System with guides and tools of different flexibility
AssigneeIntuitive Surgical Operations, Inc.
InventorSamuel Kwok Wai Au
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A robotic medical system with a flexible guide tube such as a lung catheter can record the shape of the guide tube in a target configuration. If the shape includes a bend that is sharper than a sharpest permitted bend for insertion or removal of a tool such as a biopsy needle, a control system can find any locations of sharp bends and automatically retract the guide tube to a location associated with a sharp bend. With the tip backed up to that location, the needle can be inserted into or removed from the catheter. The control system can automatically move the catheter between the target configuration and the retracted configuration of the guide tube.
Claims21
1-20. (canceled)
A system comprising:
- an actuator couplable to a flexible guide tube and configured to move at least a portion of the flexible guide tube;
- a processor;
- and
- memory storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the system to:
- identify at least one factor associated with insertion or removal of a tool configured to be inserted through or removed from the flexible guide tube;
- identify, in a first configuration of the flexible guide tube and based on the at least one factor, one or more sections of the flexible guide tube having one or more bends that the tool cannot traverse, wherein a distal portion of the flexible guide tube is disposed adjacent a target site in the first configuration;
- inform a user that the first configuration includes the one or more sections of the flexible guide tube having the one or more bends that the tool cannot traverse;
- and
- command the actuator to move the flexible guide tube to a second configuration, wherein the second configuration does not include the one or more bends that the tool cannot traverse.
A process comprising:
- identifying, based on at least one factor associated with insertion or removal of a tool, one or more sections of a flexible guide tube in a first configuration having one or more bends that the tool would have difficulty traversing while the flexible guide tube is in the first configuration, wherein a distal portion of the flexible guide tube is disposed adjacent a target site in the first configuration;
- informing a user that the first configuration includes the one or more sections of the flexible guide tube having the one or more bends that the tool would have difficulty traversing;
- and
- moving, via actuation signals sent to an actuator coupled to the flexible guide tube, the flexible guide tube from the first configuration to a second configuration for receiving the tool, wherein the second configuration does not include the one or more bends that the tool would have difficulty traversing.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.