Patents Examined by Clint Pham
  • Patent number: 12654561
    Abstract: Systems and methods are proposed for coordinating and providing assistive traction drive forces during towing events between a motor vehicle and one or more charging trailers. The assistive traction drive forces may be provided in the form of a propulsive torque applied by an electric machine of the charging trailer. Electrical energy for powering the electric machine may be supplied by a powertrain system of the towing vehicle or an energy storage device of an electrified recreational/industrial vehicle that is operably connected to the charging trailer. Energy expended by the energy storage device for powering the electric machine may be replenished during the towing event by regenerative braking.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 17, 2022
    Date of Patent: June 16, 2026
    Assignee: FORD GLOBAL TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
    Inventors: Stuart C. Salter, Michael J. Kipley, Matthew Simpson, Ryan O'Gorman, Pietro Buttolo, Peter Phung, William David Treharne
  • Patent number: 12649590
    Abstract: An outer space-based vehicle may include a spacecraft bus, a payload having a payload center of mass, and a gimbal coupled between the spacecraft bus and the payload. The gimbal may have a gimbal axis aligned with the payload center of mass, and is configured to selectively rotate the payload about the gimbal axis. At least one payload momentum wheel may be coupled to the gimbal at the gimbal axis, and configured to counteract angular torque which would otherwise be imparted to the spacecraft bus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 2023
    Date of Patent: June 9, 2026
    Assignee: EAGLE TECHNOLOGY, LLC
    Inventors: Gordon Chun Kong Wu, Robert Riley, Alan W. Mast, Brinnan C. Riley
  • Patent number: 12602049
    Abstract: A method for identifying a trajectory between rows of a plantation using a radar interfaced with a processing means of an agricultural vehicle includes acquisition of an approximate distance between two consecutive rows of the plantation, acquisition of signals by the radar, processing of the signals to obtain a two-dimensional map of points corresponding to reflections picked up by the radar. The method further includes first linear interpolation to obtain a first interpolating line on the points of greatest intensity, second windowing of an elongated area of the two-dimensional map having an axis of development approximately parallel to the first interpolating line and at the approximate distance from the first interpolating line, second linear interpolation of a second interpolating line on points of greater intensity in the windowed area, and calculation of a trajectory parallel and intermediate between the first and second interpolating line.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 14, 2026
    Inventors: Luca Ferrari, Luca Di Cecilia, Alessandro Davoli, Giorgio Guerzoni, Pasquale Di Viesti, Emilio Sirignano, Giorgio Matteo Vitetta
  • Patent number: 12595640
    Abstract: A method for operating an electric drivetrain of a working machine is provided wherein the drivetrain comprises a work drive with an electric work motor and a travel drive with an electric travel motor and vehicle wheels, wherein the working machine experiences a speed deceleration from the outside that may result in a braking force acting on the vehicle wheels lower than a driving force acting on the vehicle wheels due to a moment of inertia of the travel motor. The method includes supplying the travel motor with a power in a direction opposite to an operating direction of the travel motor in order to reduce a rotational speed of the travel motor, if it is detected in advance using a situation detection that the braking force acting on the vehicle wheels as a result of the speed deceleration is lower than the driving force acting on the vehicle wheels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 7, 2026
    Assignee: ZF FRIEDRICHSHAFEN AG
    Inventors: Rico Glöckner, Raphael Zohner, Migen Bebeti, Stephan Schinacher, Stefan Traub, Andreas Rothmund, Jürgen Legner
  • Patent number: 12545270
    Abstract: A control system for a motor vehicle for coordinating and carrying out customer vehicle functions and to a method for operating such a control system. The control system may include a central vehicle regulator for actuating vehicle functions and multiple customer vehicle functions which are designed to transmit activation request relating to the vehicle functions and corresponding control commands for the respective customer functions to the analysis unit of the vehicle regulator. When a currently inactive customer vehicle function transmits an activation request, the analysis unit may determine which specified activation state is assigned to said customer vehicle function according to a specified selection routine. In response thereto, the assigned activation states are transmitted to actuate the vehicle functions of the motor vehicle according to the respective control commands of the corresponding customer vehicle functions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 10, 2026
    Assignee: Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Marc Blumentritt, Janina Cetera
  • Patent number: 12528465
    Abstract: Mobile devices described herein relate to assisting users. In one embodiment, a mobile device for assisting a user is disclosed. The mobile device includes a motor, one or more sensors, a processor, and a memory communicably coupled to the processor and including instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to determine, using sensor data from the one or more sensors, a signature of the user that is operating the mobile device, the signature indicating at least attributes about movement of the user. The instructions include instructions to responsive to determining that the signature satisfies a trigger, adjust a speed of the mobile device by controlling the motor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 17, 2022
    Date of Patent: January 20, 2026
    Assignees: Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc., Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Christopher T. Standley, John Charles Rafferty
  • Patent number: 12518639
