US Patent Issued to Intuitive Surgical Operations on Feb. 24 for "Controlled resistance in backdrivable joints" (California Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 24 -- United States Patent no. 12,558,176, issued on Feb. 24, was assigned to Intuitive Surgical Operations Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.).

"Controlled resistance in backdrivable joints" was invented by Goran Lynch (Sunnyvale, Calif.), Sean Duffy (Sunnyvale, Calif.), Will Valladao (Sunnyvale, Calif.) and Amin Zeiaee (Sunnyvale, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A computer-assisted system includes a manipulator arm including a joint, an actuator mechanism configured to drive the joint, and a controller including a computer processor. The controller is communicatively coupled to the manipulator arm and configured with a first control mode and a second control mode. In each o...