ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 7 -- United States Patent no. 12,594,137, issued on April 7, was assigned to Intuitive Surgical Operations Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.).
"Hard stop protection system and method" was invented by Arjang Hourtash (Sunnyvale, Calif.) and Goran Lynch (Sunnyvale, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Disclosed herein are apparatus and method for resisting external articulation of one or more joints of a manipulator assembly when the joints are approaching mechanical limits. For example, an articulable system may include a joint mechanism, an actuator coupled to the joint mechanism, a sensor system for sensing a joint state and a controller. The controller can operate the articula...