US Patent Issued to INTUITIVE SURGICAL OPERATIONS on Nov. 4 for "Arm with a combined shape and force sensor" (California Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,458,456, issued on Nov. 4, was assigned to INTUITIVE SURGICAL OPERATIONS INC. (Sunnyvale, Calif.).

"Arm with a combined shape and force sensor" was invented by David Q. Larkin (Menlo Park, Calif.) and Vincent Duindam (San Francisco).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A robotic surgical system includes a surgical instrument and a processor. The surgical instrument includes an elongate, hollow shaft having a proximal end, a distal end, and a flexible section. The surgical instrument further includes a sensor apparatus configured to generate sensor data about the flexible section and a force transmission mechanism coupled to the proximal end of t...