Patents Examined by Alexander C. Bost
  • Patent number: 11148682
    Abstract: Example steering assistance systems and methods are described. In one implementation, a controller receives inputs from one or more sensors mounted to a vehicle. The controller processes the inputs from the one or more sensors to determine whether a steering change is needed. Responsive to determining that a steering change is needed, the controller provides a steering change recommendation to a driver of the vehicle via a physical rotation of the vehicle steering wheel in a recommended direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 19, 2021
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Yuzhou Li, Roy Zhou, Grant Inskeep
  • Patent number: 11130450
    Abstract: A deposit removal system includes a camera, display means that displays an image that is acquired by the camera, detection means that detects an operation of a user on the display means, deposit removal means that performs a removal action for removing a deposit that is attached to a lens of the camera, and control means that causes the deposit removal means to perform the removal action, based on the operation on an image detected by the detection means.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 28, 2021
    Assignees: DENSO TEN Limited, TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Masahiro Koharazawa, Shinya Hirosawa, Ryota Hamabe, Kazuki Masuda
  • Patent number: 11131552
    Abstract: A map generation system includes a server configured to: transfer reference curved road constituent points onto a measurement target curved road as virtual constituent points arranged along the measurement target curved road adjacent to the reference curved road; acquire virtual trajectory curvature information based on positions of the virtual constituent points; acquire detailed curve information of the measurement target curved road by acquiring, based on a position of a start point of the measurement target curved road preset in the road map information, travel information of a vehicle traveling on the measurement target curved road, and the virtual trajectory curvature information, measurement target curved road constituent points arranged at preset intervals from the start point along the measurement target curved road, and associating the virtual trajectory curvature information with each of the measurement target curved road constituent points; and generate a map by acquiring the second detailed curve
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 28, 2021
    Assignees: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA, THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO
    Inventors: Kyoichi Tohriyama, Minoru Kamata, Takuma Ito, Satoshi Nakamura
  • Patent number: 11131555
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus are provided for generating a towing preferred navigational route including an input to receive a request for a navigational route wherein the request is indicative of a destination and a tow mode engagement, a memory to store an aggregated segment data wherein the aggregated segment data is generated in response to a plurality of tow enabled vehicles traveling the segment, a processor to generate the navigational route in response to the request for the navigational route and the aggregated segment data, and an output to couple the navigational route for display to a driver.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 28, 2021
    Assignee: GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS LLC
    Inventors: David A. Canella, Ralph D. Schlottke, Norman J. Weigert, Sean S. Monteiro
  • Patent number: 11125577
    Abstract: A system, computer readable medium, and a method for parking management are provided. The method receives, via communication circuitry, an input from an electronic device. The input includes at least destination information of a user of a vehicle. The method identifies a parking space for the vehicle based on the input and generates navigational directions to the identified parking space. Further, the method provides the navigational directions to at least one output device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 21, 2021
    Assignee: King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals
    Inventor: Abdulelah Alneghaimish
  • Patent number: 11126873
    Abstract: Techniques for determining lighting states of a tracked object, such as a vehicle, are discussed herein. An autonomous vehicle can include an image sensor to capture image data of an environment. Objects such can be identified in the image data as objects to be tracked. Frames of the image data representing the tracked object can be selected and input to a machine learning algorithm (e.g., a convolutional neural network, a recurrent neural network, etc.) that is trained to determine probabilities associated with one or more lighting states of the tracked object. Such lighting states include, but are not limited to, a blinker state(s), a brake state, a hazard state, etc. Based at least in part on the one or more probabilities associated with the one or more lighting states, the autonomous vehicle can determine a trajectory for the autonomous vehicle and/or can determine a predicted trajectory for the tracked object.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 17, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 21, 2021
    Assignee: Zoox, Inc.
    Inventors: Tencia Lee, Kai Zhenyu Wang, James William Vaisey Philbin
  • Patent number: 11109811
    Abstract: An apparatus is configured to execute: a first process for estimating a first component at a first time point by using a waveform and the first component calculated from the waveform before the first time point, the waveform being based on a running trace of a vehicle, the first component being less than a first frequency; a second process for estimating the first component at the first time point by using the waveform, the first component calculated from the waveform before the first time point, and a second component at the first time point, the second component being greater than the first frequency and predicted from the second component calculated from the waveform before the first time point; and a calculation process for calculating the second component at the first time point from the waveform based on the first components estimated by the first and second process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 19, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 7, 2021
    Assignee: FUJITSU LIMITED
    Inventor: Osafumi Nakayama
  • Patent number: 11112249
    Abstract: A navigation system includes a navigation database and a route generator. The route generator receives an avoidance, generates a concave polygon representing the avoidance with respect to four-dimensional data of the navigation database, identifies a displacement vector of the avoidance, shifts the concave polygon using the displacement vector, identifies each gap between vertices of the shifted concave polygon, adds an added edge to the to connect vertices across each identified gap, determines, for each edge of the concave polygon, if the edge includes an internal edge, removes each internal edge from the concave polygon, compares the concave polygon to the plurality of cells, identifies one or more cells in which the concave polygon is located, and outputs a navigation alert based on the identified one or more cells.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 7, 2021
    Assignee: Rockwell Collins, Inc.
