Optic fiber connection for a force sensing instrument

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10085809-B2
Application number	US-201715486904-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 13, 2017
Priority date	Mar 31, 2009
Publication date	Oct 2, 2018
Grant date	Oct 2, 2018

Abstract

In one embodiment, a surgical instrument includes a housing linkable with a manipulator arm of a robotic surgical system, a shaft operably coupled to the housing, a force transducer on a distal end of the shaft, and a plurality of fiber optic strain gauges on the force transducer. In one example, the plurality of strain gauges are operably coupled to a fiber optic splitter or an arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) multiplexer. A fiber optic connector is operably coupled to the fiber optic splitter or the AWG multiplexer. A wrist joint is operably coupled to a distal end of the force transducer, and an end effector is operably coupled to the wrist joint. In another embodiment, a robotic surgical manipulator includes a base link operably coupled to a distal end of a manipulator positioning system, and a distal link movably coupled to the base link, wherein the distal link includes an instrument interface and a fiber optic connector optically linkable to a surgical instrument. A method of passing data between an instrument and a manipulator via optical connectors is also provided.

First claim

We claim:

1. A manipulator system, comprising:
a robotic manipulator positioning system having a distal end;
a base link operably coupled to the distal end of the robotic manipulator positioning system;
a distal link movably coupled to the base link, wherein the distal link includes a mechanical instrument interface including a first fiber optic connector, the first fiber optic connector being configured to be optically linkable to a second fiber optic connector of a surgical instrument; and
a sterile adapter operably coupled to the mechanical instrument interface, the sterile adapter comprising an optical path that transmits light across a gap between the second fiber optic connector and the first fiber optic connector.

2. The manipulator system of claim 1 , wherein the first fiber optic connector includes an expanded beam collimator lens.

3. The manipulator system of claim 1 , wherein the first fiber optic connector is configured on the distal link to receive signals from the second fiber optic connector of the surgical instrument.

4. The manipulator system of claim 1 , wherein the second fiber optic connector is attached to the distal link by a flexible member.

5. The manipulator system of claim 1 , wherein the sterile adaptor includes a pair of back-to-back planar tapered elements.

6. The manipulator system of claim 5 , wherein the tapered elements align an optical axis of at least one of the second fiber optic connector and the first fiber optic connector.

7. The manipulator system of claim 1 , further comprising an interrogator operably coupled to the first fiber optic connector, and the interrogator being configured to convert optical signals from a plurality of strain gauges on the surgical instrument into electronic signals.

8. The manipulator system of claim 1 , wherein the first fiber optic connector is operably coupled to an optic fiber routed at least partially through a manipulator linkage.

Assignees

• Intuitive Surgical Operations

Inventors

• Blumenkranz Stephen J
• Dachs Ii Gregory W
• Mcdowall Ian E
• Hasser Christopher J

Classifications

• A61B2034/305

  Details of wrist mechanisms at distal ends of robotic arms · CPC title

• G01L1/242

  the material being an optical fibre · CPC title

• A61B2034/2061

  using shape-sensors, e.g. fiber shape sensors with Bragg gratings · CPC title

• A61B18/00

  Surgical instruments, devices or methods for transferring non-mechanical forms of energy to or from the body (eye surgery A61F9/007; ear surgery A61F11/00) · CPC title

• Y10T74/20335

  Wrist · CPC title