Abstract
News editors obtained the following quote from the background information suppli ed by the inventors:“Teleoperated or computer assisted medical systems often em ploy a master control that a physician orother medical personnel can use to con trol actuated slave medical instruments. A medical instrument may,for example, include a tool such as a scalpel, forceps, or a cauterizing tool, and a surgeon may operatea master control similar to a joystick to provide control signals to a control system. The control systemcan then convert the control signals into actuation signals that drive actuators to move the instrument,for example, to c ut, clamp, or cauterize a patient’s tissue so that the tool movement follows the mastercontrol movement. One potential concern for such systems is inadvertent or uncontrolled movement ofthe master control, because a patient could be injur ed if uncontrolled movement of the master controlcauses uncontrolled operation of the tool that interacts with a patient’s tissue. Surgeons can be trained to a void situations where uncontrolled movement is possible, but additional techniqu es or fail safes maybe desirable to prevent uncontrolled movement.
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