    Inventor: Jason J. Jakusz
  • Patent number: 11110770
    Abstract: An electronically controlled suspension control system of a vehicle using road surface information may include a road surface recognition unit of recognizing a road surface, a road surface profile determination unit of determining a road surface profile using information as to the recognized road surface, a behavior estimation and determination unit of estimating and determining a vehicle behavior according to the determined road surface profile, a behavior information recording unit storing information as to the behavior of the vehicle, an electronically controlled suspension (ECS) control unit of controlling a suspension of the vehicle, and a behavior determination and control unit of comparing a determined value from the behavior estimation and determination unit with recorded values of the behavior information recording unit, determining a behavior level of the vehicle, based on results of the comparison, and sending a control command according to the determined behavior level to the ECS control unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 7, 2021
    Assignees: Hyundai Motor Company, Kia Corporation
    Inventor: Hyung Jin Kim
  • Patent number: 11092958
    Abstract: The invention relates to equipment comprising an underwater robot (1) and a device (2) for the remote control of the robot, which can communicate with each other, wherein: the robot comprises means for underwater movement and an image-capturing device; and the control device comprises 3D glasses designed so that a user wearing the glasses views the underwater environment of the robot in three dimensions on the basis of the images captured by the robot, and means for remotely guiding the movement of the robot on the basis of the three-dimensional underwater environment viewed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 17, 2021
    Assignee: HUBLOT SA, GENEVE
    Inventors: Mathias Buttet, Jean-Michel Blumenthal
  • Patent number: 11091033
    Abstract: The vehicle control apparatus is provided with a vehicle body speed deriving portion that derives a vehicle body speed of a vehicle, a wheel speed difference deriving portion that derives a wheel speed difference which is a deviation between the maximum wheel speed and the minimum wheel speed of the wheels of the vehicle, a request drive amount deriving portion that derives a request drive amount for the drive source of the vehicle, a torque suppressing device that suppresses torque of a driving wheel, a traction control portion that controls the torque suppressing device and suppresses an acceleration slip of the driving wheel based on the wheel speed difference or a combination of the wheel speed difference and at least one of the vehicle body speed and the request drive amount.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 17, 2021
    Assignees: ADVICS CO., LTD., TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Takashi Nonaka, Jun Mizuno, Daisuke Kohara, Yuji Yoshii, Gen Inoue, Yasushi Kobayashi, Hiroshi Omine
  • Patent number: 11069248
    Abstract: A dynamic determination method for determining the position of a stopping point of an aircraft on a landing strip and related system includes determining a first table of average time from touchdown of the aircraft as a function of the ground speed, based on an average deceleration profile of the aircraft; determining a first deceleration profile adapted to the current conditions, based on an engine thrust computed for each ground speed from the average time determined in the first table; determining a second table of time adapted to the current conditions based on the first deceleration profile; determining a second deceleration profile adapted to the current conditions, based on an engine thrust computed for each ground speed from the time determined in the second table; and computing the position of the stopping point from the second adapted deceleration profile.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 1, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 20, 2021
    Assignee: DASSAULT AVIATION
    Inventor: Stéphane Picaut
  • Patent number: 11061414
    Abstract: A fleet mission control system for a network of aerial vehicles including power thermal management systems is provided. According to examples of the disclosed technology a control system receives one or more mission objectives for a network of aircraft including two or more aerial vehicles. Each aerial vehicle includes a power-thermal management system. The control system receives system state information for the network of aircraft. The system state information includes PTMS state data. The control system determines a set of aircraft commands for the network of aircraft based on the one or more mission objectives and the PTMS state data, and generates an output signal based on the set of aircraft commands.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 13, 2021
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventors: James Ryan Reepmeyer, Eric Richard Westervelt
  • Patent number: 11047439
    Abstract: A method of monitoring a brake corner of a vehicle including that real-time brake corner temperature data of the brake corner is detected, real-time brake corner pressure data of the brake corner is detected, and real-time brake corner torque data of the brake corner is detected. The method further includes that a brake drag or a brake pulsation is determined in response to the braking energy of the brake corner, whether the brake pedal of the vehicle is applied, and at least one of the real-time brake corner pressure data of the brake corner and the real-time brake corner torque data of the brake corner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 29, 2021
    Assignee: GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS LLC
    Inventors: Matthew A. Robere, Ali Shabbir, Steven J. Weber
  • Patent number: 11041730
    Abstract: The autonomous vehicle generates an overlapped image by overlaying HD map data over sensor data and rendering the overlaid images. The visualization process is repeated as the vehicle drives along the route. The visualization may be displayed on a screen within the vehicle or at a remote device. The system performs reverse rendering of a scene based on map data from a selected point. For each line of sight originating at the selected point, the system identifies the farthest object in the map data. Accordingly, the system eliminates objects obstructing the view of the farthest objects in the HD map as viewed from the selected point. The system further allows filtering of objects using filtering criteria based on semantic labels. The system generates a view from the selected point such that 3D objects matching the filtering criteria are eliminated from the view.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 1, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 22, 2021
    Assignee: DEEPMAP INC.
