Patents by Inventor Takafumi Tokuhiro

Takafumi Tokuhiro 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).

  • Publication number: 20240051522
    Abstract: A parking assistance device that performs automatic travel of a vehicle based on teaching travel by a driver is provided. The parking assistance device: learns a travel route for parking the vehicle in a parking position during the teaching travel, based on the teaching travel; performs an automatic travel based on the travel route; controls the automatic travel to implement a temporary stop at first points where the vehicle has not temporarily stopped during teaching travel based on any of a first regulation, first environmental information, or first geographic information; and controls the automatic travel not to implement the temporary stop at second points where the vehicle has temporarily stopped during teaching travel based on any of a second regulation, second environmental information, or second geographic information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 20, 2023
    Publication date: February 15, 2024
    Applicant: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Toru YAMAGUCHI, Takafumi TOKUHIRO, Masashi HOSHINO
  • Publication number: 20240042992
    Abstract: A parking assistance device performs automatic travel of a vehicle based on teaching travel by a driver. In this regard, the parking assistance device learns a travel route for parking the vehicle in a parking position during the teaching travel, based on the teaching travel. The parking assistance device further performs an automatic travel based on the travel route. A first vehicle speed during the automatic travel is slower than a second vehicle speed during the teaching travel, the first vehicle speed during the automatic travel is slower than a threshold value for a vehicle speed during the automatic travel, and the threshold value for the vehicle speed during the automatic travel is a value of a speed slower than 10 km/h.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 20, 2023
    Publication date: February 8, 2024
    Applicant: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Toru YAMAGUCHI, Takafumi TOKUHIRO, Masashi HOSHINO
  • Publication number: 20240042991
    Abstract: A parking assistance device that performs automatic travel of a vehicle based on teaching travel by a driver is provided. The parking assistance device: learns a travel route for parking the vehicle in a parking position during the teaching travel, based on the teaching travel; performs an automatic travel based on the travel route; and modifies a speed, a steering angle, or a braking operation in the automatic travel of the vehicle from a speed, a steering angle, or a braking operation in the teaching travel, based on a regulation for the automatic travel of the vehicle. The regulation for the automatic travel of the vehicle is determined based on ride comfort of a passenger or an effect on people around the vehicle during the automatic travel of the vehicle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 20, 2023
    Publication date: February 8, 2024
    Applicant: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Toru YAMAGUCHI, Takafumi TOKUHIRO, Masashi HOSHINO
  • Patent number: 11834035
    Abstract: A parking assistance device according to the present disclosure performs automatic travel of a vehicle based on teaching travel by a driver. The parking assistance device includes a memory and a hardware processor coupled to the memory. The hardware processor is configured to: learn a travel route for parking the vehicle in a parking position and a speed, a steering angle, and braking operation of the vehicle during the teaching travel, based on the teaching travel; and modify the speed, the steering angle, or the braking operation in the automatic travel of the vehicle from the speed, the steering angle, or the braking operation in the teaching travel, based on any of a regulation for the automatic travel of the vehicle, environmental information relating to an environment around the vehicle, or geographic information relating to a road condition around the vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2023
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Toru Yamaguchi, Takafumi Tokuhiro, Masashi Hoshino
  • Publication number: 20230365193
    Abstract: A parking assist device including a processor is disclosed. The processor superimposes a first parking candidate frame and a second parking candidate frame onto an image around a vehicle when a first obstacle is present at one end of a parking space and a second obstacle is present at another end of the parking space. The first parking candidate frame is parallel with a first obstacle frame indicating a position of the first obstacle. The second parking candidate frame is parallel with a second obstacle frame indicating a position of the second obstacle. The processor displays, on a display device, the first/second parking candidate frames in different display modes. The processor displays, on the display device and in a predetermined color, either one of a first region surrounded by the first parking candidate frame and a second region surrounded by the second parking candidate frame.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 27, 2023
    Publication date: November 16, 2023
    Applicant: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kohei ASHIDA, Takafumi TOKUHIRO, Shota AKAURA
  • Publication number: 20230182718
    Abstract: A driving assistance method is provided that assists driving of a vehicle. The driving assistance method stores a traveling route traveled by the vehicle according to a driving operation of a user in a training traveling mode. All of the traveling route, from a traveling start position to a target parking position in the traveling route, is superimposed on one image displayed on a display. A superimposed image superimposing all of the traveling route from the traveling start position to the target parking position in the traveling route is displayed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 3, 2023
    Publication date: June 15, 2023
    Applicant: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Takafumi TOKUHIRO
  • Publication number: 20230082770
