US Patent 11857200 Automated alignment of a surgical tool

A surgical system includes a robotic arm, an end effector held by the robotic arm, a tracking system configured to detect a patient position and an end effector position, and a processor and non-transitory memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to define a planned trajectory relative to the patient position, obtain the patient position and the end effector position from the tracking system during manual movement of the end effector by a user, determine whether the end effector position is within a threshold of the planned trajectory based on the patient position and the end effector position obtained during the manual movement of the end effector, and upon determination that the end effector position is within the threshold of the planned trajectory, take over and control the robotic arm to automatically align the end effector with the planned trajectory.