US Patent Issued to INTUITIVE SURGICAL OPERATIONS on Aug. 5 for "Automated rotation of a needle in a computer-assisted system" (California, Connecticut Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,376,848, issued on Aug. 5, was assigned to INTUITIVE SURGICAL OPERATIONS INC. (Sunnyvale, Calif.).

"Automated rotation of a needle in a computer-assisted system" was invented by Andrew D. Wilson (Hamden, Conn.), Gabriel F. Brisson (Livermore, Calif.) and Robert C. Reid (Fairfield, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Techniques for automated rotation of a needle in a computer-assisted system include an end effector having a drive mechanism configured to be coupled to a curved needle and configured to rotationally actuate the curved needle along an arcuate path and a control unit coupled to the drive mechanism. The control unit is configu...