| CPC A61B 34/20 (2016.02) [A61B 17/1622 (2013.01); A61B 17/1703 (2013.01); A61B 34/37 (2016.02); A61B 34/74 (2016.02); A61B 90/37 (2016.02); G01S 7/4865 (2013.01); G01S 17/10 (2013.01); G16H 40/63 (2018.01); A61B 2017/00221 (2013.01); A61B 2017/00725 (2013.01); A61B 2034/107 (2016.02); A61B 2034/2048 (2016.02); A61B 2034/2057 (2016.02); A61B 2034/2063 (2016.02); A61B 2090/376 (2016.02)] | 16 Claims |

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1. A positional determination and guidance system to guide the user of a surgical tool having a terminal workpiece over time along a workpath in a patient's body from an initial start point to a determined end point and comprising:
a base member which has a reference plane and which also supports a two-member robotic arm system comprising of a variable-length proximal arm which is comprised of a flexible and extensible cable-under-tension link fitted with a draw-wire sensor mounted on a 2-axis gimbal fitted with a plurality of angular sensors in a known spatial relationship relative to the initial start point,
a hand-held tool serving as the second fixed-length distal arm, connected to the proximal arm by means of a 3-axis ball joint, and having a plurality of angular sensors and a plurality of time of flight transceivers for absolute distance to a reference plane,
a computer processing unit (CPU) having machine readable code to determine positional information of the terminal workpiece along the workpath from the initial start point toward the determined end point, and
a display that informs the user as to the guidance of the terminal workpiece along the workpath.
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