US Patent Issued to The Regents of the University of California, The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University on April 22 for "Vine robot tracheal intubation device" (California Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,280,208, issued on April 22, was assigned to The Regents of the University of California (Oakland, Calif.) and The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University (Stanford, Calif.).

"Vine robot tracheal intubation device" was invented by Elliot W. Hawkes (Goleta, Calif.), David A. Haggerty (Goleta, Calif.) and David R. Drover (Stanford, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An everting vine robot intubation device capable of automatically and autonomously intubating the trachea and producing a lumen through which artificial ventilation may be conducted. The device includes an everting primary vine robot attached to a mouthpiec...