Patents Assigned to GM
  • Publication number: 20230087179
    Abstract: An electric powertrain system includes an electric machine having a rotor and stator. The stator has multiple phase legs, each respective one of which includes a single phase lead connected to two or more parallel stator windings. The stator thus has multiple phase leads collectively conducting phase currents. A rotary output member is connected to the rotor and connectable to a load. A traction power inverter module (TPIM) is electrically connected to the phase legs. Current sensors collectively measure the phase currents. Each respective current sensor is connected to a different phase lead. A controller in communication with the current sensors and the TPIM, in response to a commanded current and the measured phase currents, detects a threshold variation in the measured phase currents indicative of a phase current imbalance fault, and selectively changes a thermodynamic state of the electrified powertrain in response to the fault.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 22, 2021
    Publication date: March 23, 2023
    Applicant: GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS LLC
    Inventors: Brian J. Gallert, Stephen M. Garza
  • Patent number: 11611304
    Abstract: A propulsion system for a device includes an electric motor configured to generate torque to propel the device. The electric motor includes a stator and a rotor with one or more permanent magnets. A controller is in communication with the electric motor and has recorded instructions for a method for minimizing demagnetization in the one or more permanent magnets. The controller is adapted to select a starting point and an intermediate point on a current trajectory in a stator current graph. The controller is adapted to obtain a final point on the stator current trajectory based on a comparison of the intermediate point and a predetermined voltage limit. A demagnetized torque capability is generated based on the final point on the current trajectory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2023
    Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC
    Inventors: Jeffrey S. Piasecki, Brian A. Welchko, Anno Yoo
  • Patent number: 11608081
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for identifying an imminent low state of charge of a battery in an autonomous vehicle, and automatically powering down the vehicle before a zero state of charge event occurs. In particular, the autonomous vehicle automatically powers down while there is enough energy in the batteries to restart the vehicle and drive the vehicle a short distance to a charging station.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2023
    Assignee: GM CRUISE HOLDINGS LLC
    Inventor: Marco Antonio Gaxiola Michel
  • Patent number: 11607918
    Abstract: Systems are provided for assisting in towing a trailer by a lead vehicle. A wheeled tow assist unit couples between the lead vehicle and the trailer. A drive unit onboard the tow assist unit drives the wheels in response to a force between the trailer and the tow assist unit. The tow assist unit bears at least a portion of the force required to tow the trailer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2023
    Assignee: GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS LLC
    Inventors: Avesta Goodarzi, Ralph D. Schlottke, Grant L. Meade, Norman J. Weigert
  • Patent number: 11607999
    Abstract: The present application relates to a method and apparatus for generating a graphical user interface indicative of a vehicle underbody view including a LIDAR operative to generate a depth map of an off-road surface, a camera for capturing an image of the off-road surface, a chassis sensor operative to detect an orientation of a host vehicle, a processor operative to generate an augmented image in response to the depth map, the image and the orientation, wherein the augmented image depicts an underbody view of the host vehicle and a graphic representative of a host vehicle suspension system, and a display operative to display the augmented image to a host vehicle operator. A static and dynamic model of the vehicle underbody is compared vs the 3-D terrain model to identify contact points between the underbody and terrain are highlighted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2023
    Assignee: GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS LLC
    Inventors: Brian Mahnken, Bradford G. Schreiber, Jeffrey Louis Brown, Shawn W. Ryan, Brent T. Deep, Kurt A. Heier, Upali P. Mudalige, Shuqing Zeng
  • Patent number: 11610485
    Abstract: A head up display system of a vehicle includes: a communication module configured to receive a period until a traffic signal of an intersection of roads will change from a first state to a second state; a distance module configured to, based on the period and a present speed of the vehicle, determine a distance in front of the vehicle where the vehicle will be when the traffic signal transitions from the first state to the second state; a light source configured to, via a windshield of the vehicle, generate a virtual display that is visible within a passenger cabin of the vehicle; and a display control module configured to, based on the distance, control the light source to include, in the virtual display, a visual indicator of a location in a path of the vehicle where the traffic signal will transition from the first state to the second state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2023
    Assignee: GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS LLC
    Inventors: Richard L. Greatbatch, Omer Tsimhoni, Joseph F. Szczerba, John P. Weiss
  • Patent number: 11607960
    Abstract: Method and apparatus for power mode control for electric propulsion vehicles are provided that include a sensor to detect a vehicle door cycle, a processor to establish an occurrence of a vehicle motion, a processor operative to initiate a timer having a default time duration in response to the occurrence of the vehicle motion and the vehicle door cycle and to generate a user prompt to extend the default time duration, the processor being further operative to transition an operating mode to a shutdown mode in response to an expiration of the time, and to extend to the default time duration in response to the user input, and a display operative to display a user interface in response to the user prompt and to receive a user input indicative of a request to extend the default time duration of the timer and to couple the user input to the processor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2023
    Assignee: GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS LLC
    Inventors: David T. Proefke, Kurt L. Fischer, Aaron P. Creguer
  • Patent number: 11609315
    Abstract: Various aspects of the subject technology relate to a lidar validation system. The lidar validation system is configured to acquire one or more lidar point clouds from a lidar unit, wherein the lidar unit comprises one or more lasers, and wherein each point cloud is a representation of a scene according to a laser in the lidar unit, the scene comprising a fiducial target. The lidar validation system is configured to generate, based on points in the one or more point clouds, a target cloud that correspond to the fiducial target, perform a rigid body processing to minimize a sum of distances from each point in the target cloud to the fiducial target, and generate lidar validation measurements based on the distances from each point in the target cloud to the fiducial target.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 16, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2023
    Assignee: GM Cruise Holdings LLC.
