Optic fiber connection for a force sensing instrument

摘要

A surgical instrument that includes a housing linkable with a manipulator arm of a robotic surgical system, a shaft coupled to the housing, a force transducer on a distal end of the shaft, and a plurality of fiber optic strain gauges on the force transducer is disclosed. The plurality of strain gauges are coupled to a fiber optic splitter or an arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) multiplexer, which can be coupled to a fiber optic connector. A wrist joint coupled to an end effector is coupled to a distal end of the force transducer. A robotic surgical manipulator that includes a base link coupled to a distal end of a manipulator positioning system, and a distal link with an instrument interface, and a fiber optic connector optically linkable to a surgical instrument. A method of passing data between an instrument and a manipulator via optical connectors is also provided.

主权项

1. A surgical instrument, comprising:
a housing linkable with a manipulator arm of a robotic surgical system; a shaft operably coupled to the housing; a force transducer on a distal end of the shaft; a plurality of fiber optic strain gauges on the force transducer, one or more of the plurality of fiber optic strain gauges being formed in corresponding ones of individual optical fibers; a single fiber optic splitter coupled to all of the individual optical fibers; a fiber optic connector mounted in the housing; a single optic fiber operably coupling the fiber optic splitter to the fiber optic connector; a wrist joint operably coupled to a distal end of the force transducer; and an end effector operably coupled to the wrist joint.