Patents Examined by Frederick M Brushaber
  • Patent number: 11974954
    Abstract: An electric power assist device includes a processor including hardware. The processor assists human power input from a user to a drive member with power of a motor, determines whether a current position is located outdoors using a signal from a sensor, and when determination is made that the current position is located outdoors, reduces an assist amount by the motor as compared with a case where the current position is located indoors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Yuma Matsumoto, Hirotaka Saito, Yuka Shiraiwa, Takahiro Uchida, Shuji Moriyama
  • Patent number: 11967140
    Abstract: A system and method for vehicle wheel detection is disclosed. A particular embodiment can be configured to: receive training image data from a training image data collection system; obtain ground truth data corresponding to the training image data; perform a training phase to train one or more classifiers for processing images of the training image data to detect vehicle wheel objects in the images of the training image data; receive operational image data from an image data collection system associated with an autonomous vehicle; and perform an operational phase including applying the trained one or more classifiers to extract vehicle wheel objects from the operational image data and produce vehicle wheel object data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 8, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2024
    Assignee: TUSIMPLE, INC.
    Inventors: Panqu Wang, Pengfei Chen
  • Patent number: 11959771
    Abstract: A method of enhancing positioning of a moving vehicle based on visual identification of visual objects, comprising obtaining from a location sensor a global positioning and a movement vector of a moving vehicle, capturing one or more images using one or more imaging devices mounted on the moving vehicle to depict at least partial view of a surroundings of the moving vehicle, analyzing the image(s) to identify one or more visual objects having a known geographical position obtained according to the global positioning from a visual data record associated with a navigation map, analyzing the image(s) to calculate a relative positioning of the moving vehicle with respect to the identified visual object(s), calculating an enhanced positioning of the moving vehicle based on the relative positioning and applying the enhanced positioning to a navigation system of the moving vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2024
    Assignee: RED BEND LTD.
    Inventors: Ohad Akiva, Dan Atsmon
  • Patent number: 11961309
    Abstract: A vehicle may include a camera obtaining a surrounding image around the vehicle; and a controller configured to derive spatial recognition data by learning the surrounding image of the vehicle as an input value of the controller, derive object recognition data including wheel area data of surrounding vehicles around the vehicle by learning the surrounding image of the vehicle as an input value of the controller, determine a ground clearance between a bottom surface of a vehicle body of the surrounding vehicles and a ground by use of the spatial recognition data and the wheel area data, and control the vehicle to park the vehicle according to the ground clearance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2024
    Assignees: Hyundai Motor Company, Kia Motors Corporation
    Inventors: Hayeon Lee, JongHoon Kwak, Jinwook Choi, Jihee Han, Jongmo Kim, Jonghyuk Lim, Junsik An, Minsung Son
  • Patent number: 11951992
    Abstract: Disclosed is a vehicle positioning method and apparatus, a storage medium and an electronic device. The method comprises: prelocating a target vehicle in a running state based on a global positioning system to obtain a priori position of the target vehicle in a map; acquiring running image data collected by a camera sensor in the target vehicle in a target area where the priori position is located; visually recognizing the running image data by using a vector map of the target area, so as to acquire lateral position information and longitudinal position information about a position where the target vehicle is located currently; determining a target lane in which a target vehicle is located according to the transverse position information, and positioning a travel position of the target vehicle in the target lane according to the longitudinal position information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 5, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2024
    Assignee: GUANGZHOU AUTOMOBILE GROUP CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Hai Xiao, Jin Shang
  • Patent number: 11932263
    Abstract: A travel sickness estimation system includes an estimation unit and an output unit. The estimation unit is configured to perform estimation processing of estimating, based on person information indicating conditions of a person who is on board a moving vehicle, whether or not the person is in circumstances that would cause travel sickness for him or her. The output unit is configured to output a result of the estimation processing performed by the estimation unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2024
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Yuta Moriura, Yoshitaka Nakamura, Yasufumi Kawai, Hiroyuki Handa, Yohei Morishita, Toru Okino, Hiroyuki Hagino, Toru Sakuragawa, Satoshi Morishita
  • Patent number: 11935342
    Abstract: Activation of an automatic driving feature in a vehicle is detected by evaluating sequential vehicle operation data against subtractive and additive heuristic rules that define a likelihood of an automatic driving feature having been engaged as a function of vehicle performance. The sequential vehicle operation data, which does not include an explicit indication of whether the automatic driving feature was engaged, is provided for time intervals of a trip made by the vehicle. Automatic driving information is generated, which provides an indication of whether the automatic driving feature was engaged during a subset of the time intervals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 13, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2024
    Assignee: Avinew, Inc.
