JPH10296671A - Manipulator system for surgical operation - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To attain wire saving and miniaturization of a manipulator by detecting a part of the position and/or attitude decided by operating an operation means as binarization information, converting it to information consisting of three values, and deciding the position and/or attitude of a part of a plurality of shafts by a control means based on it. SOLUTION: Pulse-like signals detected with photointerrupters 22a, 22b of encoders 100, 200 and output to lines A1, B1 are input to a transmitting circuit 25, and a signal showing the output direction and the number of count indicating movement of a master arm is output to a line driver so as to output a signal consisting of three values. The signal is input to a receiving circuit 27, the signal level is converted to a TTL logic signal (binary) of fixed voltage and output to a line A3, the direction signal from a comparator is output to a line B3, they are received with an up/down counter 28, and the moved direction and the moved quantity of the master arm are detected. Hereby, the signal wires can be saved into two wires as a half of customary ones.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a surgical manipulator system, and more particularly, to a surgical manipulator system in which a conventional multi-degree-of-freedom surgical manipulator is reduced in diameter and size.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When a surgical manipulator is driven by a motor, an optical encoder is conventionally used as a position detecting means of the manipulator. Although this optical encoder has excellent position detection accuracy, it needs three signal lines of A, B, and Z phases. In particular, when such an optical encoder is used in a facility such as a hospital, a line driver system is employed to remove the influence of noise. In this case, at least six signal lines are required.

[0003]

As described above, the surgical manipulator system of the line driver system requires at least six signal lines, so that it is difficult to reduce the diameter of the surgical manipulator system. there were.

[0004] The surgical manipulator system of the present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and an object thereof is to overcome the drawbacks of the prior art and reduce the size and line-saving of the surgical manipulator. It is an object of the present invention to provide a surgical manipulator system capable of realizing the above.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a surgical manipulator of the present invention is provided with a multi-joint structure surgical manipulator having a plurality of axes, and provided on the surgical manipulator, and provided in a body cavity. Operating device for determining the position and / or orientation of the surgical manipulator, and a part of the position and / or orientation determined by operating the operating device as binarized information. Detecting means for detecting, transmitting means for converting the binarized information detected by the detecting means into information comprising at least three values and transmitting the information, and based on the information comprising at least three values from the transmitting means, Control means for determining the position and / or posture of a part of the plurality of axes of the surgical manipulator.

That is, in the surgical manipulator of the present invention, the position and / or posture of the multi-joint structure surgical manipulator having a plurality of axes is determined by operating the operating means, and one of the determined position and / or posture is determined. Is detected as binary information. The binarized information is converted into ternary information and transmitted. The control unit determines positions and / or postures of a part of a plurality of axes of the surgical manipulator based on the transmitted information including at least three values.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a surgical manipulator system according to a first embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes an operating table for performing an observation procedure, and 2 denotes a patient. Bedside rails 3 are provided on both sides of the operating table 1. A treatment arm 5 for positioning a treatment tool 4 for performing a treatment in a patient's body cavity and an observation arm 7 for positioning an observation endoscope 6 are detachably attached to the bedside rail 3. Attached to. Note that the treatment tool 4 and the endoscope 6 are inserted into the body cavity from the insertion port 2a opened in the body wall of the patient.

The connection between the treatment arm 5 and the treatment tool 4 and the connection between the observation arm 7 and the endoscope 6 are performed by a joint mechanism 19 which is a joint having a plurality of degrees of freedom. This is to prevent an excessive force from being applied to the insertion port 2a even if the position of the insertion port 2a is shifted during the operation, for example.

The control device 11 has a built-in microcontroller (not shown) for realizing a function of controlling the operation of the manipulator described later. The treatment arm 5 and the observation arm 7 mechanically perform an up / down operation (a direction shown in FIG. 1), a turning operation (b direction shown in FIG. 1), and a telescopic operation (c direction shown in FIG. 1). It is configured to be able to do so. An actuator (not shown) is arranged in the arm to realize such a movement. As the actuator, a servomotor often used for positioning a robot is used.

