Control of multiple devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10376325-B2
Application number	US-201615742303-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 6, 2016
Priority date	Jul 7, 2015
Publication date	Aug 13, 2019
Grant date	Aug 13, 2019

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatuses for controlling surgical systems. In one aspect, a method includes obtaining, at a control subsystem associated with a surgical system, hardware configuration information from a first patient side subsystem that is communicatively coupled to and controlled by the control subsystem; determining a software version to be used by the control subsystem and the first patient side subsystem, wherein determining the software version includes selecting the software version from among a plurality of software versions, and wherein each software version of the plurality of software versions is associated with a particular patient side subsystem; instructing the first patient side subsystem to use the software version; determining whether the software version is currently loaded on the control subsystem; in response to determining that the software version is not currently loaded on the control subsystem, loading the software version on the control subsystem; and initializing the surgical system.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
obtaining, at a control subsystem associated with a surgical system, a hardware configuration from a first patient side subsystem of the surgical system, wherein the first patient side subsystem is communicatively coupled to and controlled by the control subsystem;
determining, with a data processing apparatus, a software version to be used by the control subsystem and the first patient side subsystem, wherein determining the software version includes selecting the software version from among a plurality of software versions, and wherein each software version of the plurality of software versions is associated with a particular patient side subsystem;
instructing, with the data processing apparatus, the first patient side subsystem to use the software version;
determining, with the data processing apparatus, whether the software version is currently loaded on the control subsystem;
in response to determining that the software version is not currently loaded on the control subsystem, loading, with the data processing apparatus, the software version on the control subsystem;
validating, with the data processing apparatus, the software version loaded on the control subsystem and the first patient side subsystem;
initializing, with the data processing apparatus, the surgical system with the software version;
receiving, at the first patient side subsystem, an instruction to load the software version;
determining that the software version is located on a second configuration different from a first configuration currently loaded on the first patient side subsystem;
storing data corresponding to the second configuration; and
configuring the first patient side subsystem to the second configuration.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising validating, with the data processing apparatus, the hardware configuration of the first patient side subsystem prior to determining the software version to be used by the control subsystem and the first patient side subsystem.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein validating the hardware configuration includes: determining that the hardware configuration is compatible with the control subsystem.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the control subsystem comprises components of a surgeon console of the surgical system, wherein the surgeon console is configured to provide control functions to an operator of the surgical system, and wherein the first patient side subsystem includes one or more manipulators configured to hold and position one or more corresponding surgical instruments.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein instructing the first patient side subsystem to use the software version comprises: loading the software version on the first patient side subsystem by:
determining one or more particular modules of multiple modules, wherein the particular modules contain the software version; and
loading the particular modules.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the software version to be used by the control subsystem and the first patient side subsystem is performed based on a collaboration between the control subsystem and the first patient side subsystem.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein validating the software version comprises:
determining whether the control subsystem and the first patient side subsystem have loaded the software version; and
in response to determining that the control subsystem or the first patient side subsystem has not loaded the determined software version, generating an error message and preventing initialization of at least one of: the control subsystem and the first patient side subsystem for use in the surgical system.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
recognizing, with the data processing apparatus, that a second patient side subsystem has been communicatively coupled to the controller subsystem;
obtaining, with the data processing apparatus, hardware information about the second patient side subsystem;
validating, with the data processing apparatus, the hardware information of the second patient side subsystem; and
instructing, with the data processing apparatus, the second patient side subsystem to load the software version.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
recognizing, with the data processing apparatus, that a second patient side subsystem has been communicatively coupled to the control subsystem;
obtaining, with the data processing apparatus, hardware information about the second patient side subsystem;
validating, with the data processing apparatus, the hardware information of the second patient side subsystem; and
loading, with the data processing apparatus, a second software version on the control subsystem, wherein the second software version corresponds to software loaded on the second patient side subsystem.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the software version is determined based on a current software version currently loaded on the controller subsystem or on the first patient side subsystem.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising downloading the second configuration.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, in response to an interrupt:
determining a valid software version from the software version and a previously loaded software version; and
rebooting the control subsystem or the first patient side subsystem to the valid software version.

13. A method comprising:
obtaining, at a control subsystem associated with a surgical system, a hardware configuration from a first patient side subsystem of the surgical system, wherein the first patient side subsystem is communicatively coupled to and controlled by the control subsystem;
determining, with a data processing apparatus, a software version to be used by the control subsystem and the first patient side subsystem, wherein determining the software version includes selecting the software version from among a plurality of software versions, and wherein each software version of the plurality of software versions is associated with a particular patient side subsystem;
instructing, with the data processing apparatus, the first patient side subsystem to use the software version;
determining, with the data processing apparatus, whether the software version is currently loaded on the control subsystem;
in response to determining that the software version is not currently loaded on the control subsystem, loading, with the data processing apparatus, the software version on the control subsystem;
validating, with the data processing apparatus, the software version loaded on the control subsystem and the first patient side subsystem;
initializing, with the data processing apparatus, the surgical system with the software version
wherein instructing the first patient side subsystem to use the software version comprises: loading the software version on the first patient side subsystem by:
determining a particular boot image of multiple boot images, wherein the particular boot image contains the software version; and
rebooting the first patient side subsystem from a current boot image to the particular boot image,

wherein rebooting the first patient side subsystem from the current boot image to the particular boot image comprises:
obtaining a first header block for the particular boot image;
restoring the obtained first header block to the particular boot image;
storing a copy of a second header block for the current boot image; and
after restoring of the obtained first header block and storing of the copy of the second header block, invalidating the second header block for the current boot image.

Assignees

• Intuitive Surgical Operations

Inventors

• Radel Joshua
• Fung Stanley
• Jiang Jason
• Mustufa Tabish

Classifications

• A61B34/37 Primary

  Leader-follower robots (A61B34/35 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06F8/65

  Updates (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57) · CPC title

• A61B34/74

  Manipulators with manual electric input means · CPC title

• A61B2034/744

  Mouse · CPC title

• A61B2034/258

  providing specific settings for specific users · CPC title