US 7,398,707 B2
Roll-pitch-roll surgical tool
Tracey A. Morley, Sunnyvale, Calif. (US); and Daniel T. Wallace, Redwood City, Calif. (US)
Assigned to Intuitive Surgical Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif. (US)
Filed on Apr. 06, 2005, as Appl. No. 11/101,375.
Application 10/752934 is a division of application No. 10/340129, filed on Jan. 10, 2003, granted, now 6,685,698.
Application 10/340129 is a division of application No. 09/626527, filed on Jul. 27, 2000, granted, now 6,746,443.
Application 11/101375 is a continuation of application No. 10/752934, filed on Jan. 06, 2004, granted, now 6,902,560.
Prior Publication US 2005/0204851 A1, Sep. 22, 2005
Int. Cl. B25J 17/02 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 74—490.06  [901/29] 11 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A minimally invasive surgical instrument comprising:
an elongate shaft having a working end and a proximal end;
at least one linking arm having a proximal end and a distal end, the proximal end being pivotally mounted on the working end of the shaft to rotate around a first pitch axis which is nonparallel to the shaft axis;
a wrist member having a distal portion and a proximal portion pivotally connected to the distal end of the linking arm to rotate around a second pitch axis which is nonparallel to the shaft axis;
a first pitch pulley coaxial with the first pitch axis, and a second pitch pulley coaxial with the second pitch axis;
a first pitch elongate element engaging the first and second pitch pulleys in a first circumferential orientation, the first pitch elongate element running through the elongate shaft;
an end effector pivotally mounted on the distal portion of the wrist member to rotate around a wrist axis of the wrist member, the wrist axis extending between the proximal portion and the distal portion of the wrist member.