As shown in FIG. 2, an insertion portion 4a (FIG. 2) of the treatment instrument 4 attached to the distal end of the treatment arm 5 is provided.
(A)) and the insertion portion 6a (FIG. 2A) of the endoscope 6 attached to the distal end of the observation arm 7 so that the distal end can be driven to bend in the a direction and the b direction, respectively. Has become.

The bending drive is performed by the servo motor housing 4b of the treatment instrument 4 and the servo motor housing 6b of the endoscope 6.
This is performed by driving a servo motor (not shown) provided in each of the inside and pulling a wire (not shown) inserted through the insertion portion 4a. The treatment tool 4 and the endoscope 6 can be driven to rotate in the direction c shown in FIG. Such rotational driving is performed by driving servo motors 4d and 6d provided in the free joint arms 4c and 6c to operate a rotating mechanism (not shown).

In particular, an opening / closing mechanism for opening and closing the forceps section 4e is provided at the tip forceps section 4e of the treatment instrument 4, and the opening / closing mechanism is provided with a servomotor (not shown) provided in the servomotor housing 4b. It is operated by being driven to push and pull a rod or a wire member inserted and arranged in the insertion portion 4a.

Here, the above-described treatment tool 4 is connected to a treatment arm 5.
The combination of the above is referred to as a treatment slave manipulator, and the combination of the endoscope 6 and the observation arm 7 is referred to as an observation slave manipulator. FIG. 1 shows a master arm 8 as input means for the treatment slave manipulator and a head-mounted display (hereinafter referred to as HMD) 9 as input means for the observation slave manipulator.

In the present embodiment, the treatment for the patient is performed in a mode in which the movement of the master arm 8 as the input means can be transmitted to the treatment slave manipulator, that is, in a master-slave mode in which the treatment slave manipulator follows the movement of the master arm 8. Will be The master arm 8 includes a plurality of link mechanisms. Each link constituting the link mechanism is provided with an encoder for position detection described later. The movement amount of the master arm 8 can be detected by detecting the operation of each link by this encoder.

An electromagnetic clutch (not shown) is attached to each arm link of the master arm 8 so that the master arm 8 does not operate by its own weight when the operator releases his / her hand from the master arm 8. .
That is, the operation of the master arm 8 is restricted by the electromagnetic clutch so that it does not move when it is not necessary.

When the treatment slave manipulator is actually moved in the master-slave mode, the operation of the electromagnetic clutch is controlled by an operation of depressing a foot switch (not shown). In other words, this locking operation of locking the operation of the master arm 8 can be performed by the foot switch.

On the other hand, the HMD 9 as another input means has a display (not shown) for displaying an image observed by the endoscope 6. This display is HM
It is provided to be set at the position of the operator's eyes when D9 is mounted on the operator's head. Further, the HMD 9 is configured so that an image captured by the distal end of the endoscope 6 can always be observed on the display regardless of how the operator's head moves.

According to the HMD 9 having such a configuration, the operability is reduced since the operator does not need to perform the troublesome operation of moving his / her gaze toward the TV monitor installed in the operating room during the procedure as in the prior art. improves. In addition, since the patient's image can always be clearly observed without removing the line of sight from the affected part, a safe operation can be performed.

The spatial movement of the surgeon's head is detected by a magnetic sensor 10. The magnetic sensor 10 includes a magnetic sensor source 10b for generating a uniform magnetic field and a magnetic sensor sense 10a. Of these, the magnetic sensor sense unit 1
Reference numeral 0a is attached substantially at the center of the HMD 9. The movement of the surgeon's head is detected by the magnetic sensor 10 described above. The detection method will be described briefly. The uniform magnetic field generated from the magnetic sensor source unit 10b set at a predetermined location other than the HMD 9 is generated by a magnetic field. The sensor sense unit 10a detects and processes information on the change in the magnetic field accompanying the movement of the head to process the absolute spatial movement amount of the magnetic sensor source unit 10b and the magnetic sensor sense unit 10a and the inclination of the magnetic sensor sense unit 10a. Then, the Euler angle (roll pitch) is obtained to detect the moving amount and inclination of the operator's head.

