Patents Examined by Adam R Mott
  • Patent number: 11504851
    Abstract: Methods and systems according to one or more examples are provided for testing an automated platform, such as a robot. In one example, a system comprises a first robot configured to perform one or more processing operations on a workpiece. The system further comprises a second robot configured to simulate one or more parameters of the workpiece and an associated processing operation to provide one or more test conditions corresponding to each of the one or more processing operations the first robot would perform on the workpiece to test the first robot.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 20, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2022
    Assignee: The Boeing Company
    Inventor: Phillip J. Crothers
  • Patent number: 11498227
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides a robot pose determination method including: collecting laser frames; calculating a current pose of the robot in a map pointed by a first pointer based on the laser frames, and obtaining an amount of the laser frames having been inserted into the map pointed by the first pointer; inserting the laser frames into a map pointed by the first pointer, if less than a first threshold; inserting the laser frames into the map pointed by the first pointer and a map pointed by a second pointer, if greater than or equal to the first threshold and less than a second threshold; and pointing the first pointer to the map pointed by the second pointer, pointing the second pointer to a newly created empty map, and inserting the laser frames into the map pointed by the first pointer, if equal to the second threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2022
    Assignee: UBTECH ROBOTICS CORP LTD
    Inventors: Yongsheng Zhao, Zhichao Liu, Youjun Xiong
  • Patent number: 11491641
    Abstract: Methods are described that perform a dispatched inventory operation related to an inventory item within a modular autonomous bot apparatus assembly and a dispatch server. modular mobile autonomy control module (MAM) receives an inventory dispatch command from the dispatch server and a modular cargo storage system (CSS) receives the inventory item at an inventory hub location. The MAM autonomously causes the assembly to then move to a remote business facility as a destination location, receive authentication input from an authorized delivery recipient, coordinates with the CSS to provide selective access to the inventory item, detects when the inventory item has been removed from within the CSS, and autonomously causes the assembly to move on a return route back to the inventory hub location after removal of the inventory item.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2022
    Assignee: FEDEX CORPORATE SERVICES, INC.
    Inventors: Ole-Petter Skaaksrud, Frank Mayfield, Daniel Gates
  • Patent number: 11465677
    Abstract: A control device for a steer-by-wire type vehicle calculates a target turn angle being represented as a function of a steering angle of a steering wheel, and controls a turning device such that a turn angle of a wheel becomes the target turn angle. A variation range of the steering angle includes: an effective steering range in which the steering angle is an effective maximum steering angle or smaller; and an adjustment steering range in which the steering angle is between the effective maximum steering angle and a predetermined maximum steering angle. The target turn angle calculated according to the effective maximum steering angle is an effective maximum turn angle. The control device variably sets the function according to a road surface condition such that the effective maximum turn angle in a case of a low-? condition is smaller than that in a case of a high-? condition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 4, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2022
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Junro Yamamoto, Yoshikazu Kameda, Koichi Nishimura
  • Patent number: 11460838
    Abstract: An embodiment of the present disclosure is a virtual home service apparatus including, a communicator, a home information collector for obtaining a design drawing of the home, and obtaining a 3D drawing by converting the design drawing, a home appliance identifier for obtaining an internal image and SLAM information of the home, and identifying the location and state of the home appliance based on the internal image and the SLAM information, and a virtual home implementator for generating virtual home information by reflecting the location and state of the home appliance to the 3D drawing. One or more among an autonomous driving vehicle, a user terminal, and a server according to an embodiment of the present disclosure may be associated with or converged with an Artificial Intelligence module, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), a robot, an Augmented Reality (AR) apparatus, a Virtual Reality (VR), 5G service-related apparatus, etc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2022
    Assignee: LG Electronics Inc.
    Inventors: Hyun Soo Kim, Kyung Jun Shin, Dong Heon Shin, Sun Yup Kim, Hyun Sang Park
  • Patent number: 11453437
    Abstract: A control device includes an electronic control unit. The electronic control unit determines a right steering command value and a left steering command value. The electronic control unit acquires path information indicating a target path for the vehicle. The electronic control unit corrects a steering command value such that the vehicle travels along the target path. The electronic control unit corrects the right steering command value and the left steering command value so as to bring the distribution ratio between a skid angle of a right steered wheel and a skid angle of a left steered wheel to a target distribution ratio.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 7, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 27, 2022
    Assignee: JTEKT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yuichi Miura, Takashi Kojima, Yuji Kariatsumari
  • Patent number: 11440197
    Abstract: A robot system includes a gripping section configured to grip a storing section, a first arm in which the gripping section is provided, the first arm drawing out the storing section from a shelf in which the storing section is housed, a force detecting section provided in the first arm and configured to detect force applied to the gripping section, an imaging section configured to image the storing section, and a control section configured to control the gripping section and the first arm. The control section performs control for drawing out the storing section from the shelf with the first arm and thereafter tilting the storing section with respect to the shelf with the gripping section or the first arm.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 2, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 13, 2022
    Inventor: Fumiaki Hasegawa
  • Patent number: 11436470
    Abstract: Generating image training data for training an autonomous photography agent to learn the preferences and photo-taking styles of a given set of human users. The preferences and/or photo-taking styles include, but are not necessarily limited, to: (i) human users of a certain age group (such as toddlers or adults); (ii) profession of the photo-taker (professional photographer rather than a hobbyist); (iii) health status of the photo-taker; and/or (iv) travel status of the photo-taker (such as a tourist in a new city rather than a resident of a given city).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2022
    Assignee: KYNDRYL, INC.
