Robotic hand-held surgical instrument systems with a visual indicator and methods of controlling the same

A hand-held robotic system for use with a surgical tool, the system comprising:

• an instrument comprising;
• a hand-held portion to be held by a user and a tool support coupled to the hand-held portion, the tool support comprising a tool drive motor to drive motion of the surgical tool;
• and
• an actuator assembly operatively interconnecting the tool support and the hand-held portion to move the tool support to move the tool in a plurality of degrees of freedom relative to the hand-held portion, the actuator assembly including a plurality of actuators;
• a visual indicator to guide the user where to place the hand-held portion;
• and
• a control system coupled to the plurality of actuators and the visual indicator, the control system being configured to:
• determine a first pose of the hand-held portion in a known coordinate system;
• determine a first theoretical range of motion in a first degree of freedom based on a component of the first pose;
• determine a second pose of the hand-held portion in the known coordinate system;
• determine a second theoretical range of motion in the first degree of freedom based on a component of the second pose, wherein the first theoretical range of motion and the second theoretical range of motion are different and the first pose and the second pose are different;
• determine a first position or orientation of the hand-held portion based on the first pose in the first degree of freedom and control the visual indicator based on the first position or orientation and the first range of motion;
• and
• determine a second position or orientation of the hand-held portion based on the second pose in the first degree of freedom and control the visual indicator based on the second position or orientation and the second range of motion to guide the user as to how to move the hand-held portion to provide the instrument with maximum adjustability of the plurality of actuators.

A method of controlling a visual indicia of a hand-held robotic system for use with a surgical tool, the robotic system including a localizer, and a hand-held instrument, the hand-held instrument having a hand-held portion to be held by a user, a tool support movably coupled to the hand-held portion to support the surgical tool, and an actuator assembly operatively interconnecting the tool support and the hand-held portion, the actuator assembly including a plurality of actuators, and the tool support including a saw drive motor, the method comprising the steps of:

• the instrument controller determining a position or orientation of the hand-held portion in a first degree of freedom in a known coordinate system;
• the instrument controller determining a theoretical range of motion of the hand-held portion relative to the tool support in a second degree of freedom based on the position or orientation of the hand-held portion in the first degree of freedom;
• determining a position or orientation of the hand-held portion in the second degree of freedom in the known coordinate system;
• and
• the instrument controller controlling the visual indicator based on the position or orientation of the hand-held portion and the theoretical range of motion in the second degree of freedom to guide the user as to how to move the hand-held portion to provide the instrument with maximum adjustability of the plurality of actuators.