ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,330,301, issued on June 17, was assigned to Zebra Technologies Corp. (Lincolnshire, Ill.).

"Shape-memory effector assemblies with integrated position sensing" was invented by Charles Burton Swope (Coral Springs, Fla.), Matthew B. Hayes (Wheaton, Ill.) and Robert E. Beach (Los Altos, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An effector system comprises: an effector assembly including: a first segment having a conduit between a proximal end and a distal end, an inner surface of the conduit having a conductive portion and a resistive portion; an output member slidable within the conduit, the output member having a conductive exterior contactin...