Granted Patent B2

US 12,268,460 · App. 17/741,436 · Granted Apr 8, 2025

Inventors: Yanan Huang (Sunnyvale, CA); Nima Sarli (Redwood City, CA); Ying Mao (San Mateo, CA); David Stephen Mintz (Los Altos Hills, CA)

Assignee: Auris Health, Inc.

A61B34/37A61B34/74A61B34/76B25J9/1666

Abstract

Claims (86)

1. A robotic system, comprising:

a robotic arm configured to control a medical instrument, wherein the medical instrument is configured to be inserted into a patient via a point of entry;

at least one processor; and

at least one computer-readable memory in communication with the at least one processor and having stored thereon computer-executable instructions to cause the at least one processor to:

receive a first user input from a user for moving the robotic arm to control the medical instrument; and

guide a movement of the robotic arm along a collision boundary surrounding an object in accordance with the first user input and one or more secondary constraints, wherein the guiding of the movement of the robotic arm along the collision boundary comprises satisfying a constraint associated with the point of entry.

2. The robotic system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more secondary constraints comprise at least one of: a joint maximum velocity, an instrument driver maximum velocity, a robot elbow maximum velocity, a medical instrument end effector maximum velocity, a medical instrument wrist range of motion limit, a medical instrument insertion limit, a robot workspace constraint, a singularity avoidance constraint, or a linear approximation constraint.

3. The robotic system of claim 1 , wherein the constraint associated with the point of entry comprises a remote center of motion (RCM) at which translational movement of the medical instrument is constrained.

4. The robotic system of claim 1 , wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the at least one processor to:

guide the movement of the robotic arm while saturating a velocity constraint.

5. The robotic system of claim 4 , wherein the velocity constraint includes one of: a joint maximum velocity, a robot end effector maximum velocity, a robot elbow velocity, or a tool tip velocity.

6. The robotic system of claim 1 , further comprising:

a master controller configured to receive the first user input from the user,

wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the at least one processor to:

control the master controller to provide haptic feedback to the user in response to a determination that moving the robotic arm according to the first user input would cause a contact point of the robotic arm to come into contact with or cross the collision boundary.

7. The robotic system of claim 6 , wherein the haptic feedback comprises tactile feedback.

8. The robotic system of claim 7 , wherein the tactile feedback includes vibrations.

9. The robotic system of claim 1 , wherein:

the one or more secondary constraints comprise a first constraint and a second constraint; and

the computer-executable instructions further cause the at least one processor to:

determine a first severity metric associated with the first constraint;

determine a second severity metric associated with the second constraint;

compare the first severity metric to the second severity metric; and

determine whether to guide the movement of the robotic arm in accordance with the first constraint or the second constraint based on the comparison of the first severity metric to the second severity metric.

10. The robotic system of claim 1 , wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the at least one processor to:

determine that moving the robotic arm according to the first user input would move a joint of the robotic arm at a first velocity that exceeds a joint maximum velocity; and

guide the movement of the robotic arm at a second velocity that is less than the joint maximum velocity when moving the robotic arm according to the first user input would move the joint of the robotic arm at the first velocity that exceeds the joint maximum velocity.

11. The robotic system of claim 1 , wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the at least one processor to:

determine that moving the robotic arm according to the first user input would cause a contact point of the robotic arm to move within a threshold distance of the collision boundary surrounding the object,

wherein the guiding of the movement of the robotic arm along the collision boundary is performed when moving the robotic arm according to the first user input would cause the contact point of the robotic arm to move within the threshold distance.

12. The robotic system of claim 11 , wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the at least one processor to:

identify a vector component of the first user input having a direction that would cause the contact point of the robotic arm to cross the collision boundary; and

reduce or prevent movement of the contact point according to the identified vector component such that the contact point does not cross the collision boundary.

13. The robotic system of claim 11 , wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the at least one processor to:

receive a second user input from the user for moving the medical instrument with the robotic arm;

determine that moving the robotic arm according to the second user input would cause the contact point of the robotic arm to move away from the collision boundary; and

control the movement of the robotic arm away from the collision boundary according to the second user input when moving the robotic arm according to the second user input would cause the contact point of the robotic arm to move away from the collision boundary.

