US Patent Issued to Toyota Research Institute on Jan. 20 for "Collapsible splined fingers for ratcheting engagements and high normal force exertion" (Massachusetts Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 20 -- United States Patent no. 12,528,202, issued on Jan. 20, was assigned to Toyota Research Institute Inc. (Los Altos, Calif.).

"Collapsible splined fingers for ratcheting engagements and high normal force exertion" was invented by Andrew M. Beaulieu (Somerville, Mass.) and Alexander Alspach (Somerville, Mass.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A robotic system for grasping an object including a set of movable robotic fingers that may be in the form of a gripper or other moldable robotic finger similarly formed. The robotic fingers include one or more collapsible structures on the surface of an inner pad of the two or more fingers. The collapsible structures are curved str...