WO2022196037A1

WO2022196037A1 - Force measurement device, force measurement method, surgical device, and surgical system

Info

Publication number: WO2022196037A1
Application number: PCT/JP2021/049031
Authority: WO
Inventors: 裕之鈴木; 知之大月; 敦史宮本
Original assignee: ソニーグループ株式会社
Priority date: 2021-03-17
Filing date: 2021-12-30
Publication date: 2022-09-22
Also published as: JP2022142902A

Abstract

Provided is a force measurement device for measuring the force exerted on a surgical instrument inserted into an eyeball.　This force measurement device comprises: an acquisition unit which acquires first information relating to an external force exerted on a trocar, and second information relating to an external force exerted on a surgical instrument inserted into the trocar; and a computation unit which estimates an external force exerted on the tip of the surgical instrument on the basis of the first information and the second information. The surgical instrument is pivot operated such that the impulse occurring at an insertion point intersecting a living body through the trocar is zero, and the computation unit estimates the external force exerted on the distal end of the surgical instrument while ignoring the impulse received by the trocar from the living body.

Description

Force measuring device and force measuring method, surgical device, and surgical system

The technology disclosed in this specification (hereinafter referred to as "the present disclosure") includes a force measuring device and a force measuring method for measuring the force acting between a living tissue and a tip of a surgical instrument during surgery, a surgical device, and a surgical device. Regarding the system.

Surgery is generally a difficult task that is performed by the operator's sensory movements. In particular, in the case of surgery using fine surgical tools in a small-scale and fragile environment, such as retinal surgery, the operator needs to perform micron-order movements. In such an operation, it is preferable to make the operator perceive a sense of force in order to suppress invasion of the affected area by an imperceptible minute force.

For example, a method has been proposed in which a force sensor is placed near the tip of a surgical tool used in retinal microsurgery to directly measure the contact force acting between the tissue inside the eyeball and the tip of the surgical tool. (See Patent Document 1). According to this method, a force sensor is mounted on the root side (proximal end) of the surgical instrument, and compared to the method of estimating the contact force acting on the distal end of the surgical instrument from outside the eyeball, disturbance (mainly trocar There is an advantage that it is possible to measure with high accuracy without being affected by frictional force generated at the restraint point, etc.).

However, the diameter of general forceps used clinically is extremely small, approximately 0.5 mm. disadvantageous.
(1) Structural complexity.
(2) difficulties in meeting medical requirements such as cleaning and sterilization;
(3) The impact on the manufacturing cost of ophthalmic surgical forceps, which are generally disposable.

Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2013-536013 WO2012/020386 WO2017/077755

An object of the present disclosure is, for example, in retinal surgery, a force measuring device and force measuring method, a surgical device, and a surgical device for measuring the force acting between the tip of a surgical tool inserted into the eyeball via a trocar and the retina. It is to provide a system.

The present disclosure has been made in consideration of the above problems, and the first aspect thereof is
an acquisition unit that acquires first information about an external force acting on a trocar and second information about an external force acting on a surgical instrument inserted through the trocar;
a calculation unit for estimating an external force acting on the distal end of the surgical instrument based on the first information and the second information;
It is a force measuring device comprising

The acquisition unit acquires the first information from a first force sensor attached to the trocar that is used by being inserted into the surface of the living body, and is attached to the surgical tool at a position outside the living body. The second information is obtained from a second force sensor. The force measuring device according to the first aspect may further include the first force sensor and the second force sensor. Also, the living body is an eyeball, and the computing unit estimates the force that the tip of the surgical tool receives from the fundus of the eyeball.

The surgical instrument is pivotally operated so that the impulse generated at the insertion point that intersects the living body via the trocar is zero. Then, the calculation unit ignores the impulse that the trocar receives from the living body and estimates the external force acting on the distal end of the surgical instrument.

In addition, a second aspect of the present disclosure is
A first force sensor attached to a trocar that is inserted into a living body is used to obtain first information about a force acting on the trocar, including an external force that the trocar receives from the living body and an external force that the surgical instrument receives. a measuring step;
Using a second force sensor attached to a surgical instrument inserted through the trocar, force acting on the surgical instrument including contact force applied to the distal end of the surgical instrument and external force received by the forceps from the trocar measuring second information about
a calculation step of estimating an external force acting on the distal end of the surgical instrument based on the first information and the second information;
It is a force measurement method having

