Patents Examined by Frank T Glenn, III
  • Patent number: 11479248
    Abstract: A vehicle control apparatus is provided with: a recognizer configured to recognize a surrounding situation of a host vehicle; a controller programmed to perform a deceleration control when a deceleration target is recognized by the recognizer; and a detector configured to detect a slip of the host vehicle. The controller sets a first controlled variable, which is a controlled variable associated with the deceleration control when the slip of the host vehicle is detected without execution of the deceleration control, so as to suppress an extent of deceleration of the host vehicle, in comparison with a second controlled variable, which is the controlled variable when the slip of the host vehicle is not detected without execution of the deceleration control.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2022
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Shogo Ito, Masahiko Adachi, Kohei Tochigi, Yuta Ikezawa
  • Patent number: 11474532
    Abstract: System, methods, and other embodiments described herein relate to improving the prediction efficiency of autonomous/semi-autonomous vehicles. In one embodiment, the system generates a provisional prediction according to sensor data from at least one sensor of a subject vehicle. The prediction can be associated with an aspect relating to operating the subject vehicle along a path. The system analyzes the provisional prediction in relation to a subsequent prediction about the aspect to determine a correspondence between the provisional prediction and the subsequent prediction. In response to determining that the correspondence satisfies an inaccuracy threshold, the system can store the provisional prediction and the sensor data associated with the provisional prediction to log potential inaccuracies in generating predictions based, at least in part, on the sensor data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2022
    Assignee: Toyota Research Institute, Inc.
    Inventors: Avinash Balachandran, Carrie Bobier-Tiu
  • Patent number: 11474518
    Abstract: A method and a system for event validation on a vehicle. The method includes detecting an event determined by the vehicle. The method can include requesting and receiving external event determination, from at least one external source within a first surrounding area, based on the event. The method also includes generating an internal event determination based on the event and validating a validated event based on the both the external and internal event determinations. The method includes requesting and receiving external drive plan, from the external source within a second surrounding area, based on the validated event. The method also includes generating an internal drive plan, validating a validated drive plan based on the internal and external drive plans, and implementing the validated drive plan.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 13, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2022
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Satoshi Yokoyama, Akira Saito, Sanehiro Furuichi, Hayato Uenohara, Gaku Yamamoto, Norie Iwasaki
  • Patent number: 11427146
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable media are provided for collision prevention. In some embodiments, a trajectory of a vehicle with respect to an object can be determined using a trajectory prediction model and sensor data associated with the vehicle and the object. Based on the trajectory, a collision event involving the vehicle and the object can be determined and one or more collision protection devices can be activated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 10, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2022
    Assignee: Pony AI Inc.
    Inventor: Zhiling Huang
  • Patent number: 11427195
    Abstract: An apparatus includes a capture device and a processor. The capture device may be configured to generate pixel data corresponding to an exterior view from a vehicle. The processor may be configured to perform operations on video frames generated from the pixel data to detect a moving object in the video frames, determine a predicted path of the moving object, determine a probability of the moving object colliding with the vehicle based on the predicted path, determine whether the vehicle is stationary and generate a control signal if the vehicle is stationary and the probability is greater than a pre-determined threshold. The control signal may be configured to enable a response to alert a person in control of the moving object.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2022
    Assignee: Ambarella International LP
    Inventors: Shimon Pertsel, Greg Hedman
  • Patent number: 11391580
    Abstract: A system includes a plurality of vehicles and an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) configured to land on one of the vehicles and travel together with the vehicle. A control center selects one of the vehicles on which landing of the UAV is performed based on travel routes transmitted by the vehicles and the UAV, and transmit a cooperation request to the selected vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 7, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 19, 2022
    Assignees: Hyundai Motor Company, Kia Motors Corporation
    Inventor: Chang Woo Chun
  • Patent number: 11364898
