Patents Examined by Christopher E Everett
  • Patent number: 10954824
    Abstract: A method includes determining, via a processor, a commanded fluid flow rate of a fluid entering or exiting the drum of an industrial system, wherein the commanded fluid flow rate comprises a rate of fluid entering the drum of the industrial system, exiting the drum of the industrial system, or a combination thereof. The method additionally includes determining, via the processor, a measured flow rate of the fluid. The method further includes determining, via the processor, a variable multiplier based at least in part on the commanded fluid flow rate and the measured flow rate; and deriving, via the processor, a multiplied flow rate command for the industrial system by applying the variable multiplier to the commanded fluid flow rate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 23, 2021
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventors: Benjamin David Laskowski, William Forrester Seely
  • Patent number: 10088818
    Abstract: A system having a plurality of electronic devices, at least one of the plurality of electronic devices having one or more processors and memory storing instructions for execution by the one or more processors, collects usage information of one or more of the plurality of electronic devices for a plurality of known users within a premise. The system then identifies, for a first user, a usage pattern of the one or more electronic devices based on the collected usage information, and determines a correlation factor of the usage pattern. Based on the determined correlation factor of the usage pattern for the first user, the system generates, for the first user, an operational profile with which to operate the one or more electronic devices, and operates the one or more electronic devices in accordance with the operational profile for the first user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2018
    Assignee: GOOGLE LLC
    Inventors: Jeffrey P. Mathews, Lee R. Taylor, Andrew J. Zimmer
  • Patent number: 10082805
    Abstract: A system, device, and method for adjusting temporal settings of an electronic plumbing controller are provided. A removable time adjustment device includes at least one input device, at least one interface configured to communicate with the electronic plumbing controller, and at least one controller configured to set or adjust, on the electronic plumbing controller through the at least one interface, at least one temporal setting for the at least one plumbing fixture based at least partially on user input from the at least one input device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 25, 2018
    Assignee: SDB IP Holdings, LLC
    Inventors: Rock R. Allard, III, Blaine Anderson, Robert M. Cannon, Jr.
  • Patent number: 10073424
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including medium-encoded computer program products, for improving 3D printing systems and techniques include, in one aspect, a system including: three dimensional (3D) printer hardware; and at least one computer communicatively coupled with the 3D printer hardware, the at least one computer programed to receive 3D print type inputs for an object to be 3D printed and create a 3D print profile including parameters for 3D printing the object using the 3D printer hardware by matching the 3D print type inputs against a database.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 13, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2018
    Assignee: Autodesk, Inc.
    Inventors: Pierre Pascal Anatole Lin, Karl Willis, Eric Jamesson Wilhelm, Arian Aziz Aghababaie
  • Patent number: 10061306
    Abstract: A method for allocating printed circuit boards to the fitting lines of a fitting system configured for fitting printed circuit boards with electronic components includes: determining requirements for fitting each of a plurality of printed circuit boards with respective components; and allocating the printed circuit boards to fitting lines under predetermined conditions by integral linear programming. The allocation is carried out such that differences between the component variances of the fitting lines are minimized. The component variance of a fitting line represent the number of different components configured to be fitted to all printed circuit boards allocated to the fitting line.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 24, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2018
    Assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Daniel Craiovan, Norbert Herold, Thorsten Kemper, Alexander Pfaffinger, Christian Royer
  • Patent number: 10063386
    Abstract: A control method includes executing a first application for operating a first appliance in order to provide a first service to a user. As a result, a first command is transmitted to the appliance corresponding to the first application. A second application is then executed for operating the first equipment in order to provide a second service to the user. As a result, a second command is transmitted to the appliance corresponding to the second application. Execution of at least the first application is terminated when the first application and the second application are alternately executed on the first appliance at least a predetermined number of times to stop the transmission of the first command to the first appliance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 17, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2018
