Robotic surgical system and method for communicating synchronous and asynchronous information to and from nodes of a robotic arm
AssigneeVerb Surgical Inc.
InventorsPhilip L. Graves, Klaus R. Zietlow
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Abstract
A robotic surgical system is disclosed having a ring network for communicating information between a controller and nodes of one or more robotic arms. A communications protocol is described by which synchronous and asynchronous information can be communicated to and from the nodes of the robotic arms. Also disclosed are various aspects of a physical layer that can be used with the network.
Claims20
A method of transmitting data at a node of a ring network of a robotic surgical system, the method comprising:
- receiving, during a part of a current communication cycle, a current synchronous command from a robot controller at the node of the ring network;
- and
- sending, during the part of the current communication cycle, at least one response to an earlier asynchronous command received from the robot controller at the node of the ring network during an earlier communication cycle,
- wherein the current communication cycle spans a predetermined cycle time and the communication cycle includes asynchronous information interleaved with synchronous information including sensor feedback from the robot controller.
A method of processing data at a node of a ring network of a robotic surgical system, the method comprising
- sending, during a part of a current communication cycle, a response to an earlier synchronous command from a robot controller at the node of the ring network during an earlier communication cycle;
- and
- receiving, during the part of the current communication cycle, a current asynchronous command from the robot controller at the node of the ring network,
- wherein the current communication cycle includes asynchronous information interleaved with synchronous information including sensor feedback from the robot controller in corresponding time slots.
A node for processing data in a ring network of a robotic surgical system, the node comprising:
- at least one memory configured to store an earlier synchronous command;
- and
- a node controller configured to receive, during a first part of a current communication cycle, a current synchronous command from a robot controller at the node of the ring network and send, during the first part of the current communication cycle, at least one response to the earlier asynchronous command received from the robot controller at the node of the ring network during an earlier communication cycle,
- wherein the current communication cycle includes asynchronous information interleaved with synchronous information including sensor feedback from the robot controller.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.