    Abstract: Military convoys sometimes need to push vehicles or obstacles out of the way in order to proceed with their mission. Selecting if pushing is necessary, what can be pushed, and what cannot be pushed as well as the specific maneuver necessary for pushing or creating a controlled crash are important to minimize the damage to the autonomous vehicles as well as to create pathways that are traversable by other autonomous vehicles in the convoy. These tasks are accomplished by evaluating the costs involved in each trajectory that can be navigated by the autonomous convoy and deciding if pushing the obstacle is the preferred path or navigating around the obstacle is the preferred path for the autonomous vehicles. Also, in some cases, several autonomous vehicles simultaneously push the obstacle at the same time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2022
    Assignee: Robotic Research OpCo, LLC
    Inventors: Alberto Daniel Lacaze, Karl Nicholas Murphy
  • Patent number: 11358575
    Abstract: A control device and a method for operating an electromechanical brake booster of a brake system configured to execute anti-lock control actions, including the steps: determining a setpoint variable regarding a setpoint brake pressure to be produced by the electromechanical brake booster, in view of at least a differential travel; and controlling the electromechanical brake booster in view of the determined setpoint variable; at least during an anti-lock control action carried out in the brake system, it being ascertained if the differential travel lies outside of a specified normal value range, and in some instances, the additional steps being executed: determining a correction variable for the setpoint variable in view of at least a difference between the determined setpoint variable and an actual variable regarding an actual pressure present in at least part of the volume of the brake system, and controlling the electromechanical brake booster in additional view of the determined correction variable.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 8, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2022
    Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
    Inventors: Manfred Gerdes, Patrick Christian Schaefer
  • Patent number: 11347219
    Abstract: The disclosed technology provides a delivery trailer to be hitched to an autonomous vehicle for autonomous delivery of packages. The delivery trailer can include sensors to provide data to the autonomous vehicle to which it is to overcome limitations caused by any occlusion of sensors on the autonomous vehicle by the trailer. Furthermore, the present technology addresses several challenges related to autonomous package delivery.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 29, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2022
    Assignee: GM Cruise Holdings, LLC
    Inventors: Jake Glendenning, Yung Chang Ko
  • Patent number: 11340348
    Abstract: A collision determination apparatus includes an acquisition section, a setting section, a target object information detection section, a target object path prediction section, an own vehicle path prediction section, and a collision determination section. The acquisition section acquires detection information based on a reflected wave from a search device. The setting section sets filter characteristics of a filtering process used when the detection information is filtered. The target object information detection section detects a position of a target object using the filtered detection information. The target object path prediction section predicts a path of the target object based on changes in the position of the target object detected by the target object information detection section. The own vehicle path prediction section predicts a path of an own vehicle. The collision determination section makes a determination of a collision between the own vehicle and the target object.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2022
    Assignees: DENSO CORPORATION, TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Takayuki Hiromitsu, Shinji Kitaura, Akihiro Kida
  • Patent number: 11332134
    Abstract: A method for predicting whether another vehicle in the driving-environment of an ego-vehicle will execute a lane-change, based on observations of the driving-environment of the ego-vehicle, including: the observations are supplied to individual classificators; based on at least a portion of the observations, each individual classificator, in accordance with an individual instruction, ascertains an individual probability that the other vehicle will change lanes; the driving situation in which the ego-vehicle finds itself is classified as a whole by a situation classificator into one of several discrete classes; a record of weighting factors, assigned to the class into which the situation-classificator has classified the driving-situation, is ascertained, that indicates the relative weighting of the individual classificators for this driving situation; the individual probabilities are set off against the weighting-factors to form an overall probability that the other vehicle will change lanes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 17, 2022
    Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
    Inventors: Chun Yang, Laszlo Anka, Adam Rigo, Kornel Istvan Kis, Levente Kis
  • Patent number: 11269324
    Abstract: A method and an apparatus for controlling an autonomous vehicle are provided according to the embodiments of the disclosure. The method includes: sending, in response to determining that a pedestrian is in a first target area, behavior prompt information representing prompting the pedestrian to make a corresponding behavior; determining whether a deceleration condition matching the behavior prompt information is satisfied based on acquired behavior information of the pedestrian; and sending control information for reducing a moving speed of the autonomous vehicle, in response to determining that the deceleration condition is satisfied and determining that a speed of the autonomous vehicle is greater than a preset deceleration threshold. According to the embodiments, deceleration control of the autonomous vehicle is achieved based on the response of the pedestrian to the behavior prompt information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2022
