US 2018/0186005 A1Published application

Characterising robot environments

AssigneeCambridge Medical Robotics Limited

InventorLuke David Ronald Hares

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Abstract

A method for characterising the environment of a robot, the robot having a flexible arm having a plurality of joints, a datum carried by the arm, a plurality of drivers arranged to drive the joints to move and a plurality of position sensors for sensing the position of each of the joints, the method comprising: contacting the datum carried by the arm with a first datum on a second robot in the environment of the first robot, wherein the second robot has a flexible arm having a plurality of joints, and a plurality of drivers arranged to drive those joints to move; calculating in dependence on the outputs of the position sensors a distance between a reference location defined in a frame of reference local to the robot and the first datum; and controlling the drivers to reconfigure the first arm in dependence on at least the calculated distance.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method of characterising the environment of a first robot, the first robot having a base, a flexible arm extending from the base and having a plurality of joints whereby the configuration of the arm can be altered, a first datum carried by the arm, a plurality of drivers arranged to drive the joints to move and a plurality of position sensors configured to sense the position of each of the joints, the method comprising:

mating the first datum carried by the arm of the first robot with a second datum on a second robot in the environment of the first robot, wherein the second robot has a base, a flexible arm extending from the base and having a plurality of joints whereby the configuration of the arm can be altered, and a plurality of drivers arranged to drive those joints to move, and the datum carried by the arm of the first robot and the datum on the second robot are mutually configured so that the orientation of the first datum is fixed with respect to the second datum when the datums are mated;
calculating in dependence on the outputs of the position sensors when the first and second datums are mated a position of the second robot relative to a reference location defined in a frame of reference local to the first robot and an orientation of the second robot relative to the first robot;
and
controlling the drivers to reconfigure the first arm in dependence on at least the calculated position and orientation.

1 more element

A robotic system comprising:

a first and second robot, each comprising:
a base;
a flexible arm extending from the base and having a plurality of joints whereby the configuration of the arm can be altered;
a plurality of drivers arranged to drive the joints to move;
and
a plurality of position sensors for sensing the position of each of the joints;
wherein the first robot further comprises an interface carrying a first datum;
a second datum comprising an interface in the shape of a proximal instrument or endoscope end, the first datum and the second datum being mutually configured so that when the first datum mates with the interface of the second datum the orientation of the first datum is fixed with respect to the second datum and the second datum has a known relationship to the second robot arm;
and
a control unit configured to:
(i) calculate, in dependence on the outputs of the position sensors of the first robot arm when the first datum and the second datum are mated, an orientation and position of the second robot relative to the first robot;
and (ii) control the drivers to reconfigure at least one of the first and second robot arms in dependence on at least the calculated orientation and position.

9 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.