Enabling secure data exchange between a robotic surgical system and surgical tools via near field communication (NFC)

An apparatus for enabling secure data exchange between a surgical robotic system and a surgical tool, the apparatus comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• one or more memories coupled to the one or more processors, wherein the one or more memories store instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to:
• detecting a coupling of a surgical tool onto a robotic arm of the surgical robotic system;
• establishing a wireless communication link that connects the system to a module in the surgical tool;
• authenticating via the wireless communication link the surgical tool;
• in response to authenticating the surgical tool, requesting and receiving tool information from the surgical tool via the wireless communication link, then processing the tool information to identify the surgical tool for use in a present surgical procedure, then determining whether the surgical tool has or has not been previously used in the system during the present surgical procedure, wherein
• i) if determining the surgical tool has not been previously used during the present surgical procedure, then using the received tool information to initialize the surgical tool for use in the system during the present surgical procedure,
• and
• ii) if determining the surgical tool has been previously used during the present surgical procedure, then retrieving tool calibration data from a cache of the system and then using the tool calibration data to initialize the surgical tool for use in the system during the present surgical procedure.

An article of manufacture comprising:

• non-transitory computer readable media having stored therein instructions that, when executed by one or more processors:
• detect a coupling of a surgical tool onto a robotic arm of a surgical robotic system;
• establish a wireless communication link that connects the system to a module in the surgical tool;
• authenticate via the wireless communication link the surgical tool;
• in response to authenticating the surgical tool, request and receive tool information from the surgical tool via the wireless communication link, then process the tool information to identify the surgical tool for use in a present surgical procedure, then determine whether the surgical tool has or has not been previously used in the system during the present surgical procedure, wherein
• i) if determining the surgical tool has not been previously used during the present surgical procedure, then use the received tool information to initialize the surgical tool for use in the system during the present surgical procedure,
• and
• ii) if determining the surgical tool has been previously used during the present surgical procedure, then retrieve tool calibration data from a cache of the system and then use the tool calibration data to initialize the surgical tool for use in the system during the present surgical procedure.