Physician input device for a concentric tube surgical robot

Inventors

Hendrick, Richard • Dillon, Neal • Branscombe, Lauren • Blum, Evan • Amack, Stephanie

Assignees

Virtuoso Surgical Inc

Abstract

A highly intuitive physician input device for communication with a minimally invasive endoscopic concentric tube surgical robot. The physician input device can comprise a user interface handle assembly, a user interface linear joint assembly, a user interfaced bearing block assembly, and a user interface base assembly, and sensors distributed throughout to measure each of these axes, possibly redundantly for safety. Due to the network of sensors and encoders built in to the physician input device, it is capable of triggering a movement in the endoscopic concentric tube robot corresponding to that of the movements made on the physician input device. There are at least four movement controls the physician input device is capable of communicating to the concentric tube robot, those being translation, pan, tilt, and axial rotation. In some embodiments a fifth control includes actuation of a tool such as a gripper.

Core Innovation

The invention relates to an input apparatus for controlling a concentric tube assembly for robotic surgery. The input apparatus includes a linear joint assembly with a bore and a linear encoder, and a user input assembly having a handle and a shaft that extends into the bore. The shaft is moveable relative to the linear encoder along a linear translation axis, and the linear encoder acquires translation position data representative of the linear position of the shaft relative to the linear joint assembly.

The invention further includes a pan and tilt assembly supporting the linear joint assembly, where the linear joint assembly is pivotable relative to the pan and tilt assembly about a reference horizontal axis. A base assembly supports the pan and tilt assembly, and the pan and tilt assembly is rotatable relative to the base assembly about a reference vertical axis. The handle is moveable in at least three degrees of freedom relative to the base assembly, with translation, tilt, and pan defined by the handle motion and the respective reference axes.

In physician input device embodiments, the input device is configured to acquire translation, tilt angular position, and pan angular position, generate a control signal based on the acquired position data, and transmit the control signal to a driver coupled to the concentric tube assembly. The motion of the concentric tube assembly in a field of view is controlled via the driver such that the motion corresponds to motion of the user input device along three degrees of freedom. The document also describes safety features and redundant sensing approaches, including capacitive touch gating to prevent unintended actuation and redundant sensing along each axis using threshold similarity range checks and multiple sensors.

Claims Coverage

The document includes three independent claims with inventive features centered on mapping handle translation, tilt, and pan to concentric tube assembly motion using encoder and sensor-acquired position data, together with pivotable assemblies about reference horizontal and vertical axes. Across the independent claims, the inventive feature set consistently includes translation sensing plus tilt and pan pivot sensing and a control-to-driver coupling that enforces correspondence between input device motion and tube assembly motion in a field of view.

Across the independent claims, the inventive coverage is directed to an input apparatus and physician input device architecture with pivotable handle-linked assemblies about reference horizontal and vertical axes, plus position acquisition using a linear encoder and rotation sensors for translation, tilt, and pan. The acquired position data is used to generate and transmit control signals to a driver coupled to a concentric tube assembly so that concentric tube motion in a field of view corresponds to the user input device motion along three degrees of freedom.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications