Intuitive Surgical Patent Grants

Detecting uncontrolled movement

Granted: October 15, 2024
Patent Number: 12114948
A system includes a manually manipulatable component configured to generate signals when movements of the component are detected and a control module. The control module is configured to determine that there is uncontrolled movement of the component by determining that a distance of a movement of the component relative to a previous position of the component is greater than a threshold distance or determining that a first mechanical degree of freedom (DOF) of the component has moved and…

Systems and methods for controlling a surgical instrument

Granted: October 15, 2024
Patent Number: 12114947
A teleoperational system receives a movement command in response to movement of an input device, in response to determining an instrument is being controlled based on the movement of the input device, maps the movement command to a first movement of the instrument in an instrument frame using a first mapping, and in response to determining a tissue probe is being controlled based on the movement of the input device, maps the movement command to a second movement of the tissue probe in a…

Wrist articulation by linked tension members

Granted: October 15, 2024
Patent Number: 12114941
Methods of articulating and actuating an end effector of a surgical tool include equal rate rotation of an input shaft of the end effector via a drive shaft. A method includes supporting an end effector base of the end effector by an elongate shaft of the surgical tool via a wrist assembly of the surgical tool. Orientation of the end effector base relative to the elongate shaft is controlled via four tension members. An input shaft of a shaft driven mechanism of the end effector is…

Shape sensor systems with redundant sensing

Granted: October 15, 2024
Patent Number: 12114936
A method of operating a shape sensing apparatus comprises receiving shape data from a first shape sensor. The first shape sensor includes a first plurality of optical cores extending between a first section and a second section of an elongated optical fiber. The method further comprises receiving shape data from a second shape sensor. The second shape sensor includes a second plurality of optical cores extending between the first and second sections of the elongated optical fiber. The…

Electrically weldable suture material, and apparatus and method for forming welded suture loops and other welded structures

Granted: October 15, 2024
Patent Number: 12114853
A device for positioning in the body of an animal, the device comprising a first portion and a second portion that may be positioned in contact with one other, the first portion and the second portion each comprising a biocompatible conductive thermoplastic material, such that when the device is positioned in the body of an animal and electric current flows from the first portion to the second portion, heat is generated by electrical resistance at the point of contact between the first…

Laparoscopic ultrasound robotic surgical system

Granted: October 8, 2024
Patent Number: 12108998
A LUS robotic surgical system is trainable by a surgeon to automatically move a LUS probe in a desired fashion upon command so that the surgeon does not have to do so manually during a minimally invasive surgical procedure. A sequence of 2D ultrasound image slices captured by the LUS probe according to stored instructions are processable into a 3D ultrasound computer model of an anatomic structure, which may be displayed as a 3D or 2D overlay to a camera view or in a PIP as selected by…

System with guides and tools of different flexibility

Granted: October 8, 2024
Patent Number: 12108997
A system includes an actuator couplable to a flexible guide tube, a processor, and memory. The actuator is configured to move the flexible guide tube. The memory stores 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,…

Systems and methods for tracking a position of a robotically-manipulated surgical instrument

Granted: October 8, 2024
Patent Number: 12108992
An exemplary surgical instrument tracking system includes at least one physical computing device that determines, based on endoscopic imagery of a surgical area and using a trained neural network, an observation for an object of interest depicted in the endoscopic imagery, associates, based on a probabilistic framework and kinematics of a robotically-manipulated surgical instrument located at the surgical area, the observation for the object of interest to the robotically-manipulated…

Display with folded optical path

Granted: October 1, 2024
Patent Number: 12102488
The technology described in this document can be embodied in a viewing apparatus for a surgical device, the apparatus including a lens assembly including a first polarizer, a display device configured to present an image of a surgical scene, and a reflective surface oriented at an acute angle with respect to the display device such that light from the display device is reflected from the reflective surface towards the lens assembly. The first polarizer in the lens assembly is configured…

Multiple band pass Bayer pattern filter

Granted: October 1, 2024
Patent Number: 12108170
An image sensing apparatus including a pixel array comprising two or more photo-sensor elements, a first optical filter disposed on a first photo-sensor element of the pixel array and a second optical filter disposed on a second photo-sensor element of the pixel array. The first optical filter is configured such that a spectral response of the first optical filter includes a first passband in a first wavelength range and a second passband in a second wavelength range, where the first…

