1. An instep-coupler is made from the bending of a tough cylindrical rod with a diameter about the size of a small or medium size chop-stick; said bending resulted in two bases, two posts, and an instep-contact; said two bases are two ends of said cylindrical rod designed to attach to the body of a pedal that is designed to receive said instep-coupler attachment; said two posts continue with said two bases, when said instep-coupler attached its two bases to said body of said pedal said two posts emerges from said pedal in the direction that is perpendicular to the shaft of said pedal, said emerges is from the part of the pedal body that would be very close to a crank arm when said pedal is attach to a crank-arm; when said two posts of said cylindrical rod reaches to certain height above said pedal it bends away from said crank-arm creating said instep-contact above said pedal; said instep-contact reaches out just far enough from said two posts providing a cover for the peak slope of an instep, whereby user can easily sandwich their foot between said pedal and said instep-contact to achieve the push and pull pedaling mechanism in cycling using their sole to push on said pedal and their instep to pull on said instep-contact of said instep-coupler.
2. The instep-coupler of claim 1 wherein said two bases has threading at their ends.
3. The instep-coupler of claim 1 wherein said tough cylindrical rod is made from alloy steel.
4. The instep-coupler of claim 1 wherein said two posts are parallel.
5. The instep-coupler of claim 1 wherein said two posts aren’t parallel.
6. The instep-coupler of claim 1 wherein said two bases are parallel.
7. The instep-coupler of claim 1 wherein said two bases aren’t parallel.
8. The instep-coupler of claim 1 wherein said two bases are bent 90 degree with respect to said two posts.
9. The instep-coupler of claim 1 wherein said two bases continue with said two posts without bending.
10. The instep-coupler of claim 1 wherein said two bases’ central axes and said two posts’ central axes are on one single plane, but said posts and said bases are not collinear.
11. The instep-coupler of claim 1 wherein said instep-contact end in a U-shape.
12. The instep-coupler of claim 1 wherein said instep-contact reaches out from said two posts to provide minimum cover for said peak slope of said instep.
13. The instep-coupler of claim 1 wherein said instep-contact reaches out from said two posts to provide sufficient cover for said peak slope of said instep.
14. The instep-coupler of claim 1 wherein said two posts are equal in length.
15. The instep-coupler of claim 1 wherein said two posts aren’t equal in length.
16. The instep-coupler of claim 1 wherein said two bases are equal in length.
17. The instep-coupler of claim 1 wherein said two bases aren’t equal in length.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A medical instrument system including:
a plurality of joints;
a plurality of actuators;
a plurality of transmission systems having proximal ends respectively coupled to the actuators, each of the transmission systems having a distal end attached to an associated one of the joints to allow the transmission of a force for articulation of the medical instrument system;
a sensor coupled to measure configuration of the medical instrument; and
a control system coupled to receive configuration measurements, wherein the control system uses the configuration measurements to determine tensions for the transmission systems and operates the actuators to produce the tensions in the transmission systems.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the transmission systems is compliant and stretches under a regulated value of the actuator force by an amount corresponding to more than a permitted inaccuracy in joint articulation.
3. The system of claim 1, wherein the control system regulates the tensions applied to the transmission systems to be independent of positions of the actuators.
4. The system of claim 1, wherein the control system regulates the tensions applied to the transmission systems to be independent of the compliance of the transmission systems or the joints.
5. The system of claim 1, wherein the control system regulates the tensions applied to the transmission systems to be independent of the length of the transmission systems from their proximal ends to their distal ends.
6. The system of claim 1, wherein the control system regulates the tensions applied to the transmission systems to be independent of shape of the transmission systems from their proximal ends to their distal ends.
7. The system of claim 1, wherein the control system determines the tensions using a process comprising:
determining differences between a desired configuration of the joints and a current configuration of the joints;
determining from the differences, joint torques that actuate the joints to reduce the differences; and
determining the tensions that produce the joint torques.
8. The system of claim 1, wherein the control system uses the configuration measurements in a process including:
determining a first difference between a current configuration of a selected one of the joints and a desired configuration of the selected joint; and
using a first product of the first difference and a first gain factor in determining a joint torque that actuates the selected joint.
