ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,280,198, issued on April 22, was assigned to Stryker Corp. (Portage, Mich.).

"Autonomous waste collection assembly and medical waste collection system and methods" was invented by Stephen J. Reasoner (Kalamazoo, Mich.), Andy Staats (Issaquah, Wash.), Brian MacLachlan (Norton Shores, Mich.) and Tamitha M. Dollman (Hampton, Ala.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An autonomous medical waste collection assembly. A base supports a waste canister in fluid communication with a manifold receiver, and a suction pump. A controller is in electronic communication with a powered wheel and configured to transmit a movement signal for a motor to power the ...