CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to Japanese Patent Application No. 2019-062803 filed on Mar. 28, 2019 and Japanese Patent Application No. 2019-187356 filed on Oct. 11, 2019, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND ART

The disclosure may relate to a method of fixing a surgical instrument to a robot arm, and more specifically may relate to a method of fixing a surgical instrument to a robot arm by attaching the surgical instrument to the drive part with or without an adaptor.

In a related art, there has been known a method of fixing a surgical instrument to a drive part of a robot arm by attaching the surgical instrument to the drive part via an adaptor (see for example, Japanese Patent No. 5403864).

Japanese Patent No. 5403864 discloses a method of fixing a surgical instrument to a robot arm to fix the surgical instrument to a spring-loaded input part (drive part) of the robot arm via an instrument sterile adaptor.

The method of fixing the surgical instrument to the robot arm disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 5403864 includes a step of engaging the spring-loaded input part of the robot arm with a disk of the instrument sterile adaptor. With this operation, the spring-loaded input part of the robot arm is attached to the instrument sterile adaptor in such a manner that the disk of the instrument sterile adaptor can be rotated by rotations of the spring-loaded input part.

The method of fixing the surgical instrument to the robot arm disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 5403864 includes a step of engaging a hole (engagement portion) of the disk of the instrument sterile adaptor with a pin (engagement portion) of a disk of the surgical instrument by the spring-loaded input part. With this operation, the surgical instrument is attached to the instrument sterile adaptor in such a manner that the disk of the surgical instrument can be rotated by the rotations of the spring-loaded input part.

The step of engaging the surgical instrument with the instrument sterile adaptor includes a step of rotating the disk of the instrument sterile adaptor with respect to the pin of the disk of the surgical instrument which is placed in an arbitrary position, to thereby engage the pin of the disk of the surgical instrument with the hole of the disk of the instrument sterile adaptor.

SUMMARY

However, in the method of fixing the surgical instrument to the robot arm disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 5403864, an initial position of the pin of the disk of the surgical instrument and an initial position of the hole of the disk of the instrument sterile adaptor may sometimes be arranged too close to each other, so that the pin of the disk of the surgical instrument and the hole of the disk of the instrument sterile adaptor may be unintentionally engaged with each other in an incomplete engagement manner. In this case, even though the engagement between the pin of the disk of the surgical instrument and the hole of the disk of the instrument sterile adaptor is incomplete, a completion of the engagement therebetween may be incorrectly detected. Therefore, in the method of fixing the surgical instrument to the robot arm disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 5403864, depending of the positional relationship between the initial position of the pin of the disk of the surgical instrument and the initial position of the hole of the disk of the instrument sterile adaptor, the pin of the disk of the surgical instrument and the hole of the disk of the instrument sterile adaptor may get incompletely engaged with each other.

An object of an aspect of the disclosure may be to provide a method of fixing a surgical instrument to a robot arm which is capable of engaging the surgical instrument with an adaptor or the robot arm in a secured and substantially completed engagement manner.

A first aspect of the disclosure may be a method of fixing a surgical instrument to a robot arm by fixing a driven member of the surgical instrument via an adaptor to a drive part of the robot arm for rotating the driven member of the surgical instrument.

The method of fixing the surgical instrument to the robot arm according to the first aspect may include: attaching the surgical instrument to the robot arm via the adaptor in a state where a first engagement portion of the drive transmission member of the adaptor, which is to be engaged with an engagement portion of the driven member, is set in a second initial orientation about a rotational axis, wherein the second initial orientation does not correspond to a first initial orientation in which the engagement portion of the driven member is set; and engaging the first engagement portion of the drive transmission member with the engagement portion of the driven member, by driving the drive part of the robot arm to rotate the first engagement portion of the drive transmission member from the second initial orientation.

A second aspect of the disclosure may be a method of fixing a surgical instrument to a robot arm by fixing a driven member of the surgical instrument to a drive part of the robot arm for rotating the driven member of the surgical instrument.

The method of fixing the surgical instrument to the robot arm according to the second aspect may include: attaching the surgical instrument to the drive part of the robot arm in a state where an engagement portion of the drive part, which is to be engaged with an engagement portion of the driven member, is set in a second initial orientation about a rotational axis, wherein the second initial orientation does not correspond to a first initial orientation in which the engagement portion of the driven member is set; and engaging the engagement portion of the drive part with the engagement portion of the driven member, by driving the drive part of the robot arm to rotate the engagement portion of the drive part from the second initial orientation.

A third aspect of the disclosure may be a method of fixing a surgical instrument to a robot arm by fixing a driven member of the surgical instrument via an adaptor to a drive part of the robot arm for rotating the driven member of the surgical instrument.

The method of fixing the surgical instrument to the robot arm according to the third aspect may include: setting an engagement portion of the drive transmission member of the adaptor, which is to be engaged with an engagement portion of the driven member, to a second initial orientation about a rotational axis, wherein the second initial orientation does not correspond to a first initial orientation in which the engagement portion of the driven member is set; attaching the surgical instrument to the drive part of the robot arm via the adaptor, after the engagement portion of the drive transmission member is set to the second initial orientation; and engaging the engagement portion of the drive transmission member with the engagement portion of the driven member, by driving the drive part of the robot arm to rotate the engagement portion of the drive transmission member from the second initial orientation, after the surgical instrument is attached to the drive part of the robot arm via the adaptor.

