ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,297,894, issued on May 13, was assigned to Intuitive Surgical Operations Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.).
"Instrument transmission converting roll to linear actuation" was invented by Ryan C. Abbott (San Jose, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A force transmission mechanism includes a chassis that supports a rotatable arm, which includes a slot. A rotatable lever is supported by the chassis. A protrusion at an end of the lever engages the slot. A sliding drive element is supported by the chassis. A proximal termination of the drive element engages a second end of the lever. The chassis may support an elongate tube with an end effector fixed...