In addition, a third aspect of the present disclosure is
a robot that pivots a surgical instrument inserted into a trocar inserted into a living body so that an impulse generated at an insertion point where the surgical instrument is inserted into the living body is zero;
a first force sensor attached to the trocar;
a second force sensor attached to the surgical tool;
a computing unit that estimates an external force acting on the distal end of the surgical instrument based on first information measured by the first force sensor and second information measured by the second force sensor; ,
A surgical device comprising:

A fourth aspect of the present disclosure is a surgical system comprising a master device and a slave device,
The slave device
a robot that pivots a surgical instrument inserted into a trocar inserted into a living body so that an impulse generated at an insertion point where the surgical instrument is inserted into the living body is zero;
a first force sensor attached to the trocar;
a second force sensor attached to the surgical tool;
a computing unit that estimates an external force acting on the distal end of the surgical instrument based on first information measured by the first force sensor and second information measured by the second force sensor; ,
with
The master device
an operation user interface unit for inputting an operation amount instruction for the robot;
a presentation unit that presents a haptic sensation based on the external force estimated by the calculation unit;
A surgical system comprising:

However, the "system" referred to here refers to a logical assembly of multiple devices (or functional modules that implement specific functions), and each device or functional module is in a single housing. It does not matter whether or not

According to the present disclosure, for example, in retinal surgery, a force measuring device, a force measuring method, and a surgical device for indirectly measuring the force acting between the retina and the tip of a surgical tool inserted into the eyeball via a trocar , and a surgical system.

It should be noted that the effects described in this specification are merely examples, and the effects brought about by the present disclosure are not limited to these. In addition, the present disclosure may have additional effects in addition to the effects described above.

Further objects, features, and advantages of the present disclosure will become apparent from more detailed descriptions based on the embodiments described later and the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a functional configuration example of a master-slave surgery system 100. As shown in FIG. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a general layout (ocular surface) for retinal surgery. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a general layout (eyeball section) for retinal surgery. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the configuration of the force measuring device 400. As shown in FIG. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the relationship of forces acting on the forceps 413. As shown in FIG. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the relationship of forces acting on the trocar 412. As shown in FIG. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing six-axis forces measured by the first force sensor 401 and the second force sensor 402. FIG. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a configuration example of degrees of freedom of a support arm device 800 having an RCM structure. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of the posture of the arm section 810 that performs the pivotal movement of the third link 823 around the RCM. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of the posture of the arm section 810 that performs the pivotal movement of the third link 823 around the RCM. FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of the posture of the arm section 810 that performs the pivotal movement of the third link 823 around the RCM. FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of the posture of the arm section 810 that performs the pivotal movement of the third link 823 around the RCM.

The present disclosure will be described in the following order with reference to the drawings.

A. Surgical systemB. For retinal surgeryC. external force detection mechanism D. EffectE. Robot device with RCM structure

A. Surgical System In this specification, an embodiment in which the present disclosure is applied to a master-slave surgical system will be mainly described. In such a surgical system, a user such as an operator performs operations on the master side, and the slave side performs surgery by controlling the driving of the robot according to the user's operations. The purpose of incorporating robotics technology into the surgical system is to suppress the tremor of the operator's hand, assist in operation, absorb differences in skill between operators, and perform surgery remotely.

FIG. 1 shows a functional configuration example of a master-slave surgical system 100 . The illustrated surgery system 100 includes a master device 110 for which a user (operator) instructs operations such as surgery, and a slave device 120 for performing surgery according to instructions from the master device 110 . As the surgery referred to here, retinal surgery is mainly assumed. Master device 110 and slave device 120 are interconnected via transmission line 130 . It is desirable that the transmission line 130 can perform signal transmission with low delay using a medium such as an optical fiber.

The master device 110 includes a master-side control unit 111, an operation UI (User Interface) unit 112, a presentation unit 113, and a master-side communication unit 114. The master device 110 operates under general control by the master-side control section 111 .

The operation UI unit 112 is a device for a user (operator, etc.) to input instructions to a slave robot 112 (described later) that operates surgical tools such as forceps in the slave device 120 . The operation UI unit 112 includes, for example, a dedicated input device such as a controller and a joystick, and a general-purpose input device such as a GUI screen for inputting mouse operations and fingertip touch operations. Also, the “medical device” disclosed in Patent Document 2 can be used as the operation UI unit 112 .

The presentation unit 113 provides the user (operator) who is operating the operation UI unit 112 with the slave device 120 mainly based on sensor information acquired by the sensor unit 123 (described later) on the slave device 120 side. Present information about the surgery being performed.