    Inventors: Gregory J. Boss, Tamer E. Abuelsaad, Randy A. Rendahl, John E. Moore, Jr.
  • Patent number: 11416003
    Abstract: A method of constrained mobility mapping includes receiving from at least one sensor of a robot at least one original set of sensor data and a current set of sensor data. Here, each of the at least one original set of sensor data and the current set of sensor data corresponds to an environment about the robot. The method further includes generating a voxel map including a plurality of voxels based on the at least one original set of sensor data. The plurality of voxels includes at least one ground voxel and at least one obstacle voxel. The method also includes generating a spherical depth map based on the current set of sensor data and determining that a change has occurred to an obstacle represented by the voxel map based on a comparison between the voxel map and the spherical depth map. The method additional includes updating the voxel map to reflect the change to the obstacle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2022
    Assignee: Boston Dynamics, Inc.
    Inventors: Eric Whitman, Gina Christine Fay, Alex Khripin, Max Bajracharya, Matthew Malchano, Adam Komoroski, Christopher Stathis
  • Patent number: 11396294
    Abstract: In a driving control apparatus for a vehicle having an ACC function for performing constant speed cruise according to a target speed when there is no preceding other vehicle in a vehicle's driving lane and performing following cruise by maintaining a predetermined inter-vehicle distance when there is a preceding other vehicle, an LKA function for maintaining cruise in the vehicle's driving lane by following control to a target path, an override function for stopping the ACC function and the LKA function by a driver's operation intervention, and a function for notifying the driver of stopping the LKA function and the ACC function and operation takeover and performing fallback control of the LKA function and the ACC function at the time of system limit of the LKA function, override threshold values serving as a determination criterion of the operation intervention for stopping the LKA function and the ACC function at the time of system limit of the LKA function are configured to be altered to a value greater th
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 9, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 26, 2022
    Assignee: SUZUKI MOTOR CORPORATION
    Inventor: Katsuhiko Sato
  • Patent number: 11383381
    Abstract: A method of footstep contact detection includes receiving joint dynamics for a swing leg of the robot where the swing leg performs a swing phase of a gait of the robot. The method also includes receiving odometry defining an estimation of a pose of the robot and determining whether an unexpected torque on the swing leg corresponds to an impact on the swing leg. When the unexpected torque corresponds to the impact, the method further includes determining whether the impact is indicative of a touchdown of the swing leg on a ground surface based on the odometry and the joint dynamics. When the impact is not indicative of the touchdown of the swing leg, the method includes classifying a cause of the impact based on the odometry of the robot and the joint dynamics of the swing leg.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2022
    Assignee: Boston Dynamics, Inc.
    Inventors: Eric Whitman, Alex Khripin
  • Patent number: 11254001
    Abstract: To provide a controller capable of facilitating changing of the order of robot cells, a control system, and a ladder program. A master PLC includes a master input unit that receives a first input signal indicating the order of operation of robot cells, and a second input signal indicating work completion in the robot cells from each of the plurality of robot cells; a master output unit that outputs an output signal for instruction of operation to the robot cell specified on the basis of combination of the first input signals, and the second input signal according to the ladder program; and a storage unit that stores a plurality of the ladder programs corresponding to a plurality of patterns of the order of operation comprising at least some of the plurality of robot cells.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 23, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 22, 2022
    Assignee: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventor: Yuuji Suzuki
  • Patent number: 11247668
    Abstract: The present invention makes it possible to appropriately grasp a stop cause when a vehicle stops. An ECU 5, which controls a vehicle including wheels and a vehicle body connected to the wheels includes: a wheel stop detection unit 138 that detects a stop of the wheels; a vehicle body stop detection unit 133 that detects a stop of the vehicle body; and a stop cause determination unit 141 that determines a stop cause of the vehicle based on a stop timing of the wheels detected by the wheel stop detection unit 138 and a stop timing of the vehicle body detected by the vehicle body stop detection unit 133. The stop cause determination unit 141 may determine that the stop cause is contact of the vehicle body with an obstacle when the stop timing of the vehicle body is earlier than the stop timing of the wheels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 15, 2022
    Assignee: HITACHI ASTEMO, LTD.
