clutch mode so that a slave manipulator holding a surgical instrument is temporarily disengaged from control by a master manipulator in order to allow manual positioning of the surgical instrument at a surgical site within a patient. Control systems implemented in a processor compensate for internally generated frictional and inertial resistance experienced during the positioning, thereby making movement more comfortable to the mover, and stabler from a control standpoint. Each control system drives a joint motor in the slave manipulator with a saturated torque command signal which has been generated to compensate for non-linear viscous forces, coulomb friction, cogging effects, and inertia forces subjected to the joint, using estimated joint angular velocities, accelerations and externally applied torques generated by an observer in the control system from sampled displacement measurements received from a sensor associated with the joint.

A surgical manipulator includes an internal working end having an internal joint, and an external control interface linked to the internal working end for controlling the internal working end. The external control interface includes at least one lever defining a grip volume for a surgeon's hand when gripping and operating the at least one lever, and an external joint linked to the internal joint for controlling the internal joint. The external joint is positioned substantially within the grip volume.

The present invention provides a surgical manipulator which is capable of manipulating a surgical or medical tool in up to six degrees of freedom. The manipulator has a haptic interface and an associated position sensing system. A controller is provided that can be used to adjust movement information from the haptic interface based on the relative orientations of the manipulator and the haptic interface.

The invention discloses a capacitive touch sensor having a patterned microstructure array. The capacitive touch sensor is formed by fingerprint-shaped surface micro-protrusion, an upper capacitive electrode substrate, an upper capacitive electrode, a two-dimensional sine micro-protrusion dielectric layer, a lower capacitive electrode and a lower capacitive electrode substrate which are laminated from the top to the bottom in turn. The fingerprint-shaped surface micro-protrusion is used for receiving external force stimulation. The upper and lower capacitive electrode substrates are used as structural support. The series connection direction of the electrode pole pieces of the upper and lower capacitive electrodes are orthogonally arranged, and the upper and lower capacitive electrodes and the two-dimensional sine micro-protrusion dielectric layer form the capacitor body of the sensor together. After the upper surface of the fingerprint-shaped surface micro-protrusion is affected by external force stimulation, the change of capacitance is sensed by the capacitor body and the size and the direction of the force are acquired through conversion. The problem of high sensitivity real-time detection of the sensor for multidimensional force can be solved, and the sensor can be applied to the field of artificial limbs and surgical manipulators having high requirement of sensitivity.

A surgical manipulator comprising: a master module configured to be controlled by a user; a slave module configured to move according to movement of the master module; and a transmission module comprising gears and configured to operably connect the master module and the slave module.

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for registering three-dimensional ultrasound images to an external coordinate system, such as the coordinate system attached to a camera-based imaging system or the coordinate system used to define the movements of a surgical robot. The apparatus generally comprises a tool with markers that can be accurately and repeatably located in both the ultrasound and external coordinate systems. In the case of the surgical robot frame, this tool may be a component of the surgical robot itself, such as a portion of a surgical manipulator. The method generally comprises positioning the toot upon the surface of a portion of patient tissue, imaging the tool using the ultrasound, simultaneously imaging the tool using the camera system or monitoring the current mechanical configuration of the surgical robot, localizing corresponding tool elements in both frames, and finally using the corresponding elements as registration fiducials to solve the geometric transformation that relates the two frames.

Robotic system and method for positioning an energy applicator extending from a surgical instrument. The robotic system includes a surgical manipulator operable in a manual mode or a semi-autonomous mode. The surgical manipulator moves the energy applicator along a tool path in the semi-autonomous mode, monitors output of a force/torque sensor as the energy applicator moves along the tool path, and reorients the surgical instrument based on the output in response to a user applying reorienting forces and torques to the surgical instrument.

Surgical Manipulator A surgical manipulator (10) is disclosed which employs a suction cup (30) to hold body parts (50) whilst the manipulator is moved to manipulate the body part (50). Suction at the cup (30) is provided by means of a central passage (16) running through an extension (20) and through a handle part (14) to a vacuum connector (12). The suction at the cup (30) can be adjusted by a slider (15) which adjustably opens the passage (16) to atmosphere. Needles (58) and the like can be introduced into the passage (16) and thereby into the body part (50). For laparoscopic surgery the manipulator can be introduced into a laparoscopic port (52) by collapsing the suction cup (30) within an introducer sleeve (22 Fig 3). The introducer sleeve (22) can act as a suction device when the cup (30) is collapsed within it. The needle (58) can be replaced by a diathermy electrode (60 Fig 6) and irrigation is possible using an additional supply tube (121 Figure 4).