    Assignee: Apollo Intelligent Driving Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Mengmeng Tang, Wanqi Chai, Junping Wang, Fan Yang, Xiaohua Yang, Jing Li, Chen Chen, Shi Hu, Xuan Huang, Yan Feng, Wenlong Rao, Haifeng Li, Gao Yu, Ning Yu, Shuang Zhang
  • Patent number: 11254313
    Abstract: A travelling control apparatus includes a preceding vehicle information acquiring unit acquiring a preceding vehicle travelling speed pattern indicating a travelling speed change of a preceding vehicle; an energy efficiency index calculation unit calculating an energy efficiency index indicating a degree of improvement in an energy efficiency of the vehicle, in the case where the vehicle travels based on an own vehicle travelling speed pattern indicating a travelling speed change of the vehicle when the vehicle travels tracking the preceding vehicle; a compatibility index calculation unit calculating a compatibility index indicating a degree of compatibility between the vehicle and a following vehicle based on a travelling speed of the vehicle and the following vehicle; and a control unit performing a coasting travel determination determining whether to perform a coasting travel of the vehicle based on a degree of the energy efficiency index and the compatibility index.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 22, 2022
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yutaro Ito, Hiroyuki Nanjo
  • Patent number: 11215983
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides a server, a remote control device and a remote control method for an automatic driving vehicle. The method includes: after receiving a remote control request of an automatic driving vehicle, determining a control instruction according to the remote control request, and transmitting the control instruction by using wireless channels corresponding to a plurality of wireless networks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2022
    Assignee: Apollo Intelligent Driving Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Jialin Yang
  • Patent number: 11180163
    Abstract: In a vehicle control system (1, 101), a control unit is configured to execute a stop process by which the vehicle is parked in a prescribed stop area when it is detected that the control unit or the driver has become incapable of properly maintaining a traveling state of the vehicle, and, in the stop process, the control unit extracts a plurality of available stop areas according to information from at least one of an external environment recognition device and a map device, and selects a stop area from the available stop areas (A, B) by taking into account a possibility of the driver resuming driving the vehicle after the stop process has been initiated according to a result of monitoring the driver by an occupant monitoring device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 23, 2021
    Assignee: HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Tadashi Naruse, Kanta Tsuji, Ryoma Taguchi, Yuta Takada
  • Patent number: 11011064
    Abstract: In one embodiment, example systems and methods related to vehicle platooning are provided. Vehicles are equipped with a vehicle platooning system that allows the vehicles to exchange messages related to vehicle platooning. When a following vehicle desires to follow a leading vehicle, the following vehicle sends a request to the leading vehicle, and the leading vehicle sends the following vehicle information such as its current speed. The following vehicle may then use the information, along with sensor data such as images of the rear of the leading vehicle, to follow the leading vehicle from a following distance. When the leading vehicle desires to change lanes, the leading vehicle sends a message to the following vehicle to determine if the following vehicle is able to change lanes. If the following vehicle determines that it can change lanes (i.e., the lane is clear from other vehicles or objects), the following vehicle can send a message to the leading vehicle indicating that it can change lanes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2021
    Assignee: DENSO International America, Inc.
    Inventors: Yumeng Zhou, Jin Kurumisawa
  • Patent number: 11005662
    Abstract: A multimodal communication system includes a vehicle controller that controls one or more systems or subsystems of an unmanned vehicle. The communication controller manages communication and logical access to the unmanned vehicle. One or more sensors in communication with the communication controller detects and measures physical properties in proximity to the unmanned vehicle. Transceivers receive the unmanned vehicle commands that are transmitted simultaneously or concurrently and a monotonic generator generates a monotonic object each time the unmanned vehicle's operating state changes. The communication controller executes the first unmanned vehicle command received that has the correct cryptographic hash validating knowledge of the unmanned vehicle's current operating state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 11, 2021
    Assignee: UT-BATTELLE, LLC
    Inventors: Andrew M. Duncan, Andrew Harter, Charles K. Roberts, II, Brad J. Stinson, Thad Thompson, Bogdan Vacaliuc