US Patent Issued to University of Washington, U.S. Army Research Laboratory on Nov. 4 for "Electrostatic clutch" (Washington Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,463,563, issued on Nov. 4, was assigned to University of Washington (Seattle) and U.S. Army Research Laboratory (Adelphi, Md.).

"Electrostatic clutch" was invented by Jeffrey Lipton (Seattle), Joshua R. Smith (Seattle), Timothy Amish (Seattle), Jeffrey Auletta (Seattle) and Chad Christopher Kessens (Seattle).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An electrostatic clutch includes a shaft having an electrically conductive first layer. The clutch also includes a hold attachment rotatably coupled to the shaft and a tension band having an electrically conductive second layer. The tension band is wrapped around the shaft such that a first end of the ten...