US-20260124748-A1 - Robotic Systems And Methods For Mitigating Undesired Orientational Motion Of Kinematic Components

US20260124748A1US 20260124748 A1US20260124748 A1US 20260124748A1US-20260124748-A1

Abstract

A robotic surgical system includes a kinematic chain defined by components of a manipulator and a surgical tool including an energy applicator. At least one controller identifies that one or more components of the kinematic chain other than the energy applicator is either experiencing or will experience an undesired orientational motion. The at least one controller changes operation of the manipulator to mitigate for the present or expected undesired orientational motion.

Inventors

Rishabh KHURANA

Assignees

MAKO SURGICAL CORP.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20251229

Claims (20)

1 . A surgical system, comprising: a manipulator comprising a base, a robotic arm supported by the base and including links and joints, and a surgical tool supported by the robotic arm and including an energy applicator, and wherein a kinematic chain is defined by components comprising the base, the links and joints of the robotic arm, and the surgical tool including the energy applicator; and at least one controller configured to: control the manipulator to advance the energy applicator according to a feed rate; pursuant to advancement of the energy applicator, identify that one or more components of the kinematic chain other than the energy applicator is either experiencing or will experience an undesired orientational motion; and change the feed rate to account for the undesired orientational motion.
2 . The surgical system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one controller changes the feed rate to account for the undesired orientational motion by further being configured to reduce the feed rate.
3 . The surgical system of claim 2 , wherein: the feed rate is defined by a first velocity; and the reduced feed rate is defined by a non-zero velocity that is less than first velocity.
4 . The surgical system of claim 2 , wherein the at least one controller reduces the feed rate by a factor correlated to a magnitude of the undesired orientational motion experienced by or that will be experienced by the one or more components of the kinematic chain other than the energy applicator.
5 . The surgical system of claim 2 , wherein the at least one controller is configured to: identify that the one or more components of the kinematic chain other than the energy applicator is no longer experiencing or will no longer experience the undesired orientational motion, and in response, increase the reduced feed rate.
6 . The surgical system of claim 2 , wherein the at least one controller is configured to: identify that the one or more components of the kinematic chain other than the energy applicator is no longer experiencing or will no longer experience the undesired orientational motion, and in response, restore the feed rate that existed before reduction of the feed rate.
7 . The surgical system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one controller identifies that one or more components of the kinematic chain other than the energy applicator is either experiencing or will experience the undesired orientational motion by further being configured to: compare the undesired orientational motion to a threshold or range; and change the feed rate to account for the undesired orientational motion in response to the undesired orientational motion satisfying the threshold or range.
8 . The surgical system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one controller is configured to: obtain forward kinematic measurements of the kinematic chain during advancement of the energy applicator; and evaluate the forward kinematic measurements to identify that one or more components of the kinematic chain other than the energy applicator is either experiencing or will experience the undesired orientational motion.
9 . The surgical system of claim 1 , further comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon simulation data indicative of the undesired orientational motion of the one or more components of the kinematic chain, wherein the simulation data is obtained from a pre-operative simulation configured to simulate control of the manipulator to advance the energy applicator according to the feed rate, and wherein the at least one controller is configured to: retrieve the simulation data from the non-transitory computer readable medium; and identify, based on the simulation data, that one or more components of the kinematic chain other than the energy applicator is either experiencing or will experience the undesired orientational motion.
10 . The surgical system of claim 1 , further comprising one or more sensors configured to generate measurements related to any one or more components of the kinematic chain; and wherein the at least one controller is configured to analyze the measurements to identify that one or more components of the kinematic chain other than the energy applicator is either experiencing or will experience the undesired orientational motion.
11 . The surgical system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one controller is configured to: store, in a non-transitory computer readable medium, inertia values for any one or more components of the kinematic chain; and utilize the inertia values to identify that one or more components of the kinematic chain other than the energy applicator is either experiencing or will experience the undesired orientational motion.
12 . The surgical system of claim 1 , wherein during advancement of the energy applicator, the at least one controller is further configured to: enable reorientation of the surgical tool; identify that the one or more components of the kinematic chain other than the energy applicator is either experiencing or will experience the undesired orientational motion that further occurs responsive to reorientation of the surgical tool; and change the feed rate to account for the undesired orientational motion that further occurs responsive to reorientation of the surgical tool.
13 . The surgical system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one controller is configured to: associate one or more virtual haptic objects relative to the one or more components of the kinematic chain; define a virtual boundary; detect a collision between the one or more virtual haptic objects and the virtual boundary; control the manipulator to constrain the one or more components of the kinematic chain having the one or more virtual haptic objects associated therewith from exceeding the virtual boundary in response to detection of the collision; identify that the one or more components of the kinematic chain other than the energy applicator is either experiencing or will experience the undesired orientational motion that further occurs responsive to constraint of the one or more components of the kinematic chain in response to the detection of the collision; and change the feed rate to account for the undesired orientational motion that further occurs responsive to constraint the one or more components of the kinematic chain in response to the detection of the collision.
14 . The surgical system of claim 1 , wherein the undesired orientational motion is further defined as undesired one or more of an: angular velocity, angular acceleration, or angular jerk experienced by or that will be experienced by any one or more components of the kinematic chain other than the energy applicator.