For example, the sensor unit 123 is equipped with an RGB camera or an OCT (Optical Coherence Tomography) that captures a microscope image for observing the surface of the affected area, or is equipped with an interface that captures an image captured by an RGB camera or an OCT image. When these image data are transferred to the master device 110 with low delay via the transmission path 130, the presentation unit 113 displays the real-time RGB image and OCT image of the affected area on the screen.

Further, the sensor unit 123 is equipped with a function to measure the external force and moment acting on the surgical tool operated by the slave robot 112, and such haptic information is transferred to the master device 110 via the transmission line 130 with low delay. If so, the presentation unit 113 presents the force sense to the user (operator). For example, the presentation unit 113 may use the operation UI unit 112 to present a force sense to the user (operator).

Under the control of the master-side control unit 111, the master-side communication unit 114 performs transmission/reception processing of signals with the slave device 120 via the transmission line 130. For example, when the transmission line 130 is made of optical fiber, the master side communication unit 114 includes an electric/optical conversion unit that converts an electrical signal sent from the master device 110 into an optical signal, and an optical signal received from the transmission line 130 that is converted into an electrical signal. A photoelectric conversion unit is provided.

The master-side communication unit 114 transfers an operation command for the slave robot 122 input by the user (operator) via the operation UI unit 112 to the slave device 120 via the transmission line 130 . Also, the master-side communication unit 114 receives sensor information sent from the slave device 120 via the transmission line 130 .

On the other hand, the slave device 120 includes a slave side control section 121, a slave robot 122, a sensor section 123, and a slave side communication section . The slave device 120 performs operations according to instructions from the master device 110 under overall control by the slave-side control unit 121 .

The slave robot 122 is, for example, an arm-shaped robot with a multi-link structure, and has a surgical tool such as forceps as an end effector at its tip (or distal end). The slave-side control unit 121 interprets the operation command sent from the master device 110 via the transmission line 130, converts it into a drive signal for the actuator that drives the slave robot 122, and outputs the drive signal. The slave robot 122 operates based on the drive signal from the slave side control section 121 .

In this embodiment, it is assumed that the slave robot 122 will mainly perform retinal surgery, and that it has an RCM (Remote Center of Motion) structure. The RCM structure is a structure in which a rotation center (that is, a remote rotation center) is arranged at a position away from the rotation center of a drive mechanism such as a motor to realize pivot (fixed point) motion. The RCM structure is highly safe because it can realize a structure whose fixed point is the position of a hole made in the patient's body during surgery (for example, the trocar position).

The sensor unit 123 includes the slave robot 122 and a plurality of sensors for detecting the condition of the affected part of the operation performed by the slave robot 122, and also has an interface for taking in sensor information from various sensor devices installed in the operating room. Equipped.

For example, the sensor unit 123 includes a force sensor (Force Torque Sensor: FTS) for measuring the external force and moment acting on the surgical tool mounted on the tip (distal end) of the slave robot 122 during surgery. ing. The details of the configuration of this force sensor and the arithmetic processing for measuring the external force and moment will be given later.

In addition, the sensor unit 123 is equipped with an RGB camera for imaging the surface of the affected area under operation by the slave robot 122, an OCT for scanning the cross section of the affected area (eyeball), or an interface that captures an image captured by the RGB camera or an OCT image. Equipped.

The slave-side communication unit 124 performs signal transmission/reception processing with the master device 110 via the transmission line 130 under the control of the slave-side control unit 121 . For example, when the transmission line 130 is made of an optical fiber, the slave side communication unit 124 includes an electrical/optical conversion unit that converts an electrical signal sent from the slave device 120 into an optical signal, and an optical signal received from the transmission line 130 that is converted into an electrical signal. A photoelectric conversion unit is provided.

The slave-side communication unit 124 transfers the haptic data of the surgical tool acquired by the sensor unit 123, the RGB image of the affected area, the OCT image obtained by scanning the cross section of the affected area, and the like to the master device 110 via the transmission path 130. The slave-side communication unit 124 also receives an operation command for the slave robot 122 sent from the master device 110 via the transmission line 130 .

B. About Retinal Surgery Figures 2 and 3 show the general layout of a retinal surgery. However, FIG. 2 shows the surface of the eyeball, and FIG. 3 shows a cross section of the eyeball cut so that the trocar and the surgical tool (forceps) pass through.

As shown in FIG. 2, an eyelid speculum 201 is attached to the eyeball 200 to be operated and fixed so that the eyelid does not close. Trocars 202 to 204 are inserted into the surface of the eyeball 200 at a plurality of locations (three locations in the example shown in FIG. 2). The trocars 202-204 have thin tubes for inserting surgical instruments such as forceps.

