ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,257,697, issued on March 25, was assigned to Murata Machinery Ltd. (Kyoto, Japan).
"Transporter" was invented by Daisuke Katsuyama (Inuyama, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A transporter includes a traveling body, a supporting body including first and second members with relative positions that can be mutually changed, a first suction pad on the first member, a second suction pad on the second member, a first presser on the first member, a second presser on the second member, the first and second suction pads being between the first and second pressers, and a controller to control the relative positions of the first and second memb...