15 . The surgical system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one controller controls the manipulator to advance the energy applicator according to the feed rate in a manual mode in which a user physically contacts the surgical tool to advance the energy applicator along a user-initiated path.
16 . The surgical system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one controller controls the manipulator in a semi-autonomous mode to advance the energy applicator according to the feed rate along a predetermined tool path.
17 . The surgical system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one controller proactively or predictively identifies that one or more components of the kinematic chain other than the energy applicator will experience the undesired orientational motion.
18 . The surgical system of claim 1 , wherein, to account for the undesired orientational motion, the at least one controller is further configured to dynamically modify control of one or more joints of the robotic arm.
19 . A method of operating a surgical system, the surgical system including a manipulator with a base, a robotic arm supported by the base and including links and joints, and a surgical tool supported by the robotic arm and including an energy applicator, and wherein a kinematic chain is defined by components comprising the base, the links and joints of the robotic arm, and the surgical tool including the energy applicator, and at least one controller for: controlling the manipulator for advancing the energy applicator according to a feed rate; while advancing the energy applicator, identifying that one or more components of the kinematic chain other than the energy applicator is either experiencing or will experience an undesired orientational motion; and changing the feed rate to account for the undesired orientational motion.
20 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium for use with a surgical system, the surgical system including a manipulator with a base, a robotic arm supported by the base and including links and joints, and a surgical tool supported by the robotic arm and including an energy applicator, and wherein a kinematic chain is defined by components comprising the base, the links and joints of the robotic arm, and the surgical tool including the energy applicator, the non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions, which when executed by one or more processors, are configured to: control the manipulator to advance the energy applicator according to a feed rate; pursuant to advancement of the energy applicator, identify that one or more components of the kinematic chain other than the energy applicator is either experiencing or will experience an undesired orientational motion; and change the feed rate to account for the undesired orientational motion.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS The subject application is a continuation of U.S. Patent App. No. 18/213,312, filed June 23, 2023, which is U.S. bypass continuation of International Patent App. No. PCT/US2021/065334, filed on December 28, 2021, which claims priority to and all the benefits of U.S. Provisional Patent App. No. 63/132,821, filed December 31, 2020, the contents of each of the aforementioned applications being hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety. TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates generally to robotic systems and methods for controlling account for undesired orientational movement of components in the kinematic chain of the robot. BACKGROUND Robotic systems that perform surgical procedures at surgical sites often include a manipulator with a base, a plurality of links and joints, and an end effector coupled to the manipulator. Many times, the end effector comprises or supports a surgical tool with an energy applicator designed to remove tissue at the surgical site. A kinematic chain is defined by the base, links and joints, and surgical tool including the energy applicator. For admittance-controlled robotic systems, forces are received as input and commanded positions of the energy applicator are outputted. Due to the inverse-kinematic nature of admittance control, the commanded positions of the energy applicator are outputted as task space (x, y, z) coordinates and the respective pose (position and orientation) of the kinematic chain components are outputted according to a solution satisfying constraints defined by a complex system of equations. The energy applicator is typically moved along a tool path according to the commanded positions. The velocity at which the energy applicator moves along the tool path is commonly known as a “feed rate” of the energy applicator. Prior systems have contemplated to adjust the feed rate to account for conditions or inputs, such as manual user selection of the feed rate, characteristics of the tissue, sensed forces applied to the energy applicator, curvature of the path, and the like. Adjustment of the feed rate in the prior admittance-controlled robotic systems are responsive only to desired (or intended) inputs or conditions that directly affect the energy applicator’s movement along the tool path. However, prior techniques for adjustment of the feed rate do not account for the possibility of undesired orientational motion occurring for components of the kinematic chain other than the energy applicator (i.e., non-tool path components) such as the tool shaft, joints, or links of the manipulator. Such non-tool path components may experience abrupt angular velocity, angular acceleration or angular jerk occurring when such non-tool path components are kinematically manipulated according to the complex inverse kinematic solution. Such undesired orientational motion of non-tool path components may cause inaccuracies in the commanded position. For example, inertia of the non-tool path components may cause inadvertent changes to motion or direction causing deviations from the commanded position. Furthermore, such undesired orientational motion may disrupt the surgical workflow or user experience because an operator may be alarmed by such motion and may want to manually slow down or stop the operation. There remains a need to address at least the aforementioned disadvantages. SUMMARY According to a first aspect, a surgical system is provided, which includes a surgical tool including an energy applicator; a manipulator comprising a base and a plurality of links and joints and the manipulator being configured to support the surgical tool, and wherein a kinematic chain is defined by components of the manipulator and the surgical tool including the energy applicator; and at least one controller configured to: identify that one or more components of the kinematic chain other than the energy applicator is either experiencing or will experience an undesired orientational motion; and change a feed rate of the energy applicator to account for the undesired orientational motion. According to a second aspect, a method of operating the surgical system according to the first aspect is provided. According to a third aspect, a surgical system is provided, which includes a surgical tool including an energy applicator; a manipulator comprising a base and a plurality of links and joints and the manipulator being configured to support the surgical tool, and wherein a kinematic chain is defined by components of the manipulator and the surgical tool including the energy applicator; and at least one controller configured to: identify that one or more components of the kinematic chain other than the energy applicator is either experiencing or will experience an undesired orientational motion; and modify operation of the manipulator to account for the undesired orientational motion. According to a fourth aspect, a method of operating the surgical system