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY CORPORATION OF AMERICA
    Inventors: Yuji Kunitake, Tomonori Nakamura, Ryota Miyazaki, Kohei Tahara
  • Patent number: 10041475
    Abstract: Historical power output measurements of a wind turbine for a time period immediately preceding a specified time are received. Historical wind speed micro-forecasts for the wind turbine for a time periods immediately preceding the specified past time and immediately following the specified past time are received. The historical wind speed micro-forecasts are converted to wind power values. Based on the historical power output measurements and the wind power output values, a machine learning model for predicting wind power output is trained. Real-time power output measurements of the wind turbine and real-time wind speed micro-forecasts for the wind turbine are received. The real-time wind speed micro-forecasts are converted to real-time wind power values. Using the machine learning model with the real-time power output measurements and the real-time wind power values, a wind power output forecast for the wind turbine at a future time is outputted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 7, 2018
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Varun Badrinath Krishna, Younghun Kim, Tarun Kumar, Wander S. Wadman, Kevin W. Warren
  • Patent number: 10037061
    Abstract: A multi-stage air moving system for cooling servers in a rack includes a rack-level air moving device that moves air through the rack, one or more server-level air-moving devices that move air through one or more of the servers, one or more sensors, and an air flow control system. The sensors sense characteristics of air in the rack. The air flow control system includes one or more controllers. The one or more controllers control the rack-level air-moving device and the server-level air moving devices in response to one or more sensed characteristics.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2018
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Rajan Panchapakesan, Peter George Ross
  • Patent number: 10036409
    Abstract: A hydraulic system (1) is provided comprising a group of at least two valves (2a, 2b, 2c) connected to a bus (8), each of said valves (2a, 2b, 2c) comprising a primary memory (9a, 9b, 9c) for storing a set of parameters of the valve (2a, 2b, 2c). The service work of such a hydraulic system should be facilitated. To this end each valve (2a, 2b, 2c) comprises a secondary memory (10a, 10b, 10c) storing said set of parameters of a different valve (2b, 2c, 2a) of said group.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2018
    Assignee: Danfoss Power Solutions ApS
    Inventors: Henrik Hjorth, Erik Christensen
  • Patent number: 10031512
    Abstract: An NC program generating and editing apparatus 2 includes an interactive input module 9, a first memory 10, an NC program generator 11, a second memory 12, a program editor 13, a change checker 14 and a data updater 15. The change checker 14 determines whether a changed portion of an edited NC program consists of only a change related to a preset NC code, and when the changed portion consists of only a change related to the NC code, corresponding basic data is updated by the data updater 15.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 20, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2018
    Assignee: DMG MORI SEIKI CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Kyoichi Tateno, Hironari Sakamoto
  • Patent number: 10030884
    Abstract: Provided according to some embodiments is a thermostat is capable of discerning the time-of-day without external input. Should the user fail to set the time, the thermostat uses one or more sensors to determine the time-of-day through a variety of techniques. In one example, a light sensor can monitor natural light to understand the cycle of sun with respect to the installation location. From the cycle of natural light a latitude, time-of-year, time-of-day, etc. can be estimated through processing sensor information over time. Should the thermostat have its time manually set or gathered from the network, it would override the estimated time-of-day. Techniques can be used to filter input from the one or more sensors to avoid confusion from other inputs, for example, man-made lighting.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2018
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventor: Yoky Matsuoka
  • Patent number: 10013149
    Abstract: A process control monitoring system for a process control plant uses graphic trend symbols to assist in detecting and monitoring trends of process variables within the process control plant. A graphic display application within the process control monitoring system may implement and display each graphic trend symbol to graphically indicate or encapsulate current trend and value information of a process variable within the process control plant. The graphic display application may display the graphic trend symbol in a spatially realistic location within a graphical representation of the process control plant while maintaining the hierarchical structure or each hierarchical level of the process plant. The graphic display application may also include a zoom feature that enables a user to quickly drill down through tend data to obtain more information and to support problem identification and diagnosis tasks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2018
    Assignee: FISHER-ROSEMOUNT SYSTEMS, INC.
