US Patent Issued to Intuitive Surgical Operations on Sept. 15 for "Guided tool change" (California Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 15 -- United States Patent no. 12,734,693, issued on Sept. 15, was assigned to Intuitive Surgical Operations Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.).

"Guided tool change" was invented by Ashwinram Suresh (San Jose, Calif.), Lawton Verner (Saratoga, Calif.) and Gabriel Brisson (Livermore, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A computer-assisted medical system includes a manipulator arm, an actuator system, a sensor system, and a controller. The controller determines, using the sensor system, a kinematic configuration of a previous tool attached to the manipulator arm, determines a mounting of a replacement tool to the manipulator arm after removal of the previous tool from the manipul...