Patents Examined by Angela Ortiz
  • Patent number: 10487005
    Abstract: The invention provides a porous glass ceramic composition manufactured using conventional raw materials and one or more waste materials, wherein the waste materials are capable of producing glass forming oxides, glass modifying oxides and pore forming oxides. The waste materials are selected from a group that includes cullet, pozzolanic waste and fly ash. The invention also provides a method for manufacturing the porous glass ceramic composition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignees: KING ABDUL AZIZ CITY FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (KACST), UNIVERSITA DI PADOVA
    Inventors: Mohammed A Binhussain, Paolo Colombo, Enrico Bernardo, Majed A Binmajed, Mauro Marangoni, Hamad H Atalasi, Amer M Alajmi, Abdulaziz Altamimi
  • Patent number: 9875584
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and devices are provided herein for recording operation history of a remotely controlled vehicle. The recorded operation history may comprise outgoing operation commands sent from a remote controller of a remotely controlled vehicle, as well as incoming operation commands received by the remotely controlled vehicle. The recorded operation history may further comprise vehicle status data, such as data related to an operation process of the remotely controlled vehicle. The recorded operation history of a vehicle may be used to analyze a behavior of the vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 16, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2018
    Assignee: SZ DJI TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD
    Inventors: Ming Gong, Jin Dai, Hao Cui, Xiaodong Wang, Han Huang, Jun Wu, Wei Fan, Ning Ma, Xinhua Rong, Xingsen Lin
  • Patent number: 9855826
    Abstract: A method and a corresponding device permit an at least partially computer-controlled and/or autonomous vehicle to communicate with its surroundings, in particular with a road user such as a person in its surroundings. A control unit for a vehicle is configured to receive surroundings data from one or more surroundings sensors of the vehicle and to detect at least one road user in the surroundings of the vehicle on the basis of the surroundings data. The control unit is configured to determine on the basis of the surroundings data whether there is a need for communication between the road user and the vehicle. The control unit is configured, if it has been determined that there is a need for communication between the road user and the vehicle, to actuate an adaptation system of the vehicle and/or one or more visual communication system in order to communicate with the road user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2018
    Assignee: Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Lenja Sorokin, Gunnar Franz
  • Patent number: 9815729
    Abstract: A method for the continuous production of a cellular ceramic plate having asymmetric cells comprising thermally treating ceramic particles and a blowing agent in a foaming furnace while conveying said ceramic particles and said blowing agent at a first speed thereby forming a cellular ceramic plate, and annealing said cellular ceramic plate in an annealing lehr by cooling it down while conveying it at a second speed, larger than said first speed, thereby stretching and cooling said cellular ceramic plate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 14, 2017
    Assignee: Pittsburgh Corning Europe NV
    Inventor: Hans Strauven
  • Patent number: 9809185
    Abstract: A system includes a processor in communication with at least one input, and configured to control at least one vehicle system. The processor is further configured to receive a command including a subjective element. The processor is also configured to access a mapping associated with a user from whom the command originated to retrieve a user-specific meaning, the mapping defining user-specific meanings for at least one subjective element. Further, the processor is configured to apply a user-specific meaning to an implementation of the command, such that a vehicle system is adjusted in accordance with both the subjective element and the user-specific meaning associated therewith.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2017
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Randal Henry Visintainer, Krishnaswamy Venkatesh Prasad, Dimitar Petrov Filev, Oleg Yurievitch Gusikhin
  • Patent number: 9802647
    Abstract: A device for controlling a steering wheel and a method for controlling a steering wheel using the same that includes: a detecting bar which is rotated in conjunction with a steering shaft of an industrial vehicle's steering wheel; a sensor at one side of the detecting bar so as to detect a steering angle of the steering wheel by means of the detecting bar; and a controller which controls the steering wheel based on a sensing signal of the sensor so as to position the steering wheel in a neutral position during a time when electric power is applied to the industrial vehicle and the industrial vehicle is initialized. When an operator turns on a power source of the electric forklift, the steering wheel is positioned in the neutral position to enable an operator to immediately drive the electric forklift without confirming a position of the steering wheel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 1, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 31, 2017
    Assignee: DOOSAN CORPORATION
    Inventor: Sun Ho Choi
  • Patent number: 9783214
    Abstract: An operation management device that manages the operation of a plurality of vehicles that travel along a track is provided with: a vehicle position acquisition unit that acquires the positions of the plurality of vehicles that are present on the track; a density calculation unit that calculates the density of the plurality of vehicles that are traveling along the track within a predetermined range; and a departure determination unit that adjusts the departure time of a target vehicle from a station at which the vehicle stops on the basis of a front direction density indicating the density of vehicles that are traveling within a predetermined range in front of the predetermined target vehicle in the travel direction thereof and a back direction density indicating the density of vehicles that are traveling within a predetermined range in back of the predetermined target vehicle in the travel direction thereof.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 29, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2017
    Assignee: MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES, LTD.