14. The robotic system of claim 11 , wherein the collision boundary is configured to provide at least one of (i) a first threshold distance between the contact point and the object or (ii) a first angular threshold between the contact point and the object.

15. The robotic system of claim 11 , wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the at least one processor to:

determine that the contact point is within at least one of a first threshold distance or angle from the object;

identify a vector component of the first user input having a direction that would cause the contact point of the robotic arm to move away from the object; and

guide the movement of the robotic arm according to the identified vector component such that the contact point moves away from the object.

16. The robotic system of claim 15 , wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the at least one processor to:

determine that the contact point is within at least one of a second threshold distance or an angle from the object, wherein the at least one of the second threshold distance or the angle being greater than at least one of the first threshold distance or angle; and

guide the movement of the robotic arm away from the object when the contact point is within the at least one of the second threshold distance or the angle from the object.

17. The robotic system of claim 11 , wherein the contact point belongs to a set of points on the robotic arm, and wherein the contact point is closer to the collision boundary than all other points of the set of points.

18. A robotic system, comprising:

a robotic arm configured to control a medical instrument;

at least one processor; and

at least one computer-readable memory in communication with the at least one processor and having stored thereon computer-executable instructions to cause the at least one processor to:

receive a first user input from a user for moving the robotic arm to control the medical instrument;

guide a movement of the robotic arm along a collision boundary surrounding an object in accordance with the first user input and one or more secondary constraints; and

guide the movement of the robotic arm while saturating a velocity constraint.

19. A robotic system, comprising:

a robotic arm configured to control a medical instrument;

a master controller configured to receive a first user input from a user;

at least one processor; and

at least one computer-readable memory in communication with the at least one processor and having stored thereon computer-executable instructions to cause the at least one processor to:

receive the first user input from the user for moving the robotic arm to control the medical instrument;

guide a movement of the robotic arm along a collision boundary surrounding an object in accordance with the first user input and one or more secondary constraints; and

control the master controller to provide haptic feedback to the user in response to a determination that moving the robotic arm according to the first user input would cause a contact point of the robotic arm to come into contact with or cross the collision boundary.

20. A robotic system, comprising:

a robotic arm configured to control a medical instrument;

at least one processor; and

at least one computer-readable memory in communication with the at least one processor and having stored thereon computer-executable instructions to cause the at least one processor to:

receive a first user input from a user for moving the robotic arm to control the medical instrument;

guide a movement of the robotic arm along a collision boundary surrounding an object in accordance with the first user input and one or more secondary constraints, wherein the one or more secondary constraints comprise a first constraint and a second constraint;

determine a first severity metric associated with the first constraint;

determine a second severity metric associated with the second constraint;

compare the first severity metric to the second severity metric; and

determine whether to guide the movement of the robotic arm in accordance with the first constraint or the second constraint based on the comparison of the first severity metric to the second severity metric.

21. A robotic system, comprising:

a robotic arm configured to control a medical instrument;

at least one processor; and

at least one computer-readable memory in communication with the at least one processor and having stored thereon computer-executable instructions to cause the at least one processor to:

receive a first user input from a user for moving the robotic arm to control the medical instrument;

determine that moving the robotic arm according to the first user input would move a joint of the robotic arm at a first velocity that exceeds a joint maximum velocity;

guide a movement of the robotic arm along a collision boundary surrounding an object in accordance with the first user input and one or more secondary constraints; and

guide the movement of the robotic arm at a second velocity that is less than the joint maximum velocity when moving the robotic arm according to the first user input would move the joint of the robotic arm at the first velocity that exceeds the joint maximum velocity.

22. A robotic system, comprising:

a robotic arm configured to control a medical instrument;

at least one processor; and

at least one computer-readable memory in communication with the at least one processor and having stored thereon computer-executable instructions to cause the at least one processor to:

receive a first user input from a user for moving the robotic arm to control the medical instrument;

determine that moving the robotic arm according to the first user input would cause a contact point of the robotic arm to move within a threshold distance of a collision boundary surrounding an object; and

guide a movement of the robotic arm along the collision boundary surrounding the object in accordance with the first user input and one or more secondary constraints, wherein the guiding of the movement of the robotic arm along the collision boundary is performed when moving the robotic arm according to the first user input would cause the contact point of the robotic arm to move within the threshold distance.

Continuity (3)

References Cited (400)