Patents Examined by Chase L Cooley
  • Patent number: 11951802
    Abstract: A method of controlling heating of a hybrid electric vehicle is provided. The method includes receiving a heating request from a driver; determining whether an entry condition of pre-FATC engine ON request (PFEOR) control is satisfied; checking whether the vehicle is capable of entering a HEV mode; determining whether the vehicle enters an idle mode for the PFEOR control; issuing a command for a target engine torque value and a target revolutions per minute for the idle mode to an engine control unit (ECU) from a hybrid control unit (HCU); and performing an engine idle speed control along with engine ON based on the command.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2024
    Assignees: Hyundai Motor Company, Kia Motors Corporation
    Inventors: Dong Jun Shin, Dong Su Ha, Jea Mun Lee
  • Patent number: 11945444
    Abstract: The vehicle movement control apparatus of the disclosure sets an update movement route as a target movement route when an update condition is satisfied. The apparatus acquires a turning characteristic, an acceleration characteristic, and a deceleration characteristic of a vehicle while executing an automatic movement control to cause the vehicle to move along the update movement route. The apparatus updates vehicle behavior characteristic data so as to represent actual vehicle behavior characteristics, based on the acquired turning characteristics, the acquired acceleration characteristic, and the acquired deceleration characteristic.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2024
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Takahiro Tsuji
  • Patent number: 11945450
    Abstract: A method for predicting a traffic situation for an automatically operating vehicle involves constantly recording the surroundings of the vehicle and predicting a traffic situation of the vehicle is predicted for a future point in time using recorded surroundings data and prediction parameters. Upon reaching the future point in time, a current real traffic situation is recorded, the current real traffic situation is compared to the predicted traffic situation, and it is determined in the comparison whether a prediction error was present during the prediction. In the event of a prediction error, the prediction parameters are corrected.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2024
    Assignee: MERCEDES-BENZ GROUP AG
    Inventors: Florian Wirthmüller, Jochen Hipp, Joachim Herbst
  • Patent number: 11935401
    Abstract: A vehicle control device includes a communication unit configured to communicate with a plurality of autonomous driving vehicles configured to perform autonomous traveling, and a processor. The processor is configured to, when an abnormality occurs in or around at least one first autonomous driving vehicle among the plurality of autonomous driving vehicles, determine a travel instruction for controlling traveling of the first autonomous driving vehicle, transmit the travel instruction to the first autonomous driving vehicle via the communication unit, set a priority representing the degree of the priority in which an instruction operator is notified of the travel instruction in the order determined according to the content of the abnormality, notify any one of at least one instruction terminal of the determined travel instruction in the order of highest priority, and receive a result of checking the determined travel instruction from the instruction terminal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2024
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Katsuhiro Sakai, Makoto Kawaharada, Akihide Tachibana, Tomoyuki Kuriyama
  • Patent number: 11932414
    Abstract: Techniques for employing a smart sensor device that has a primary sensing function for sensing a state of a physical component and can concurrently enable one or more backup functions for sensing one or more states of one or more other physicals components in response to one or more other smart sensor devices not being able to perform their primary function of sensing and/or reporting on the one or more states of the one or more other physical components.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 4, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2024
    Assignee: GE AVIATION SYSTEMS LIMITED
    Inventors: Timothy Robert North, Tod Alexander Gilbert, Steven Bonnett
  • Patent number: 11922819
    Abstract: A system for autonomously landing a Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft, comprising: a first sensor; a second sensor; and a processing resource configured to: (a) obtain, from, the first sensor, first readings; (b) generate, at a first rate, based on at least part of the first readings, a 3D model of at least, part of a scene visible by the first sensor; (c) obtain, from the second sensor, a plurality of second readings, enabling identifying changes within the at least part of the scene; (d) analyze at least part of the second readings, at a second rate, to obtain changes information indicative of the changes; (e) identify, using the 3D model and the changes information, potential landing areas for the aircraft; (f) generate commands to maneuver the aircraft towards a selected landing area of the potential landing areas; and (g) repeat steps (a) to (f) until landing the aircraft.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 21, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2024
    Assignee: WONDER ROBOTICS LTD
    Inventors: Amnon Demri, Idan Shimon
  • Patent number: 11878682
    Abstract: In various examples, systems and methods are disclosed for generating and/or analyzing candidate paths for a multi-body vehicle—e.g., a tractor trailer truck—based on obstacle avoidance considerations and using an uncertainty representation for the vehicle. The uncertainty representation may correspond to a trailer portion of the multi-body vehicle to account for the variations in rotation of the trailer with respect to the tractor. As such, the uncertainty representation may be indicative of a probability that the trailer of the vehicle occupies locations and/or points in world space. This probability—combined with the probability of locations of actors in the environment—may be used to generate candidate paths that satisfy various constraints—e.g., a minimum stochastic distance—between the vehicle and the actor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 8, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2024
    Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
    Inventors: Seungho Lee, Michael Watson
  • Patent number: 11868136
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes, by a computing system associated with a vehicle, determining a current location of the vehicle in a first region, identifying one or more first sets of model parameters associated with the first region and one or more second sets of model parameters associated with a second region, generating, using one or more machine-learning models based on the first sets of model parameters, one or more first inferences based on first sensor data captured by the vehicle, switching the configurations of the models from the first sets of model parameters to the second sets of model parameters, generating, using the models having configurations based on the second sets of model parameters, one or more second inferences based on second sensor data generated by the sensors of the vehicle in the second region, and causing the vehicle to perform one or more operations based on the second inferences.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 9, 2024
    Assignee: Woven by Toyota, U.S., Inc.