9. The system of claim 8, wherein the process in which the control system uses the configuration measurements further comprises:
determining a second difference between a current velocity at the selected joint and a desired velocity at the joint; and
determining a second product of the second difference and a second gain factor, wherein the joint torque that actuates the selected joint further depends on the second product.
10. The system of claim 1, wherein the control system determines the tensions using a process comprising:
determining differences between a desired configuration of a tip of the instrument and a current configuration of the tip;
determining from the differences, a tip force and a tip torque that when applied to the tip reduces the differences;
determining joint torques that produce the tip force and the tip torque on the tip of the instrument; and
determining the tensions that produce the joint torques.
11. The system of claim 10, wherein determining the tip force comprises:
determining a first difference between a current value of a first position coordinate of the tip and a desired value of the first position coordinate of the tip;
determining a first product of the first difference and a first gain factor; and
using the first product in determining a first component of the tip force.
12. The system of claim 11, wherein determining tip force further comprises:
determining a second difference between a current value of a second position coordinate of the tip and a desired value of the second position coordinate of the tip;
determining a second product of the second difference and a second gain factor, wherein the second gain factor is different from the first gain; and
using the second product in determining a second component of the tip force.
13. The system of claim 10, wherein determining the tip torque comprises:
determining a first difference between a current value of a first angular coordinate of the tip and a desired value of the first angular coordinates of the tip;
determining a first product of the first difference and a first gain factor; and
using the first product in determining a first component of the tip torque.
14. The system of claim 13, wherein determining the tip torque further comprises:
determining a second difference between a current value of a second angular coordinate of the tip and a desired value of the second angular coordinate of the tip; and
determining a second product of the second difference and a second gain factor, wherein the second gain factor is set to be different from the first gain factor.
15. The system of claim 10, wherein determining the tip force comprises:
determining a difference between a component of a current velocity of the tip and a component of a desired velocity of the tip;
determining a product of the difference and a gain factor; and
using the product in determining a component of the tip force.
16. The system of claim 10, wherein determining the tip force comprises:
determining a difference between an angular velocity of the tip and a desired angular velocity of the tip;
determining a product of the difference and a gain factor; and
using the product in determining a component of the tip force.
17. The system of claim 10, wherein the joints provide more than six degrees of freedom of motion, including degrees of freedom of motion that are redundant for movement of the tip, and the joint torques are computed to keep the joints away from limits of ranges of motion of the joints or away from joint torque limits.
18. The system of claim 1, wherein the control system determines the tensions using a process comprising:
using the configuration measurements to determine joint torques respectively in the joints; and
determining the tensions for the transmission systems using the joint torques.
19. The system of claim 18, wherein the control system determines the tensions using a process comprising:
evaluating the joints sequentially in an order from a distal end of the instrument toward a proximal end of the instrument, wherein evaluating each joint comprises using the joint torques for that joint and tensions determined for joints closer to the distal end of the instrument to determine tensions directly applied to the joint being evaluated.
20. The system of claim 19, wherein when evaluating each joint, the tension of a transmission system directly applied to the joint being evaluated is chosen to be equal to a nominal value, and the tension or tensions of the remaining transmission systems directly applied to the joint are computed to produce the joint torques for that joint and are verified to be greater than or equal to the nominal value.
21. The system of claim 20, wherein the nominal value is chosen to effectively release all tension in the transmission system.
22. The system of claim 20, wherein the nominal value is chosen to effectively keep tension in the transmission systems.
23. The system of claim 18, wherein determining the tensions using the joint torques comprises:
determining distal tensions from the joint torques; and
determining corrections that depend on respective differences between velocities of the joints and corresponding velocities of the actuators coupled to the joints, wherein the tensions for the transmission systems depend on the distal tensions and the corrections.
24. The system of claim 18, wherein determining the tensions using the joint torques comprises:
determining distal tensions from the joint torques; and
determining for each joint a correction that depends on a difference between velocities of the actuators coupled to transmission systems that are attached to the joint, wherein the tensions for the transmission systems depend on the distal tensions and the corrections.
25. A method for controlling a medical instrument, the method comprising:
measuring a configuration for a plurality of joints of the medical instrument;
receiving a command indicating a desired configuration of the medical instrument;
determining tensions respectively in a plurality of transmission systems that respectively connect a plurality of actuators to the joints, wherein determination of tensions is independent of positions of the actuators; and
operating the actuator to apply the tensions respectively to the transmission systems.