As shown in FIG. 3, a trocar 301 having a small diameter tube is stuck in the surface of the eyeball 300, and forceps 302 are inserted into the eyeball 300 through the trocar 301 and reach the fundus to perform retinal surgery. is carried out. Here, the operator (or the slave robot 122 remotely controlled by the operator via the master device 110), for the convenience of minimal invasiveness, is the intersection of the trocar 301 and the surface of the eyeball 300 (hereinafter referred to as this intersection). (also called the “insertion point”) should always be considered so that the surgery is performed with as little stress as possible. Therefore, it is ideal that the RCM mechanism of the slave robot 122 pivots the forceps 302 with the insertion point as a fulcrum to zero the impulse generated at the insertion point. The configuration of the slave robot 122 having the RCM structure will be described later.

C. External Force Detection Mechanism In this section C, details of a mechanism for detecting an external force acting on the tip of the forceps inserted into the eyeball via the trocar according to the present disclosure will be described.

In the case of surgery that uses fine surgical instruments in a small-scale and fragile environment, such as retinal surgery, the operator must perform micron-order movements. In such work, it is necessary to make the operator perceive force in order to suppress invasion of the affected area by an imperceptible minute force. Patent Literature 1 discloses a method of directly measuring the contact force acting between the living tissue inside the eyeball and the tip of the surgical instrument by arranging a force sensor near the distal end of the surgical instrument. However, it is structurally difficult to place a force sensor at the tip of a small-diameter surgical tool used in retinal surgery, and the manufacturing cost increases (as described above).

Therefore, the present disclosure proposes a force measuring device capable of indirectly and highly accurately detecting an external force acting on the tip of the forceps without arranging a force sensor at the tip of the forceps inserted into a small-diameter trocar. .

FIG. 4 shows the configuration of a force measuring device 400 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. This figure shows the functional configuration of the force measuring device 400 attached to the human eyeball together with the cross section of the eyeball.

Similar to FIG. 3, a trocar 412 having a small diameter tube is stuck in the surface of the eyeball 411, and forceps 413 are inserted into the eyeball 411 through the trocar 412 and reach the fundus to perform retinal surgery. be implemented.

During retinal surgery (or while being inserted into the trocar 412), the forceps 413 are pivoted by the RCM mechanism of the slave robot 122 around the insertion point passing through the surface of the eyeball 411 as a fulcrum. For this reason, it is possible to perform an operation that eliminates the impulse generated at the insertion point, thereby realizing minimally invasive surgery with as little load as possible on the insertion point.

First, mutual contact events in forceps 413, trocar 412, and eyeball 411 are considered. 4, the first contact event between the affected part (retina) and the tip of the forceps 413, the second contact event between the trocar 412 and the forceps 413 inserted through the tubule of the trocar 412, and the trocar 412 and the trocar 412 A total of three contact events have occurred, a third contact event between the eyeballs 411 stung by the .

The force measuring device 400 includes a first force sensor (FTS1) 401 that detects the external force and torque acting on the trocar 412, and near the base of the forceps 413 (or outside the trocar 412 that is not inserted into the eyeball 411). ) and forceps 413 based on the sensor values detected by each of the first force sensor 401 and the second force sensor 402 . A calculation unit 403 is provided for calculating the contact force and torque acting on the tip. This force measuring device 400 can be used by being incorporated in the sensor section 123 of the surgical operation system 100 shown in FIG.

In this embodiment, both the first force sensor 401 and the second force sensor 402 are 6DOF sensors having a total of 6 degrees of freedom of forces acting in the directions of the xyz axes and torques acting around the axes. I assume there is. For convenience of explanation, the long axis direction of the forceps 413 is set to the z-axis (however, the direction from the tip to the root side is the positive direction), and the xy-axis orthogonal to the z-axis is set.

The configurations of the first force sensor 401 and the second force sensor 402 are not particularly limited. The first force sensor 401 is composed of, for example, a strain sensor attached to a strain-generating body attached near the root of the forceps 413 (or a strain-generating body structure portion formed near the root of the forceps 413). be. The second force sensor 402 is a strain sensor attached to a strain-generating body attached to the surface of the trocar 412 (or a strain-generating body structure portion formed near the surface of the trocar 412). be. The strain sensor may be, for example, a strain gauge or an FBG (Fiber Bragg Grating) sensor.

