US 9,096,033 · Granted 2015-08-04

The Sterile Barrier That Lets Robots Touch Human Surgery

Imagine a surgeon controlling a robot arm to perform surgery, but the robot can't touch anything sterile or it ruins the whole procedure. This patent is the clever adapter that acts like a glove between the robot's control interface and the actual surgical tools, keeping everything sterile while letting commands flow through.

Curated and verified by the IsItPatented Editorial team

The plain-English version

What it protects

The claim covers a sterile adapter that sits between a robotic manipulator arm and surgical instruments. Specifically, it protects the housing design that receives the robot arm's control outputs, plus the membrane interface with actuator connectors that transmit commands to the surgical tools while maintaining a sterile barrier. What's protected is both the physical structure and how the supports hold and align the surgical instrument so its inputs line up perfectly with the robot's outputs.

Why it matters

This patent is foundational to robotic surgical systems like da Vinci, where maintaining a sterile field is critical to patient safety. The adapter solves a real engineering problem: how do you let a non-sterile robotic controller interface with sterile surgical instruments without contamination? By protecting this design, the assignee (Intuitive Surgical) locks down a key component that makes their robotic surgery platform work.

Real-world use

Every time a surgeon uses a robotic surgical system, this adapter is the invisible bridge between the control console and the sterile surgical tools inside the patient.

Original USPTO abstract

A sterile adapter, a drape including the adapter, and a method of draping a manipulator arm are provided. In one embodiment, the sterile adapter includes a housing configured to receive a distal face of an instrument manipulator having a plurality of manipulator actuator outputs, and a membrane interface disposed at a distal end of the housing, the membrane interface including a plurality of actuator interfaces. The adapter further includes a pair of supports coupled to the housing, the pair of supports configured to retain a surgical instrument having a plurality of instrument actuator inputs so that the plurality of instrument actuator inputs are positioned opposite to corresponding manipulator actuator outputs with an actuator interface between each corresponding instrument actuator input and manipulator actuator output.

Patent details

Publication number: US 9,096,033
Filing date: 2010-08-12
Grant date: 2015-08-04
Assignee: Intuitive Surgical Operations, Inc.
Inventor(s): HOLOP ROBERT E., MCGROGAN ANTHONY K., RAMSTAD CRAIG R.
CPC class: A61B17/3421

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