Surgical Haptic Interface Without a Powered Gimbal
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing haptic user interfaces for surgical systems lack the capability to provide orientation haptics and are cumbersome due to the use of heavy gimbal mechanisms, leading to increased power consumption, larger motors, and mechanical disadvantages, which complicates user manipulation and cabling.
Innovation Solution
A 6DOF haptic user interface that eliminates the need for a powered gimbal mechanism, reducing cantilevered weight and simplifying cabling, while using smaller motors and providing orientation haptic feedback through a linkage system with electric motors and sensors to reconstruct handle position and orientation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a heavy gimbal mechanism is used to provide haptic feedback, then haptic feedback capability is improved, but device weight and power consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and eliminates the heavy powered gimbal mechanism from the user interface system. Instead of using a traditional gimbal to provide haptic feedback, the invention uses a 6DOF linkage system with electric motors and sensors that reconstruct handle position and orientation, providing haptic feedback without the gimbal's weight and mechanical complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical gimbal mechanism with an electrically-driven 6DOF linkage system. The linkage system uses electric motors and sensors to achieve the same haptic feedback function without relying on the mechanical gimbal structure, thereby reducing weight and simplifying the overall system
2Reliability
If a powered gimbal mechanism is used, then haptic feedback is provided, but cabling complexity and device size increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the powered gimbal mechanism entirely from the system. By eliminating this component, the associated complex cabling and mechanical structures are also removed, resulting in a simplified user interface with reduced cabling requirements and lower overall device complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The 6DOF linkage system serves multiple functions: it provides haptic feedback, reconstructs handle position and orientation, and enables both 6DOF and 4DOF operational modes. This multi-functionality replaces what previously required separate gimbal mechanisms and complex cabling arrangements
3Ease of operation
If laparoscopic motion simulation is used, then user familiarity is improved, but control flexibility for 6DOF instruments is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a dynamic operational mode system that allows the user interface to switch between 6DOF mode and 4DOF laparoscopic mode. The linkage system can adapt its degrees of freedom based on the surgical task and instrument type, providing familiar laparoscopic motion control when needed while maintaining full 6DOF capability when additional flexibility is required
Solution Approach 2:
The 6DOF linkage system is designed to perform multiple operational modes within a single unified interface. It can operate in 6DOF mode for maximum flexibility with articulating instruments, or switch to 4DOF laparoscopic mode for familiar control with conventional instruments, making the system universally applicable to different surgical scenarios
Data Source
AI summary
A powered user interface for a robotic surgical system operates in accordance with a mode of operation in which the actuators are operated to permit motion of the handle in pitch and yaw motion constrained with respect to a virtual fulcrum in a work space of the user interface, and insertion motion is constrained along an axis passing through the virtual fulcrum. In a virtual fulcrum setting mode, a user is prompted to give input to the system selecting a desired point in space for the virtual fulcrum. The selected point in space is then set as the virtual fulcrum.