Here, the contact force applied from the affected part (retina, etc.) to the tip of the forceps 413 is (f _tip , τ _tip ), and the external force (specifically, the frictional force) that the forceps 413 receives from the trocar 412 is ( _ffric , τ _fric ). FIG. 5 shows the relationship between the forces acting on the forceps 413 (that is, the contact forces (f _tip , τ _tip ) applied to the tips of the forceps 413 and the external forces ( _ffric , τ _fric ) that the forceps 413 receive from the trocars 412 ). relationship).

Also, the external force that the trocar 412 receives from the eyeball 411 is (f _eye , τ _eye ), and the external force (specifically, frictional force) that the trocar 412 receives from the forceps 413 is ( _ffric ', τ _fric '). FIG. 6 shows the relationship between the forces acting on the trocar 412 (that is, the external force (f _eye , τ _eye ) that the trocar 412 receives from the eyeball 411 and the external force that the trocar 412 receives from the forceps 413 (f _fric ', τ _fric '). relationship).

Further, as shown in FIG. 7, the six-axis force measured by the first force sensor 401 attached to the trocar 412 is (f _FTS1 , τ _FTS1 ), and the second force sensor attached to the forceps 413 is Let the six-axis force measured by the sensor 402 be (f _FTS2 , τ _FTS2 ).

In the above, the force f has three components in each of the xyz axial directions, and the torque τ has three components around each of the xyz axes.

The six-axis forces (f _FTS1 , τ _FTS1 ) measured by the first force sensor 401 attached to the trocar 412 are the external forces (f _eye , τ _eye ) received by the trocar 412 from the eyeball 411 and Based on the external forces (f _fric ', τ _fric ') received from 413, the following equation (1) is obtained.

Further, the six-axis force (f _FTS2 , τ _FTS2 ) measured by the second force sensor 402 attached near the root of the forceps 413 is the contact force (f _tip , τ _tip ) applied to the tip of the forceps 413. and the external forces (f _fric , τ _fric ) that the forceps 413 receives from the trocar 412 are expressed by the following equation (2).

On the other hand, the force acting between the forceps 413 and the trocar 412 is given by the following formula (3) from the action-reaction relationship.

Also, since the forceps 413 are pivoted about the insertion point by the RCM mechanism of the slave robot 122, the impulse generated at the insertion point is zero. Therefore, the following formula (4) holds.

From the above equations (1) to (4), the contact force (f _tip , τ _tip ) applied to the tip of the forceps 413 is calculated using only the measured values of the first force sensor 401 and the second force sensor 402. , is represented by the following equation (5).

Therefore, the calculation unit 403 calculates the 6-axis force (f _FTS1 , τ _FTS1 ) measured by the first force sensor 401 and the 6-axis force measured by the second force sensor 402 attached to the forceps 413 From (f _FTS2 , τ _FTS2 ), the contact force (f _tip , τ _tip ) applied to the tip of the forceps 413 can be calculated based on the above equation (5). In the above equation (5), the 6-axis force (f _FTS1 , τ _FTS1 ) measured by the first force sensor 401 and the 6-axis force (f _FTS2 , τ _FTS2 ) measured by the second force sensor 402 ), the contact force (f _tip , τ _tip ) applied to the tip of the forceps 413 is calculated.

Since it is assumed that a surgical instrument with extremely small inertia (forceps 413 for retinal surgery) is used to perform a low-speed operation, the above equations (1) to (5) are shown ignoring the inertia force. ing.

Calibration may be performed in the force measuring device 400 as necessary. In this case, the computing unit 403 calculates the contact forces (f _tip , τ _tip ) applied to the tip of the forceps 413 using the correction constants and correction formulas derived by calibration without being bound by the above equation (5). You may make it Of course, the force measuring device 400 uses a machine learning model to calculate the acting force of the tip of the forceps 413 based on the measured values of the first force sensor 401 and the second force sensor 402, regardless of the above equation (5). (f _tip , τ _tip ) may be estimated.

When force measuring device 400 is incorporated in sensor unit ₁₂₃ of _surgical system 100 shown in FIG. is transferred to the master device 110. Then, on the master device 110 side, the presentation unit 113 can provide haptic feedback to the user (operator) based on the contact force (f _tip , τ _tip ).

D. Advantages This section D refers to the advantages of the present disclosure.

For example, the forceps 413 used for retinal surgery are passed through the trocar 412, which is a thin tube, and therefore have an extremely small diameter. Practical problems related to are likely to occur.

In contrast, using the force measuring device 400 according to the present disclosure, the force acting on the tip of the forceps 413 is estimated without arranging a force sensor at the tip of the forceps 413 (in other words, inside the eyeball 411). be able to. Therefore, according to the present disclosure, it is possible to measure the acting force of the distal end of the forceps 413 while maintaining a simple structure.