    Inventor: Tatsunori Harai
  • Patent number: 11232650
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and processing nodes determine and perform preventive maintenance on a transport vehicle in a transportation system. The method includes extracting features for previous incidents that have occurred to a plurality of transport vehicles in the transportation system. The method also includes determining a criticality of types of incidents based on the features extracted. The method includes predicting, based on the criticality of types of incidents and the features extracted, details of at least one future incident for a first transport vehicle from the plurality of transport vehicles. The details include a predicted type of the at least one future incident, a predicted time of the at least one future incident, and a predicted criticality of the at least one future incident. Additionally, the method includes performing a prescriptive action for the first transport vehicle to mitigate the at least one future incident in the first transport vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 25, 2022
    Assignee: Conduent Business Services, LLC
    Inventors: Arun Rajkumar, Sriranjani Ramakrishnan, Shisagnee Banerjee, Rishabh Singh, Kowshik Chilamkurthi, Prateek Yadav, Narayanan Unny
  • Patent number: 11225262
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for managing user intervention for a vehicle are provided. One of the methods includes: receiving an instruction to initiate an intervention session from a server, and providing, in response to receiving the instruction, a user interface associated with the intervention session for display on a terminal associated with the vehicle. The method further includes detecting, at the terminal, a user interaction corresponding to a command associated with operation of the vehicle, and generating a decision associated with the operation of the vehicle based at least in part on the command.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 18, 2022
    Assignee: Beijing DiDi Infinity Technology and Development Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Jiang Zhang
  • Patent number: 11221620
    Abstract: When an abnormality occurs in the main ECU, assist control A or B is executed by the substitute ECU as emergency traveling path control. The assist control A is executed when the target path TP_RS does not intersect the white lane. In the assist control A, feedforward control is executed for making the subject vehicle M travel along the target path TP_RS. In the assist control A, feedback control is also executed to keep the distance LD_CL in the transverse direction from the center of the traveling lane to the reference position. The assist control B is executed when the target path TP_RS intersects the white lane. In the assist control B, only the feedforward control is executed in which the subject vehicle M is controlled to travel along the target path TP_RS.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 11, 2022
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Suzuka Kondo, Shota Fujii
  • Patent number: 11216003
    Abstract: A navigation system adapted for a material storage system, which comprises a monitoring device and a material transporter. The monitoring device generates an order instruction including a first coordinate and a second coordinate, and generates a movement instruction based on the first coordinate and a current coordinate of the material transporter. The material transporter receives the order instruction and the movement instruction, and the material transporter generates and sends the current displacement data to the monitoring device. The material transporter comprises a navigation assembly and a laser pointing element. The navigation assembly detects a first reflected signal and a second reflected signal when the material transporter moves based on the movement instruction and generates the current displacement data. The laser pointing element generates a laser beam based on the second coordinate when the material transporter arrives the first coordinate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 22, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2022
    Assignees: INVENTEC (PUDONG) TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION, INVENTEC CORPORATION
    Inventor: Po-Jui Chen
  • Patent number: 11215983
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides a server, a remote control device and a remote control method for an automatic driving vehicle. The method includes: after receiving a remote control request of an automatic driving vehicle, determining a control instruction according to the remote control request, and transmitting the control instruction by using wireless channels corresponding to a plurality of wireless networks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2022
    Assignee: Apollo Intelligent Driving Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Jialin Yang
  • Patent number: 11207773
    Abstract: A transfer source action information acquisition unit acquires first action information of the transfer source robot. A transfer destination action information acquisition unit acquires second action information of the transfer destination robot. A correction unit corrects the action information of the transfer source robot by using the second action information and in accordance with a predetermined update formula and thereby generates third action information of the transfer destination robot. The pieces of the second action information of the transfer destination robot are less than the pieces of the first action information of the transfer source robot. The first to third action information includes a set of data indicative of one or more robot joint values and a set of data indicative of a coordinate value of a robot specific part.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 28, 2021
    Assignee: SOINN INC.
    Inventors: Shohei Enomoto, Osamu Hasegawa
  • Patent number: 11198223
    Abstract: A tool changer set out having a master unit and a tool unit. The master unit comprises a safety controller with two separate processing circuitries, a coupler and at least two coupling sensors. The tool unit comprises at least one tool unit sensor, the at least one tool unit sensor provides two output signals sent to the safety controller. The at least two coupling sensors individually detect if the tool unit is coupled to the master unit and the output signals are sent to the safety controller. The two separate processing circuitries are arranged to receive a request to decouple the tool unit, determine whether the tool unit is coupled to the master unit and whether the tool unit is in the tool stand, send the result of the determinations to other processing circuitry, receive a result of determinations and send a decouple signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 24, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 14, 2021
    Assignee: ROBOT SYSTEM PRODUCTS IN SCANDINAVIA AB
    Inventors: Mats Thunell, Jonas Martinsson, HÃ¥kan Brantmark