    Inventors: Toshihiko Niinomi, Kenji Takao, Noritaka Yanai, Yasuyuki Suzuki, Yutaka Miyajima
  • Patent number: 9771872
    Abstract: A control system uses a modeled steam turbine megawatt (power) change attributed to a gas turbine demand change (i.e., a steam turbine to gas turbine transfer function) within a conventional closed loop feedback control scheme to perform control of a combined cycle power plant. This control system implements a form of internal model control and provides better unit megawatt (power) set-point tracking and disturbance variable rejection for overall more robust control, and thus operates to optimize the gas turbine operation of the combined cycle power plant in a manner that provides cost savings over time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 26, 2017
    Assignee: EMERSON PROCESS MANAGEMENT POWER & WATER SOLUTIONS, INC.
    Inventors: Ranjit R. Rao, Xu Cheng, Frederick C. Huff, Benjamin F. Gerideau, III
  • Patent number: 9764719
    Abstract: A method and a device for avoiding a possible subsequent collision and for reducing the accident consequences of a collision, in which after a first collision of the vehicle with a further road user has taken place, an automatic braking intervention by a vehicle safety system is released according to a braking model by ascertaining vehicle data from the handling of the host vehicle, buffering the vehicle data ascertained in a memory, inferring the category of the road being traveled on at the moment from the buffered vehicle data, determining an initial distance as a function of the road category determined, and ascertaining the condition for releasing the brake using this initial distance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2017
    Assignee: ROBERT BOSCH GMBH
    Inventors: Ulf Wilhelm, Sybille Eisele
  • Patent number: 9766082
    Abstract: An information terminal transmits present position information and acceleration information to a server device. The server device receives the present position information and the acceleration information of the information terminal, generates congestion prediction degree using the acceleration information, associates the congestion prediction degree with map data such that the congestion prediction degree can be displayed on a road map, and transmits association information indicating the association. The information terminal displays the congestion prediction degree on the road map on the display device using the association information transmitted from the server device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2017
    Assignee: HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Takamasa Koshizen
  • Patent number: 9758055
    Abstract: A control system for a hybrid vehicle includes an internal combustion engine, a rotary electric machine, a battery, a cooling fan configured to cool the battery, and a controller. The controller is configured to determine an operation of the cooling fan based on charged-discharged electric power of the battery and presence or absence of a charging request that is based on an intention of a user. The controller is configured to control the operation of the cooling fan such that the battery is cooled more in a case where the charging request is present than in a case where the charging request is absent with the same charged-discharged electric power.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 12, 2017
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Junta Izumi
  • Patent number: 9759576
    Abstract: A navigation system which includes a central processing unit; a nonvolatile storage for storing digitized map data; a road sinuosity S(R) of a route including a plurality of digitized road segments calculated from a starting point to a destination point to be traveled by a user by summing the rotation angle of each of the road segments divided by the distance of each of the road segments; a module to determine an estimated travel time of the route; a module to determine a corrected travel time using the road sinuosity S(R); and a display to display the corrected travel time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 12, 2017
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Philippe Kaplan, Georges-Henri Moll, Xavier Nodet, Olivier Oudot
  • Patent number: 9747732
    Abstract: A method, system, and apparatus for dynamically presenting desired vehicular-reference information for a motor vehicle under evaluation is provided. In one aspect, an example method includes: (a) a computing system receiving, via a user interface, (i) vehicular-reference data indicating at least one vehicle parameter, and (ii) first information-presentation data indicating at least one information-presentation preference; (b) the computing system selecting at least one first piece of vehicular-reference information based on at least one of the received vehicular-reference data and the received first information-presentation data; (c) the computing system selecting a presentation window based on at least one of the received vehicular-reference data and the received first information-presentation data; and (d) the computing system causing a visual depiction of (i) the selected vehicular-reference information and (ii) the selected presentation window to be displayed on a graphical display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 5, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2017
    Assignee: Mitchell Repair Information Company, LLC
    Inventor: David Costantino
  • Patent number: 9738251
    Abstract: A seat belt device includes: a belt reel that winds a webbing; an electric motor that drives the belt reel to wind; a collision prediction unit that predicts a collision with an object; and a controller that is connected to the collision prediction unit via a network and that performs winding control of the electric motor when a collision with the object is predicted by the collision prediction unit. After the controller receives information on collision prediction from the collision prediction unit via the network, even when a communication failure occurs between the controller and the collision prediction unit, the controller performs control to cause the electric motor to continue winding control.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 17, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2017