    Inventors: William Anderson Barnes, Randall C. Adams, Daniel R. Peate, Steven Anthony Bentz, G. Edward Combs
  • Patent number: 11926343
    Abstract: An autonomous vehicle can classify and prioritize agent of interest (AOI) objects located around the autonomous vehicle to manage computational resources. An example method performed by an autonomous vehicle includes determining, based on a location of the autonomous vehicle and based on a map, an area in which the autonomous vehicle is operated, determining, based on sensor data received from sensors located on or in the autonomous vehicle, attributes of objects located around the autonomous vehicle, where the attributes include information that describes a status of the objects located around the autonomous vehicle, selecting, based at least on the area, a classification policy that includes a plurality of rules that are associated with a plurality of classifications to classify the objects, and for each of the objects located around the autonomous vehicle: monitoring an object according to a classification of the object based on the classification policy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2024
    Assignee: TUSIMPLE, INC.
    Inventors: Charles Seunghwan Han, Riad I. Hammoud
  • Patent number: 11915603
    Abstract: Methods, systems and related graphical user interface displays are provided for assisting operation of a vehicle in a vicinity of a docking location. A docking graphical user interface display includes lateral deviation markers, vertical deviation markers, a first graphical indication with respect to the lateral deviation markers and a second graphical indication with respect to the vertical deviation markers. A position of the first graphical indication with respect to the lateral deviation markers corresponds to a first difference between the current location of the vehicle and the reference stopping location in a lateral direction, and a second position of the second graphical indication with respect to the vertical deviation markers corresponds to a second difference between the current location of the vehicle and the reference stopping location in a longitudinal direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 3, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2024
    Assignee: HONEYWELL INTERNATIONAL INC.
    Inventors: Muthusankar Subramaniyan, Vijayvenkatesh Srinivasan, Martin Anbuselvan Lawrence Selvakumar
  • Patent number: 11898330
    Abstract: A heavy equipment hazard warning apparatus for a piece of heavy equipment at a site and a system and method for use of the same are disclosed. In one embodiment of the heavy equipment hazard warning apparatus, the location of the heavy equipment is monitored by the heavy equipment warning apparatus and analyzed with reference to a hazard safety site plan of the site that identifies a hazard such as existing utilities, for example. An alert notification is initialized in response to the heavy equipment encroaching on a hazard geofence around the hazard. A shutdown notification is initialized in response to the heavy equipment being proximate to the hazard.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Inventor: Jim D. Wiethorn
  • Patent number: 11890965
    Abstract: System and method configured to determine a direction of movement of a vehicle in response to a brake being released or in response to initiating movement of the vehicle from a stopped position along a route. The direction of movement is determined based on a selected travel direction of the vehicle, a grade of the route, and at least one of applied tractive efforts or applied braking efforts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2024
    Assignee: WESTINGHOUSE AIR BRAKE TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
    Inventors: James Edward Trainor, Jr., James A Oswald, Jeffrey John Wolff, Timothy Brown, Henry Young, Lindsay Short, Edward Thomas Petrak, Ronald Fischer, Michael Wagner, Justin Chadwell, Carlos Vallejo, Sean Cillessen, Larry Bench, Kenneth Paul Nedley, Ajith Kuttannair Kumar
  • Patent number: 11889394
    Abstract: Methods and systems are provided. One example method includes providing a connection to the Internet for a vehicle via wireless connection circuitry associated with an on-board computer of the vehicle. The connection is used to communicate with a service, and a user account is assigned to a user and the user account is associated with settings of the user. The method includes providing communication, by the on-board computer, with a mobile device. The communication provides for pairing the mobile device with the on-board computer using credentials associated with the user account of the user. The method includes accessing, using the on-board computer, data from a mobile device application of the mobile device for rendering content to a display screen of the vehicle. At least some data accessed from the mobile device application is used to render said content to the display screen of the vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 3, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2024
    Assignee: Emerging Automotive, LLC
    Inventors: Angel A. Penilla, Albert S. Penilla
  • Patent number: 11880784
    Abstract: The invention concerns a system for distributing, delivering and collecting freight, with a number I of mobile freight stations, with I?1, each having a first interface for automatically loading freight into freight vehicles from a freight storage of the mobile freight station and for automatically unloading freight from freight vehicles into the freight storage, wherein the freight vehicles are arranged and executed for automatically loading/unloading freight via the first interface and for automatically securing/fixing freight in a storage space of the freight vehicles, the mobile freight stations each have a number ni?Ni, with i=1, . . .
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 3, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2024
    Assignee: STARSHIP TECHNOLOGIES OÜ
    Inventors: Daniel Bowman, Steven Kasih
  • Patent number: 11875689
    Abstract: A management device that manages a flight route of a plurality of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) includes a communication unit that acquires a detection result of an obstacle by a first UAV including an obstacle detection function and an evaluating unit that generates evaluation data of the flight route for selecting a UAV to fly on the flight route based on the detection result.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 16, 2024
    Assignee: RAKUTEN GROUP, INC.
    Inventor: Toshiaki Tazume
  • Patent number: 11867533
    Abstract: Systems and methods provide for a sensing system for a vehicle system. The sensor monitors including a control circuit having one or more processors. The control circuit is communicatively coupled to a switch based on a Power over Ethernet (PoE) interface. The control circuit receives power from the PoE network switch. The sensor monitors include an interface circuit bi-directionally communicating with one or more sensors to acquire sensor measurements. The control circuit transmits the sensor measurements to the switch using the PoE interface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 23, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 9, 2024
    Assignee: The Boeing Company
    Inventor: Donald B. Lee
  • Patent number: 11854418
    Abstract: This disclosure is directed to methods, computer program products, and systems for providing surface vehicle tracking data, including indications of potential collision zones, to an airport map display system onboard an aircraft. In one example, a method includes identifying historical navigation route data, aerodrome guidance features, and a predicted path of a first vehicle. The method further includes determining predicted positions along the predicted path and determining predicted positions of a second vehicle and comparing vehicle envelopes for the two vehicles to determine a predicted collision zone of the vehicles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 14, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2023
    Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
    Inventors: Vipul Gupta, Lawrence J. Surace, Sujaya Rao, Rajesh Chenchu, Siva Prasad Kolli, Vinod Prakash Singh
  • Patent number: 11841704
    Abstract: To operate an autonomous vehicle, a rail agent is detected in a vicinity of the autonomous vehicle using a detection system. One or more tracks are determined on which the detected rail agent is possibly traveling, and possible paths for the rail agent are predicted based on the determined one or more tracks. One or more motion paths are determined for one or more probable paths from the possible paths, and a likelihood for each of the one or more probable paths is determined based on each motion plan. A path for the autonomous vehicle is then determined based on a most probable path associated with a highest likelihood for the rail agent, and the autonomous vehicle is operated using the determined path.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 4, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 12, 2023
    Assignee: Waymo LLC
    Inventors: Vishu Goyal, Stéphane Ross, Kai Ding
  • Patent number: 11837231
    Abstract: Methods and systems for determining an emotion of a human driver of a vehicle and using the emotion for generating a vehicle response, is provided. One example method includes processing captured voice data from the human driver over a period of time while the human driver operates the vehicle. The method includes analyzing the voice data to assist in prediction of the emotion of the human driver. The method includes generating the vehicle response. The vehicle response is selected in part based on the emotion that was predicted for the human driver.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2023
    Assignee: Emerging Automotive, LLC
    Inventors: Angel A. Penilla, Albert S. Penilla
  • Patent number: 11817000
    Abstract: A system and method to assist piloting an aircraft in landing phase is disclosed. The system includes a pseudo glide path calculation module that includes a processor and a memory communicatively coupled to the one processor and having instructions stored upon. The instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the one or more processors to receive coordinates for a runway, receive exit path coordinates for a runway, receive aircraft configuration data, receive aircraft status data, receive runway environmental data, calculate a relative position of the aircraft in reference to the exit path coordinates and the runway environmental data, generate a pseudo displaced threshold for the runway, and generate a pseudo approach glide path profile based on the pseudo displaced threshold. The pseudo displaced threshold and the pseudo approach glide path profile may be depicted on a display. A runway occupation time may also be calculated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 14, 2023
    Assignee: Rockwell Collins, Inc.
    Inventor: Jaibir Singh
  • Patent number: 11790326
    Abstract: Systems and methods of repairing damage to the body structure of a vehicle based on a comparison of vehicle damage to vehicle specification data to indicate the magnitude and direction of vehicle damage to formulate a repair plan for review.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2023
    Inventors: Robert Lee Watts, Nathan Michael Watts