    Inventors: Mark J. Nixon, Maia B. Cook, Daniel I. Manes, Harvey S. Smallman
  • Patent number: 10007280
    Abstract: An apparatus for controlling and regulating a movement of a system includes a load calculating device calculating continuously during the movement of the system a respective force vector for each of the individual elements as a function of predetermined reference coordinates and a torque calculating device calculating continuously during the movement at least one compensating variable, wherein the compensating variable compensates the force vectors as a function of the reference coordinates and the force vectors. The apparatus for controlling and regulating has a control unit controlling continuously during the movement a force-producing variable for the at least one drive as a function of the reference and the at least one compensating variable.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 26, 2018
    Assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: David Bitterolf, Jens Hamann, Carsten Hamm, Sven Tauchmann
  • Patent number: 9995277
    Abstract: A method for controlling a wind farm includes: receiving temperature data associated with a plurality of locations along a sound path between the wind farm and a sound immission point from one or more sensors; estimating a propagation characteristic of the sound path based at least in part on the temperature data; predicting a noise level at the sound immission point based at least in part on the propagation characteristic; determining a control signal for one or more wind turbines in the wind farm based at least in part on the noise level; and using the control signal to control the one or more wind turbines.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 12, 2018
    Assignee: GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY
    Inventors: Andreas Herrig, Seongkyu Lee, Stefan Kern, Thierry Pascal Maeder, Benoit Philippe Petitjean, Roger Drobietz, Sujan Kumar Pal, Biju Nanukuttan
  • Patent number: 9986863
    Abstract: The present invention is related to a floor construction. To provide a floor that is able to serve the different aspects of the use and the user himself, in particular to aspects related to longer standing periods, a floor construction is proposed that comprises a resilient layer (12) with a variable resilience and an adapting surface (14) and means for varying the grade of resilience. In one exemplary embodiment the resilient layer (12) comprises a cavity structure with a number of cavities (18). The cavities (18) are filled with a medium (20) with a variable flexibility. The medium (20) is enclosed in a number of containers 22 with a flexible, non-expandable envelope and the flexibility of the medium can be modified.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2010
    Date of Patent: June 5, 2018
    Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
    Inventor: Cornelis Pauwel Datema
  • Patent number: 9985557
    Abstract: A method of operation of a thermal power plant having an air separation system with a plurality of air storage unit (ASU) compressors and a liquid oxygen/liquid air (LOX/LA) storage facility for oxyfuel firing of fossil fuel and a power plant having a control system to perform the same are described. The method is characterized by the step of controlling the net power output of the plant in response to short term variations in grid demanded net plant output by dynamically adjusting the works power of the ASU compressors preferably in conjunction with co-ordinated changes in firing demand. The method is in particular a method to produce an improved primary and secondary response to transient changes in grid demand and to provide accurate response to load dispatch ramps.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 29, 2018
    Assignee: DOOSAN BABCOCK LIMITED
    Inventors: Konrad Jerzy Kuczynski, David James Adams
  • Patent number: 9983575
    Abstract: Systems and methods to graphically display process control system information are disclosed. Some example methods include monitoring process variables in a process control system, determining a current state of a first one of the process variables, and determining a trend associated with the first process variable. Some such examples further include generating a first graphic representative of information associated with the first process variable, the information comprising the current state of the first process variable and the trend of the first process variable. Some example methods also include rendering the first graphic via a display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 9, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 29, 2018
    Assignee: FISHER-ROSEMOUNT SYSTEMS, INC.
    Inventors: Mark Nixon, Maia B. Cook, Daniel I. Manes, Harvey S. Smallman
  • Patent number: 9971388
    Abstract: An example energy management unit (EMU) with diagnostic capabilities is provided. The EMU with diagnostic capabilities can identify a potential failure or end-of-life condition by detecting a higher power consumption, an abnormal power waveform or by receiving a signal from an appliance or piece of equipment itself generated by the appliance's or piece of equipment's self diagnostic system. The EMU can be incorporated into a system that permits various power consumption and time-current information to be transmitted to a variety of devices and parties via a communication.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2018
    Assignee: Sears Brands, L.L.C.
    Inventors: Gunther Trieb, Elizabeth Owens, Jaime Andres Borras
  • Patent number: 9964933
    Abstract: The system comprises a controller comprising software components for determining the difference between the amount of energy determined by the smart grid agent to be delivered to and from the cluster over a predetermined period of time and the amount of energy measured by the meter actually delivered to the cluster over the predetermined period of time, the controller comprising software components for simulating a virtual smart grid participating device based on the determined difference and for providing the smart grid agent with information based on the determined difference such that the smart grid agent is configured to determine the amount of electrical energy in function of time to be delivered to and from the electrical grid for both the smart grid participating and non-participating devices of the cluster based on information of both the devices of the cluster and the smart grid and such that the difference is reduced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 8, 2018
    Assignee: VLAAMSE INSTELLING VOOR TECHNOLOGISCH ONDERZOEK (VITO)
    Inventors: Maarten Hommelberg, Bert Claessens
  • Patent number: 9958844
    Abstract: A method for energy management is described. In one embodiment, an aspect of a dwelling is monitored. The monitored aspect of the dwelling is compared to an energy policy to determine a deviation of the monitored aspect of the dwelling from a setting of the energy policy. A notification is sent to an occupant, the notification comprising the deviation of the monitored aspect of the dwelling from the setting of the energy policy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 28, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2018
    Assignee: Vivint, Inc.
    Inventors: Jeremy B. Warren, Matthew J. Eyring, James Ellis Nye, Jungtaik Hwang, Tim Lott, Luke Langford, Wade Shearer