    Inventors: Gil Colgate, Mark Damon Wheeler
  • Patent number: 11036240
    Abstract: An aerial vehicle is programmed to proceed to a safe landing area upon a loss of GPS signals or other navigational signals. The aerial vehicle is programmed with a location of the safe landing area, and a visual descriptor of a landmark at the safe landing area. The landmark may be any natural or man-made structure or feature associated with the safe landing area, and the visual identifier may be any set of data corresponding to one or more contours, outlines, colors, textures, silhouettes or shapes of the landmark. Upon determining that a GPS position may not be determined, or shortly thereafter, the aerial vehicle proceeds on a course toward the location of the safe landing area, and begins to capture imaging data. The aerial vehicle confirms that it has arrived at the safe landing area upon detecting the visual identifier within the imaging data, and initiates a landing operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 15, 2021
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Arnold Irschara, Martin Lenz, Werner Trobin
  • Patent number: 11036220
    Abstract: Provided is a remote-type autonomous traveling system in which a mobile body apparatus that has at least one camera and a remote operation terminal are communicatively connected. The mobile body apparatus includes an acquisition unit that acquires environmental information, a determination unit that determines whether or not a critical state is attained, based on the environmental information, and a communication unit that transmits data of an image that is captured by at least the camera to the remote operation terminal through a first wireless base station that is capable of providing a macro-cell, by performing communication in compliance with a first communication scheme, according to a result of the determination by the determination unit that the mobile body apparatus is in the critical state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 23, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 15, 2021
    Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Osamu Katou, Yasuhiro Aoyama
  • Patent number: 11017678
    Abstract: Methods and systems for terminal airspace operations based on dynamic routes are described. An exemplary method for providing airspace operations based on dynamic routes includes performing spatio-temporal filtering on air traffic data for a plurality of aircrafts in an en-route airspace sector to generate one or more dynamic routes, each dynamic route being associated with a subset of the plurality of aircrafts that share similar spatial and temporal flight characteristics. The method further includes generating a priority value for each of the one or more dynamic routes, adjusting at least one of the one or more dynamic routes based on the respective priority value to generate one or more final dynamic routes, and for each of the plurality of aircrafts, generating a three-dimensional route based on the one or more final dynamic routes to increase an efficiency of the en-route airspace operations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2021
    Assignee: VIANAIR INC.
    Inventor: Stavros Sidiropoulos
  • Patent number: 11001231
    Abstract: An apparatus includes an interface and a processor. The interface may be configured to receive video frames comprising at least one of a vehicle or an outdoor environment near the vehicle and a correction signal. The processor may be configured to perform video operations on the video frames to detect objects, predict a state of the vehicle based on the objects detected in the video frames and generate the correction signal. The correction signal may be configured to apply a corrective measure based on the predicted state of the vehicle. The state of the vehicle may be predicted when the vehicle is parked in the outdoor environment. The state of the vehicle may comprise factors that prevent driving the vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 11, 2021
    Assignee: Ambarella International LP
    Inventors: Greg Hedman, Shimon Pertsel
  • Patent number: 10974725
    Abstract: Provided is a vehicle control apparatus (100) which includes a recognition unit (130) configured to recognize a surrounding situation of a vehicle, and driving control units (140 and 160) configured to automatically control acceleration or deceleration and steering of the vehicle on the basis of a surrounding situation recognized by the recognition unit, in which, in a case that a stop position of the vehicle is recognized in the traveling direction of the vehicle by the recognition unit, and a traffic participant proceeding at a speed lower than the speed of the vehicle in the traveling direction is recognized in front of the stop position, the driving control unit determines whether the traffic participant catches up with the vehicle before the vehicle reaches the stop position, and determines to cause the vehicle to reach further ahead of the traffic participant in the traveling direction on the basis of a result of the determination.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 1, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 13, 2021
    Assignee: HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Masamitsu Tsuchiya, Hideki Matsunaga, Yasuharu Hashimoto, Etsuo Watanabe