ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,440,964, issued on Oct. 14, was assigned to Willow Garage LLC (San Francisco).
"Kinetic and dimensional optimization for a tendon-driven gripper" was invented by Matei Ciocarlie (Menlo Park, Calif.) and Scott Stanford (Mountain View, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A tendon-driven robotic gripper is disclosed for performing fingertip and enveloping grasps. One embodiment comprises two fingers, each with two links, and is actuated using a single active tendon. During unobstructed closing, the distal links remain parallel, creating exact fingertip grasps. Conversely, if the proximal links are stopped by contact with an object, the di...