26. The method of claim 25, wherein one or more of the transmission systems has compliance such that each of those transmission systems fails to provide a relationship between positions of the joint and positions of the actuator coupled to the transmission system that is sufficiently accurate for control of the joint using the relationship.
27. The method of claim 25, wherein determining the tensions comprises:
determining differences between a desired configuration of the joints and a current configuration of the joints;
determining from the differences joint torques that actuate the joints to reduce the differences; and
determining the tensions that produce the joint torques.
28. The method of claim 25, wherein determining the tensions comprises:
determining differences between a desired configuration of a tip of the instrument and a current configuration of the tip;
determining from the differences a tip force and a tip torque that when applied to the tip reduces the differences;
determining joint torques that produce the force and torque on the tip of the instrument; and
determining the tensions that produce the joint torques.
29. The method of claim 28, wherein determining the tip force comprises:
determining a first difference between a current value of a first position coordinate of the tip and desired value of the first position coordinate of the tip;
determining a first product of the first difference and a first gain factor; and
using the first product in determining a first component of the tip force.
30. The method of claim 29, wherein determining tip force further comprises:
determining a second difference between a current value of a second position coordinate of the tip and desired value of the second position coordinate of the tip;
determining a second product of the second difference and a second gain factor, wherein the second gain factor is different from the first gain; and
using the second product in determining a second component of the tip force.
31. The method of claim 28, wherein determining the tip torque comprises:
determining a first difference between a current value of a first angular coordinate of the tip and desired value of the first angular coordinates of the tip;
determining a first product of the first difference and a first gain factor; and
using the first product in determining a first component of the tip torque.
32. The method of claim 31, wherein determining the tip torque further comprises:
determining a second difference between a current value of a second angular coordinate of the tip and desired value of the second angular coordinate of the tip; and
determining a second product of the second difference and a second gain factor, wherein the second gain factor is set to be different from the first gain factor.
33. The method of claim 28, wherein determining the tip force comprises:
determining a difference between a component of a current velocity of the tip and a component of a desired velocity of the tip;
determining a product of the difference and a gain factor; and
using the product in determining a component of the tip force.
34. The method of claim 28, wherein determining the tip force comprises:
determining a difference between an angular velocity of the tip and a desired angular velocity of the tip;
determining a product of the difference and a gain factor; and
using the product in determining a component of the tip force.
35. The method of claim 28, wherein the joints provide more than six degrees of freedom of motion, including degrees of freedom of motion that are redundant for movement of the tip, and determining the joint torques uses the redundant degrees of freedom to keep the joints away from limits of ranges of motion of the joints or from joint torque limits.
36. The method of claim 25, wherein determining the tensions comprises:
using the configuration measurements to determine joint torques respectively in the joints; and
determining the tensions for the transmission systems using the joint torques.
37. The method of claim 36, wherein determining the tensions further comprises:
evaluating the joints sequentially in an order from a distal end of the instrument toward a proximal end of the instrument, wherein evaluating each joint comprises using the joint torques for that joint and tensions determined for joints closer to the distal end of the instrument to determine tensions directly applied to the joint being evaluated.
38. The method of claim 37, wherein when evaluating each joint, the tension of a transmission system directly applied to the joint being evaluated is chosen to be equal to a nominal value, and the tension or tensions of the remaining transmission systems directly applied to the joint are computed to produce the joint torques for that joint and are verified to be greater than or equal to the nominal value.
39. The method of claim 38, wherein the nominal value is chosen to effectively release all tension in the transmission system.
40. The method of claim 38, wherein the nominal value is chosen to effectively keep tension in the transmission systems.
41. The method of claim 36, wherein determining the tensions comprises:
determining distal tensions from the joint torques; and
determining corrections that depend on respective differences between velocities of the joints and corresponding velocities of the actuators coupled to the joints, wherein the tensions for the transmission systems depend on the distal tensions and the corrections.
42. The method of claim 36, wherein determining the tensions using the joint torques comprises:
determining distal tensions from the joint torques; and
determining for each joint a correction that depends on a difference between velocities of the actuators coupled to transmission systems that are attached to the joint, wherein the tensions for the transmission systems depend on the distal tensions and the corrections.