Alignment and engagement for teleoperated actuated surgical instrument

Granted: October 1, 2024
Patent Number: 12102409
An instrument sterile adapter for coupling a surgical instrument and an instrument carriage includes an adapter control surface that extends control features of a control surface of the instrument carriage and receives an instrument control surface of the surgical instrument. A shaft receiving slot is positioned in the adapter control surface to receive an elongate tube of the surgical instrument when the adapter control surface receives the instrument control surface of the surgical…

System and method for repositioning input control devices

Granted: October 1, 2024
Patent Number: 12102406
A system and method of repositioning input control devices includes an operator workstation for controlling a computer-assisted device includes an input control device for use by an operator, one or more sensors, and a controller coupled to the one or more sensors and the input control device. The controller is configured to determine whether the operator is interacting with the input control device using the one or more sensors and in response to determining a lack of operator…

Stapler beam architecture

Granted: October 1, 2024
Patent Number: 12102401
An end effector that can have an upper jaw and a lower jaw. A wrist can connect the end effector to an elongated shaft. A beam member can be arranged to translate within the upper and lower jaw. An actuation assembly can have a pushing assembly configured to transfer compressive force to the beam member and a pulling assembly configured to transfer tensile force to the beam member.

Techniques for controlling a moveable component

Granted: October 1, 2024
Patent Number: 12102400
Techniques for controlling a moveable component include a moveable component and a controller. The controller is configured to control motion of the moveable component according to a state machine comprising a first and second state. In the first state, the controller holds the moveable component at a current position. The controller transitions the state machine from the first state to the second state in response to detecting a displacement of the moveable component, due to a…

Automated instrument preload engage/disengage mechanism

Granted: October 1, 2024
Patent Number: 12102398
Techniques for automated engagement and disengagement of a preload include a computer-assisted apparatus. The computer-assisted apparatus includes an instrument manipulator assembly including a preload assembly and a controller coupled to the instrument manipulator assembly. The controller is configured to move the instrument manipulator assembly to a fully withdrawn position and command the preload assembly to engage a preload. In some embodiments, engaging the preload causes the…

System and method for registration and coordinated manipulation of augmented reality image components

Granted: October 1, 2024
Patent Number: 12102391
A system and method for registration and coordinated manipulation of augmented reality image components includes registering a model of patient anatomy to a first image of the patient anatomy captured using an imaging device to determine a baseline relationship between the model and the first image, tracking movement of a computer-assisted device used to manipulate the imaging device, updating the baseline relationship based on the tracked movement, and generating a composite image by…

Medical systems that implement a common-mode choke to reduce voltage transients

Granted: September 24, 2024
Patent Number: 12096970
A medical system includes a first electrical circuit, a second electrical circuit electrically isolated from the first electrical circuit, an optical isolator circuit coupled between the first and second electrical circuits, and a common-mode choke comprising a plurality of wires wound around a core and configured to reduce a voltage transient at an input of the optical isolator circuit to a level within a tolerance of the optical isolator circuit. A first end of the wires is…

Systems and methods for robotic medical system integration with external imaging

Granted: September 24, 2024
Patent Number: 12097000
A medical robotic system and method of operating such comprises taking intraoperative external image data of a patient anatomy, and using that image data to generate a modeling adjustment for a control system of the medical robotic system (e.g., updating anatomic model and/or refining instrument registration), and/or adjust a procedure control aspect (e.g., regulating substance or therapy delivery, improving targeting, and/or tracking performance).

Reducing energy buildup in servo-controlled mechanisms

Granted: September 24, 2024
Patent Number: 12096998
A computer-assisted medical system includes a manipulator arm and a controller. The controller includes a computer processor. The controller is configured to servo at least one joint associated with at least one manipulator arm segment of the manipulator arm, the servoing including executing a servo loop. Executing the servo loop includes obtaining an actual state of the manipulator arm, computing a difference between a commanded state and the actual state, where the commanded state is…

Systems and methods of registration for image-guided procedures

Granted: September 24, 2024
Patent Number: 12096996
A device comprises an instrument usable to collect location data for one or more passageways. The device further comprises one or more processors coupled to the instrument. The one or more processors are configured to organize a plurality of points within the location data by clustering the plurality of points based on distances between points of the plurality of points. The processor(s) are further configured to create a passageway tree based on the organized points and to identify at…