    Abstract: A parking assist method according to the present disclosure is for performing autonomous driving of a vehicle on the basis of teacher driving by a driver. The parking assist method includes acquiring, from an imaging device installed in the vehicle, captured images obtained by imaging periphery of the vehicle in time series according to movement of the vehicle during the teacher driving. The method includes recording a travel route of the vehicle in the teacher driving, and generating, on the basis of the captured images, a first enlarged overhead image of a display target range viewed from above. The display target range covers the travel route and periphery of the travel route. The method further includes causing a display device to display the first enlarged overhead image.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 18, 2022
    Publication date: March 16, 2023
    Applicant: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Takafumi TOKUHIRO
  • Patent number: 11597382
    Abstract: Provided is a driving assistance apparatus that assists driving of a vehicle. The driving assistance apparatus includes: a training data generator that stores a traveling route traveled by the vehicle according to a driving operation of a user in a training traveling mode, and generates training data for a target route based on the traveling route. The training data generator generates the target route by connecting, for example, between a first point and a second point on the traveling route, in a case where a difference in orientation of the vehicle at the first point and the second point during training traveling is less than a first threshold and distance between the vehicle at the first point and the vehicle at the second point during the training traveling is less than a second threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 7, 2023
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Takafumi Tokuhiro
  • Publication number: 20230068889
    Abstract: A parking assistance method according to the present disclosure is a method of performing autonomous travel of a vehicle based on a travel route generated using teaching travel by a driver. The parking assistance method including: acquiring as absolute position and an azimuth is the a travel direction of the vehicle; and determining, based on the absolute position and the azimuth in the travel direction, whether or not the vehicle is located oriented with a prescribed azimuth in a prescribed position, which are registered in association with the travel route.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 26, 2022
    Publication date: March 2, 2023
    Applicant: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Takafumi TOKUHIRO, Masashi HOSHINO, Satoshi FUKUMOTO
  • Publication number: 20220371579
    Abstract: A driving assistance apparatus for assisting driving of a vehicle. The driving assistance apparatus includes a teacher data generator that stores a movement route traveled by the vehicle according to the user's driving operation in a teacher traveling mode, and generates teacher data related to a target route generated by inverting the movement route; a position estimator that estimates the vehicle current position based on sensor information from a peripheral sensor monitoring the surrounding environment of the vehicle; and a vehicle controller that feedback controls the vehicle based on the vehicle current position estimated by the position estimator and each of target positions on the target route so that the vehicle travels along the target route when an execution command for an automatic traveling mode is received from the user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 3, 2022
    Publication date: November 24, 2022
    Applicant: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Takafumi TOKUHIRO
  • Publication number: 20220274585
    Abstract: A parking assistance device according to the present disclosure performs automatic travel of a vehicle based on teaching travel by a driver. The parking assistance device includes a memory and a hardware processor coupled to the memory. The hardware processor is configured to: learn a travel route for parking the vehicle in a parking position and a speed, a steering angle, and braking operation of the vehicle during the teaching travel, based on the teaching travel; and modify the speed, the steering angle, or the braking operation in the automatic travel of the vehicle from the speed, the steering angle, or the braking operation in the teaching travel, based on any of a regulation for the automatic travel of the vehicle, environmental information relating to an environment around the vehicle, or geographic information relating to a road condition around the vehicle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 27, 2022
    Publication date: September 1, 2022
    Applicant: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Toru YAMAGUCHI, Takafumi TOKUHIRO, Masashi HOSHINO
  • Publication number: 20220277480
    Abstract: This position estimation device of a moving body with n cameras for imaging the surrounding scene is provided with: an estimation unit which, for each of the n cameras, calculates a camera candidate position in a map space on the basis of the camera image position of a feature point in the scene extracted from the camera image and the map space position of said feature point pre-stored in the map data; and a verification unit which, with reference to said candidate positions, projects onto the camera image of each of the n cameras a feature point cloud in the scene stored in the map data, and calculates the accuracy of the candidate positions of the n cameras on the basis of the matching degree between the feature point cloud projected onto the camera image and a feature point cloud extracted from the camera images.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 19, 2022
    Publication date: September 1, 2022
    Applicant: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Takafumi TOKUHIRO, Zheng WU, Pongsak LASANG
  • Publication number: 20220274586
    Abstract: A parking support method according to the present disclosure is a method of performing automatic traveling of a vehicle based on a parking operation performed in the past. The method includes: storing, in a storage unit, information on at least one of a traveling route and a parking target position in the parking operation performed in the past; and displaying, on a display unit, guidance information on a target position where automatic traveling of the vehicle can be performed based on at least one of the traveling route and the parking target position.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 1, 2022
    Publication date: September 1, 2022
    Applicant: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Takafumi TOKUHIRO, Shota AKAURA
  • Publication number: 20210380097
