Patents Examined by Alan Chu
  • Patent number: 9952603
    Abstract: A control system for optimizing the flow of fluid from a plurality of pipelines in communication with a resource field includes a sensor array detecting characteristics of the resource field, the plurality of pipelines, and the flow of fluid through the plurality of pipelines. A first manifold assembly and a second manifold assembly each selectively receives the flow of fluid from any of the plurality of pipelines. A controller is provided to be in communication with the sensor array, the first manifold assembly and the second manifold assembly. The controller selectively diverts the flow of the fluid from a first group of the plurality of pipelines to one of the first and the second manifold assemblies, and diverts a second group of the plurality of pipelines to another of the first and the second manifold assemblies, in dependence upon the characteristics being communicated to the controller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 24, 2018
    Assignee: SITEPP SISTEMAS Y TECHNOLOGIA PARA EL PETROLEO, S.A. DE C.V.
    Inventor: Francisco Morales Ramirez
  • Patent number: 9921938
    Abstract: A method is for handling an anomaly in an industrial control system (ICS) connected to a network with a plurality of other ICSs and an anomaly analyzer. An ICS receives status data from its own industrial process, and stores this status data as normal pattern data. The ICS transmits its own status data to one or more other ICSs. The ICS receives an indication from the anomaly analyzer that the ICS is suspected of having an anomaly. The ICS transmits alternate status data based on the normal pattern data stored during non-suspect operation, and stores the status data received from its own industrial process as real status data. In response to receiving from the anomaly analyzer an indication that the ICS is not operating anomalously, the ICS transmits the stored real data, and switches back to transmitting its own status data to one or more other ICSs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2018
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kazuhito Akiyama, Michiharu Kudo, Takuya Mishina, John D. Wilson
  • Patent number: 9909564
    Abstract: A wind turbine including a controller configured to periodically enter an Eigen frequency detection mode in which the controller gain is incremented in a controlled manner to detect the Eigen frequencies. During normal operations, the controller output may be monitored to detect the Eigen frequency which, if detected, may allow damage control operations to be undertaken.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 6, 2018
    Assignee: VESTAS WIND SYSTEMS A/S
    Inventor: Erik Carl Lehnskov Miranda
  • Patent number: 9897824
    Abstract: A method and communication system for ophthalmic device manufacturing line is disclosed. More specifically, the communication device may be incorporated in early stages of manufacturing of the ophthalmic device to monitor process controls without delay. In some embodiments, a unique pedigree profile can be stored for an ophthalmic device during manufacturing and correlated with one or more of: design profiles, controlled process parameters, performance, and distribution channels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 17, 2013
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2018
    Assignee: Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc.
    Inventor: Randall B. Pugh
  • Patent number: 9874865
    Abstract: Provided are a control method and a control device that can make the range of periodic activity (amplitude of reciprocal movement) of an object of control, such as an industrial robot, the same as a case in which the reduction device has no backlash or the same as the amplitude of a position instruction signal. A control device (3) that carries out position control for an arm (5), which carries out periodic movement, while compensating for backlash in the arm (5) is provided with a control unit (15) that adds to a position instruction signal, which gives instructions for the position of the arm (5), a backlash quantity signal after the backlash quantity signal has been shifted so as to be delayed by a delay time, generates a final position instruction signal, and carries out position control of the arm (5) on the basis of the final position instruction signal that has been generated, said backlash quantity signal compensating for backlash.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 2, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2018
    Assignee: Kobe Steel, Ltd.
