US Patent Issued to Vanderbilt University on April 15 for "Method and apparatus for human augmentation and robot actuation" (Tennessee Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,275,145, issued on April 15, was assigned to Vanderbilt University (Nashville, Tenn.).

"Method and apparatus for human augmentation and robot actuation" was invented by David Braun (Nashville, Tenn.) and Chase W. Mathews (Nashville, Tenn.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Parallel variable stiffness actuators are disclosed. The parallel variable stiffness actuator can comprise a spring and a variable-stiffness mechanism. The variable-stiffness mechanism can be configured to modulate a stiffness of the parallel variable stiffness actuator. The parallel variable stiffness actuator can further comprise a direct-drive motor arranged in parallel ...