    Abstract: Provided is a driving assistance apparatus that assists driving of a vehicle. The driving assistance apparatus includes: a training data generator that stores a traveling route traveled by the vehicle according to a driving operation of a user in a training traveling mode, and generates training data for a target route based on the traveling route. The training data generator generates the target route by connecting, for example, between a first point and a second point on the traveling route, in a case where a difference in orientation of the vehicle at the first point and the second point during training traveling is less than a first threshold and distance between the vehicle at the first point and the vehicle at the second point during the training traveling is less than a second threshold.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 2, 2021
    Publication date: December 9, 2021
    Applicant: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Takafumi TOKUHIRO
  • Patent number: 10864912
    Abstract: A vehicle state determination device includes an input unit and a controller. The input unit receives sidewalk information indicating a state of a sidewalk region which a moving body passes through and roadway information indicating a state of a roadway region adjacent to the sidewalk region. The controller determines whether or not a sidewalk entering operation is possible based on the sidewalk information and the roadway information. The sidewalk entering operation is an operation in which a vehicle trying to enter the roadway region by crossing the sidewalk region enters the sidewalk region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 15, 2020
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Satoshi Fukumoto, Takafumi Tokuhiro, Ichiro Yamane
  • Patent number: 10854082
    Abstract: A determination device includes an input unit and a controller. The input unit receives information on a sidewalk area and information on a target object recognized in the sidewalk area. The sidewalk area exists between a position where a vehicle is present and a non-sidewalk area. The controller (i) divides the sidewalk area into a plurality of partial areas including at least a first partial area and a second partial area based on the information on the sidewalk area, the first partial area being closest to the vehicle among the plurality of partial areas, and the second partial area being adjacent to the non-sidewalk area, and (ii) determines, based on the information on the target object, at least one partial area among the plurality of partial areas to be a range where the vehicle is allowed to enter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 1, 2020
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Ichiro Yamane, Takafumi Tokuhiro, Satoshi Fukumoto
  • Patent number: 10836392
    Abstract: A vehicle situation determination device includes an input unit and a controller. The input unit receives information about a recognition result of recognizing one or a plurality of moving objects existing in a sidewalk region ahead of a vehicle in an advancing direction. The controller determines, based on the recognition result, that the vehicle is allowed to enter a passing scheduled region in a time period of a sparse state when a transition is made from the sparse state into a dense state. The sparse state is a state where density of the one or plurality of moving objects existing in the passing scheduled region is lower than or equal to a predetermined value. The dense state is a state where the density is higher than the predetermined value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 17, 2020
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Takafumi Tokuhiro, Ichiro Yamane, Satoshi Fukumoto
  • Patent number: 10839681
    Abstract: A control device for an autonomous driving vehicle includes a first input section, a second input section, and a travel state determination section. The first input section acquires a detection signal of a first sensor that detects another vehicle approaching the intersection. The second input section acquires a detection signal of a second sensor that detects at least one of a gesture of a driver of the other vehicle, a voice of the driver of the other vehicle, a motion of the other vehicle, and a radio signal output from the other vehicle. The travel state determination section generates, upon detection of the other vehicle based on the detection signal of the first sensor, a travel command signal for allowing or restricting entry of the autonomous driving vehicle into the intersection in accordance with an action of the other vehicle predicted based on the detection signal of the second sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 17, 2020
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Satoshi Fukumoto, Takafumi Tokuhiro, Ichiro Yamane
  • Publication number: 20190272750
    Abstract: A control device for an autonomous driving vehicle includes a first input section, a second input section, and a travel state determination section. The first input section acquires a detection signal of a first sensor that detects another vehicle approaching the intersection. The second input section acquires a detection signal of a second sensor that detects at least one of a gesture of a driver of the other vehicle, a voice of the driver of the other vehicle, a motion of the other vehicle, and a radio signal output from the other vehicle. The travel state determination section generates, upon detection of the other vehicle based on the detection signal of the first sensor, a travel command signal for allowing or restricting entry of the autonomous driving vehicle into the intersection in accordance with an action of the other vehicle predicted based on the detection signal of the second sensor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 27, 2017
    Publication date: September 5, 2019
    Inventors: SATOSHI FUKUMOTO, TAKAFUMI TOKUHIRO, ICHIRO YAMANE
  • Publication number: 20190152487
    Abstract: A road surface estimation device includes a spatial measurement unit, a filter, and a road surface estimator. The spatial measurement unit measures a three-dimensional measurement point cloud on a road surface on the basis of an image received from a stereo camera or a camera capable of three-dimensional measurement. The filter filters the three-dimensional measurement point cloud on the basis of a road surface model created based on map information so as to obtain road surface candidate points. The road surface estimator estimates the road surface on the basis of the road surface candidate points.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 23, 2019
    Publication date: May 23, 2019
    Inventors: TAKAFUMI TOKUHIRO, SATOSHI FUKUMOTO, ICHIRO YAMANE