Patents Examined by Erick R. Solis
  • Patent number: 12151529
    Abstract: The present invention achieves suspension control that allows for synchronization of the roll and the pitch of a vehicle. This suspension control device that controls the damping force of a suspension comprises: a target pitch angle calculation unit that calculates a target pitch angle with reference to a roll angle signal; and a target control amount computation unit that calculates the roll posture target control amount referred to for controlling the damping force of the suspension by referring to a steering torque signal and the target pitch angle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 2022
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2024
    Assignee: Hitachi Astemo, Ltd.
    Inventors: Ken Isshiki, Kyoichi Tagami, Noal Van Nguyen, Eishi Ishimaru
  • Patent number: 12145417
    Abstract: A technology can be realized which increases the sense of unity with a vehicle that is felt by a driver. A suspension control device, which controls the damping force of the suspension of a vehicle, comprises a target control amount calculation unit which sets a target control amount, that is referenced when controlling the damping force of the suspension, such that the period of the phase of the roll angle and the period of the phase of the pitch angle of the vehicle approach a synchronized state, such that the magnitude of the expansion-side damping force is greater than the magnitude of the contraction-side damping force on the front-wheel-side of the vehicle, and such that the contraction-side damping force is greater than or equal to the expansion-side damping force on the rear-wheel-side of the vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 2022
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2024
    Assignee: Hitachi Astemo, Ltd.
    Inventors: Ken Isshiki, Noal Van Nguyen, Kyoichi Tagami
  • Patent number: 12145420
    Abstract: A system and method for adjusting a drivetrain comprising an e-axle on a vehicle comprises accessing route data and compressing the route data into a plurality of linearized segments. Each segment is determined by analyzing points along the route to determine when a set of route data points indicates an uphill, downhill, or flat segment. Using the segments, drivetrain configuration information for a vehicle and a weight of the vehicle, embodiments determine a performance plan that is tailored to the vehicle, including raising the e-axle to reduce rolling resistance on some segments and lowering the e-axle for some segments for increased power for acceleration, improved braking, or increased regenerative capabilities.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2023
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2024
    Assignee: Hyliion Inc.
    Inventor: George James Noland
  • Patent number: 12146451
    Abstract: Various embodiments of the present disclosure relate to methods and systems for measuring an injected fuel quantity during multipulse injection events in a common rail of a fuel system including a fuel pump to supply fuel to the common rail. The method, using a control unit, determines if each of the multipulse injection events in a normal operating condition includes a pilot pulse; in response to determining that the pilot pulse is included, obtaining an enforced separation value between the pilot pulse and the main pulse to emulate a single-pulse injection; while the fuel pump is temporarily shut off, performing a temporary enforced separation on a fraction of the multipulse injection events; measuring a pressure change in the common rail during the temporary enforced separation; and resuming the normal operating condition of the multipulse injection events after the pressure change is measured.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 2023
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2024
    Assignee: Cummins Inc.
    Inventors: David Michael Carey, Sanjay Manglam
  • Patent number: 12145557
    Abstract: An electronically controlled brake system to automatically or remotely control the braking of a towed vehicle from a towing vehicle comprising a towing vehicle module including a microcontroller having logic and circuitry to generate a braking signal in response to braking of the towing vehicle fed through an automotive vehicle self-diagnostic device port and vehicle control unit interface to the brake system of the towed vehicle and a towed vehicle includes a microcontroller having logic and circuitry to generate a brake control signal fed to the brake system on the towed vehicle through a vehicle control unit interface and automotive self-diagnostic port to electronically actuate the towed vehicle brakes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 10, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2024
    Assignee: CREED 2.0 LLC
    Inventors: David F. Bailey, Russell Creed
  • Patent number: 12138977
    Abstract: An energy harvesting switch is disclosed. The energy harvesting switch includes a magnet, a coil, and a mechanical switch. The manipulation of the mechanical switch causes the magnet to move with respect to the coil and generate an amount of energy. The energy harvesting switch also includes a transmitter configured to use the generated amount of energy to transmit a signal to at least one component coupled with a vehicle, the signal configured to cause a change to at least one characteristic of the at least one component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 19, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2024
    Assignee: Fox Factory, Inc.
