System and method for providing substantially stable control of a surgical tool

• US 9,921,712 B2
• Filed: 03/06/2017
• Issued: 03/20/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: MAKO Surgical Corporation (Stryker Corporation)
• Original Assignee: MAKO Surgical Corporation (Stryker Corporation)
• Inventors: Lightcap, Christopher Alan, Kang, Hyosig, Bowling, David Gene, Stuart, John Michael, Culp, Jerry A., Malackowski, Donald W., Moctezuma de la Barrera, Jose Luis, Roessler, Patrick, Beer, Joel N.
• Primary Examiner(s): Mehmood, Jennifer
• Assistant Examiner(s): Azongha, Sardis F
• Application Number:
  US15/451,257
• Publication Number:
  US 20170177191A1
• Time in Patent Office: 379 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2034/107 Visualisation of planned trajectories or target regions
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2034/2068 using pointers, e.g. pointers having reference marks for determining coordinates of body points
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 34/10 Computer-aided planning, simulation or modelling of surgical operations
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 34/20 Surgical navigation systems; Devices for tracking or guiding surgical instruments, e.g. for frameless stereotaxis
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 34/76 Manipulators having means for providing feel, e.g. force or tactile feedback
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/016 Input arrangements with force or tactile feedback as computer generated output to the user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04815 Interaction with a metaphor-based environment or interaction object displayed as three-dimensional, e.g. changing the user viewpoint with respect to the environment or object
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04845 for image manipulation, e.g. dragging, rotation, expansion or change of colour
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 23/28 for medicine

Abstract

A system for providing substantially stable control of a surgical instrument is provided. The system includes a surgical manipulator for manipulating the surgical instrument and at least one computer configured to identify a first subset and a second subset of interaction geometric primitives associated with a virtual tool; determine, based on the first subset, control forces in a first subspace; and determine based on the second subset, control forces in a second subspace having at least one additional dimension. Control forces in the additional dimension are only determined based on the second subset of primitives, which is different than the first subset of primitives. The computer is further configured to determine a torque to constrain an orientation of the surgical instrument, wherein determining the torque comprises defining a virtual tool normal and a control plane normal and using the virtual tool normal and control plane normal to calculate the torque.

Claims

1. A system for providing substantially stable control of a surgical instrument, comprising:

a surgical manipulator for manipulating the surgical instrument; and

at least one computer configured to;

identify a first subset and a second subset of interaction geometric primitives associated with a virtual tool representing the surgical instrument;

determine, based on the first subset, control forces in a first subspace;

determine based on the second subset, control forces in a second subspace having at least one additional dimension to first subspace;

wherein control forces in the additional dimension are only determined based on the second subset of interaction geometric primitives, which is different than the first subset of interaction geometric primitives; and

determine a torque to constrain an orientation of the surgical instrument, wherein determining the torque comprises defining a virtual tool normal and a control plane normal and using the virtual tool normal and control plane normal to calculate the torque.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first subspace has only one less dimension than the second subspace.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the first subspace is a two-dimensional subspace of three-dimensional space R³, and the second subspace is a three-dimensional subspace of three-dimensional space R³.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one computer is configured such that a total interaction force is determined by summing at least the control forces in the first subspace and the control forces in the second subspace.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the interaction geometric primitives are at least one of a point, line, line segment, plane, circle, ellipse, triangle, polygon and curved arc segment.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the first subset includes a plurality of interaction geometric primitives.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the second subset includes only one interaction geometric primitive.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the interaction geometric primitive of the second subset is disposed between interaction geometric primitives of the first subset.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the first subset constitutes a non-linear boundary of the virtual tool.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one computer is configured to determine a torque based at least in part on an orientation of the virtual tool.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer is further configured to selectively operate the surgical manipulator in a first operating mode and a second operating mode.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the first operating mode is a manual mode and the second operating mode is a semi-autonomous mode.

13. A method for providing substantially stable control of a surgical instrument, comprising:

identifying a first subset and a second subset of interaction geometric primitives associated with a virtual tool representing a surgical instrument;

determining based on the first subset, by at least one computer, control forces in a first subspace;

determining based on the second subset, by at least one computer, control forces in a second subspace having at least one additional dimension to the first subspace;

wherein control forces in the additional dimension are only determined based on the second subset of interaction geometric primitives, which is different than the first subset of interaction geometric primitives; and

determining a torque to constrain an orientation of the surgical instrument, wherein determining the torque comprises defining a virtual tool normal and a control plane normal and using the virtual tool normal and control plane normal to calculate the torque.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the first subspace has only one less dimension than the second subspace.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the first subspace is a two-dimensional subspace of three-dimensional space R³, and the second subspace is a three-dimensional subspace of three-dimensional space R³.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

determining, by at least one computer, a total interaction force by summing at least the control forces in the first subspace and the control forces in the second subspace.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the interaction geometric primitives are at least one of a point, line, line segment, plane, circle, ellipse, triangle, polygon and curved arc segment.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the first subset includes a plurality of interaction geometric primitives.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein the second subset includes only one interaction geometric primitive.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the interaction geometric primitive of the second subset is disposed between interaction geometric primitives of the first subset.

21. The method of claim 13, wherein the first subset constitutes a non-linear boundary of the virtual tool.

22. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

determining a torque based at least in part on an orientation of the virtual tool.