Fiducial marker design and detection for locating surgical instrument in images

A robotic surgery system, comprising:

• a surgical tool having a plurality of features defining a first marker, at least one of the features of the first marker comprising an identification feature;
• an imaging device for capturing a first image of said tool during use and output first image data in response thereto;
• and
• a processor coupled with the imaging device, the processor adapted to process said captured first image data so as to:
• determine positional data for the first marker;
• determine an identification of the first marker by using the identification feature;
• and
• determine tool state data for the imaged tool by using said first marker positional data and said identification of the first marker.

A robotic surgical method comprising:

• capturing a first image of a surgical tool, the surgical tool including a plurality of features defining a plurality of markers, each marker having a predetermined positional relationship with the surgical tool, the first image including one of the markers;
• determining a position for the imaged marker by processing the first image;
• generating an estimated tool state for the tool by using at least one prior tool state from a prior image of the tool or joint data from a robotic actuation system effectuating movement of the tool;
• and
• determining a tool state for the tool by using said position for the imaged marker, said predetermined positional relationship between the surgical tool and the imaged marker, and said estimated tool state for the tool.