ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,416,334, issued on Sept. 16, was assigned to Agility Robotics Inc. (Pittsburgh).
"Torque protection for strain wave drives" was invented by Dylan Thrush (Albany, Ore.) and Kevin Sweeney (Albany, Ore.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A torque-limiting actuator assembly includes a transmission coupled to a housing and a motor. The transmission includes an input member, an intermediate member, and an output member, all rotatable around a common axis. The input member is coupled to the motor and is configured to engage the intermediate member that engages the output member and causes it to rotate at a predictable rate. The intermediate member...