Patents by Inventor Kiminori Higo

Kiminori Higo 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: 11951990
    Abstract: A gear shift control device of an automobile including a driving motor, a relay clutch capable of disconnecting an engine, includes memory storing a gear shift map for determining the switching start timing of the gear position, a transmission control unit that switches the gear position based on the gear shift map, a regeneration control unit, and a relay clutch control unit. The gear shift map includes a cooperative regeneration map and non-cooperative regeneration maps that define the thresholds of relatively low revolutions. The threshold of a predetermined low gear shift point is defined to be smaller than the thresholds of the gear shift points higher than the predetermined low gear shift point on the downshift side in the non-cooperative regeneration maps, and is defined to be smaller than the threshold of the predetermined low gear shift point on the downshift side in the cooperative regeneration map.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2023
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2024
    Assignee: Mazda Motor Corporation
    Inventors: Daigo Nishikori, Hiroaki Gotan, Akina Inagaki, Tomohiro Okubo, Kiminori Higo, Takayuki Mikami
  • Patent number: 11906042
    Abstract: A gear shift control device of an automobile includes memory storing a gear shift map that defines, for each of gear shift points, thresholds of the number of revolutions to determine a switching start timing of each of the gear positions, a transmission control unit that performs switching between the gear positions based on the gear shift map, and a regeneration control unit that controls regeneration. The gear shift map includes a non-cooperative regeneration map that defines the thresholds of revolutions lower than the thresholds in a cooperative request map used in cooperative regeneration, and the non-cooperative regeneration map includes a combustion request map that defines the thresholds of low revolutions and is used when an accelerator is not used, and a travel request map that defines the thresholds of relatively higher revolutions and is used when the accelerator is used.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2023
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2024
    Assignee: Mazda Motor Corporation
    Inventors: Daigo Nishikori, Hiroaki Gotan, Akina Inagaki, Tomohiro Okubo, Kiminori Higo, Takayuki Mikami
  • Publication number: 20230311895
    Abstract: A gear shift control device of an automobile including a driving motor, a relay clutch capable of disconnecting an engine, includes memory storing a gear shift map for determining the switching start timing of the gear position, a transmission control unit that switches the gear position based on the gear shift map, a regeneration control unit, and a relay clutch control unit. The gear shift map includes a cooperative regeneration map and non-cooperative regeneration maps that define the thresholds of relatively low revolutions. The threshold of a predetermined low gear shift point is defined to be smaller than the thresholds of the gear shift points higher than the predetermined low gear shift point on the downshift side in the non-cooperative regeneration maps, and is defined to be smaller than the threshold of the predetermined low gear shift point on the downshift side in the cooperative regeneration map.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 27, 2023
    Publication date: October 5, 2023
    Inventors: Daigo Nishikori, Hiroaki Gotan, Akina Inagaki, Tomohiro Okubo, Kiminori Higo, Takayuki Mikami
  • Publication number: 20230313882
    Abstract: A gear shift control device of an automobile includes memory storing a gear shift map that defines, for each of gear shift points, thresholds of the number of revolutions to determine a switching start timing of each of the gear positions, a transmission control unit that performs switching between the gear positions based on the gear shift map, and a regeneration control unit that controls regeneration. The gear shift map includes a non-cooperative regeneration map that defines the thresholds of revolutions lower than the thresholds in a cooperative request map used in cooperative regeneration, and the non-cooperative regeneration map includes a combustion request map that defines the thresholds of low revolutions and is used when an accelerator is not used, and a travel request map that defines the thresholds of relatively higher revolutions and is used when the accelerator is used.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 27, 2023
    Publication date: October 5, 2023
    Inventors: Daigo Nishikori, Hiroaki Gotan, Akina Inagaki, Tomohiro Okubo, Kiminori Higo, Takayuki Mikami
  • Publication number: 20230311883
