593 results about "Kinematic chain" patented technology

A shape sensing system to determine the position and orientation of one link with respect to another link in a kinematic chain. An optical fiber is coupled to two or more links in a kinematic chain. A shape sensing segment is defined to start at a proximal link and to end at a distal link, crossing one or more joints. A reference frame is defined at the start of the shape sensing segment. As the joints move, an interrogator senses strain in the shape sensing segment. The sensed strain is used to output a Cartesian position and orientation of the end of the shape sensing segment with respect to the reference frame defined at the start of the shape sensing segment. The pose of the kinematic chain is determined from the Cartesian positions and orientations of one or more shape sensing segments defined for the kinematic chain and from an a priori model and constraints of the kinematic chain.

Robotic and / or surgical devices, systems, and methods include kinematic linkage structures and associated control systems configured to facilitate preparation of the system for use. One or more kinematic linkage sub-systems may include joints that are actively driven, passive, or a mix of both, and may employ a set-up mode in which one or more of the joints are actively driven in response to manual articulation of one or more other joints of the kinematic chain. In an exemplary embodiment, the actively driven joints will move a platform structure that supports multiple manipulators in response to movement of one of the manipulators, facilitating and expediting the arrangement of the overall system by moving those multiple manipulators as a unit into alignment with the workspace. Manual independent positioning of the manipulator can be provided through passive set-up joint systems supporting the manipulators relative to the platform.

The invention discloses a parallel mechanism with changeable freedom degree, comprising a fixed platform and a movable platform arranged above the fixed platform, three kinetic chains with the same structures are uniformly connected between the fixed platform and the movable platform; each kinetic chain comprises a cylindrical pair connecting rod I, one end of the cylindrical pair connecting rod I is connected with one end of a cylindrical pair connecting rod II through a cylindrical pair, the other end of the cylindrical pair connecting rod I and the other end of the cylindrical pair connecting rod II are respectively provided with Hooke's joints with changeable configuration, outer ring side surfaces of ring units of two Hooke's joints with changeable configuration are respectively and fixedly connected with the other end of the cylindrical pair connecting rod I and the other end of the cylindrical pair connecting rod II, and U-shaped piece connecting rods of the two Hooke's joints with changeable configuration are respectively and fixedly connected with the fixed platform and the movable platform. The kinetic branched chain in the invention has the freedom degrees 4, 5 and 6 and is capable of changing among the three freedom degrees. The parallel mechanism is capable of changing the freedom degree between two arbitrary figures from 1-6.

A method for detecting insufficient contact pressure between two contacts of an electrical switching unit, including a device for resetting a mechanism for controlling the switching unit following a closure maneuver of the mechanism, the resetting device including a motor configured to complete the closure maneuver of the control mechanism. The method involves detecting whether the motor completes the closure and whether a resetting torque corresponds to a normal resetting torque, by analyzing an envelope curve of current consumed by the motor over time, and, if the motor completes the closure, deducing that a wear is a result of wear in the mechanism or a kinematic chain, and if the motor completes the closure and the resetting torque corresponds to an abnormal rescuing torque, deducing that the wear corresponds to wear in the motor or parts involved in compressing the closure spring.

A method for determining the proper configuration of a fixator or other medical device to correct a given deformity by solving the simultaneous equations representing the kinematic chain for the device. One skilled in the art would appreciate that x-rays, clinical evaluations, or a combination of both may be used to determine the distal and proximal mounting characteristics, including the use of digital x-rays with images from an imaging device to reduce or eliminate the needs for a physician to take measurements. The technique can be expanded to other medical evaluations. Additionally, one skilled in the art would appreciate that the method of the present invention could be written as one or more sets of instructions stored on a computer-readable medium that could be executed by a computer.

Robotic and / or surgical devices, systems, and methods include kinematic linkage structures and associated control systems configured to facilitate preparation of the system for use. In some embodiments, actively driven joints will move a platform structure that supports multiple manipulators in response to movement of one of the manipulators, facilitating and expediting the arrangement of the overall system by moving those multiple manipulators as a unit into alignment with the workspace. Systems and methods are also provided to keep one, some, or all joints of the kinematic chain off a hardstop or physical range of motion limit associated with the joint or to otherwise maintain a desired range of motion for one, some, or all joints of the kinematic chain when exiting a set-up mode.

Devices, systems, and methods for controlling manipulator movements at joint range of motion limits are provided. In one aspect, methods include locking one or more joints of the manipulator when the one or more joints hit a respective joint limit by modifying an input into a Jacobian of the manipulator when calculating joint movement of a master control using inverse kinematics to provide improved, more intuitive force feedback through the master control. In some embodiments, scaling and weighting between different joint movements is applied within the inverse kinematics. In another aspect, methods include applying a constraint within the inverse kinematics so that calculated movement of the joints approach joint movements of an identical kinematic chain with applied loads within an isolated physical system.

Robotic devices, systems, and methods for use in telesurgical therapies through minimally invasive apertures make use of joint-based data throughout much of the robotic kinematic chain, but selectively rely on information from an image capture device to determine location and orientation along the linkage adjacent a pivotal center at which a shaft of the robotic surgical tool enters the patient. A bias offset may be applied to a pose (including both an orientation and a location) at the pivotal center to enhance accuracy. The bias offset may be applied as a simple rigid transformation from the image-based pivotal center pose to a joint-based pivotal center pose.