ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 10 -- United States Patent no. 12,408,587, issued on Sept. 9, was assigned to SHANGHAI SUNSEEKER ROBOTIC TECHNOLOGY Co. LTD. (Shanghai).

"Autonomous operating apparatus" was invented by Miaowu Ma (Shanghai) and Jian Xiong (Shanghai).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An autonomous operating apparatus includes a main body mechanism with a first and second main body portions being connected to each other by an attachment unit. The attachment unit includes a first mating member, an elastic member and a second mating member. The first mating member is integrally formed with the first main body portion or is connected to the first main body portion via a first connecting structur...