US Patent 11701188 Robotic spine surgery system and methods

Robotic systems and methods include a robotic manipulator and a skin incision tool to be coupled to the robotic manipulator and being configured to create an incision in skin of a patient. A skin tracker is attached to the skin of the patient to track the skin of the patient. A robotic controller controls the robotic manipulator to move the skin incision tool relative to a determined location on the skin of the patient. The robotic controller controls the robotic manipulator to constrain movement of the skin incision tool with a haptic object defined relative to the determined location to guide the skin incision tool to the determined location for making the incision in the skin.