Systems and methods may be used to perform robot-aided surgery. A system may include a robotic controller to monitor a position and orientation of an end effector coupled to an end of a robotic arm. The robotic controller may apply a force to a bone using the end effector, such as via a soft tissue balancing component. The robotic controller may determine soft tissue balance using information from a tracking system, such as a position of a first tracker affixed to the bone. The soft tissue balance may be output, such as to a display device.

Systems, methods and a sensor alignment mechanism are disclosed for medical navigational guidance systems. In one example, a system to make sterile a non-sterile optical sensor for use in navigational guidance during surgery includes a sterile drape having an optically transparent window to drape the optical sensor in a sterile barrier and a sensor alignment mechanism. The alignment mechanism secures the sensor through the drape in alignment with the window without breaching the sterile barrier and facilitates adjustment of the orientation of the optical sensor. The optical sensor may be aligned to view a surgical site when the alignment mechanism, assembled with the sterile drape and optical sensor, is attached to a bone. The alignment mechanism may be a lockable ball joint and facilitate orientation of the sensor in at least two degrees of freedom. A quick connect mechanism may couple the alignment mechanism to the bone.

Embodiments of the present systems and methods may provide a non-invasive system to measure and integrate behavioral and cognitive features enabling early detection and progression tracking of degenerative disease. For example, a method of detecting neurodegenerative disease may comprise measuring functioning of at least one of the motor system, cognitive function, and brain activity of a subject during everyday life and analyzing the gathered at least one motor system data, cognitive function data, and brain activity data of the subject.

Systems and methods for determining position and orientation of a bone of an anatomical feature are described. These include the use of a wearable holder configured to be mounted about an outer-skin surface of the anatomical feature, such that the anatomical feature and the bone are positioned in fixed relation with respect to the wearable holder when the wearable holder is mounted about the anatomical feature. Reference marker arrays are fixedly mounted to the wearable holder, each being positioned on the wearable holder to identify a landmark of the bone within the wearable holder when the wearable holder is mounted to the anatomical feature. The position and orientation of the reference markers are trackable to determine position and orientation of the wearable holder in a reference coordinate system, thereby enabling position and orientation of the landmarks on the bone to be determined.

The present invention is a respiratory monitoring device which uses 2+ sensors to map respiratory motion in patients to interpret into a respiratory effort and severity score. The core components of the invention are contact-based sensors that measure relative motion of the chest, abdomen, and/or other key anatomical features, a processing unit which takes in the data from all sensors, an algorithm that analyzes and compares the data from each sensor to understand relative motion and interpret it into clinically-relevant information, and a display screen that shares this information with clinicians. The sensors are connected to each other and the information processing unit which shares data with the screen for display of a respiratory severity score based on analysis of Thoraco-Abdominal Asynchrony (TAA) or similar indicators of respiratory effort as measured by the sensor network and analyzed by the algorithm.

A knee examination method includes the steps of situating a patient on a patient support adjacent a robotic knee testing apparatus, setting up the robotic knee testing apparatus, further setting up the leg of the patient relative to the robotic knee testing apparatus, and, after the steps of setting up and further setting up, examining knee laxity of a knee of the patient. The step of examining includes operating the robotic knee testing apparatus to manipulate the tibia positioning assembly.

A method includes obtaining rotational data and translational data for a joint, the rotational and translational data being indicative of rotational and translational movement of the joint during rotational and translational joint testing, respectively, the rotational and translational joint testing being implemented by a robotic testing apparatus applied to the joint. A quantity indicative of joint play of the joint is computed. The quantity is computed via a function of the rotational data and the translational data. The method includes determining whether the computed quantity exceeds a joint play threshold and, if the computed quantity exceeds the joint play threshold, comparing the rotational data and the translational data with preset rotational data and preset translational data for the rotational and translation joint testing, respectively.

The present invention relates to a method, such as a surgical method for assisting a surgeon for placing screws in the spine using a robot attached to a passive structure. The present invention also related to a method, such as a surgical method for assisting a surgeon for removing volumes in the body of a patient using a robot attached to a passive structure and to a device to carry out said methods. The present invention further concerns a device suitable to carry out the methods according to the present invention.

A diagnostic gage (12) that can be implemented into a tissue-simulating headform (17) or other anthropomorphic surrogate test device (11) as a means of determining the internal strain within the test surrogate. One embodiment of the gage consists of a matrix or substrate embedded with x-ray contrast agents (14) and a series of holes within the substrate (15) that provide contrasting markers in an x-ray image and a means of closely coupling the gage to the test specimen. The relative motion of these contrasting markers can be monitored using x-ray fluoroscopy equipment (e.g., source (10) and detector (13)). This gage provides a means of determining the internal strain within a headform surrogate model for the purpose of evaluating the performance of helmets in terms of reducing the occurrence of concussion among other biomechanical injuries from trauma.

A method of calculating in vivo force on an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) by measuring one or more biomechanical properties during a biomechanical screening task to obtain one or more biomechanical datum from the measured one or more biomechanical properties, and calculating a total load on an anterior cruciate ligament from an ACL force model using the one or more biomechanical datum as inputs to the ACL force model. The ACL force model is defined by F.sub.ACL=F.sub.ACL.sup.sag+F.sub.ACL.sup.front+F.sub.ACL.sup.trans+Σ.sub.jCT.sub.j, wherein F.sub.ACL is the total force on the ACL, F.sub.ACL.sup.sag is the force on the ACL in a sagittal plane, F.sub.ACL.sup.front is the force on the ACL in the frontal plane, F.sub.ACL.sup.trans is the force on the ACL in the transverse plane, and CT.sub.j is the ACL force interaction relationships among the sagittal-frontal (SF), sagittal-transverse (ST), and frontal-transverse (FT) planes, where j=SF, ST, FT.