    Inventors: Takashi Wada, Yoshiharu Nishida, Shuichi Inada, Yoshihide Inoue
  • Patent number: 9863985
    Abstract: A semidefinite (SDR) programming formulation for state estimation (SE) of nonlinear AC power systems is described. The techniques make use of convex semidefinite relaxation of the original problem to render the process efficiently solvable. In addition, robust techniques are described that are resilient to outlying measurements and/or adversarial cyber-attacks. Further, techniques for SDR-based SE are described in which local control areas solve the centralized SDP-based SE problem in a distributed fashion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 12, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 9, 2018
    Assignee: Regents of the University of Minnesota
    Inventors: Georgios B. Giannakis, Hao Zhu
  • Patent number: 9824573
    Abstract: A method and associated systems for furniture-enabled monitoring and discouragement of sedentary behavior. One or more sensors embedded into a computer-monitored and computer-controlled piece of furniture determine that a user has sat or reclined on the piece of furniture for a predetermined period of time. In response, controllers embedded into the furniture are directed to make the furniture less comfortable in order to encourage the user to get up. In some cases, if the user does not get up, the controllers continue to make the furniture increasingly uncomfortable. Once the user does get up, the furniture is restored to its original comfortable condition after a specified period of time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2017
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Tibor Beres, Keith A. Boone, Matthew P. Holt, Wisam Mohammed, Michael K. Pruitt
  • Patent number: 9811075
    Abstract: A production system includes a production facility and a portable operation terminal connectable to the production facility through a wireless communication. A connection state is brought between the production facility and the portable operation terminal by sending a connection request signal for a connection request to the production facility from the portable operation terminal, and sending a connection permission signal for responding to the connection request signal to the portable operation terminal from the production facility according to a predetermined condition, and it is permitted that the operation input to a control processing portion of the production facility from the portable operation terminal in the connection state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2017
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Takahiro Yokomae, Nobuya Matsuo
  • Patent number: 9777793
    Abstract: A six-degree-of-freedom micro vibration suppression platform includes a basic platform, a load platform, six sets of single-degree-of-freedom active and passive composite vibration isolation devices that are exactly the same and a controller. Upper and lower ends of each set of single-degree-of-freedom active and passive composite vibration isolation devices are connected with the load platform and the basic platform, respectively. A control method includes: calculating a logical axis signal, calculating a logical axis control signal, calculating physical axis real-time control signals and a transfer step.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 11, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2017
    Assignee: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
    Inventors: Xuedong Chen, Min Wang, Yixiu Sun, Xiaoqing Li
  • Patent number: 9746848
    Abstract: The Invention is a system and method for adaptively attaching a work piece, especially an imprecise work piece, to a non-adaptive fixture that can be repeatably attached to one or more CNC machines. The Invention allows a work piece to be set up once for multiple machining operations. The Invention avoids the potential for errors and the cost and complexity inherent in adaptive machining and adaptive fixturing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 16, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2017
    Inventors: Matthew T. Jarvis, Mark A. Rogers, Steven B. Lelinski, Alvin Potter
  • Patent number: 9727037
    Abstract: One or more controlled environmental conditions have a characteristic thereof that varies over time at least in part in accordance with a chaotic function. Variable control, for example, may control one or more characteristics of visible lighting of the environmentally controlled space. Examples of lighting characteristics that may be controlled in such a manner include spectral content, intensity, color temperature, chromaticity difference or Delta_uv, and polarization. In addition or instead, one or more characteristics of the atmosphere in the controlled environment may be controlled based on a chaotic function. Examples of atmospheric characteristics that may be controlled in such a manner include temperature, humidity, air pressure, ionization, electromagnetic fields, precipitation, visibility, wind, smell and chemical composition. A sound system may also provide a chaotic component to the environment in the environmentally controlled space.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2017
    Assignee: ABL IP HOLDING LLC
    Inventors: Jack C. Rains, Jr., David P. Ramer
  • Patent number: 9678511
    Abstract: Techniques are provided for tuning a rotary positive displacement pump. The techniques include apparatus featuring a signal processor configured to the present invention may take the form of apparatus comprising a signal processor that may be configured to receive signaling containing information about actual pump performance data related to the operation of a rotary positive displacement pump; and determine corrected published pump performance data to operate the rotary positive displacement pump by compensating published pump performance data based at least partly on the actual pump performance data. The corrected published pump performance data may include a corrected published rated power, flow and slip factor, and the actual pump performance data contains information about actual power, specific gravity and viscosity related to the operation of the rotary positive displacement pump and received from a pump controller or controlling device, including a variable frequency drive.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 10, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2017
    Assignee: ITT MANUFACTURING ENTERPRISES LLC.
