Systems and methods for commanded reconfiguration of a surgical manipulator using the null-space

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10682191-B2
Application number	US-201815927978-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 21, 2018
Priority date	Jun 1, 2012
Publication date	Jun 16, 2020
Grant date	Jun 16, 2020

Abstract

Devices, systems, and methods for reconfiguring a surgical manipulator by moving the manipulator within a null-space of a kinematic Jacobian of the manipulator arm. In one aspect, in response to receiving a reconfiguration command, the system drives a first set of joints and calculates velocities of the plurality of joints to be within a null-space. The joints are driven according to the reconfiguration command and the calculated movement so as to maintain a desired state of the end effector or a remote center about which an instrument shaft pivots. In another aspect, the joints are also driven according to a calculated end effector or remote center displacing velocities within a null-perpendicular-space of the Jacobian so as to effect the desired reconfiguration concurrently with a desired movement of the end effector or remote center.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A robotic system comprising:
a manipulator arm including a support for an instrument, a movable distal portion, a proximal portion coupled to a base, and a plurality of joints between the distal portion and the base, the plurality of joints having sufficient degrees of freedom to allow a range of differing joint states of the plurality of joints for a given state of the distal portion;
an input device adapted to receive a reconfiguration command, the reconfiguration command being for a reconfiguration movement of the manipulator arm; and
a processor coupled to the input device and the manipulator arm, the processor being configured to perform operations including:
calculating one or more joint velocities for a first movement of a first set of joints of the plurality of joints in accordance with the reconfiguration movement and in response to the reconfiguration command;
calculating one or more joint velocities for a second movement of one or more joints of the plurality of joints, wherein a combination of the one or more joint velocities for the first movement and the one or more joint velocities for the second movement maintains an intermediate portion of the instrument at a pivot location, wherein the intermediate portion is between a proximal end of the instrument and an end effector of the instrument; and
driving the plurality of joints according to the combination so as to maintain the intermediate portion at the pivot location during the reconfiguration movement of the manipulator arm.

2. The robotic system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a second input device for receiving a manipulation command to move the end effector,
wherein the processor is further configured to perform further operations including:
calculating an end effector displacing movement of the plurality of joints in response to the manipulation command, wherein the end effector displacing movement maintains the intermediate portion at the pivot location; and
driving the plurality of joints according to the end effector displacing movement to move the end effector while maintaining the intermediate portion at the pivot location.

3. The robotic system of claim 2 , wherein the second input device for receiving the manipulation command is disposed on a user interface separate from the input device for receiving the reconfiguration command.

4. The robotic system of claim 1 , wherein calculating the one or more joint velocities for the first movement of the first set of joints comprises:
calculating the one or more joint velocities for the first movement so that a first joint of the first set of joints has a substantially constant speed for a duration of the driving the plurality of joints according to the combination.

5. The robotic system of claim 1 , wherein calculating the one or more joint velocities for the first movement and calculating the one or more joint velocities for the second movement comprises:
calculating the one or more joint velocities for the first movement and the one or more joint velocities for the second movement so that the combination provides joints of the plurality of joints with velocities scaled according to joint location.

6. The robotic system of claim 5 , wherein, in the combination, a more proximal joint of the plurality of joints has a higher velocity than a more distal joint of the plurality of joints.

7. The robotic system of claim 6 , wherein the velocities scaled according to joint location provide joints near the proximal end of the instrument with higher velocities than joints near the end effector of the instrument.

8. The robotic system of claim 1 , wherein calculating the one or more joint velocities for the first movement and calculating the one or more joint velocities for the second movement comprises:
calculating the one or more joint velocities for the first movement and the one or more joint velocities for the second movement so that the combination provides joints of the plurality of joints with velocities scaled according to joint configuration.

9. The robotic system of claim 1 , wherein calculating the one or more joint velocities for the first movement and calculating the one or more joint velocities for the second movement comprises:
calculating the one or more joint velocities for the first movement and the one or more joint velocities for the second movement so that the combination provides a joint of the plurality of joints with a speed that is constant or is below a limit for a duration of the driving the plurality of joints according to the combination.

10. The robotic system of claim 1 , wherein the first set of joints does not overlap with the one or more joints of the plurality of joints, and wherein the plurality of joints of the manipulator arm comprise remote center joints configured to mechanically constrain movement of the distal portion to pivot about a remote center pivot point along an insertion axis of the instrument.

11. A robotic method implemented with a manipulator arm including a support for an instrument, a movable distal portion, a proximal portion coupled to a base, and a plurality of joints between the distal portion and the base, the plurality of joints having sufficient degrees of freedom to allow a range of differing joint states of the plurality of joints for a given state of the distal portion, the method comprising:
receiving, via an input device, a reconfiguration command for a reconfiguration movement of the manipulator arm;
calculating one or more joint velocities for a first movement of a first set of joints of the plurality of joints in accordance with the reconfiguration movement and in response to the reconfiguration command;
calculating one or more joint velocities for a second movement of one or more joints of the plurality of joints, wherein a combination of the one or more joint velocities for the first movement and the one or more joint velocities for the second movement maintains an intermediate portion of the instrument at a pivot location, wherein the intermediate portion is between a proximal end of the instrument and an end effector of the instrument; and
driving the plurality of joints according to the combination so as to maintain the intermediate portion at the pivot location during the reconfiguration movement of the manipulator arm.

12. The robotic method of claim 11 , further comprising:
receiving, via a second input device, a manipulation command to move the end effector,
calculating an end effector displacing movement of the plurality of joints in response to the manipulation command, wherein the end effector displacing movement maintains the intermediate portion at the pivot location; and
driving the plurality of joints according to the end effector displacing movement to move the end effector while maintaining the intermediate portion at the pivot location.

13. The robotic method of claim 11 , wherein calculating the one or more joint velocities for the first movement of the first set of joints comprises:
calculating the one or more joint velocities for the first movement so that a first joint of the first set of joints has a substantially constant speed for a duration of the driving the plurality of joints according to the combination.

14. The robotic method of claim 11 , wherein calculating the one or more joint velocities for the first movement and calculating the one or more joint velocities for the second movement comprises:
calculating the one or more joint velocities for the first movement and the one or more joint velocities for the second movement so that the combination provides joints of the plurality

Assignees

• Intuitive Surgical Operations

Inventors

• Hourtash Arjang M
• Mohr Paul W
• Hingwe Pushkar
• Millman Paul
• Schena Bruce M
• Devengenzo Roman L
• Luke Scott

Classifications

• B25J18/007

  the end effector rotating around a fixed point · CPC title

• A61B34/37 Primary

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

• A61B34/30 Primary

  Surgical robots · CPC title

• G05B2219/40365

  Configuration control, select other tasks by configuration of link positions · CPC title

• B25J9/1643 Primary

  redundant control · CPC title