Patents by Inventor Francis P. Mullin

Francis P. Mullin has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 9116516
    Abstract: Information from a real sensor and a virtual sensor are fused to form a hybrid sensor. Control signals (and/or the absolute value of the control signals) applied to an actuator are accumulated and converted to a position the actuator should be in based on the accumulated control signals to form the virtual sensor. The actuator position from the virtual sensor is fused with an actuator position from a real sensor to form the hybrid sensor. Small periodic corrections can be made to the accumulating control signals to maintain or achieve, if possible, correlation between the virtual sensor and the real sensor over time. The corrections slowly decrement errors in the actuator position indicated by the virtual sensor. Accumulating numerical errors in the accumulating control signals are reduced and the significance of long past events is de-emphasized by a forgetting factor (kff) used at defined periods of time (tff).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2015
    Assignee: ABB Technology AG
    Inventor: Francis P. Mullin
  • Publication number: 20130024013
    Abstract: Information from a real sensor and a virtual sensor are fused to form a hybrid sensor. Control signals (and/or the absolute value of the control signals) applied to an actuator are accumulated and converted to a position the actuator should be in based on the accumulated control signals to form the virtual sensor. The actuator position from the virtual sensor is fused with an actuator position from a real sensor to form the hybrid sensor. Small periodic corrections can be made to the accumulating control signals to maintain or achieve, if possible, correlation between the virtual sensor and the real sensor over time. The corrections slowly decrement errors in the actuator position indicated by the virtual sensor. Accumulating numerical errors in the accumulating control signals are reduced and the significance of long past events is de-emphasized by a forgetting factor (kff) used at defined periods of time (tff).
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 26, 2012
    Publication date: January 24, 2013
    Applicant: ABB TECHNOLOGY AG
    Inventor: Francis P. Mullin