    Inventors: Michael Jared Benisch, Ashesh Jain
  • Patent number: 11851118
    Abstract: The disclosure relates to a method including the steps of: acquiring a time sequence of sets of vehicle parameter values; determining, for each set of acquired vehicle parameter values, based the set of acquired vehicle parameter values, a measure indicative of an observed strain in a steering rod, between a steering actuator and a wheel; determining, for each set of acquired vehicle parameter values, a measure indicative of a predicted strain in the rod, between the steering actuator and the wheel; and determining the functional status of the steering system based on a relation between the measures indicative of the observed strain in the rod and the measures indicative of the predicted strain in the rod.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2023
    Assignee: Volvo Car Corporation
    Inventors: Anders Hansson, Carl-Johan Häll
  • Patent number: 11834059
    Abstract: Systems and methods for operating a vehicle using a smart shoe device. For example, some embodiments of the application may monitor operation of a vehicle system and monitor operation of a smart shoe device. The process may determine that the smart shoe device is within a threshold period of time of performing an future action associated with commanding movement of the vehicle and enable a response by the vehicle based on the future action.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 21, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2023
    Assignee: TOYOTA RESEARCH INSTITUTE, INC.
    Inventors: Manuel Ludwig Kuehner, Hiroshi Yasuda
  • Patent number: 11835957
    Abstract: A self-propelled device system includes a self-propelled device, a boundary wire configured to define a work area of the self-propelled device and a signal transmitting unit electrically connected with the boundary wire configured to generate and send a boundary signal to the boundary wire that generates a magnetic field when flowing through the boundary wire. The self-propelled device has a signal receiving module and a control module. The signal receiving module uses the magnetic field caused by the boundary signal to generate a boundary wire inductive signal and the control module determines that the boundary wire has a wire break when a relevant parameter of the boundary wire inductive signal is less than or equal to a predefined threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 24, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2023
    Assignee: Nanjing Chervon Industry Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hongwei Wang, Dezhong Yang
  • Patent number: 11807213
    Abstract: The state of charge of a traction battery of a hybrid vehicle power train is managed by, during a phase of running of the vehicle to a current destination, predicting a temperature that a battery will reach, after the power train is switched off, at a time of departure to a future destination; estimating, as a function of the battery temperature previously predicted, a minimum state of charge of the battery making it possible to provide, during a phase of running to the future destination, a predefined minimum power level; and maintaining the state of charge of the battery close to the minimum state of charge.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 21, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2023
    Assignee: RENAULT s.a.s.