    Inventor: Anthony E. Stavale
  • Patent number: 9658632
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and devices are disclosed for implementing a bootstrapped power circuit. Devices may include a controller configured to generate an output signal. Devices may include a power converter configured to receive the output signal, configured to store an amount of energy in response to receiving the output signal, and further configured to release the amount of energy in response to detecting a change in the output signal. Devices may include a switch configured to be toggled between a first and second position. Devices may include a power source configured to store a second voltage having a second amplitude. Devices may include a bootstrap circuit configured to receive a third voltage from the power source when the switch is in the first position, and configured to receive at least some of the amount of energy from the power converter when the switch is in the second position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 25, 2015
    Date of Patent: May 23, 2017
    Assignee: Cypress Semiconductor Corporation
    Inventor: David G. Wright
  • Patent number: 9600000
    Abstract: A method and a device are based on the application of an active correcting system with central corrector and Youla parameter for the attenuation of essentially monofrequency mechanical vibratory perturbations generated in a material structure by a rotating machine. Previously, a control law corresponding to a block modeling of the system is established and calculated, the blocks being, on the other hand, those of the central corrector and, on the other hand, a Youla parameter block, the modeling being such that only the Youla parameter, in the form of an infinite impulse response filter, has coefficients dependent on the vibratory perturbation frequency. During a phase of use, in real time, the frequency of the current perturbation is determined and the control law is calculated using for the Youla parameter the stored coefficients of a determined perturbation frequency corresponding to the current perturbation frequency.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 16, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2017
    Assignee: IXBLUE
    Inventor: Bernard Vau
  • Patent number: 9568901
    Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed for multi-objective energy management of micro-grids. A two-layer control method is used. In the first layer which is the advisory layer, a Model Predictive Control (MPC) method is used as a long term scheduler. The result of this layer will be used as optimality constraints in the second layer. In the second layer, a real-time controller guarantees a second-by-second balance between supply and demand subject to the constraints provided by the advisory layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 6, 2013
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2017
    Assignee: NEC Corporation
    Inventors: Ali Hooshmand, Ratnesh Sharma, Babak Asghari
  • Patent number: 9568966
    Abstract: A dynamic power budget allocation system includes a plurality of powered subsystems. A power system controller is coupled to the plurality of powered subsystems. The power system controller is operable, for each of a plurality of time intervals, to retrieve power usage data from each of the plurality of subsystems during a current time interval. The power system controller is then operable to project power requirements for the plurality of subsystems for a subsequent time interval using the power usage data. The power system controller is then operable to determine at least one power setting for at least one of the plurality of subsystems using the power requirements, and program the at least one of the plurality of subsystems with the at least one power setting. Each powered subsystem may include a voltage regulator that provides the power usage data and is programmed with the at least one power setting.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2017
    Assignee: Dell Products L.P.
    Inventors: Stuart Allen Berke, George G. Richards, III
  • Patent number: 9552001
    Abstract: A system includes a cooling system having a cooling fluid for cooling an engine and a radiator fan motor; a dynamic braking system configured to supply electrical energy to the fan motor during a braking event; and a controller that is operable to direct the electrical energy from the dynamic braking system to the fan motor to cool the coolant to a predetermined minimum threshold temperature. A method includes switching a vehicle thermal management system from a first mode of operation in which the coolant is maintained at a steady operating temperature to a second mode of operation in which the coolant is cooled to a minimum threshold temperature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2017
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventors: Bertrand Bastien, Henry Todd Young, Ajith Kuttannair Kumar
  • Patent number: 9535430
    Abstract: By efficiently holding only information necessary for a desired control from among information that can be obtained from equipment such as air conditioners, lighting devices and other devices, the control of the air conditioners and other devices according to the situation is obtained with small-capacity memory resources. This facilitates uploading to an air conditioner control device having a relatively small memory capacity and makes it possible to efficiently customize the installed control program.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 25, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2017
    Assignee: MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tomoaki Gyota, Masanori Nakata, Noriyuki Komiya
  • Patent number: 9529690
    Abstract: An anomaly detection system for detecting an anomaly within a network as a first embodiment in order to provide an anomaly detection system, anomaly detection method, and program for the same. An anomaly detection system which has a plurality of industrial control systems (hereinafter “ICS”s) which are connected to the network, an integrated analyzer which receives the operational status of each ICS as monitoring data in order to identify an ICS for which an anomaly is suspected so as to perform an anomaly assessment, a receiving unit provided for each ICS which receives data from other ICSs, a transmission unit which transmits data to other ICSs and transmits the monitoring data to the integrated analyzer, a security policy which includes recording of data and generation rules, and a wrapper which refers to the security policy in order to control the data so as to transmit the same to other ICSs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2016
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kazuhito Akiyama, Michiharu Kudo, Takuya Mishina, John D. Wilson
  • Patent number: 9519874
    Abstract: A thermal control system for a building is disclosed, which includes a regression model: Given a forecast temperature outside the building, the regression model predicts how much an HVAC system will cost to run during a day, for a given set of time-varying target temperatures for all the thermostats in the thermal control system. The thermal control system may also include an optimizer, which invokes multiple applications of the regression model. Given a forecast temperature outside the building, the optimizer predicts an optimal set of time-varying target temperatures for all the thermostats in the thermal control system. Running the HVAC system with the optimal set of time-varying target temperatures should have a reduced or a minimized cost, or a reduced or minimized total energy usage. The optimizer works by running the regression model repeatedly, while adjusting the time-varying target temperature for each thermostat between runs of the model.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2016
    Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
    Inventors: Karel Macek, Karel Marik, Jiri Rojicek