Automated robotic rod bender

A process workflow for intraoperative rod bending comprising:

• planning screw location and rod geometry using a surgical robotic system having a machine vision camera;
• simulating spinal correction using the surgical robotic system to determine a prescribed bending profile for a rod based on proposed or current screw locations;
• outputting rod diameter and initial rod length defined by the surgical robotic system to a user;
• inserting a rod blank into a powered holding end effector positioned on a first arm of the surgical robot system having a housing defining a channel for receiving the rod blank therethrough, a feeder roller for advancing the rod blank through the channel, and a rotation roller for rotating the rod blank about its longitudinal axis;
• automatically feeding and rotating the rod blank through a powered bending end effector positioned on a second arm of the surgical robot system having a housing with a fixed mandrel and a movable mandrel with the rod blank positioned therebetween, and moving the movable mandrel to bend the rod blank to the prescribed bending profile for the rod;
• and
• automatically cutting the rod to length by the powered holding end effector,
• wherein a pivot axis of the first arm and a pivot axis of the second arm are generally colinear.

An automatic rod bending system for use with a multi-arm surgical robotic system with machine vision monitoring and verification, the rod bending system comprising:

• a powered holding end effector coupled to a first surgical arm of the multi-arm surgical robotic system, the holding end effector having a housing defining a channel extending from an entry point to an exit point for receiving a rod therethrough along a longitudinal rod axis, a feeder roller located adjacent to the channel such that an edge of the feeder roller is configured to automatically advance the rod through the channel, a rotation roller located adjacent to the channel such that an edge of the rotation roller is configured to automatically rotate the rod about the rod axis, wherein the rotation roller is positioned perpendicular to the feeder roller, a notch cutter positioned beneath the rotation roller and adjacent to the channel such that a cutting head of the notch cutter is configured to automatically notch the rod, and cutoff shears located near the exit point of the channel to automatically cut the rod to a desired length;
• and
• a powered bending end effector coupled to a second surgical arm of the multi-arm surgical robotic system, the bending end effector having a housing and a pair of bender arms with a fixed center post located at a pivot of the bender arms, one or more jaws mounted on distal ends of the bender arms, and a motor driven lead screw which interacts with a captive lead nut to move one of the bender arms, wherein the rod is positionable between the fixed center post and the one or more jaws along the rod axis, and application of force to the bender arms causes the one or more jaws to orbit about the center post, thereby applying a bending force to the rod, wherein the rod is configured to be automatically fed, rotated, and bent into a complex three-dimensional geometry based on a planned and simulated intraoperative rod plan from the surgical robotic system, to thereby produce a customized patient specific rod in real-time.