Image-directed robotic system for precise robotic surgery including redundant consistency checking

US5299288A · kind A · utility

Assignees

• International Business Machines Corporation · US
• The Regents of the University of California · US

Inventors

• Edward Glassman · Pleasantville, US
• William A. Hanson · Westlake Village, US
• Peter Kazanides · Davis, US
• Brent Mittelstadt · Fort Lauderdale, US
• Bela L. Musits · Tolland, US
• Howard A. Paul · Loomis, US
• Russell H. Taylor · Severna Park, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Sep 18, 1991
• Grant date: Mar 29, 1994
• Expiry date: Sep 18, 2011

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y10S706/924
• WIPO field: Medical technology
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A robotic surgical system includes a multiple degree of freedom manipulator arm having a surgical tool. The arm is coupled to a controller for controllably positioning the surgical tool within a three dimensional coordinate system. The system further includes a safety monitoring processor for determining the position of the surgical tool in the three dimensional coordinate system relative to a volumetric model. The volumetric model may be represented as a constructive solid geometry (CSG) tree data structure. The system further includes an optical tracking camera system disposed for imaging a region of space that includes at least a portion of the manipulator arm. An output of the camera system is coupled to the processor that processes the volumetric model for determining if the surgical tool is positioned outside of the volumetric model. The system further includes a strain gage for detecting slippage in three dimensions between an immobilized tissue, such as bone, and a reference point. The system also includes multiple and redundant safety features for suspending a motion of the surgical tool to prevent the tool from operating outside of the predetermined volume of space.