The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 28, 2013
Filed:
Apr. 08, 2009
Bruce M. Schena, Menlo Park, CA (US);
Henry B. Hazebrouck, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Bruce M. Schena, Menlo Park, CA (US);
Henry B. Hazebrouck, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Intuitive Surgical Operations, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
In one embodiment of the invention, a steering system for mobile medical equipment includes left and right steerable wheel assemblies respectively with left and right steerable wheels. A left parallelogram linkage couples to the left steerable wheel assembly to transfer a left wheel angle to the left steerable wheel assembly. A right parallelogram linkage couples to the right steerable wheel assembly to transfer a right wheel angle to the right steerable wheel assembly. A steering function generator couples to the left parallelogram linkage and the right parallelogram linkage. The steering function generator generates the left wheel angle of the left steerable wheel and the right wheel angle of the right steerable wheel. A steering tiller couples to the steering function generator and receives an input steering angle from an operator to generate the left and right wheel angles to control the direction of the mobile medical equipment around flooring.