    Inventors: Manoela Ferreira De Araujo, Ahmed Ketfi-Cherif
  • Patent number: 11808844
    Abstract: The invention relates to an apparatus for acquiring information on the occupancy state of parking spaces with a fixing device for fixing on a vehicle, with a sensor which has a detection area, wherein the sensor is designed for determining data on the distance between the sensor and an object. The apparatus according to the invention is characterized in that in addition a device for position determination is provided and a control and evaluation unit is designed to link the data of the sensor with the data of the device for position determination, wherein the sensor is configured to detect at least a distance of 40 meters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 4, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2023
    Assignee: Parkling GmbH
    Inventors: Christoph Fretter, Mark Hashimoto, Detlev Huelsebusch, Clement Quinson
  • Patent number: 11787392
    Abstract: A control system for a hybrid vehicle configured to shift an operating mode from a single-motor mode to a hybrid-low mode without causing a temporal drop in a drive force. A controller is configured to predict an execution of a mode change from the single-motor mode to the first hybrid mode, and to execute the mode change from the single-motor mode to the hybrid-low mode via a hybrid-high mode, if the execution of the mode change from the single-motor mode to the hybrid-low mode is predicted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 21, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2023
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Hiroaki Ebuchi, Yukari Okamura
  • Patent number: 11748860
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for identifying one or more target roads. The systems may perform the methods to obtain a heat map associated with a plurality of driving track points along a plurality of roads in a target region, wherein the plurality of roads includes one or more target roads and one or more reference roads; obtain a road network map associated with the one or more reference roads in the target region; produce an intermediate heat map by: eliminating pixels in the heat map corresponding to the one or more reference roads in the road network map, eliminating background pixels corresponding to background of the heat map, and thinning the heat map; and determine start coordinate information and end coordinate information associated with the one or more target roads based on the intermediate heat map according to a linear transformation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2023
    Assignee: BEIJING DIDI INFINITY TECHNOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Kaiqiang An, Maozong Zheng, Mengxi Li, Xiang Wen, Pengfei Xu
  • Patent number: 11749126
    Abstract: A system having components coupled to an aircraft and components remote from the aircraft processes sensor-derived data, transmits information between aircraft system components and remote system components, and dynamically generates updated analyses of position and orientation of the aircraft relative to a desired landing site, while the aircraft is in flight toward the desired landing site. Based on the position and orientation information, the system generates instructions for flight control of the aircraft toward a flight path to the landing site, and can update flight control instructions as new data is received and processed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 5, 2021
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2023
    Assignee: Reliable Robotics Corporation
    Inventors: Robert W. Rose, Matthew T. Nehrenz, John P. Couluris, Juerg Frefel
  • Patent number: 11724732
    Abstract: A steering control device includes an electronic control unit configured to i) detect an absolute steering angle, ii) determine whether movement of a turning shaft to one of right and left sides has been limited, iii) acquire a limit position determination angle corresponding to the absolute steering angle detected when the electronic control unit determines that the movement of the turning shaft has been limited, and iv) set an end-position-corresponding angle based on the limit position determination angle, the end-position-corresponding angle being an angle indicating that the turning shaft is located at a right or left end position, and the end-position-corresponding angle being associated with the absolute steering angle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2023
    Assignee: JTEKT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Takahiro Toko, Nobuaki Kataoka, Takafumi Yamaguchi, Yukinobu Ezaki
  • Patent number: 11702063
    Abstract: Since a maximum rotation speed of a second rotary machine is set to a lower value when a supercharging pressure is high than when the supercharging pressure is low, an engine torque decreases with an rotation speed of the second rotary machine which is relatively low and the rotation speed is less likely to fall into a high-rotation state. When the supercharging pressure is relatively low and the rotation speed is less likely to reach an upper-limit rotation speed of the second rotary machine, the maximum rotation speed is set to a relatively high value. Accordingly, the engine torque does not decrease to the rotation speed which is relatively high and power performance can be easily secured. As a result, it is possible to prevent a decrease in power performance due to the decrease in the engine torque and to prevent the rotation speed from falling into a high-rotation state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 9, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 18, 2023
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Atsushi Tabata, Koichi Okuda, Tooru Matsubara, Yasuhiro Hiasa, Yasutaka Tsuchida
  • Patent number: 11702061
    Abstract: A hybrid vehicle includes: an engine; a battery; a power converter; a relay; a first controller; and a second controller. The second controller is configured to control the engine and the power converter according to allowable charging power and allowable discharging power received from the first controller. The second controller has, as control modes, a normal mode in which the relay is closed and the battery and the power converter are electrically connected and a batteryless drive mode in which the relay is opened to cause the hybrid vehicle to move with the battery electrically disconnected from the power converter. The second controller is configured to select the batteryless drive mode when at least one of the magnitude of the allowable charging power and the magnitude of the allowable discharging power become smaller than a first predetermined value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 2, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 18, 2023
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Yoshiaki Kikuchi, Junichi Matsumoto, Akio Uotani
  • Patent number: 11693424
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a method of a robot (30) responding to a transition (40) between height levels, the method comprising a robot (30) travelling, sensing information of the surroundings of the robot (30) and generating a three dimensional data set corresponding to a heightmap of the surroundings of the robot (30) based on the information, detecting a transition (40) between different height levels (10, 20) in the three dimensional data set, categorizing the transition (40) between the different height levels (10, 20) by means of at least one characteristic, the robot (30) performing a response action, which response action depends on the categorization of the transition (40). The present invention also relates to a corresponding system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 4, 2023
    Assignee: STARSHIP TECHNOLOGIES OÜ
    Inventors: Rasmus Raag, Sergii Kharagorgiiev