With the above configuration, it is possible to perform the master-slave operation of the observation slave manipulator by the movement of the operator's head and to perform the master-slave operation of the treatment slave manipulator by operating the master arm 8.

FIG. 3A is a connection diagram of a conventional encoder. Although only three axes are shown here for simplicity, signal cables for each encoder are used as shown in the figure. In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG.
By using only one signal cable, miniaturization is enabled.

FIG. 4 shows a first embodiment of the present invention.
The detailed configuration of the position detection circuit 21 built in the master arm 8 of the surgical manipulator and the position detection circuit 2
1 connected to the control device 1 via a cable line 26
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration on one side. Position detection circuit 21
Is composed of encoders 100 and 200 and a transmission circuit 25. The encoders 100 and 200 include photointerrupters 22a and 22b, and resistors 23a and 2b for supplying current to the photointerrupters 22a and 22b.
3b and a FE realizing a constant current circuit for supplying a constant current to the light emitting portions of the photo interrupters 22a and 22b.
T24a and 24b. The transmission circuit 25 is a transmission circuit for transmitting the position information of the encoders 100 and 200 to the control device 11 side.

The transmission circuit 25 is connected via a cable line 26 to a reception circuit 27 provided on the control device 11 side. The receiving circuit 27 is connected to an up / down counter 28 for detecting how much the encoders 100 and 200 have counted.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a specific internal configuration of the A and B phase transmission circuits 25. In this configuration, the photo interrupter 22 of the encoders 100 and 200 shown in FIG.
The pulse-like signals detected at a and 22b and output on the lines A1 and B1 are input to the transmission circuit 25. At this time, although it depends on the rotation direction of the encoder, for example, a signal whose phase is shifted by 90 degrees from line A1 is output to line B1, or a pulse whose phase is delayed by 90 degrees from the pulse output to line B1. Is output to the transmission circuit 25 such that is output to the line A1.

The pulse signal input from the line A1 or the line B1 is applied to the pulse mode conversion circuit 29 shown in FIG.
Is converted to a signal indicating the number of pulses indicating how much the master arm 8 has moved and the output direction of the pulse (conversion from CW / CCW to pulse / DIR). Therefore, the pulse mode conversion circuit 29 outputs a signal indicating the pulse output direction and the count number, but the signal of the pulse count number is supplied to the analog switches 32 and 33 via the non-inverting amplifier 30 and the inverting amplifier 31. Is output. Therefore, the pulse count is changed by the line driver 3 according to the switching of the analog switches 32 and 33.
5, the analog switch 32,
The switching operation of 33 is controlled by a signal output from the direction signal line of the pulse mode conversion circuit 29 and an inverter 34.

That is, for example, when the encoder rotates in the positive direction, a plus 5 V pulse is applied to the line driver 3
5, the analog switch 32 is closed.
The analog switch 33 is closed so that a minus 5 V pulse obtained by inverting the V input signal by the inverting amplifier 31 is output from the line driver 35. In this way, a ternary signal is output from the line driver 35 as shown in FIG. Further, since the line driver 35 is of a differential type, a signal obtained by inverting the signal output to the line A2 is output to the line B2.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a specific internal configuration of the A and B phase receiving circuits 27. As shown in FIG. The receiving circuit 27 receives a signal transmitted via the cable line 26 shown in FIG. In this case, the transmission circuit 2 is connected to the line A2 and the line B2.
The signal output from the line driver 35 in No. 5 is input to the line receiver 36 of the receiving circuit 27 in a ternary state as it is. Since this signal includes signal levels of plus 5 V and minus 5 V, the signal level is changed to a plus 5 V T
A non-inverting amplifier circuit 37 and an inverting amplifier circuit 38 are connected in parallel as shown in the figure for conversion to a TL logic signal (binary signal), and the switching of the analog switches 40 and 41 is controlled. Amplifier circuits 37, 38
Is output on the line A3.

In this case, the analog switches 40, 4
The switching control of 1 is performed by the comparator 39 receiving the output of the line driver 36 and the inverter 42. That is, the comparator 39 determines that the input signal level is 5
A positive or negative determination is made depending on whether the voltage is equal to or more than V or less than 5 V. In the case of positive, for example, the analog switch 40 is closed and a signal of +5 V is output as it is to the line A3. The signal whose signal is inverted by the inverting amplifier 38 to become plus 5 V is output to the line A3.

As described above, the analog switch 40 or 41 outputs a plus 5 V TTL pulse (binary signal) to the line A3, and the comparator 39 outputs a direction signal to the line B3. Therefore, by receiving and processing these signals by the up / down counter 28, it is possible to detect in which direction and how much the master arm 8 has moved.

According to the above-described first embodiment, conventionally, at least four signal lines of, for example, two each of A-phase and B-phase are required in the line driver method, but two half of the two signal lines are required. Can be used for position detection. Accordingly, it is possible to reduce the number of lines required for the position detecting means of the master arm 8, thereby making it possible to reduce the diameter and size of the surgical manipulator system.

Hereinafter, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.
FIG. 7 shows a circuit configuration of the second embodiment. The circuit configuration of the second embodiment is basically the same as the circuit configuration shown in the first embodiment, except that a Z-phase transmission circuit and a reception circuit are newly added. That is, in FIG. 7, a photo-interrupter 22c for detecting a Z-phase signal,
An encoder 300 including a resistor 23c for flowing a current through the photointerrupter 22c and an FET 24c for realizing a constant current circuit; a Z-phase transmission circuit 53;
An ABZ phase transmission circuit 52 for transmitting the A, B, and Z phase signals collectively is added.

The operation is basically the same as that of the AB-phase circuit shown in the first embodiment, except that a fine clock pulse for recognizing the Z-phase is superimposed on the AB-phase line. On the point. Normally, the Z-phase signal is a signal output when the encoder makes one rotation, and is not normally used. However, as in the present embodiment, it can be used to detect the origin of the incremental encoder. This results in adding two more lines for the Z phase, which is not preferable from the viewpoint of saving the line of the position detecting means, that is, downsizing the manipulator. Therefore, in the second embodiment, in order to overcome such a problem, a method of superimposing a fine Z-phase clock signal on an AB-phase output line is used as described in detail below.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a specific internal configuration of the ABZ phase transmission circuit 52 described above. The same operation as in the first embodiment is performed for the line A1, the line B1, the line A2, and the line B2 in the drawing. Further, a non-inverting amplifier 30, an inverting amplifier 31, analog switches 32, 3
3, the inverter 34 and the line driver 35 are the same. The difference from the first embodiment is that, when a signal having a certain width is input to the Z-phase transmission circuit 53 via the Z1 line, the Z-phase transmission circuit 53 And output it on the Z2 line. The OR circuit 154 is an AB phase transmission circuit 25
The clock from the Z-phase transmission circuit 53 is superimposed on the clock pulse output from. This allows the non-inverting amplifier 3
After passing through 0, the inverting amplifier 31, and the analog switches 32 and 33, the line driver 35 outputs a clock having a waveform as shown on the line A3 and the line B3.
Although only minus 5 V and 0 V clocks are shown in the figure as waveforms on the lines A3 and B3, when the encoder rotates in a different direction, it goes without saying that a plus 5 V clock is output.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a specific internal configuration of the ABZ phase receiving circuit 54. The clock signals on the lines A3 and B3 are received by the line receiver 36.
The received signal is input to the low-pass filter 55, and the Z-phase clock superimposed on the AB-phase signal is removed here, whereby only the AB-phase clock component is extracted. Thereafter, as in the first embodiment, the analog switches 40 and 41 are switched by the inverter 42 and the comparator 39 to turn on and off the outputs of the non-inverting amplifier circuit 37 and the inverting amplifier circuit 38, thereby making the 5V TT
An L-level signal is output on line A3. Similarly, the comparator 39 detects the rotation direction of the encoder according to the signal level of plus 5 V or minus 5 V, and outputs a direction signal on line B4. The up / down counter 28 receives the input line A
4 and B4, the moving amount and moving direction of the encoder are detected.

The output from the line receiver 36 is Z
It is input to the phase receiving circuit 56 and detected by the following method.
FIG. 10 is a diagram showing the configuration of the Z-phase receiving circuit 56.
As shown in the figure, a Z-phase clock is superimposed on a normal AB-phase clock, and
V, a pulse having a signal level of -5 V is input. This pulse is first subjected to level conversion by the absolute value circuit 57 to be unified into plus 5V and 0V signals.
Further, by passing this signal through a low-pass filter 58, an AB-phase clock is extracted by the same operation as the above-described low-pass filter 55.

At the same time, the signal from the absolute value circuit 57 is input to the counter 59 via another line to determine whether or not the signal is a Z-phase signal. The next Z-phase pulse output circuit 60 is configured to output one clock on the line Z4 only when the value matches the value set in the counter 59.

Here, AB from the low-pass filter 58
The phase clock is generated by a counter 59 and a Z-phase pulse output circuit 60.
Is input to the reset line. This is because the counter 59 and the Z-phase pulse output circuit 60 are reset every time the AB-phase clock is input, so that the clock for recognizing the Z-phase signal is counted from that time. . This makes it possible to recognize and extract the Z-phase signal, and detect the Z-phase signal simply by adding a Z-phase receiving circuit and a transmitting circuit to the AB-phase circuit described in the first embodiment. can do.

According to the second embodiment, an ABZ signal line can be constituted by only two lines of the encoder transmitting / receiving circuit used in the first embodiment. In addition, the configuration becomes compact, and the diameter and size of the surgical manipulator system can be reduced.

Hereinafter, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described.
In the first and second embodiments described above, the line saving of the encoder part has been described. However, this embodiment is an embodiment for miniaturizing the drive units of the motor and the actuator.
When performing drive control, a DA converter is usually used to generate a signal for driving the actuator. In the present embodiment, the manipulator and the control device are reduced by reducing the size of the DA converter. It is.

FIGS. 11A and 11B show the principle of the third embodiment. In FIGS. 11A and 11B, the horizontal axis represents frequency,
The signal level is shown on the vertical axis. In FIG. 11A, the white portion surrounded by a square is the level of the original signal, and the portion hatched is the quantization noise.

When the number of bits is reduced in order to realize a miniaturized DA converter, quantization noise is superimposed on the original signal as shown in the left diagram of FIG. Therefore, the original signal cannot be processed accurately. Therefore, the quantization noise superimposed on the original signal is driven to the high frequency region side as shown in the right diagram of FIG. A DA converter with a small number of bits can be realized while reducing noise by reducing errors.

This oversampling technique is
In the upper diagram of FIG. 11B, when the original signal is oversampled at a frequency of, for example, 4 fs with respect to the original signal, half the frequency of 2 fs (generally called the Nyquist frequency) and another Nyquist frequency Frequency 6fs
, A quantization error noise characteristic symmetrical about the frequency of 4 fs is obtained. Here, what is written as spurious in the figure is a signal of a folded component with respect to the original signal.

In such a characteristic, by increasing the oversampling frequency to increase the oversampling frequency, FIG.
(B) As shown in the lower diagram, it is possible to remove the quantization error noise in the hatched portion.

FIG. 12 shows a specific circuit configuration for realizing this. One of them is composed of a low boost 70a, a 1-bit quantizer 71a, and a low cut 72a as shown in FIG. This low boost 7
0a, 1-bit quantizer 71a, and low cut 72a
In the configuration of (1), first, the low boost is performed by the low boost 70a before the 1-bit quantizer 71a to raise a low frequency region. Next, after the signal is quantized by the 1-bit quantizer 71a, the low-cut 72a performs a low-cut process having inverse characteristics to the low-cut process to return the frequency characteristic of the original signal to the original flat characteristic.

FIG. 12B shows a 1-bit quantization circuit of the delta modulation system. The 1-bit DA converter re-quantizes a multi-bit (for example, 16-bit) digital signal into a 1-bit digital signal. This circuit includes a one-bit quantizer 71b, an integrator 70b1, a one-sample delay 73b, and an integrator 70b2. Here, a comparator is specifically used as the 1-bit quantizer 71b, and the comparator compares changes in the input signal. For example, when the change of the input signal is positive, the output of the 1-bit quantizer 71b is set to 1; when the change is negative, the output of the 1-bit quantizer 71b is set to 0, Value can be realized.

