A medical system includes a manipulator arm including a movable distal portion, a proximal portion coupled to a base, and joints between the distal portion and the base. A processor coupled to the manipulator arm performs operations including calculating a first movement of the joints in a null-space of a Jacobian of the manipulator arm, the first movement being calculated in accordance with a first objective for arm-to-patient collision avoidance. The operations further include calculating a second movement of the joints in the null-space, the second movement being calculated in accordance with a second objective for arm-to-arm collision avoidance, and combining at least the first and second movements into a combined movement in a manner allowing the first objective to overpower the second objective, and driving the joints to effect the combined movement.

A medical system includes a manipulator arm including a movable distal portion, a proximal portion coupled to a base, and joints between the distal portion and the base. A processor coupled to the manipulator arm performs operations including calculating a first movement of the joints in a null-space of a Jacobian of the manipulator arm, the first movement being calculated in accordance with a first objective for arm-to-patient collision avoidance. The operations further include calculating a second movement of the joints in the null-space, the second movement being calculated in accordance with a second objective for arm-to-arm collision avoidance, and combining at least the first and second movements into a combined movement in a manner allowing the first objective to overpower the second objective, and driving the joints to effect the combined movement.

A robot interference checking motion planning technique using swept volume deformation. A rapidly-exploring random tree (RRT) algorithm generates random sample nodes between a start point and a goal point. Each sample node is evaluated by checking for robot-obstacle interference along a path segment to the node. If an interference exists along the path segment, a swept volume of the segment is used to identify a critical posture where the interference is greatest, and obstacle interference points are used to define a virtual force applied to the robot links to modify the path segment to alleviate the interference condition. A swept volume of the modified path segment is computed and evaluated. If the modified swept volume is collision-free and the modified path segment motion plan meets robot joint range criteria, the modified path segment and the sample node are added to the overall robot motion program.

A method for moving a manipulator arm. The manipulator arm includes a movable distal portion, a proximal portion coupled to a base, and joints between the distal portion and the base. The method involves calculating a first movement of the joints in accordance with a first objective. The method further involves calculating a second movement of the joints in accordance with a second objective. The first and the second movements are in a null-space of a Jacobian of the manipulator arm. The method also involves determining a combined movement of the joints by combining the first and second movements while limiting an overall magnitude of the combined movement without changing a direction of the combined movement, and/or combining the first and second movements while limiting a magnitude of the combined movement degree-of-freedom by degree-of-freedom. The method further involves driving the joints to effect the combined movement of the joints.

A method for moving a manipulator arm. The manipulator arm includes a movable distal portion, a proximal portion coupled to a base, and joints between the distal portion and the base. The method involves calculating a first movement of the joints in accordance with a first objective. The method further involves calculating a second movement of the joints in accordance with a second objective. The first and the second movements are in a null-space of a Jacobian of the manipulator arm. The method also involves determining a combined movement of the joints by combining the first and second movements while limiting an overall magnitude of the combined movement without changing a direction of the combined movement, and/or combining the first and second movements while limiting a magnitude of the combined movement degree-of-freedom by degree-of-freedom. The method further involves driving the joints to effect the combined movement of the joints.

Devices, systems, and methods for providing commanded movement of an end effector of a manipulator concurrent with a desired movement of one or more joints of the manipulator according to one or more consolidated null-space objectives. The null-space objectives may include a joint state combination, relative joint states, range of joint states, joint state profile, kinetic energy, clutching movements, collision avoidance movements, singularity avoidance movements, pose or pitch preference, desired manipulator configurations, commanded reconfiguration of the manipulator, and anisotropic emphasis of the joints. Methods include calculating multiple null-space movements according to different null-space objectives, determining an attribute for each and consolidating the null-space movements with a null-space manager using various approaches. The approaches may include applying weighting, scaling, saturation levels, priority, master velocity limiting, saturated limited integration and various combinations thereof.

Devices, systems, and methods for providing commanded movement of an end effector of a manipulator concurrent with a desired movement of one or more joints of the manipulator according to one or more consolidated null-space objectives. The null-space objectives may include a joint state combination, relative joint states, range of joint states, joint state profile, kinetic energy, clutching movements, collision avoidance movements, singularity avoidance movements, pose or pitch preference, desired manipulator configurations, commanded reconfiguration of the manipulator, and anisotropic emphasis of the joints. Methods include calculating multiple null-space movements according to different null-space objectives, determining an attribute for each and consolidating the null-space movements with a null-space manager using various approaches. The approaches may include applying weighting, scaling, saturation levels, priority, master velocity limiting, saturated limited integration and various combinations thereof.

Devices, systems, and methods for providing commanded movement of an end effector of a manipulator concurrent with a desired movement of one or more joints of the manipulator according to one or more consolidated null-space objectives. The null-space objectives may include a joint state combination, relative joint states, range of joint states, joint state profile, kinetic energy, clutching movements, collision avoidance movements, singularity avoidance movements, pose or pitch preference, desired manipulator configurations, commanded reconfiguration of the manipulator, and anisotropic emphasis of the joints. Methods include calculating multiple null-space movements according to different null-space objectives, determining an attribute for each and consolidating the null-space movements with a null-space manager using various approaches. The approaches may include applying weighting, scaling, saturation levels, priority, master velocity limiting, saturated limited integration and various combinations thereof.

A robot interference checking motion planning technique using swept volume deformation. A rapidly-exploring random tree (RRT) algorithm generates random sample nodes between a start point and a goal point. Each sample node is evaluated by checking for robot-obstacle interference along a path segment to the node. If an interference exists along the path segment, a swept volume of the segment is used to identify a critical posture where the interference is greatest, and obstacle interference points are used to define a virtual force applied to the robot links to modify the path segment to alleviate the interference condition. A swept volume of the modified path segment is computed and evaluated. If the modified swept volume is collision-free and the modified path segment motion plan meets robot joint range criteria, the modified path segment and the sample node are added to the overall robot motion program.

Devices, systems, and methods for providing commanded movement of an end effector of a manipulator concurrent with a desired movement of one or more joints of the manipulator according to one or more consolidated null-space objectives. The null-space objectives may include a joint state combination, relative joint states, range of joint states, joint state profile, kinetic energy, clutching movements, collision avoidance movements, singularity avoidance movements, pose or pitch preference, desired manipulator configurations, commanded reconfiguration of the manipulator, and anisotropic emphasis of the joints. Methods include calculating multiple null-space movements according to different null-space objectives, determining an attribute for each and consolidating the null-space movements with a null-space manager using various approaches. The approaches may include applying weighting, scaling, saturation levels, priority, master velocity limiting, saturated limited integration and various combinations thereof.