Systems, methods, and computer-readable program products for controlling a robotically delivered manipulator

A robotic surgical system comprising:

• one or more robotic manipulators, each having a surgical instrument holder;
• a surgical instrument removably coupled to the surgical instrument holder;
• a user interface configured to present information related to at least one of the one or more robotic manipulators, the surgical instrument, or a surgical environment within which the surgical instrument is present, wherein the information includes a map indicating a position of the one or more robotic manipulators and surgical instruments within the surgical environment;
• a gesture detection sensor configured to detect a gesture made by at least one of a hand of a user or a head of a user;
• and
• a controller in communication with the one or more robotic manipulators, the surgical instrument, the user interface, and the gesture detection sensor and including one or more processors and one or more memories having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
• determine whether or not a gesture indicating a selection of a first robotic manipulator of the one or more robotic manipulators has been detected;
• provide one or more commands to actuate the first robotic manipulator in a predetermined manner corresponding to the detected gesture;
• obtain position data including a first position and a second position of the detected gesture relative to a location on the map;
• determine whether a difference between a first distance from the first position to the location and a second distance from the second position to the location is outside of a predetermined threshold range to indicate that the detected gesture corresponds to a selection of at least one of the one or more robotic manipulators or the surgical instruments;
• and
• identify a gesture path of the detected gesture, the gesture path being within a proximity of at least one of a graphical representation of the surgical instrument or the one or more robotic manipulators on the map;
• wherein, when it is determined that the gesture indicating selection of the first robotic manipulator has been detected, the one or more commands include retracting the surgical instrument holder supporting the first robotic manipulator from the surgical environment in order to decouple the surgical instrument from the first robotic manipulator and enable an instrument exchange.