System and method for inter-arm registration

A method of operating a computer-assisted system, the method comprising:

• receiving, by a control unit and from an imaging device, successive images of an instrument mounted to a repositionable arm of a computer-assisted device;
• determining, by the control unit and based on the successive images, an observed velocity of a feature of the instrument;
• determining, by the control unit, an expected velocity of the feature of the instrument based on kinematics of the repositionable arm;
• transforming, by the control unit, the observed velocity, the expected velocity, or both the observed and expected velocities to a common coordinate system using a registration transform;
• determining, by the control unit, an error between a direction of the observed velocity and a direction of the expected velocity in the common coordinate system;
• and
• updating, by the control unit, the registration transform based on the determined error.

A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising a plurality of machine-readable instructions which when executed by one or more processors associated with a computer-assisted device, are adapted to cause the one or more processors to perform a method comprising:

• receiving, from an imaging device, successive images of an instrument mounted to a repositionable arm of a computer-assisted device;
• determining an observed velocity of a feature of the instrument based on the successive images;
• determining an expected velocity of the feature of the instrument based on kinematics of the repositionable arm;
• transforming the observed velocity, the expected velocity, or both the observed and expected velocities to a common coordinate system using a registration transform;
• determining an error between a direction of the observed velocity and a direction of the expected velocity in the common coordinate system;
• and
• updating the registration transform based on the determined error.