US Patent Issued to INTUITIVE SURGICAL OPERATIONS on March 25 for "Operating self-antagonistic drives of medical instruments" (American, Italian Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,256,911, issued on March 25, was assigned to INTUITIVE SURGICAL OPERATIONS INC. (Sunnyvale, Calif.).

"Operating self-antagonistic drives of medical instruments" was invented by Samuel Kwok Wai Au (Mountain View, Calif.), Stephen J. Blumenkranz (Sunnyvale, Calif.) and Giuseppe Maria Prisco (Calcinelli di Saltara, Italy).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A medical instrument including a shaft and an actuated structure mounted at a distal end of the shaft can employ a pair of tendons connected to the actuated structure, extending down the shaft, and respectively wound around a capstan in opposite directions. A passive preload system may mainta...