Systems and methods for automatically changing an end-effector on a surgical robot
AssigneeGlobus Medical, Inc.
InventorsNeil R. Crawford, Norbert Johnson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Devices, systems, and methods for automatically exchanging a first end-effector on a robot arm with a second end-effector housed in a docking station. The first end-effector has a clamp that either engages or disengages the robot arm based upon an application of force of the robot arm onto the end-effector. The clamp has a spring loaded clip that disengages the first end-effector to allow the robot arm to move away from the released first end-effector. The robot arm is configured to automatically move to a port of a docking station housing the desired second end-effector using magnetic coils on the robot arm and the docking station to guide the robot arm.
Claims13
A method of automatically exchanging end-effectors on a robot arm of a surgical robot system, the method comprising:
- releasing a first end-effector from a robot arm comprising a first magnetic coil;
- passing the robot arm through a second magnetic coil associated with a second end-effector;
- and
- attaching the second end-effector to the robot arm.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.