ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,226,893, issued on Feb. 18, was assigned to Toyota Research Institute Inc. (Los Altos, Calif.).
"Gripping assemblies including an adhesive assembly" was invented by Lukas S. Kaul (Mountain View, Calif.) and Amar Hajj-Ahmad (Stanford, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A gripping assembly includes a gripping mechanism for engaging an object and an adhesive assembly coupled to the gripping mechanism. The adhesive assembly includes an adhesive sheet and an engagement mechanism operable between an active state and an inactive state. The engagement mechanism deforms the adhesive sheet to contact the object when operated in the active state...