    Abstract: An aircraft mission calculation system is for indicating a risk of loss of optimality of the trajectory actually flown by the aircraft. The system includes a first trajectory calculation module, configured to calculate an optimal mission trajectory between a geographical point of origin and a geographical point of destination. The first calculation module is configured to calculate a plurality of iso-displacement curves from the geographical point of origin to the geographical point of destination. The system comprises a module for determining a level of risk of loss of optimality of the trajectory actually taken by the aircraft, associated with a modification of the trajectory of the aircraft with respect to the calculated mission trajectory, the display manager displaying on the display, in addition to the calculated trajectory, an indicator of the determined level of risk.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 17, 2022
    Date of Patent: January 6, 2026
    Assignee: DASSAULT AVIATION
    Inventors: Benoît Urien, Cyrille Grimald
  • Patent number: 12503221
    Abstract: A controller for an aircraft system of an aircraft, the aircraft system including a first actuator and a first energy supply. The controller is configured to, when the aircraft system is configured in a first configuration, in which the first actuator is coupled to the first energy supply, determine that there is a loss of energy supplied to the first actuator from the first energy supply. The controller is configured to determine a change in performance achievable by reconfiguring the aircraft system from the first configuration to an alternative configuration, in which the first actuator is uncoupled from the first energy supply, and cause reconfiguration of the aircraft system from the first configuration to the alternative configuration, in the event that the change in performance determined by the controller is a gain in performance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 23, 2025
    Assignee: AIRBUS OPERATIONS LIMITED
    Inventor: George Howell
  • Patent number: 12486778
    Abstract: A seal monitoring apparatus is provided. The seal monitoring apparatus includes a temperature sensor and a controller in communication with the temperature sensor. The temperature sensor is mounted at a seal of a device. The controller is configured to receive measured temperature data from the temperature sensor and calculate expected temperature data for the seal based at least in part on operating conditions of the device. The controller is configured to determine a condition of the seal based at least in part on a temperature difference of the measured temperature data from the expected temperature data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 2, 2025
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventors: Rahul Anil Bidkar, Deepak Trivedi, Bugra H. Ertas, Pei-Hsin Kuo, Joseph Herbert Fields, Andrew Kevin Winn, Eric R. Westervelt
  • Patent number: 12366052
    Abstract: Vast knowledge of construction machinery is brought to bear in the design and construction of an artificial intelligence machine that accepts telemetry data of uncertain origin and, through a set of decisions executed within the machine, and produces candidate telemetry channel identification data at its output. Candidate telemetry channel identification data may be considered sufficiently accurate when a confidence measure generated by the artificial intelligence machine meets a confidence threshold condition. Otherwise, the candidate telemetry channel identification data is returned to the artificial intelligence machine in which hypotheses are generated as to the identities of the received telemetry data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2022
    Date of Patent: July 22, 2025
    Assignee: Caterpillar Inc.
    Inventor: Lucas Inoue Sardenberg
  • Patent number: 12339375
    Abstract: A method, system and product for identifying fabricated maritime signals. The method comprises obtaining one or more location-reporting signals of a maritime vessel, wherein the one or more location-reporting signals comprise one or more respective sets of geographical coordinates, each of which having a timestamp; determining that the one or more location-reporting signals are at least partially fabricated, wherein said determining is based on an identification that a maritime path indicated by the one or more location-reporting signals is unfeasible; and performing a responsive action.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 23, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 24, 2025
    Assignee: Windward LTD.
    Inventors: Dror Salzman, Shay Amram
  • Patent number: 12337828
    Abstract: In a remote travel system, a vehicle control device of a host vehicle and a terminal control device of an operation terminal perform wireless communication with each other, and the vehicle control device performs remote travel control of making the host vehicle travel autonomously to a designated stall in response to operation of the operation terminal. The remote travel system is configured such that a stall registered in the remote travel system is allowed to be designated as the designated stall during execution of the remote travel control. The remote travel system is configured such that, even when there is a movable obstacle on a travel route of the host vehicle to a stall to be reached by the host vehicle during execution of the remote travel control, that stall is allowed to be designated as the designated stall when that stall is one registered in the remote travel system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 16, 2022
    Date of Patent: June 24, 2025
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Tatsuya Hashimoto
  • Patent number: 12291263
    Abstract: An object of the present invention is to estimate a center-of-gravity position and inertia moment of a trailer and supply the center-of-gravity position and inertia moment for control of an articulated vehicle so as to enable further stabilization of a posture of the articulated vehicle during traveling. A vehicle control device of the present invention is a vehicle control device mounted on a tractor which pulls a trailer, and is provided with: a steering angle control unit that controls a steering angle of wheels of the tractor independently of steering by a driver; and a trailer characteristic estimation unit that estimates a characteristic of the trailer based on a behavior of the tractor during wheel steering by the steering angle control unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 21, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 6, 2025
    Assignee: Hitachi Astemo, Ltd.
    Inventors: Shinji Seto, Junya Takahashi, Tomoaki Fujibayashi, Hiroshi Nakano
  • Patent number: 12227082
    Abstract: A vehicle control system is provided with a motor generator and has a function of, if a vehicle-stop brake fluid pressure at a vehicle stop timing is less a predetermined pressure necessary for holding a vehicle in a stopped state, boosting the vehicle-stop brake fluid pressure to the stop holding fluid pressure or greater to hold the vehicle in the stopped state. The system includes a first calculator, a second calculator, and a vehicle stop controller. The first calculator calculates a target driving force for the vehicle. The second calculator calculates, from the target driving force, a requested driving force for drive control of the motor generator and a requested brake fluid pressure to be used for brake control. The vehicle stop controller performs, at a timing immediately before the vehicle stop timing, a pre-boosting process of increasing the brake fluid pressure to the stop holding fluid pressure or greater.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 8, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2025
    Assignee: SUBARU CORPORATION
    Inventors: Takumi Hoshi, Fumiyuki Moriya, Tatsuhiro Kubo, Shiro Ezoe
  • Patent number: 12187212
    Abstract: Disclosed is a pedestrian collision determination system including a collision detection sensor and a control unit, the collision detection sensor including a conductive pattern disposed on a front surface of a shock absorber of a vehicle bumper to form an electromagnetic field by an application of alternating current power and a conductive material disposed at a position facing the conductive pattern on an inner surface of a bumper skin of the vehicle bumper, and the control unit determining an occurrence or non-occurrence of a collision of a pedestrian based on a change of a current flowing in the conductive pattern.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 13, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2025
    Assignee: HYUNDAI MOBIS CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Byung Hyuk Park
  • Patent number: 12077318
    Abstract: An intelligent system for controlling driving of an aircraft tow tractor by means of combination of voice and vision includes an audio transmission line, a voice recognition system, a visual recognition system, and a vehicle-mounted motion controller. According to the intelligent system, visual recognition is performed based on a belly-mounted anti-collision light on an aircraft, a taxi light, and the visual recognition system on an aircraft tow tractor, and the aircraft tow tractor is intelligently controlled by means of combination of voice recognition and the visual recognition; furthermore, the aircraft tow tractor is intelligently controlled by voices of flight crew via the audio transmission line, safety in a towing process is guaranteed by the visual recognition, and each step in the towing process is performed by means of a cross validation based on the voice recognition and the visual recognition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 20, 2021
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2024
    Assignee: Civil Aviation University of China
    Inventors: Wei Zhang, Xiao Lv, Jihao Liu, Liwen Wang
  • Patent number: 11976939
    Abstract: In various examples, operations include obtaining, from a machine learning model, feature classifications that correspond to features of objects depicted in images of a geographical area in which the images are provided to the machine learning model. The operations may also include annotating the images with three-dimensional representations that are based on the obtained feature classifications. Further, the operations may include generating map data corresponding to the geographical area based on the annotated images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 11, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: NVIDIA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Baoan Liu, Tian Lan, Kezhao Chen
  • Patent number: 11971728
    Abstract: A hierarchical modular arbitration architecture for a mobile platform guidance system is disclosed. In embodiments, the architecture comprises a hierarchy of arbitration layers, each arbitration layer narrower in scope than the layer above (e.g., mission objective arbitrators, route arbitrators, path arbitrators). Each arbitration layer includes one or more objective-based arbitrators in communication with one or more applications or modes. Each arbitrator receives control input (e.g., from the pilot, from aircraft sensors) and control signals from the level above, selecting a mode to make active based on decision agents within the arbitrator layer which control mode priorities and sequencing (e.g., some flight objectives may involve multiple arbitrators and their subject applications coordinating in sequence).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2024
    Assignee: Rockwell Collins, Inc.
    Inventors: David L Lempia, Jack Jordan, Bryan M. Krawiec, John D. Anderson, Amy Lindaman, Christopher M. Boggs
  • Patent number: 11958494
    Abstract: An acquisition unit acquires pieces of information including information related to a vehicle, information related to the environment inside and outside the vehicle, and information related to a driver on board the vehicle. A determination unit determines priorities of the pieces of information acquired by the acquisition unit on the basis of a service or the like used by the driver among services or the likes provided using information accumulated in a server device. A selection unit selects a piece of information to be transmitted to the server device from among the pieces of information acquired by the acquisition unit on the basis of the priorities determined by the determination unit. A communication unit transmits the piece of information selected by the selection unit to the server device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2024
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
    Inventors: Masanobu Osawa, Daisuke Fushiki, Takuji Morimoto, Takumi Sato, Hiroyoshi Shibata, Tetsuro Nishioka, Mizuki Higuchi, Shogo Okamoto
  • Patent number: 11951878
    Abstract: A vehicle is provided that includes a vehicle body defining a cabin interior, a plurality of seats located within the cabin interior, each seat having an adjustable seat base and an adjustable seat back, a monitoring system for detecting and monitoring a pet within the cabin interior, and a controller processing signals generated by the monitoring system and determining a location of the pet based on the monitored signals, the controller further controlling at least one of the adjustable seat base and adjustable seat back of a seat based on the determined location of the pet so that the seat is configured to accommodate the pet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 4, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2024
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Stuart C. Salter, Hussein H. Berry, Annette Lynn Huebner, Marguerite Lynn Kimball, David Brian Glickman, Gregory Paul Thomas, John Robert Van Wiemeersch