    Assignee: HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Shotaro Odate
  • Patent number: 9740213
    Abstract: A vehicle combination and a method for forming and operating a vehicle combination that includes at least first and second autonomous vehicles. Each of the autonomous vehicles is configured to automatically control its motions in a state wherein the first and second autonomous vehicles do not form the vehicle combination. When the vehicle combination is formed, the two autonomous vehicles are connected via a communications connection and the first autonomous vehicle automatically controls the motion of the second autonomous vehicle via the communication connection.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 1, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2017
    Assignee: KUKA Roboter GmbH
    Inventors: Christoph Bick, Daniel Meyer-Delius, Jeremie Tardivon
  • Patent number: 9738307
    Abstract: Provided are a steering control device and the like, including the steps of: calculating a steering assist torque to be applied to an actuator for applying the steering assist torque to a steering system of a vehicle in order to improve return characteristics of the steering system; determining a steering state of a driver; correcting the steering assist torque depending on a result of the steering state determination; and controlling the actuator depending on the corrected steering assist torque, in which the step of determining a steering state of a driver includes determining the steering state of the driver based on a combination of at least two of the following: a manually-operating steering state determination; an abrupt steering wheel return determination; a high-acceleration steering wheel return determination; a manual return steering determination; and an additional-steering determination.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 8, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2017
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
    Inventors: Masaya Endo, Hidetoshi Ikeda, Isao Kezobo, Kenji Ogawa, Taizo Toda
  • Patent number: 9733100
    Abstract: A method is disclosed for the contact-analog display of a navigation instruction for a driving maneuver, particularly a lane change, of a vehicle, wherein the driving maneuver can be carried out at any point of a cohesive driving route of a road. The method includes: contact-analog stationary displaying of the instruction at the beginning of the driving route for a first distance traveled by the vehicle; adapting the contact-analog display of the instruction to the change of position of the vehicle, so that the instruction changes its position corresponding to the change of position of the vehicle, for a second distance traveled by the vehicle; and contact-analog stationary displaying of the instruction at the end of the driving route, for a third distance traveled by the vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2017
    Assignee: Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Natasa Milicic, Boris Israel
  • Patent number: 9731755
    Abstract: A method for providing vehicle lateral steering control. The method includes providing a mathematical model of vehicle dynamics that includes a state variable, a steering control variable and a future road disturbance factor that defines the upcoming road curvature, banks and slopes of the roadway. The method determines an optimal steering control signal that includes a feedback portion and a feed-forward portion, where the feed-forward portion includes the road disturbance factor. The method determines a state variable and a control variable for the current roadway curvature, bank and slope for stationary motion of the vehicle for constant speed, yaw rate and lateral velocity. The method then introduces a new state variable and control variable for dynamic vehicle motion for variable speed, yaw rate and lateral velocity that is a difference between the state and control variables for predicted future times and the steady state variables.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 16, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2017
    Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC
    Inventors: Nikolai K. Moshchuk, Shih-Ken Chen, Bakhtiar B. Litkouhi
  • Patent number: 9725093
    Abstract: Apparatuses, methods and systems including dynamic estimations of vehicle mass and road grade estimation are disclosed. One exemplary embodiment is a method including operating a vehicle system to propel a vehicle, determining with a controller a vehicle mass estimate and an uncertainty of the vehicle mass estimate, evaluating with the controller the uncertainty of the vehicle mass estimate relative to at least one criterion, if the uncertainty of the vehicle mass estimate satisfies the criterion, determining with the controller a road grade estimate, and controlling with the controller utilizing the road grade estimate at least one of a vehicle speed and an engine output.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2017
    Assignee: Cummins Inc.
    Inventors: Apurva Chunodkar, Timothy Proctor, Vivek Anand Sujan, Kenneth Follen, Gary Salemme, Phani Vajapeyazula, An Wu
  • Patent number: 9722902
    Abstract: In an evacuation travelling assistance apparatus, a risk determining unit determines, when a driver is not in a state capable of appropriately performing driving operations, a risk involved in stopping at a location and a risk involved in passing through the location, for each of a plurality of locations that may serve as an advancing destination of the own vehicle, based on map information, own vehicle information, and peripheral environment information. An evacuation destination setting unit sets a location at which the risk involved in stopping at the location is lower than a predetermined reference as an evacuation destination, based on the determined risk. An evacuation route setting unit combines locations at which the risk involved in passing through the location is lower than a predetermined reference, based on the determined risk, and sets an evacuation route from the current position of the own vehicle to the evacuation destination.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 1, 2017
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Masao Oooka, Takeshi Miura, Hiroaki Niino, Hiroshi Mizuno