ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,653,635, issued on June 16, was assigned to KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN (Leuven, Belgium).
"Manipulation device" was invented by Felix Bernhard (Lilienthal, Germany), Mouloud Ourak (Leuven, Belgium), Omar Al-Ahmad (Heverlee, Belgium), Jonas Smits (Korbeek-Lo, Belgium) and Emmanuel B. Vander Poorten (Mechelen, Belgium).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A gripper for manipulation of an elongate member includes a flexible sleeve for receiving the elongate member, the sleeve extends along a sleeve axis and has first and second opposite ends; a first clamping element is configured to receive and removably couple to the first end of the sleeve;...