Systems and methods for controlling a surgical stapling instrument

A surgical stapling instrument comprising:

• an anvil assembly including an anvil head and an anvil center rod extending proximally from the anvil head;
• a reload assembly including a pusher and an annular staple cartridge including a plurality of staples, wherein the pusher is configured to eject staples from the annular staple cartridge;
• a processor;
• and
• a memory, including instructions stored thereon, which, when executed, cause the surgical stapling instrument to:
• advance the pusher towards the anvil assembly from a first position to a second position;
• determine if the pusher stopped advancing towards the anvil assembly prior to the second position;
• measure a force of staple compression of a staple being ejected from the annular staple cartridge by the pusher, in response to the pusher having stopped advancing towards the anvil assembly;
• and
• determine if the force of staple compression is outside of a predetermined range.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method for controlling a surgical stapling instrument, comprising:

• advancing a pusher towards an anvil assembly of the surgical stapling instrument from a first position to a second position, the pusher configured to eject staples from a staple cartridge of the surgical stapling instrument;
• determining if the pusher stopped advancing towards the anvil assembly prior to the second position;
• measuring a force of staple compression of a staple being ejected from the staple cartridge by the pusher, in response to the pusher having stopped advancing towards the anvil assembly;
• and
• determining if the force of staple compression is outside of a predetermined range.