    Inventors: Robert Stanford, Nobuhiko Negishi
  • Patent number: 12139089
    Abstract: In a vehicle, an occupant is suitably protected even when the occupant is seated in the vehicle with the seat inclined and facing a direction different from the advancing direction of the vehicle. A system for protecting an occupant boarding on a seat in a vehicle, where a seat back of the seat is configured to be inclinable with respect to a seat cushion of the seat. The system includes an acquiring unit that acquires environment information related to the vehicle in traveling or the surrounding environment thereof; and a control unit that, when the seat is facing a direction different from an advancing direction of the vehicle and the seat back is in an inclined state with respect to the seat cushion by greater than or equal to a predetermined angle, executes a support control to support the occupant in the seat to resist an inertial force that is assumed to act on the occupant boarding on the seat, based on the environment information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2024
    Assignee: DAICEL CORPORATION
    Inventor: Masayuki Yamazaki
  • Patent number: 12128965
    Abstract: The disclosure relates to a steering control device and method. Specifically, according to the disclosure, a steering control device comprises a first steering control module controlling a first reaction force motor to generate a reaction force torque for a steering wheel through a first inverter and a second steering control module controlling a second reaction force motor to generate a reaction force torque for the steering wheel through a second inverter. The first steering control module or the second steering control module generates the reaction force torque by conducting one of the first inverter and the second inverter when the first inverter and the second inverter fail.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 7, 2023
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2024
    Assignee: HL MANDO CORPORATION
    Inventor: KwangHyung Lee
  • Patent number: 12128844
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides an occupant protection system protecting an occupant in a vehicle by a protection device provided in the vehicle the occupant protection system having a gas generator, a prediction unit, and a control unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 21, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2024
    Assignee: DAICEL CORPORATION
    Inventor: Masayuki Yamazaki
  • Patent number: 12116060
    Abstract: A method for controlling an active rear axle steering of a motor vehicle when steering out from straight travel with given actual dynamics of the wheel guidance of the motor vehicle, wherein an actual steering signal of the motor vehicle is received by a control circuit from at least one sensor, then from the actual steering signal a dynamic model of the wheel guidance calculates a time variation of a differential signal describing a deviation of the actual steering signal from an imaginary nominal steering signal which would be needed in order to perform the steering with a given nominal dynamics, and from the differential signal a predetermined conversion rule is used to generate a nominal steering signal for the rear axle steering and the rear axle steering is actuated with this.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 2022
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2024
    Assignees: Cariad SE, Audi AG
    Inventors: Adrian Mihailescu, Benjamin Schwarz, Christian Wiedenmann
  • Patent number: 12109999
    Abstract: A brake system for a vehicle is provided, the brake system including: a main control unit configured to control main braking in response to a pedal signal, control parking braking in response to an EPB signal, and control a plurality of hydraulic brake units disposed at a front wheel unit of the vehicle; a first rear wheel unit configured to receive the pedal signal using a first control unit and control a first rear wheel; a second rear wheel unit configured to receive the EPB signal using a second control unit and control a second rear wheel; and a communication network configured to transmit and receive a braking signal between the main control unit, the first rear wheel unit and the second rear wheel unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2022
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2024
    Assignee: HYUNDAI MOBIS CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Jong Sung Kim
  • Patent number: 12091032
    Abstract: Methods, systems, devices and apparatuses for a sound enhancement system. The sound enhancement system includes a trailer brake control unit placed on the vehicle and an electronic control unit coupled to the trailer brake control unit. The electronic control unit is configured to determine the vehicle is operating in a tow mode based on the trailer brake status, determine a magnitude of an audio signal that mimics or enhances engine sound based on the tow mode, and generate the audio signal. The sound enhancement system further includes an audio device configured to output the audio signal based at the determined magnitude.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 2022
    Date of Patent: September 17, 2024
    Assignees: TOYOTA MOTOR ENGINEERING & MANUFACTURING NORTH AMERICA, INC., TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Scott W. Shopoff, Michael U. Frank, Keita Okamoto, Luis Miyar Alvarez
  • Patent number: 12084136
    Abstract: A control unit that controls a reaction force actuator that applies steering guide torque to a steering wheel: calculates, based on a curvature of a curve of a travel road in front of a vehicle detected by a camera sensor, a target steering angle for causing the vehicle to travel along the curve; calculates a target steering guide torque, based on a deviation between the target steering angle that was calculated a prediction time period earlier and an actual steering angle; adjusts a target steering guide torque such that the target steering guide torque becomes smaller as a probability that a driver performs steering operation to deviate from a lane becomes higher; and controls the reaction force actuator such that the steering guide torque becomes the target steering guide torque.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2022
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2024
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Shusaku Sugamoto, Satoshi Inoue, Takeshi Hamaguchi, Shintaro Saigo