E. Robotic Device with RCM Structure This Section E describes a robotic device with an RCM structure as applied in the slave robot 122 .

In this specification, the RCM structure is a structure in which the center of rotation (that is, remote center of rotation) is arranged at a position away from the center of rotation of a driving mechanism such as a motor to realize pivot (fixed point) motion. The RCM structure is a structure that always passes through the position of the hole made in the patient's body during surgery (for example, the trocar position). Since it is possible to realize a minimally invasive structure), it is highly safe and has already been adopted in some robots and medical devices (see Patent Document 3, for example).

FIG. 8 shows a configuration example of a support arm device 800 that supports a surgical instrument such as forceps at its tip. The illustrated support arm device 800 is assumed to be applied to the slave robot 122 . The support arm device 800 includes an arm portion 810 including at least one parallel link, and the tip of the arm portion 810 supports a surgical tool such as forceps (not shown in FIG. 8). In the support arm device 800, the arm portion 810 is operated by the first motor 830 and the second motor 840, so that the surgical tool supported at the distal end of the arm portion 810 can pivot about the RCM. be. In addition, the support arm device 800 may further include a mechanism for realizing rectilinear motion of the surgical instrument supported at the distal end of the arm portion 810, but illustration and description thereof are omitted here for convenience.

A universal joint 831 as a first drive shaft is connected to the output shaft of the first motor 830, and the first motor 830 causes the universal joint 831 to rotate. One end of the universal joint 831 is coaxially fixed to the output shaft of the first motor 830, and the other end of the universal joint 831 is rotatably connected to the base. A second drive shaft 841 is coaxially connected to the output shaft of the second motor 840 , and the second motor 840 rotates the second drive shaft 841 .

The arm part 810 has a multi-link structure including at least one parallel link composed of a plurality of links. In FIG. 8, the shape of each link and the structure of the joint connecting the links are simplified so that the degree of freedom configuration of this multi-link structure can be easily understood. The arm portion 810 includes a plurality of joint portions 811 to 817, and a first link 821, a second link 822, a third link 823, and a fourth link 824 rotatably connected by the joint portions 811 to 817. , and a fifth link 825 . Also, the first link 821 is assumed to have a support portion at its tip for supporting a surgical tool such as forceps (not shown in FIG. 8).

A first link 821, a second link 822, a third link 823, a fourth link 824, and a fifth link 825 form parallel links. Among these multiple links 821 to 825, the fourth link 824 corresponds to the first drive link, and the fifth link 825 corresponds to the second drive link.

In the arm part 810, the first motor 830 and the second motor 840 are driven so that the long axis of the third link 823 supporting the surgical tool (not shown in FIG. 8) always passes through the RCM. A third link 823 can pivot about the RCM.

Next, various postures that the arm portion 810 of the support arm device 800 can take will be described. 9 to 12 show examples of postures of the arm portion 810 that performs the pivotal movement of the third link 823 around the RCM. 9 to 12, for ease of comparison with the posture (basic posture) of the arm portion 810 shown in FIG. 8, a virtual line (one point dashed line).

9, the first motor 830 is rotated counterclockwise in the drawing from the state shown in FIG. ) shows the posture of the arm portion 810 when rotated to . In this case, while the first link 821 and the second link 822 are maintained in parallel, the arm portion 810 rotates forward while rotating leftward. As a result, the third link 823 supporting the surgical tool (not shown in FIG. 8) is tilted forward while rotating leftward about the RCM.

FIG. 10 shows the posture of the arm portion 810 when the first motor 830 is rotated clockwise from the state shown in FIG. In this case, the arm portion 810 rotates backward while the first link 821 and the second link 822 are maintained in parallel. As a result, the third link 823 supporting the surgical tool (not shown in FIG. 8) is tilted rearward around the RCM.

FIG. 11 shows the posture of the arm portion 810 when the second motor 840 is rotated rightward (in the direction of the arrow indicated by reference number 1101 in FIG. 11) from the state shown in FIG. . In this case, the arm portion 810 is tilted rightward. As a result, the third link 823 is tilted rightward around the RCM. At this time, since the fourth link 824 is connected to the output shaft of the first motor 830 via the universal joint 831, the rotation of the fourth link 824 is not hindered.