    Inventors: Ankit Rohatgi, Peter Megson, Mariana Rihl, Adam Cadien, Robert Vets
  • Patent number: 11608089
    Abstract: The present application generally relates to a method and apparatus for controlling an autonomous vehicle. In particular, the method and apparatus are operative for detecting, by a sensor, an object within a first vehicle path, generating, by a processor, a second vehicle path in response to either the detection of the object such that the second vehicle path avoids the object, or a user initiated trajectory shift, generating, by the processor, an initial steering torque in response to the second vehicle path, performing, by the processor, an adaptation on the initial steering torque to generate an adapted steering torque in response to the initial steering torque exceeding a torque rate limit, and controlling, by a vehicle controller a host vehicle steering system to follow the second vehicle signal path in response to the adapted steering torque.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 9, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2023
    Assignee: GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS LLC
    Inventors: Amir Takhmar, Jayant Sachdev, Mohammed Raju Hossain, Nathan Fujimoto, Joshua M. Levin
  • Patent number: 11611305
    Abstract: A method for controlling operation of a rotary electric machine includes receiving, via a bandwidth-partitioning harmonic compensation regulator (HCR) of a controller, a commanded torque and rotational speed of the electric machine, and calculating, via the HCR in response to enabling conditions, a dq harmonic compensation current and a dq harmonic compensation voltage for one or more predetermined harmonic orders using the commanded torque and the rotational speed. The harmonic compensation current and voltage cancel torque ripple and current ripple in the one or more predetermined harmonic orders. The method may include injecting an acoustic tone at a predetermined harmonic order. The method additionally includes adding the dq harmonic compensation current and voltage to a dq current and voltage command, respectively, to generate adjusted dq current and voltage commands. The electric machine is then controlled using the adjusted dq current and voltage commands.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2023
    Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC
    Inventors: Vinod Chowdary Peddi, Anno Yoo, Brent S. Gagas, Song He
  • Patent number: 11609279
    Abstract: Vehicles and related systems and methods are provided for monitoring health of a power conversion module. A method involves operating the power conversion module to conduct a heating current until reaching a steady-state temperature, obtaining measurement data for an electrical characteristic associated with the power conversion module after reaching the steady-state temperature, determining a current thermal characterization curve for the power conversion module based on the measurement data and comparing the current thermal characterization curve to one or more reference thermal characterization curves for the power conversion module to identify a deviation associated with the current thermal characterization curve.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 9, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2023
    Assignee: GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS LLC
    Inventor: Jinming Xu
  • Patent number: 11608059
    Abstract: The present application relates to a method and apparatus for real time lateral control and steering actuation assessment for a motor vehicle by determining a desired host vehicle path, establishing a control point along the host vehicle path, generating a motion path between a host vehicle location and the control point, estimating a theoretical acceleration of the host vehicle along the motion path, controlling the host vehicle along the motion path, receiving a measured acceleration from an inertial measurement unit within the host vehicle, generating an error term in response to a comparison of the motion path and the measured lateral travel, and adjusting the performance limits of the sub-features in response to the error term.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2023
    Assignee: GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS LLC
    Inventors: Jeffrey S. Parks, Paul A. Adam, Gabriel T. Choi, Braden J. Swantick, Michael J. Godfrey
  • Patent number: D981298
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 22, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2023
    Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC
    Inventor: Gary W. Ruiz
  • Patent number: D981304
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2023
    Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC
    Inventor: Adam K. Scenna
  • Patent number: D981306
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2023
    Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC
    Inventor: Bradley Kasper
  • Patent number: D981307
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2023
    Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC
    Inventor: Scott P. Wassell
  • Patent number: D981308
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2023
    Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC
    Inventor: Scott P. Wassell
  • Patent number: D981309
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2023
    Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC
    Inventor: Pedro Hernandez
  • Patent number: D981310
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2023
    Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC
    Inventor: Pedro Hernandez
  • Patent number: D981311
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2023
    Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC
    Inventor: Pedro Hernandez