A drill guide fixture may be configured to prepare a skull for attachment of a cranial insertion fixture. The drill guide fixture may include a central drill guide and a bone anchor guide at a base of the drill guide fixture. The central drill guide may define a central drill guide hole therethrough, wherein the central drill guide hole has a first opening at a base of the drill guide fixture and a second opening spaced apart from the base of the drill guide fixture. The bone anchor drill guide may define a bone anchor drill guide hole therethrough, and the bone anchor drill guide hole may be offset from the central drill guide hole in a direction that is perpendicular with respect to a direction of the central drill guide hole. Related cranial insertion fixtures, robotic systems, and methods are also discussed.

A system for localizing a region of interest (ROI) within a patient's body is disclosed. An embodiment of the system may comprise a pad that can be placed in association with the patient's body; one or more markers which are placed within a patient's body in association with the ROI, each marker being associated with one or more antennas and a unique collective ID; a locator comprising one or more antennas for transmitting/receiving a microwave (MW) signal into/from the patient's body in order to identify the one or more markers and a processing unit that is configured to control the operation of the system and for determining the distance from the locator to each one of the one or more markers.

The invention involves a system and method for increasing positional accuracy of surgical systems that utilize magnetic or electromagnetic sensors to provide positional awareness to a surgeon or robot performing the surgery. The system takes advantage of electromagnetic tracking through sensors. These sensors are very accurate and repeatable, while being compact enough to not inhibit surgical procedures. The accuracy and repeatability of the sensors is <1 mm within a predetermined 6 inch×6 inch performance motion box. The system is constructed and arranged to map the distortion patterns of the sensor and, in real time, correct the distortion pattern to provide accurate location of anatomical structures for performance of a surgery.

A positioning system includes a group of positioning devices including a first device comprising a first positioning source associated with a first positioning modality, the first positioning source being configured to view a first field, a second device comprising a second positioning source associated with a second positioning modality that is of a different type than the first positioning modality, the second positioning source being configured to view a second field, a third device comprising one or more first markers detectable within the first field using the first positioning modality, and a fourth device comprising one or more second markers detectable within the second field using the second positioning modality. A linking structure physically links two of the group of positioning devices to one another in a fixed, rigid relative position and orientation.

A system and method for inductive heating applications includes positioning one or more inductive heating elements in a location, delivering electromagnetic radiation, by a radiation source, to heat at least a portion of the one or more inductive heating elements, and detecting, by a detector, the heat generated by the one or more inductive heating elements. The system and method also include controlling, by a processing unit, a condition based on the detected heat.

Protective packaging, surgical kits, systems, and methods are described herein for assisting in determining whether a tool is properly installed on a surgical device. The protective packaging retains the tool and has trackable features defined relative to a tool center point of the tool. The trackable features have a predetermined state defined relative to the tool center point and the trackable features are configured to be detectable by a localizer to locate the tool center point. One or more controllers can compare the actual state of the tool center point with an expected state of the tool center point, which is based on an expected condition in which the tool is properly mounted to the surgical device. Based on the comparison, the one or more controllers can determine whether the tool is properly mounted to the surgical device.

A retro-reflective marker comprising a bare retro-reflective layer; a protective layer with a near-infrared (NIR) wavelength specific anti-reflective coating; and a border with an NIR absorbent coating.

Systems and methods are provided for identifying and locating a plurality of reflector markers implanted within a target tissue region within a patient's body. A probe is provided that is activated to transmit electromagnetic signals into the patient's body, receive reflected signals from the patient's body, and in synchronization with transmitting the electromagnetic signals, deliver light pulses into the patient's body. The markers reflector tags modulate reflected signals from the respective markers based on orthogonal code sequences opening and closing respective switches of the markers to modulate the reflective properties of the markers. The probe processes the return signals to separate the reflected signals based at least in part on the code sequences to identify and locate each of the plurality of reflector tags substantially simultaneously.

A method for adjusting the operation of a surgical instrument using machine learning in a surgical suite is disclosed.

A flexible marker system for use with a computer-assisted surgical (CAS) tracking system is disclosed. The system includes a rigid frame or instrument having a plurality of coupling locations each configured to position a navigation marker in a predetermined position and a flexible array configured to be coupled with the rigid frame or instrument. The flexible array can include an elastically deformable body and a plurality of navigation markers, where the flexible array is configured to be coupled to the rigid frame or instrument by stretching the elastically deformable body over the rigid frame or instrument such that each of the plurality of navigation markers is positioned at one of the plurality of coupling locations of the rigid frame or instrument.