FIG. 12 shows the posture of the arm portion 810 when the second motor 840 is rotated leftward (in the direction of the arrow indicated by reference number 1201 in FIG. 12) from the state shown in FIG. . In this case, the arm portion 810 is tilted leftward. As a result, the third link 823 is tilted leftward around the RCM. At this time, since the fourth link 824 is connected to the output shaft of the first motor 830 via the universal joint 831, the rotation of the fourth link 824 is not hindered.

As shown in FIGS. 8 to 12, the support arm device 800 drives a first motor 830 and a second motor 840 to change the posture of the arm portion 810, thereby moving a jig such as a surgical tool. A third link 823 on which is supported can be pivoted about the RCM. The support arm device 800 according to the present embodiment can be applied, for example, to the operation of approaching the spherical surface Y centered on the RCM from various angles, as shown in FIGS. 8 to 12 . Further, by driving the second motor 330b, the inclination of the parallel link forming the arm portion 810 changes in the left-right direction with the second drive shaft 345 as the center. Since the long axis of the third link 823 at the tip of the arm section 810 is always directed toward the RCM, the surgical instrument supported by the third link 823 (or the axial line of the surgical instrument) is supported regardless of the posture of the arm section 310. ) always pass through the RCM.

In this way, the support arm device 800 can pivot the surgical instrument supported by the arm section 810 around the RCM by changing the posture of the arm section 810 . Note that the support arm device 800 may further include a mechanism for realizing rectilinear movement of the surgical instrument supported at the distal end of the arm portion 810, but illustration and description thereof are omitted here for convenience.

The present disclosure has been described in detail above with reference to specific embodiments. However, it is obvious that those skilled in the art can modify or substitute the embodiments without departing from the gist of the present disclosure.

In the present specification, the embodiments in which the present disclosure is applied to eye surgery such as retinal surgery have been mainly described, but the gist of the present disclosure is not limited to this. The present disclosure can be similarly applied to various surgeries performed by inserting a surgical instrument into the body via a trocar. In addition, the present disclosure can also be applied to remote control or operation support using master-slave robots, and autonomous control of surgical robots.

In addition, in the embodiments described in this specification, an example using forceps as a surgical instrument is shown. Medical observation devices such as endoscopes (hard endoscopes such as laparoscopes and arthroscopes, and flexible endoscopes such as gastrointestinal endoscopes and bronchoscopes) may also be used.

In short, the present disclosure has been described in the form of an example, and the content of the specification should not be construed in a restrictive manner. In order to determine the gist of the present disclosure, the scope of the claims should be considered.

It should be noted that the present disclosure can also be configured as follows.

(1) an acquisition unit that acquires first information about an external force acting on a trocar and second information about an external force acting on a surgical instrument inserted through the trocar;
a calculation unit for estimating an external force acting on the distal end of the surgical instrument based on the first information and the second information;
A force measuring device comprising:

(2) The acquisition unit acquires the first information from a first force sensor attached to the trocar that is used by being inserted into the surface of the living body, and also acquires the first information from the surgical tool at a position outside the living body. obtaining the second information from an attached second force sensor;
The force measuring device according to (1) above.

(3) further comprising the first force sensor and the second force sensor;
The force measuring device according to (2) above.

(4) the living body is an eyeball;
The computing unit estimates the force that the tip of the surgical tool receives from the fundus of the eyeball.
The force measuring device according to either (2) or (3) above.

(5) the first information includes an external force that the trocar receives from the living body and an external force that the surgical instrument receives;
The second information includes a contact force applied to the tip of the surgical instrument and an external force that the forceps receives from the trocar,
The force measuring device according to any one of (2) to (4) above.

(6) the surgical instrument is pivoted so that the impulse generated at the insertion point intersecting the living body via the trocar is zero;
The computing unit ignores the impulse that the trocar receives from the living body and estimates the external force acting on the tip of the surgical instrument.
The force measuring device according to any one of (2) to (5) above.

(7) the first information and the second information each include information on six-axis external forces;
The calculation unit calculates a six-axis force acting on the distal end of the surgical tool based on a resultant force of a first six-axis force included in the first information and a second six-axis force included in the second information. estimating the external force,
The force measuring device according to any one of (1) to (6) above.

(8) Using a first force sensor attached to a trocar inserted into a living body, a first force acting on the trocar including an external force received by the trocar from the living body and an external force received from the surgical instrument. measuring information about
Using a second force sensor attached to a surgical instrument inserted through the trocar, force acting on the surgical instrument including contact force applied to the distal end of the surgical instrument and external force received by the forceps from the trocar measuring second information about
a calculation step of estimating an external force acting on the distal end of the surgical instrument based on the first information and the second information;
force measurement method.

