US Patent Issued to Toyota Research Institute, Toyota Jidosha on Feb. 17 for "Collapsible protrusions having a variable coefficient of friction" (Massachusetts, Pennsylvania Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,552,020, issued on Feb. 17, was assigned to Toyota Research Institute Inc. (Los Altos, Calif.) and Toyota Jidosha K.K. (Toyota Aichi-Ken, Japan).

"Collapsible protrusions having a variable coefficient of friction" was invented by Andrew Beaulieu (Arlington, Mass.), Naveen Suresh Kuppuswamy (Arlington, Mass.) and Jessica Yin (Philadelphia).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A plurality of collapsible protrusions extending from a base including a first end, a second end, a first surface, and an outer surface. The second end is opposite the first end. The first surface is distal from the base. The outer surface is between the first end and the s...