ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,279,920, issued on April 22, was assigned to Intuitive Surgical Operations Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.).
"Configurable counterbalance mechanism" was invented by Timothy P. Haines (San Jose, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Implementations relate to a configurable counterbalance mechanism. In some implementations, a counterbalance apparatus includes a spring, a tension element coupled between the spring and a mechanical ground, a base element coupled to a load, and a configurable arm rotatably coupled to the base element. A first pulley and a second pulley are rotatably coupled to the configurable arm, the second pulley orbitable about th...