(9) a robot that pivots a surgical instrument inserted into a trocar inserted into a living body so that an impulse generated at an insertion point where the surgical instrument is inserted into the living body is zero;
a first force sensor attached to the trocar;
a second force sensor attached to the surgical instrument;
a computing unit that estimates an external force acting on the distal end of the surgical instrument based on first information measured by the first force sensor and second information measured by the second force sensor; ,
A surgical device comprising:

(10) A surgical system comprising a master device and a slave device,
The slave device
a robot that pivots a surgical instrument inserted into a trocar inserted into a living body so that an impulse generated at an insertion point where the surgical instrument is inserted into the living body is zero;
a first force sensor attached to the trocar;
a second force sensor attached to the surgical instrument;
a computing unit that estimates an external force acting on the distal end of the surgical instrument based on first information measured by the first force sensor and second information measured by the second force sensor; ,
with
The master device
an operation user interface unit for inputting an operation amount instruction for the robot;
a presentation unit that presents a haptic sensation based on the external force estimated by the calculation unit;
A surgical system comprising:

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100... Surgery system 110... Master apparatus 111... Master side control part 112... Operation UI part 113... Presentation part 114... Master side communication part 120... Slave apparatus 121... Slave side control part 122... Slave robot 123... Sensor unit 124 Slave side communication unit 130 Transmission line 400 Force measuring device 401 First force sensor 402 Second force sensor 403 Calculation unit 411 Eyeball 412 Trocar 413 …forceps

Claims

an acquisition unit that acquires first information about an external force acting on a trocar and second information about an external force acting on a surgical instrument inserted through the trocar;
a calculation unit for estimating an external force acting on the distal end of the surgical instrument based on the first information and the second information;
A force measuring device comprising:
The acquisition unit acquires the first information from a first force sensor attached to the trocar that is used by being inserted into the surface of the living body, and is attached to the surgical tool at a position outside the living body. obtaining the second information from a second force sensor;
The force measuring device according to claim 1.
Further comprising the first force sensor and the second force sensor,
The force measuring device according to claim 2.
the living body is an eyeball,
The computing unit estimates the force that the tip of the surgical tool receives from the fundus of the eyeball.
The force measuring device according to claim 2.
the first information includes an external force that the trocar receives from the living body and an external force that the surgical instrument receives;
The second information includes a contact force applied to the tip of the surgical instrument and an external force that the forceps receives from the trocar,
The force measuring device according to claim 2.
The surgical instrument is pivoted so that an impulse generated at an insertion point that intersects the living body via the trocar is zero;
The computing unit ignores the impulse that the trocar receives from the living body and estimates the external force acting on the tip of the surgical instrument.
The force measuring device according to claim 2.
The first information and the second information each include information on six-axis external forces,
The calculation unit calculates a six-axis force acting on the distal end of the surgical tool based on a resultant force of a first six-axis force included in the first information and a second six-axis force included in the second information. estimating the external force,
The force measuring device according to claim 1.
A first force sensor attached to a trocar that is inserted into a living body is used to obtain first information about a force acting on the trocar, including an external force that the trocar receives from the living body and an external force that the surgical instrument receives. a measuring step;
Using a second force sensor attached to a surgical instrument inserted through the trocar, force acting on the surgical instrument including contact force applied to the distal end of the surgical instrument and external force received by the forceps from the trocar measuring second information about
a calculation step of estimating an external force acting on the distal end of the surgical instrument based on the first information and the second information;
force measurement method.
a robot that pivots a surgical instrument inserted into a trocar inserted into a living body so that an impulse generated at an insertion point where the surgical instrument is inserted into the living body is zero;
a first force sensor attached to the trocar;
a second force sensor attached to the surgical tool;
a computing unit that estimates an external force acting on the distal end of the surgical instrument based on first information measured by the first force sensor and second information measured by the second force sensor; ,
A surgical device comprising:
A surgical system comprising a master device and a slave device,
The slave device
a robot that pivots a surgical instrument inserted into a trocar inserted into a living body so that an impulse generated at an insertion point where the surgical instrument is inserted into the living body is zero;
a first force sensor attached to the trocar;
a second force sensor attached to the surgical tool;
a computing unit that estimates an external force acting on the distal end of the surgical instrument based on first information measured by the first force sensor and second information measured by the second force sensor; ,
with
The master device
an operation user interface unit for inputting an operation amount instruction for the robot;
a presentation unit that presents a haptic sensation based on the external force estimated by the calculation unit;
A surgical system comprising: