Insertion system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10451409-B2
Application number	US-201816009442-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 15, 2018
Priority date	Dec 18, 2015
Publication date	Oct 22, 2019
Grant date	Oct 22, 2019

Abstract

An insertion system includes an insertion apparatus including an insertion section, a fiber sensor configured to detect a bend shape of the insertion section, an attitude detector, and an attitude shape calculator. The attitude detector is configured to detect at least one of a first rotational change quantity related to a change quantity of rotation about a longitudinal direction of the insertion apparatus, and a first directional change quantity related to a change quantity of the longitudinal direction. The attitude shape calculator is configured to calculate attitude shape information including at least one of a change quantity of rotation of the bend shape and a change quantity of a direction of the bend shape, based on the bend shape and the at least one of the first rotational change quantity and first directional change quantity.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An insertion system comprising:
an insertion apparatus including an insertion section to be inserted into a subject;
a fiber sensor arranged in the insertion section and configured to detect a bend shape of a desired shape detection range of the insertion section;
at least one attitude sensor arranged in the insertion apparatus and configured to detect at least one of a first rotational change quantity related to a change quantity of rotation about an axis in a longitudinal direction of the insertion apparatus at an arrangement position, and a first directional change quantity related to a change quantity of a direction of the longitudinal direction of the insertion apparatus at the arrangement position; and
a processor including hardware, the processor being configured to:
calculate attitude information of the insertion apparatus including a change quantity of rotation of the bend shape about an axis in the longitudinal direction of the insertion apparatus and a change quantity of a longitudinal direction of the insertion apparatus, based on at least one of the first rotational change quantity and the first directional change quantity detected by the attitude sensor; and
calculate attitude shape information, based on the bend shape detected by the fiber sensor and the calculated attitude information.

2. The insertion system according to claim 1 , further comprising a memory configured to store a correction value for correcting an axis displacement of the attitude sensor with respect to the insertion apparatus that occurs when the attitude sensor is built in the insertion apparatus,
wherein the processor is further configured to correct, based on the correction value, at least one of the first rotational change quantity and first directional change quantity detected by the attitude sensor.

3. The insertion system according to claim 2 , wherein the processor calculates the attitude information of the insertion apparatus based on at least one of the corrected first rotational change quantity and corrected first directional change quantity corrected.

4. The insertion system according to claim 3 , wherein the attitude sensor includes a gravity sensor configured to detect a direction of gravity acting on a desirably-defined attitude detection area of the attitude sensor and then detect the first rotational change quantity based on the detected direction of gravity.

5. The insertion system according to claim 4 , wherein the processor is configured to:
extract gravity information from the first rotational change quantity corrected by the correction unit after being detected by the gravity sensor; and
calculate, based on the extracted gravity information, a second rotational change quantity that is a change quantity of the insertion apparatus about the axis in the longitudinal direction of the insertion apparatus and included in the attitude information of the insertion apparatus.

6. The insertion system according to claim 5 , further comprising a reference memory configured to, when receiving a storage instruction, receive the calculated second rotational change quantity and then store the second rotational change quantity as a reference,
wherein the processor calculates a current second rotational change quantity with reference to the second rotational change quantity stored in the reference memory.

7. The insertion system according to claim 4 , wherein the gravity sensor includes an acceleration sensor configured to detect the direction of gravity by two more axes and then detect the first rotational change quantity based on the detected direction of gravity.

8. The insertion system according to claim 4 , wherein the gravity sensor includes:
a weight movable in accordance with the direction of gravity that changes in accordance with rotation of the insertion apparatus and acts on the attitude sensor; and
detection surfaces allowing detecting a position or direction of the weight with respect to the insertion apparatus and then detecting the first rotational change quantity based on the detected position or direction.

9. The insertion system according to claim 3 , wherein the attitude sensor includes a gyro sensor configured to detect at least one of the first rotational change quantity and first directional change quantity in an angular velocity of a desirably-defined attitude detection area of the attitude sensor.

10. The insertion system according to claim 9 , wherein the gyro sensor detects a first orthogonal rotational change quantity about a direction orthogonal to a longitudinal direction of the attitude detection area, the first orthogonal rotational change quantity being the detected angular velocity, and
wherein the processor is configured to perform at least one of calculation of a second rotational change quantity that is a change quantity of the insertion apparatus about the axis in the longitudinal direction of the insertion apparatus included in the attitude information of the insertion apparatus, based on the corrected first rotational change quantity after being detected by the gyro sensor, and calculation of a second orthogonal rotational change quantity that is a change quantity of the insertion apparatus about a direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction of the insertion apparatus included in the attitude information of the insertion apparatus, based on the corrected first orthogonal rotation change quantity after being detected by the gyro sensor.

11. The insertion system according to claim 10 , wherein the processor is configured to calculate, based on the calculated second orthogonal rotational change quantity, a second directional change quantity that is a change quantity of the insertion apparatus in the longitudinal direction of the insertion apparatus included in the attitude information of the insertion apparatus.

12. The insertion system according to claim 11 , further comprising a reference memory configured to, when receiving a storage instruction, receive the calculated second rotational change quantity and then store the second rotational change quantity as a reference,
wherein the processor calculates a current second rotational change quantity with reference to the second rotational change quantity stored in the reference memory.

13. The insertion system according to claim 11 , further comprising a reference memory configured to, when receiving a storage instruction, receive the calculated second directional change quantity and then store the second directional change quantity as a reference,
wherein the processor calculates a current second directional change quantity with reference to the second directional change quantity stored in the reference memory.

14. The insertion system according to claim 3 , wherein the attitude sensor includes:
a gravity sensor configured to detect a direction of gravity acting on a desirably-defined attitude detection area of the attitude sensor and then detect at least one of the first rotational change quantity and a first orthogonal rotational change quantity in the detected direction of gravity; and
a gyro sensor configured to detect at least one of the first rotational change quantity and the first orthogonal rotational change quantity in an angular velocity of the attitude detection area, and
wherein the processor compensates a second rotational change quantity or a second orthogonal rotational change quantity, calculated based on the first rotational change quantity or first orthogonal change quantity detected by the gravity sensor, with a second rotational change quantity or a second orthogonal rotational change quantity calcu

Assignees

• Olympus Corp

Inventors

• Tojo Ryo
• Fujita Hiromasa

Classifications

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