ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 30 -- United States Patent no. 12,426,747, issued on Sept. 30, was assigned to Battelle Memorial Institute (Columbus, Ohio).
"Autonomous waste collection" was invented by James Prescott (Columbus, Ohio), Thomas D. Haubert (Columbus, Ohio), Krista I. A. Smith (Dublin, Ohio), Andrew V. Sweeney (Columbus, Ohio) and Lindy Espina Dejarme (Columbus, Ohio).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An autonomous toilet may include a waste receptacle having a receptacle opening, a seat extending at least partially around the receptacle opening, the seat being configured to support a user of the autonomous toilet, a plurality of driven wheels configured to urge the autonomous toilet across a...