  • Patent number: 12084035
    Abstract: A vehicle braking control method. The method portion includes: when a vehicle is in a preset parking state, monitoring state signal of a vehicle system in real time, the vehicle system comprises a service brake system, a reversing assistance system, and a plurality of electronic parking brake systems; determining whether the vehicle meets a preset fault condition according to the state signals of the service brake system, the electric parking brake system and reversing assistance system; activating a non-faulty electronic parking brake system to control the vehicle to park if it is determined that the vehicle meets the preset fault condition. The present disclosure ensures the safety of a vehicle during low-speed remote parking when the vehicle is in a preset parking state, and solves the problem of potential safety hazards caused by having no matching control solution. Also provided are a corresponding device and a storage medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2021
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2024
    Assignee: GUANGZHOU AUTOMOBILE GROUP CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Qili Li, Haoju Hu, Zhouwei Chen, Hengbo Fan, Wei Deng
  • Patent number: 12084125
    Abstract: A processor acquires a steering torque detected by a steering torque sensor and a vehicle speed detected by a vehicle speed sensor, changes a gain and a phase to be applied to the steering torque in accordance with a steering frequency when a driver steers a steering wheel, determines a magnitude of an assist torque based on the steering torque to which the gain and the phase have been applied and the vehicle speed, and generates a torque command value to be used to control driving of the motor based on the determined assist torque.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2024
    Assignee: NIDEC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Shuji Endo, Hiroyuki Ishimura
  • Patent number: 12078117
    Abstract: A control device for an electric variable valve timing mechanism is provided that can reduce the influence of rotation variations of an engine on a VTC detection angle computation. The control device for a variable valve timing mechanism uses a crank sensor signal and a cam sensor signal of the engine to calculate a rotation phase of the VTC mechanism. A pulse interval of the crank sensor signal is used for a calculation of the rotation phase of the VTC mechanism, and a calculation method of the rotation phase of VTC mechanism is changed depending on the pulse interval of the crank sensor signal determined before the cam sensor signal is input.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 2021
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2024
    Assignee: Hitachi Astemo, Ltd
    Inventors: Makoto Jitsuishi, Nobuhiko Matsuo
  • Patent number: 12071116
    Abstract: A method for controlling a vehicle brake system for a heavy duty vehicle including a primary brake system and an auxiliary brake system. The method includes configuring a wheel slip magnitude limit, obtaining a requested auxiliary brake torque, engaging the primary brake system at a torque determined in dependence of the requested auxiliary brake torque, while monitoring a wheel slip value, determining an allowable auxiliary brake torque in dependence of the requested auxiliary brake torque and the wheel slip value, and engaging the auxiliary brake system at the allowable auxiliary brake torque.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 27, 2024
    Assignee: VOLVO TRUCK CORPORATION
    Inventors: Leo Laine, Anders Eriksson, Gustav Neander, Jan-Inge Svensson
  • Patent number: 12065189
    Abstract: A method for operating a motor-adjustable steering column may be employed by a motor vehicle with an actuating unit supported by a supporting unit. A steering spindle may be rotatably supported in the actuating unit. The actuating unit may be adjustable relative to the supporting unit by means of at least one adjustment drive. The adjustment drive is controlled by a control unit, and the adjustment speed caused by the adjustment drive is determined based on measurement data of a sensor. The control unit controls the adjustment drive in a control loop based on a control deviation between a specifiable speed profile and the determined adjustment speed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 8, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 20, 2024
    Assignees: thyssenkrupp Presta AG, thyssenkrupp AG
    Inventors: Daniel Vitalis, Andreas Willi
  • Patent number: 12060093
    Abstract: A method for odometric monitoring of a rail vehicle includes recording measured values with a sensor in the rail vehicle, and calculating location information and/or speed information from the measured values. The measured values and/or the location information and/or the speed information is stored, and patterns for the measured values and/or the location information and/or the speed information are generated by evaluating the already acquired measured values and/or the location information and/or the speed information. The currently acquired measured values and/or the location information and/or the speed information are synchronized with at least one pattern, and the occurrence of deviations from the patterns is output via an interface. A rail vehicle, a control center, a computer program product and a provision apparatus for the computer program product are also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 13, 2024
    Assignee: Siemens Mobility GmbH
    Inventor: Steven Alexander Calder
  • Patent number: 12054206
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to a steering power assistance system and an electronic control device included therein. Specifically, a steering power assistance system according to the present disclosure comprises: two sensors including a dual die integrated circuit; two controllers connected to the two sensors, respectively, and capable of performing internal communication; and a steering motor, wherein among the two controllers, one controller in the following turn in the sequence of controlling generates a control signal and outputs the control signal to the steering motor, according to a target value calculated by another controller which is in a normal state and in the preceding turn in the sequence of controlling.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 9, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 6, 2024
    Assignee: HL MANDO CORPORATION
    Inventor: Jong Chun Won