ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,334,794, issued on June 17, was assigned to AUDI AG (Ingolstadt, Germany).
"Externally excited electric machine" was invented by Roman StraBer (Gaimersheim, Germany).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An externally excited electric machine comprises a rotor as well as a contact device having at least one sliding contact element positioned against a contact segment of the rotor for transmitting an exciter current, wherein the sliding contact element is integrated in an electromagnetic actuator, by which it can be controlled to move between a position lying against the contact segment and a position spaced apart from it."
The patent was filed ...