Actuated Controller Grips for Adjustable Surgical Instrument Feedback
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current teleoperated surgical systems face limitations in effectively controlling a wide variety of medical instruments due to fixed mechanical responses of controllers, which restrict the versatility and accuracy of surgical procedures.
Innovation Solution
The development of an actuated grip mechanism in the controller, featuring a central member, grip members, and actuators that apply forces via shafts, allowing for multiple degrees of freedom and adjustable grip forces through rotary and linear actuations, along with transmission mechanisms like ballscrews, cranks, and capstan mechanisms, enabling precise control of end effectors.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If buttons and triggers are made static and fixed in position, then the controller structure is simple and reliable, but the controller cannot be customized to match different playing styles and hand sizes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the grip components dynamic by allowing buttons and triggers to be repositioned along rails and by enabling the entire grip to be replaced with different sized grips. This resolves the contradiction by transforming static fixed components into dynamic adjustable components, providing customizability without requiring a completely complex new controller architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The grip is segmented into separate replaceable components including different sized grips, buttons, and triggers. This allows players to customize their controller by swapping components rather than redesigning the entire controller, achieving adaptability while maintaining a relatively simple base structure.
2Ease of operation
If the grip is made larger to accommodate bigger hands, then comfort is improved, but the controller becomes less suitable for players with smaller hands
Solution Approach 1:
The patent provides multiple grip sizes that can be swapped depending on hand size, making the comfort adaptation dynamic rather than fixed. Players with larger hands can use larger grips while players with smaller hands can use smaller grips, resolving the contradiction between comfort for specific hand sizes and universality for all players.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the physical parameter of grip size by providing different sized grips. This allows the same controller base to accommodate different hand sizes by simply changing the grip component, maintaining universality while optimizing comfort for different users.
3Adaptability or versatility
If buttons and triggers are repositionable along rails, then customization options increase, but the device complexity and potential failure points increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements repositionability through rails that allow buttons and triggers to move along fixed paths. This provides adaptability through repositioning while keeping the mechanism relatively simple compared to fully three-dimensional adjustment systems, resolving the contradiction between customization and complexity.
Data Source
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AI summary
Implementations relate to actuated grips for a controller. In some implementations, a controller includes a central member, a grip member coupled to the central member and moveable in a grip degree of freedom, a shaft coupled to the grip member, and an actuator coupled to the shaft and operative to output an actuator force on the shaft. The actuator force causes a grip force to be applied via the shaft to the grip member in the grip degree of freedom.