A surgical instrument navigation system is provided that visually simulates a virtual volumetric scene of a body cavity of a patient from a point of view of a surgical instrument residing in the cavity of the patient, wherein the surgical instrument, as provided, may be a steerable surgical catheter with a biopsy device and/or a surgical catheter with a side-exiting medical instrument, among others. Additionally, systems, methods and devices are provided for forming a respiratory-gated point cloud of a patient's respiratory system and for placing a localization element in an organ of a patient.

A medical robotic system includes articulated instruments extending out of a distal end of an entry guide. Prior to pivoting the entry guide to re-orient it and the instruments, the instruments are moved in tandem back towards the entry guide after a delay. Haptic cues and velocity limits are provided to assist the operator in the retraction of the instruments. After retraction, the entry guide may then be pivoted without concern that the instruments will harm patient anatomy. The movement of the instruments in tandem back towards the entry guide may also occur through coupled control modes while the entry guide is held in a fixed position and orientation.

Methods of monitoring a medical instrument are provided. The methods may include receiving state information from a control system in communication with the medical instrument; detecting motion of at least a portion of the medical instrument and comparing the motion of the portion of the medical instrument with a threshold motion value that is based on the state information received from the control system. The methods may further include generating a communication message for presentation to an operator of the medical instrument based on the comparison of the motion with the threshold motion value. Corresponding systems are also provided.

Apparatus and methods are described including generating a road map of a blood vessel in a portion of a subject's body. A given feature that is within the portion of the subject's body is identified in the road map, the given feature being visible even in images of the portion the generation of which does not include use of a contrast agent. A tool is inserted into the blood vessel, and a current location of a portion of the tool is determined with respect to the given feature, by imaging the tool and the feature. In response to the determined current location, a current position of the tool within the road map is determined. In response to determining the current position of the tool within the road map, the current position of the tool with respect to the road map is displayed. Other embodiments are also described.

Disclosed herein is a medical system (100, 300, 500, 600) comprising: a medical imaging system (102, 302) configured to acquire medical imaging data (136) descriptive of a subject (110); a camera system (114) configured to acquire a subject image (138) of the subject; a memory (126) storing machine executable instructions (130), medical imaging system commands (134), and a coordinate system mapping, and an image marking neural network (132). Execution of the machine executable instruction by a computational system (120) causes the computational system to: acquire (200) the medical imaging data by controlling the medical imaging system with the medical imaging system commands; repeatedly (202) control the camera system to acquire the subject image during acquisition of the medical imaging data; repeatedly (204) receive camera system coordinates (142) of the virtual fiducial markers by inputting the subject image into the image marking neural network; and repeatedly (206) provide imaging system coordinates of the set of virtual fiducial markers by repeatedly converting the camera system coordinates of the virtual fiducial markers to the provided imaging system coordinates of the virtual fiducial markers using the coordinate system mapping.

A method of operating a robotic surgical system includes monitoring a force applied at a surgical instrument attached to a robotic arm, comparing the force to a force threshold for a surgical procedure, providing a signal in response to the force being outside the force threshold, monitoring, using a reference array attached to a patient, a bone movement caused while the surgical instrument interacts with the patient, and adjusting control of the robotic arm based on the bone movement.

A system including an instrument adapted to be manually supported and moved by a user. The instrument having a hand-held portion, a working portion movably coupled to the hand-held portion, and a plurality of actuators operatively coupled to the working portion for moving the working portion in a plurality of degrees of freedom relative to the hand-held portion. A tracking device is attached to the hand-held portion for tracking the instrument. The tracking device is in communication with a control system, which is used to keep the working portion within or outside of a boundary. A plurality of actuators are operatively coupled to the working portion. The control system instructs the actuators to move the working portion relative to the hand-held portion during the medical procedure in order to maintain a desired relationship between the working portion and the boundary.

Embodiments of the present invention set forth a method to update an operation pathway for a robotic arm assembly in response to a movement of a patient. The method includes processing a two-dimensional image associated with a tag having a spatial relationship with the patient. A corresponding movement of the tag in response to the movement of the patient is determined based on the spatial relationship. The tag includes a first point and a second point and the two-dimensional image includes a first point image and a second point image. The method also includes associating the first point image with the first point and the second point image with the second point and updating the operation pathway based on a conversion matrix of the first point and the second point, and the first point image and the second point image.

The robotic device for positioning a surgical instrument relative to the body of a patient includes a first robotic arm with a device for rigidly connecting to at least one surgical instrument, a device for anatomical realignment of the first arm by realigning an image that is of an area of the anatomy of the patient, and a device for compensating the movements of the first arm on the basis of detected movements. One version of the device includes at least one second robotic arm having sensors for detecting inner movements of the anatomical area, and a device for controlling the positioning of the first arm relative to sensed inner movements and to the outer movements induced in the second arm.

A medical robotic system includes articulated instruments extending out of a distal end of an entry guide. Prior to pivoting the entry guide to re-orient it and the instruments, the instruments are moved in tandem back towards the entry guide after a delay. Haptic cues and velocity limits are provided to assist the operator in the retraction of the instruments. After retraction, the entry guide may then be pivoted without concern that the instruments will harm patient anatomy. The movement of the instruments in tandem back towards the entry guide may also occur through coupled control modes while the entry guide is held in a fixed position and orientation.