    Abstract: A vehicle gear-shifting control apparatus is equipped with an engine, a motor, an automatic transmission, a friction brake system, and a controller which executes a regeneration control of imparting a regenerative braking torque to rear wheels by causing the motor to perform a regeneration operation and a gear-shifting control of changing a shift stage of the automatic transmission by outputting a gear-shifting signal in accordance with the rotation speed of an input shaft. The controller starts the gear-shifting control, triggered by the rotation speed decreasing to a predetermined downshift point during a downshift of the shift stage, and during deceleration of the vehicle when a coefficient of friction of a road surface is lower than a predetermined threshold in the regeneration control, the controller sets the downshift point lower than when the coefficient of friction is equal to or higher than the threshold.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 27, 2023
    Publication date: October 5, 2023
    Inventors: Makoto Yamada, Tooru Uematsu, Atsushi Yamasaki, Taiki Kado, Keita Ejiri, Kiminori Higo
  • Patent number: 11708891
    Abstract: A shift control system for an automatic transmission is provided. The system includes a shift switch through which a manual transmission command for arbitrarily changing a gear stage of the automatic transmission can be inputted in a manual transmission mode. The manual transmission mode includes a first manual mode in which the gear stage is changed and maintained by inputting the manual transmission command using the shift switch, and a second manual mode in which an automatic transmission mode is resumed by satisfying a resuming condition after the gear stage is changed. The system includes a mode input device configured to select in advance one of the first manual mode and the second manual mode to be set, the mode input device setting to the automatic transmission mode by the selected mode being changed from the first manual mode to the second manual mode, or vice versa.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 16, 2021
    Date of Patent: July 25, 2023
    Assignee: Mazda Motor Corporation
    Inventors: Toshiaki Shirasago, Tomohiro Okubo, Shoji Abe, Hideyuki Nishi, Hajime Oyama, Kiminori Higo
  • Patent number: 11519493
    Abstract: A shift control system for an automatic transmission is provided, which is mounted on a vehicle configured to be started by an ignition switch being turned on, where an automatic transmission mode or a manual transmission mode is selectively set. The system includes a shift switch through which a manual transmission command for arbitrarily changing a gear stage of the automatic transmission can be inputted in the manual transmission mode, and a controller. The manual transmission mode includes a first manual mode in which the gear stage is changed and maintained by inputting the manual transmission command using the shift switch, and a second manual mode in which the automatic transmission mode is resumed by satisfying a resuming condition after the gear stage is changed. When the ignition switch is turned on, the controller selects in advance the second mode to be set to the automatic transmission.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 17, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2022
    Assignee: Mazda Motor Corporation
    Inventors: Toshiaki Shirasago, Tomohiro Okubo, Shoji Abe, Hideyuki Nishi, Hajime Oyama, Kiminori Higo
  • Publication number: 20210310555
    Abstract: A shift control system for an automatic transmission is provided. The system includes a shift switch through which a manual transmission command for arbitrarily changing a gear stage of the automatic transmission can be inputted in a manual transmission mode. The manual transmission mode includes a first manual mode in which the gear stage is changed and maintained by inputting the manual transmission command using the shift switch, and a second manual mode in which an automatic transmission mode is resumed by satisfying a resuming condition after the gear stage is changed. The system includes a mode input device configured to select in advance one of the first manual mode and the second manual mode to be set, the mode input device setting to the automatic transmission mode by the selected mode being changed from the first manual mode to the second manual mode, or vice versa.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 16, 2021
    Publication date: October 7, 2021
    Inventors: Toshiaki Shirasago, Tomohiro Okubo, Shoji Abe, Hideyuki Nishi, Hajime Oyama, Kiminori Higo
  • Publication number: 20210310556
    Abstract: A shift control system for an automatic transmission is provided, which is mounted on a vehicle configured to be started by an ignition switch being turned on, where an automatic transmission mode or a manual transmission mode is selectively set. The system includes a shift switch through which a manual transmission command for arbitrarily changing a gear stage of the automatic transmission can be inputted in the manual transmission mode, and a controller. The manual transmission mode includes a first manual mode in which the gear stage is changed and maintained by inputting the manual transmission command using the shift switch, and a second manual mode in which the automatic transmission mode is resumed by satisfying a resuming condition after the gear stage is changed. When the ignition switch is turned on, the controller selects in advance the second mode to be set to the automatic transmission.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 17, 2021
    Publication date: October 7, 2021
    Inventors: Toshiaki Shirasago, Tomohiro Okubo, Shoji Abe, Hideyuki Nishi, Hajime Oyama, Kiminori Higo