US Patent Issued to ROLLS-ROYCE on March 18 for "Robot stiffness" (British Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,251,832, issued on March 18, was assigned to ROLLS-ROYCE plc (London).

"Robot stiffness" was invented by Andrew D Norton (Derby, Great Britain), Xin Dong (Nottingham, Great Britain) and Dragos A Axinte (Nottingham, Great Britain).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A continuum arm robot comprising: a tool, a tip section comprising a number of sections a manipulatable robotic section having multiple degrees of freedom, a stiffening section comprising a passive core with an inflatable section surrounding the passive core and a valve for allowing a fluid into the inflatable outer; and a passive section comprising a length of flexible conduit, wh...