ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 13 -- United States Patent no. 12,521,195, issued on Jan. 13, was assigned to Covidien LP (Mansfield, Mass.).
"Robotic surgical systems" was invented by Reiner Wolff (Inning, Germany) and Ulrich Hagn (Munich).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A robotic surgical system includes a carrier for axially moving an instrument drive unit and an attached surgical instrument. A release mechanism is coupled to the carrier and a slide rail and transitions between a first state, in which the carrier and instrument drive unit are fixed relative to the release mechanism, and a second state, in which the carrier and instrument drive unit are manually movable relative to a slide rail."
The ...