ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,296,477, issued on May 13, was assigned to SHANDONG JIAOTONG UNIVERSITY (Jinan, China).

"Gripper mechanism" was invented by Jiuhong Ruan (Jinan, China), Xingyu Guo (Jinan, China), Fuguang Yang (Jinan, China), Haiyan Wang (Jinan, China), Guodong Li (Jinan, China) and Jiao Gao (Jinan, China).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A gripper mechanism is provided, which relates to the technical field of grippers. The gripper mechanism includes a motor, a cylinder barrel, a piston and a guide assembly. The piston reciprocates in the cylinder barrel under the action of the motor and the guide assembly. The piston includes a piston body and a piston rod...