Robotic Surgery GUI Spatial Position Visualization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Robotic surgery systems lack effective graphical user interfaces that provide real-time, three-dimensional spatial positioning of instruments within the surgical workspace, failing to adequately represent instrument movement limitations and constraints, which can lead to unsafe instrument movements during surgical procedures.
Innovation Solution
A method and apparatus that utilize a processor circuit to calculate the three-dimensional spatial position of instruments within the surgical workspace, generating a graphical depiction on a display with boundaries indicating movement limitations, including keep-out zones, and displaying active constraint indications when instruments approach these limits, based on input signals from a hand controller and patient imaging data.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a graphical user interface displays real-time three-dimensional spatial position of instruments with movement boundaries and constraints, then surgical safety and precision are improved, but device complexity and computational requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates a virtual graphical model that copies and represents the physical surgical workspace, instrument positions, and movement constraints. This virtual representation allows surgeons to visualize instrument locations and boundaries without adding physical complexity to the actual surgical system, resolving the contradiction by using information copies rather than physical additions
Solution Approach 2:
The system transforms three-dimensional spatial information into a two-dimensional graphical display on a monitor. By projecting 3D instrument positions and 3D movement boundaries onto a 2D screen, the system provides comprehensive spatial awareness without requiring additional physical dimensions or space, thus improving safety while avoiding proportional increases in device complexity
2Measurement precision
If the graphical depiction includes detailed boundaries and keep-out zones for instrument movement, then instrument collision prevention is improved, but information processing requirements and computational load increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system displays only the critical information needed for surgical safety - instrument positions and movement boundaries - rather than rendering all possible spatial data. This partial action approach provides sufficient precision for collision prevention without processing excessive information, balancing measurement precision with computational energy consumption
Solution Approach 2:
The system pre-calculates and displays movement boundaries and keep-out zones before instruments approach dangerous positions. By establishing these virtual constraints in advance within the graphical interface, the system prepares safety information proactively, reducing the need for intensive real-time computational analysis during critical moments
3Ease of operation
If the system provides comprehensive visual feedback including active constraint indications, then surgical control precision is improved, but interface complexity and display requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses color variations in the graphical display to convey different states of instrument positions and constraint activations. By encoding information through color changes rather than adding numerous separate visual elements, the system enhances surgical control precision while maintaining relatively simple interface structure, resolving the contradiction between ease of operation and interface complexity
Data Source
AI summary
A method, apparatus and computer readable medium for schematically representing a spatial position of an instrument used in a robotic surgery system is disclosed. The instrument includes an end effector coupled to a positioning device for spatially positioning the end effector in a surgical workspace in response to input signals generated by movement of a hand controller of an input device in an input device workspace. The method involves causing a processor circuit to calculate a current three-dimensional spatial position of the instrument within the surgical workspace for current input signals received from the input device. The method also involves causing the processor circuit to generate display signals for displaying a graphical depiction of the surgical workspace on a display in communication with the processor circuit, the graphical depiction including a planar representation includes an instrument movement region having a boundary indicating limitations to transverse movement of the instrument within the surgical workspace, and a two-dimensional projection of the current spatial position of the positioning device and the end effector onto the planar representation.