Appeal No. 2004-0278 Page 7
Application No. 09/626,362
sensor coordinate system 63 (an orthogonal coordinate system) set for the sense
coil 54. For example, a sensor coordinate system 63 set at a time may be used
as the task coordinate system 62.
Once the task coordinate system 62 has been set at any desired position,
the base coordinate system 13 of the slave manipulator 3 (in which the TCP is
present) becomes identical in orientation to the task coordinate system 62 (in
which the sensor coordinate system 63 exist). This makes it easy for the surgeon
to operate the slave manipulator 3.
The second slave manipulator 4 is operated in accordance with the
relative 3D positions of the coils 53 and 54 of the second position detector 52b.
The second slave manipulator 4 is operated such that the vector Q representing
the position which the sensor coordinate system 63 sets for the sense coil 54 and
assumes in the base coordinate system 61 set for the second position detector
52b coincides with the vector q representing the position which the TCP of the
second slave manipulator 4 takes in the task coordinate system 65 set freely for
the second slave manipulator 4. The task coordinate system 65 can be freely
altered, by the first or second method applied in the first embodiment. Once the
task coordinate system 65 has been set, the vector Q and the vector q become
identical in orientation as shown in FIG. 14. The surgeon can therefore operate
the second slave manipulator 4 with ease.
In the rejection of claims 6 to 11 and 15 to 20 based on Mizuno, the examiner
(final rejection, pp. 2-3) determined that (1) the claimed sensor/emitter was readable on
Mizuno's sense coil 54; (2) the claimed receiver disposed on a robot end effector was
readable on Mizuno's detecting circuit 58; and (3) the claimed microprocessor to
determine a distance between the sensor/emitter and the receiver was readable on
Mizuno's manipulator controller 59. The examiner further stated that Mizuno's
manipulator controller 59 inherently "will take the most efficient path between the current
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Last modified: November 3, 2007