ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,228,161, issued on Feb. 18, was assigned to Ample Inc. (San Francisco).
"Self-aligning mechanical fastener" was invented by Ankit Srivastava (San Francisco).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A self-aligning mechanical fastener includes an active apparatus and a passive apparatus and is configured to have locked and unlocked states. The active apparatus includes a motor that drives a shaft in first direction to advance a plunger towards the passive apparatus to transition the fastener to the locked state. The plunger includes a tapered distal end that mechanically engages a locking body. The locking body is moved laterally by the tapered dist...