Surgical Tool Guide Coupling for Misalignment Correction
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Surgical robotic systems face misalignment issues between tools and surgical targets due to mechanical inaccuracies and bone movements during drilling and screwing, leading to difficulties in tool positioning and screw insertion.
Innovation Solution
A guiding system for surgical robotic systems featuring a tool guide and intermediate part with adjustable coupling links allowing translation and rotation, enabling a first guiding configuration for rigid alignment and a second configuration for flexible adjustment to correct misalignments.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If a rigid tool guide is used to maintain precise positioning, then manufacturing precision is improved, but adaptability to bone movements and misalignments deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The coupling links are designed to be movable rather than fixed, allowing the tool guide to dynamically adjust its position and orientation relative to the bone. The links can translate and rotate to accommodate bone movements during drilling and screwing operations, while still maintaining guiding functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the degree of freedom parameters by allowing the coupling links to move from a constrained state to a more flexible state. This enables the tool guide to adapt its spatial parameters (position and orientation) in response to bone movements and misalignments, resolving the contradiction between rigid precision and flexible adaptability.
2Reliability
If the tool guide is fixed rigidly to maintain alignment, then reliability of tool-target alignment is improved, but ease of operation for correcting misalignments deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The coupling links provide dynamic adjustment capability, allowing the surgeon to manually move the tool guide to correct misalignments between the tool and surgical target. The movable design maintains reliable alignment during operation while enabling easy correction when needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The coupling links act as intermediary elements between the tool guide and the bone, providing a mechanical interface that allows for alignment corrections. This intermediary mechanism enables the surgeon to adjust the tool guide position without directly manipulating the bone or tool, improving ease of operation.
3Device complexity
If a single degree of freedom is provided for tool movement, then device complexity is reduced, but adaptability to correct misalignments deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The coupling links are designed with multiple degrees of freedom, allowing the tool guide to move not only along the tool guide axis but also in rotation and translation in other directions. This multi-DOF design enables correction of various types of misalignments while maintaining relatively simple device architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The coupling system is segmented into multiple independent links, each capable of movement in specific directions. This segmentation allows the system to achieve complex adaptability through composition of simpler link movements, balancing device complexity with functional versatility.
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a guiding system for a surgical robotic system, comprising a tool guide (11), a tool (30), an intermediate part (60) mounted on the tool (30), and first and second coupling links (21, 22), and presenting: —a first guiding configuration in which the first coupling link (21, 22) couples the intermediate part (60) and the tool guide (11) so that both are mobile relative to each other according to a unique first degree of freedom corresponding to a translation along a tool guide axis (X); and —a second guiding configuration in which the second coupling link (22) couples the intermediate part (60) and the tool guide (11) so that both are mobile relative to each other according to the first degree of freedom and according to at least one additional degree of freedom.