FIG. 12C shows an example in which a 1st-order noise shaping circuit is configured using the 1-bit quantization circuit of the delta modulation system shown in FIG. 12B. This configuration,
In this embodiment, an integrator 70c1 is added to the front stage of the 1-bit quantization circuit of the delta modulation system shown in FIG. 12B, and a differentiator 72c is added to the output terminal. FIG.
The integrator 70c1 in FIG. 12C corresponds to the low boost 70a in FIG. 12A, and the portion surrounded by the dotted line in FIG. 12C corresponds to the one-bit quantizer 71a in FIG. 12
The differentiator 72c of FIG. 12C is the low cut 72 of FIG.
a. With such a configuration, a DA converter having a 1-bit resolution while suppressing a quantization error is configured. Thus, the actuator can be driven by accurately restoring the original signal even with one bit.

As a specific circuit using this oversampling technique, as shown in FIG.
0, 1-bit quantizer 131, 1-sample delay 13
2 is conceivable. Such a configuration can be realized by a digital operation using software or the like or a discrete IC using a flip-flop counter or the like.

FIG. 14 shows the structure of the first embodiment constructed by the above method.
An example in which a bit DA converter is applied to a surgical manipulator will be described. The control command generation unit 80 is a unit that generates a signal for commanding the movement amount of the link of each surgical manipulator in accordance with the detected movement amount of the master arm 8. The positioning control and the like are performed by the control and the like.

As shown in FIG. 14, the servo control circuit 901 for the first axis includes a sample holder 811, a digital filter 821 (which is a part for processing an algorithm such as PID), a noise shaping circuit 831, and a counter ( A 1-bit DA converter 841, a power converter 851, a motor 861, and an encoder 871 are connected to the accumulator 881. The other servo control circuits 902 to 90n have the same configuration.

By connecting such servo control circuits to a plurality of axes, positioning control performed by a multi-axis robot can be performed. That is, the movement amount of the master arm 8 is input to the control command generation unit 80, and the control command generation unit 8
0 outputs a command value to each axis from the first axis to the sixth axis to perform positioning control by calculation in each servo control circuit.

According to the third embodiment, the configuration of the DA converter used for driving the motor on the control device 11 side can be simplified and downsized. Therefore, in addition to the configuration of the first embodiment and the configuration of the second embodiment, not only the configuration of the manipulator but also the configuration of the control device can be reduced, and further space saving can be realized. Can be.

Hereinafter, a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIGS. 15A and 15B are diagrams showing the configuration of the fourth embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 15A, reference numeral 80 denotes base coordinates of the treatment manipulator, and reference numeral 81 denotes base coordinates of the observation manipulator. TCP _M in the figure corresponds to the hand coordinates of the tool center point of the treatment manipulator, and TCP _{S in} the figure corresponds to the hand coordinates of the observation manipulator. Other reference numbers correspond to the reference numbers in FIG. 1 described above, and thus detailed description of each unit will be omitted.

Conventionally, the manipulator for treatment and the manipulator for observation are set in independent coordinate systems. Therefore, when the manipulator for treatment is moved, the manipulator for treatment is displaced from the observation target area, or the manipulator for observation is moved. There is a problem that the treatment manipulator is displaced from the observation target area due to the movement, and this has a disadvantage that the operation becomes complicated.

In order to solve this problem, the fourth embodiment sets the base coordinate system of the treatment manipulator and the base coordinate system of the observation manipulator at predetermined positions in advance. The correspondence with the manipulator is understood. Specifically, it is only necessary to generate a position command for the robot by performing coordinate conversion. The coordinate conversion of the surgical manipulator system is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. Hei 6-131811, or Japanese Patent Application No. Hei 6-208815, and a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

Hereinafter, an actual operation method according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 16 (a) and 16 (b). FIG. 16A shows the distal end of the treatment tool 4 constituting the treatment manipulator and the endoscope 6 constituting the observation manipulator.
Of FIG. Here, usually, the observation manipulator determines the movement amount of each joint of the robot by performing inverse coordinate transformation based on TCP _S. For example, the spatial position of the point L can be obtained by solving the inverse coordinate transformation using the point L shown in FIG.

Since the correspondence between the base coordinate system of the treatment manipulator and the base coordinate system of the observation manipulator is determined, control is performed so that the TCP _{M of the} treatment manipulator base coordinate system comes to the point L. Coordinate transformation can be performed. Thus, even when the observation manipulator moves, the treatment manipulator can be controlled so that the treatment manipulator falls within the range of the screen indicated by the observation manipulator. Actually, as shown in FIG. 16 (b), when TCP _M1 is the current position of the treatment manipulator, the movement vector P is subtracted from the point L, and this treatment vector is calculated to obtain the treatment manipulator. Is driven to enter the observation field of view of the observation manipulator.

According to the above-described fourth embodiment, even when the observation manipulator repeatedly moves to search for a target site in the body cavity, the treatment manipulator does not disappear from the screen, thereby improving operability. Can be improved. A. The specific embodiment described above includes the following configuration (1)
-1) to (3-5). (1-1) A multi-joint-structured surgical manipulator having a plurality of axes, a surgical machine provided in the surgical manipulator, and insertable into a body cavity, and a position and / or posture of the surgical manipulator are determined. Means for detecting a part of the position and / or orientation determined by the operation of the operating means as binarized information, and converting the binarized information detected by the detecting means into at least ternary information. Transmitting means for converting the information into information consisting of at least three values, and controlling means for determining positions and / or postures of a part of a plurality of axes of the surgical manipulator based on at least three-value information from the transmitting means. And a surgical manipulator comprising: (1-2) In the above (1-1), the control means comprises:
After receiving the information consisting of at least three values from the transmitting means, the information processing apparatus further comprises a converting means for converting the information into binary information again. (1-3) In the above (1-1), the transmission means has a line driver type driving unit. (1-4) In (1-2), the optical encoder further includes an optical encoder, and the optical encoder counts the position of the surgical manipulator in an incremental manner. (2-1) A multi-joint surgical manipulator having a plurality of axes, a surgical machine provided in the surgical manipulator and insertable into a body cavity, and a position and / or posture of the surgical manipulator are determined. For detecting a part of the position and / or posture determined by the operation of the operation unit, and the position and / or posture of the position and / or posture determined by the operation unit detected by the detection unit. Control means for determining a position and / or orientation of a part of a plurality of axes of the surgical manipulator based on information about the part, wherein the control means determines the plurality of the determined surgical manipulators. Generating a command for driving the surgical manipulator using a single-bit converter based on the position and / or orientation of a part of the axis of the robot Surgical manipulator and having a motion means. (2-2) In (2-1), the driving unit includes a digital signal processing unit. (2-3) In (2-1), the driving unit includes a command-energy conversion unit for driving each of the multiple joints. (2-4) In the above (2-2), the processing by the digital signal processing means includes a noise shaping processing. (2-5) In the above (2-4), the noise shaping process is a delta-sigma method. (3-1) A multi-joint surgical manipulator having a plurality of axes, a surgical machine provided in the surgical manipulator and insertable into a body cavity, and a position and / or a posture of the surgical manipulator are determined. For detecting a part of the position and / or posture determined by the operation of the operation unit, and the position and / or posture of the position and / or posture determined by the operation unit detected by the detection unit. Control means for determining a position and / or orientation of a part of a plurality of axes of the surgical manipulator based on information on the part, wherein the surgical manipulator includes an observation manipulator and a treatment manipulator Position setting means for keeping the relative position between the observation manipulator and the treatment manipulator constant. Surgical manipulator which is characterized in that. (3-2) In the above (3-1), the position setting means makes the positions of the distal end of the observation manipulator and the distal end of the treatment manipulator constant. (3-3) In the above (3-2), the position setting means has means for arbitrarily keeping the positions of the distal end of the observation manipulator and the distal end of the treatment manipulator constant. (3-4) In the above (3-1), the position setting means includes: a direction in which a distal end of the observation manipulator faces;
The angle between the distal end of the treatment manipulator and the direction toward the distal end is made constant. (3-5) In the above (3-4), the position setting means includes: a direction in which a distal end of the observation manipulator faces;
Means are provided for arbitrarily making an angle between the distal end of the treatment manipulator and a direction facing the distal end arbitrary. B. The problems of the above-mentioned prior arts (1-1) to (3-5) are as follows. (1-1) to (1-4) When a surgical manipulator is driven by a motor, an optical encoder is conventionally used as a position detecting means of the manipulator. Although this optical encoder has excellent position detection accuracy,
Three signal lines of A, B and Z phases are required. In particular, when such an optical encoder is used in a facility such as a hospital, a line driver system is employed to remove the influence of noise. However, the surgical manipulator system of the line driver type requires at least six signal lines, and it is difficult to reduce the diameter of the surgical manipulator system. (2-1) to (2-5) Japanese Patent Application No. 7-115873 discloses a technology related to line saving of an encoder, but does not take any technical measures to reduce the size of the driving means. Not disclosed. (3-1) to (3-5) As disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 7-2185, in a surgical manipulator system, an observation image is obtained for a related movement between an observation manipulator and a treatment manipulator. But does not disclose that the related movement of the observation manipulator and the treatment manipulator is automatically performed. Therefore, the treatment manipulator may deviate from the observation image, and in this case, the operation becomes cumbersome. C. The objects of the inventions (1-1) to (3-5) are as follows. (1-1) to (1-4) To provide a surgical manipulator system that overcomes the problems of the prior art, enables downsizing and line saving of a surgical manipulator control circuit, and can realize a small diameter. Is to do. (2-1) to (2-5) An object of the present invention is to overcome the problems of the related art and realize a downsized and line-saving surgical manipulator control circuit. (3-1) to (3-5) An object of the present invention is to provide a surgical manipulator system which solves the problems of the conventional technology, eliminates troublesome operations, and improves operability.

[0058]

According to the present invention, it is possible to reduce the size of the control device and the thickness and size of the surgical manipulator, so that the surgical manipulator system can be reduced in diameter and size. As a result, space can be saved in the hospital, and the conventional complicated work is eliminated.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a surgical manipulator system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a view for explaining a bending operation of a distal end portion of a treatment tool attached to a distal end of a treatment arm and a distal end portion of an endoscope attached to a distal end of an observation arm.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a comparison between a connection of a conventional encoder and a connection of an encoder of the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram mainly showing in detail a configuration of a position detection circuit built in a master arm of the surgical manipulator in the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a specific internal configuration of A and B phase transmission circuits.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a specific internal configuration of the A and B phase receiving circuits.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a circuit configuration of a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a specific internal configuration of an ABZ phase transmission circuit.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a specific internal configuration of an ABZ phase receiving circuit.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a Z-phase receiving circuit.

FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining the principle of a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a specific circuit configuration for realizing a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a specific circuit configuration using an oversampling technique.

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating an example in which the 1-bit DA converter according to the third embodiment is applied to a surgical manipulator.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a configuration of a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a diagram for explaining an actual operation method according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 4 treatment instrument, 5 treatment arm, 6 endoscope, 7 observation arm, 8 master arm, 11 control device, 19 joint mechanism, 21 position detection circuit, 25 transmission circuit, 26 ... Cable line, 27 ... Receiving circuit, 28 ... Up-down counter.

Claims (1)

[Claims] An articulated surgical manipulator having a plurality of axes, a surgical machine provided in the surgical manipulator and insertable into a body cavity, and a position and / or posture of the surgical manipulator are determined. Operating means for detecting a part of the position and / or orientation determined by operating the operating means as binarized information, and converting the binarized information detected by the detecting means into at least ternary information. Transmitting means for converting the information into information comprising: transmitting means for converting the information into at least three values from the transmitting means; and determining a position and / or orientation of a part of a plurality of axes of the surgical manipulator based on the information. And a surgical manipulator system comprising: