Patents Examined by Erick T. Detweiler
  • Patent number: 11964713
    Abstract: A vehicle steering device capable of stabilizing behavior of a vehicle when traveling backward. The device includes a reaction force device configured to apply steering reaction force to a wheel, a drive device configured to turn tires in accordance with steering of the wheel, and a control unit configured to control the reaction force device and the drive device. The control unit includes a turning ratio map unit configured to set a turning ratio gain in accordance with the vehicle speed of a vehicle, and a target turning angle generation unit configured to generate a target turning angle by multiplying the steering angle of the wheel by the turning ratio gain. The turning ratio gain at backward traveling of the vehicle is equal to or larger than the turning ratio gain at forward traveling of the vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 25, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2024
    Assignee: NSK LTD.
    Inventors: Kenji Mori, Sakiya Watanabe
  • Patent number: 11961312
    Abstract: A profile is automatically generated for an occupant of a vehicle. In one approach, data is collected from an interior of a vehicle to determine whether an occupant is present. If an occupant is present, a local profile is automatically generated. The local profile is sent to a remote computing device. The remote computing device links the local profile to a remote profile stored by the remote computing device. Configuration data is generated by the remote computing device based on linking the local and remote profiles. The configuration data is sent to the vehicle and used by the vehicle to control the operation of one or more components of the vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2024
    Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
    Inventor: Robert Richard Noel Bielby
  • Patent number: 11935339
    Abstract: Provided are a vehicle inspection system and a vehicle inspection method that can align a vehicle with a constant location of a bench testing machine. The present invention comprises: a bench testing machine that rotatably supports wheels of a vehicle, using rollers that are provided for each of the wheels; and a monitor device that is positioned in a fixed location with regard to the bench testing machine and displays, toward a camera, an image resembling an exterior environment, wherein the bench testing machine has a location adjustment device (turning mechanism, test bench control device) that adjusts the location of the vehicle in the vehicle width direction such that the relative location of the camera in the vehicle width direction with regard to the monitor device is constant.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2024
    Assignee: HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Kento Aono, Tatsuya Jitsui, Kenichiro Kurai, Yuichi Fukuda, Yasushi Watanabe
  • Patent number: 11897503
    Abstract: The disclosure describes various embodiments for detecting an unexpected control state of an autonomous driving system. According to an embodiment, an exemplary method of detecting an unexpected control state of an autonomous driving system include the operations of generating environmental data of a vehicle; determining, by the autonomous driving system, a first control state based on the environmental data of the vehicle; determining, by a reference model, a second control state based on the environmental data, wherein the reference model defines at least one scenario each corresponding to a plurality of expected control states and a state switching condition, and in each of the expected control states corresponding to the scenario, an action of the vehicle in the scenario obeys a traffic rule; and determining the unexpected control state of the autonomous driving system by comparing the first control state with the second control state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 2, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: Baidu.com Times Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shengjian Guo, Zhisheng Hu, Zhenyu Zhong, Kang Li
  • Patent number: 11891081
    Abstract: In a warning apparatus, a restriction unit performs restriction of the issuance of a warning about a ghost from an issuing unit. A trajectory calculator calculates an estimated trajectory of each of first and second target objects. A cancelling unit cancels the restriction of the issuance of the warning about the ghost from the issuing unit upon determination that a predetermined cancelation condition is satisfied for the first and second target objects. The cancelation condition includes a condition that a passing distance between the first and second target objects is larger than a predetermined distance threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 29, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2024
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventor: Mai Sakamoto
  • Patent number: 11840296
    Abstract: A steering control device includes a control unit configured to control at least an operation of a steering-side motor. The control unit is configured to calculate a target reaction torque; calculate a difference axial force that is used to limit steering for turning the turning wheels in a predetermined direction, the difference axial force being reflected in the target reaction torque; and set a reference angle to one of a steering angle and a turning angle, set a converted angle to an angle obtained by converting another of the steering angle and the turning angle according to a steering angle ratio, and calculate the difference axial force based on a difference between the reference angle and the converted angle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 12, 2023
    Assignees: JTEKT CORPORATION, TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Isao Namikawa, Satoshi Matsuda, Tomoyuki Iida, Yoshio Kudo, Masaharu Yamashita, Kenji Shibata
  • Patent number: 11814121
    Abstract: A steering device includes a steering shaft, a motor, a stopper mechanism, and a controller. The controller is configured to execute a first process and a second process when a determined condition is established. The first process includes causing the steering wheel to operate to a first operation end through control of the motor and thereafter operate in reverse to a second operation end. The second process includes computing a neutral position of the steering wheel based on a rotational angle of the motor at a time when reverse operation of the steering wheel is started and at a time when the reverse operation of the steering wheel is ended.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 14, 2023
    Assignee: JTEKT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yusuke Kakimoto, Yoshiyuki Uchino, Kenji Shibata, Takafumi Sato
  • Patent number: 11808591
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present disclosure sets forth a computer-implemented method comprising obtaining a starting location and a destination location, determining a plurality of routes from the starting location to the destination location, obtaining affective-cognitive load (ACL) data associated with the plurality of routes, selecting a route included in the plurality of routes based on the ACL data, and transmitting the selected route for output.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2023
    Assignee: Harman International Industries, Incorporated
    Inventors: Joseph Verbeke, Stefan Marti, Sven Kratz, Adam Boulanger, Neeka Mansourian
  • Patent number: 11772635
    Abstract: The disclosure relates to an automated parking assist system for parking a vehicle in a parking spot, comprising a controller configured to handover drive control from a user to the automated parking assist system; and to start an automated parking procedure; wherein the controller is configured to initiate the handover as the vehicle approaches the parking spot, and to finish the handover before the vehicle reaches the parking spot.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2023
    Assignee: VOLVO CAR CORPORATION
    Inventor: Martin Bonander
  • Patent number: 11760388
    Abstract: Methods of forecasting intentions of actors that an autonomous vehicle (AV) encounters in are disclosed. The AV uses the intentions to improve its ability to predict trajectories for the actors, and accordingly making decisions about its own trajectories to avoid conflict with the actors. To do this, for any given actor the AV determines a class of the actor and detects an action that the actor is taking. The system uses the class and action to identify candidate intentions of the actor and evaluating a likelihood of each candidate intention. The system repeats this process over multiple cycles to determine overall probabilities for each of the candidate intentions. The AV's motion planning system can use the probabilities to determine likely trajectories of the actor, and accordingly influence the trajectory that the AV will itself follow in the environment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 2021
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2023
    Assignee: ARGO AI, LLC
    Inventors: Constantin Savtchenko, Alexander Metz, Andrew T. Hartnett, G. Peter K. Carr, Greydon Foil, Lorenzo Nardi
  • Patent number: 11753035
    Abstract: The vehicle control system includes a first controller configured to generate a target trajectory for the automated driving, and a second controller configured to execute vehicle travel control such that the vehicle follows the target trajectory. During the automated driving, the second controller controls a travel control amount which is a control amount of the vehicle travel control, acquire driving environment information, and execute preventive safety control for intervening in the travel control amount based on the driving environment information. The first controller includes a memory device in which information of an intervention suppression area is stored. When the vehicle travels in the intervention suppression area during the automated driving, the first controller outputs a suppression instruction for the preventive safety control to the second controller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 12, 2023
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Shin Tanaka, Takayuki Iwamoto, Kazuyuki Fujita, Masahiro Harada
  • Patent number: 11745760
    Abstract: A path planning of the ADV is performed. A set of obstacle boundaries are generated for one or more obstacles, where each of the set of obstacle boundaries has a corresponding buffer distance ranging from a predetermined minimum buffer distance to a predetermined maximum buffer distance. A set of paths of the ADV is generated using quadratic programming based on the set of obstacle boundaries in parallel, where each path of the set of paths corresponds to one of the set of obstacle boundaries. A path is selected from successful paths of the set of paths based on a corresponding obstacle boundary having a smallest corresponding buffer distance, where the ADV is at least a predetermined distance away from the one or more obstacles in the successful paths. The ADV is controlled to drive autonomously according the selected path to avoid the one or more obstacles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 19, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2023
    Assignee: BAIDU USA LLC
    Inventor: Fan Zhu
  • Patent number: 11745748
    Abstract: The disclosure provides a method for operating an automatically driving vehicle, wherein application instances are executed over several computational nodes, wherein recognized faults are reacted to by switching to redundant application instances and then reconfiguring the configuration to restore specified redundancy conditions and/or segregation conditions, wherein the vehicle is transitioned to a safe state using at least one failover apparatus when at least one specified redundancy condition and/or at least one segregation condition cannot be met by the reconfiguration, and/or a specified time for reconfiguration is exceeded, and/or an unrecoverable malfunction has been recognized, wherein the at least one failover apparatus plans an emergency trajectory using a trajectory planner, wherein sensor data are detected via separate signal lines and supplied to the at least one failover apparatus, and wherein control signals are generated and transmitted via separate control lines to an actuator system of the v
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 14, 2021
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2023
    Assignee: VOLKSWAGEN AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT
    Inventors: Tobias Kain, Julian-Steffen Müller, Maximilian Wesche, Hendrik Decke, Fabian Plinke, Andreas Braasch, Johannes Heinrich, Timo Horeis
  • Patent number: 11745792
    Abstract: A steering device includes a steering member, a steering operation mechanism, a reactive force motor, a steering motor that drives the steering operation mechanism, a steering torque sensor, and an electronic control unit. The electronic control unit sets a manual steering angle command value. The electronic control unit computes a reactive-force-related composite angle command value. The electronic control unit computes a steering-related composite angle command value based on a steering-related automatic steering angle command value and the manual steering angle command value. The electronic control unit causes a rotational angle of the reactive force motor to follow the reactive-force-related composite angle command value. The electronic control unit causes a rotational angle of the steering motor to follow the steering-related composite angle command value. The electronic control unit estimates a first disturbance torque.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 9, 2021
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2023
    Assignee: JTEKT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Naoki Shoji, Tomohiro Nakade, Robert Fuchs
  • Patent number: 11738801
    Abstract: A method for steering a motor vehicle by a steering mechanism. The steering mechanism has an actuating element, a manual actuator, a steering actuator, at least one transmission component, and a steering feel function. The steering actuator is connected to at least one steerable wheel of the motor vehicle via the at least one transmission component. The actuating element and the manual actuator are mechanically connected to each other. Operating values of a total transmission force acting on the at least one transmission component are transmitted to the steering feel function, which is used to determine input values of a manual force for the manual actuator from the determined operating values for the entire transmission force. The input values are transmitted to a system function for limiting the input values and compared to a predefined maximum value and a predefined minimum value for the actuating force by the system function.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 6, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2023
    Assignee: AUDI AG
    Inventors: André Wesenberg, Sebastian Loos, Thorsten Groh
  • Patent number: 11724715
    Abstract: A vehicle control system generates a first target trajectory, which is a target trajectory for an automated driving of a vehicle, and executes vehicle travel control based on the first target trajectory. The vehicle control system generates a second target trajectory which is a target trajectory which does not conflict with a restrict condition, when the travel based on the first target trajectory conflicts with a safety restrict condition, and executes travel assist control by using the second target trajectory. The vehicle control system judges whether or not a resurgence condition is satisfied by using the first target trajectory that is generated during the execution of the travel assist control. If it is judged that the resurgence condition is satisfied, the vehicle control system returns to the execution of the vehicle travel control from that of the travel assist control.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 13, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2023
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Yoshinori Watanabe, Kazuyuki Fujita, Takayuki Goto, Masahiro Harada, Nobuhide Kamata
  • Patent number: 11708087
    Abstract: Aspects of the disclosure provide for controlling an autonomous vehicle using no block costs in space and time. For instance, a trajectory for the autonomous vehicle to traverse in order to follow a route to a destination may be generated. A set of no-block zones through which the trajectory traverses may be identified. A no-block zone may be region where the autonomous vehicle should not stop but can drive through in an autonomous driving mode. For each given no-block zone of the set, a penetration cost that increases towards a center of the no-block zone and decreases towards edges of the no-block zone may be determined. Whether the autonomous vehicle should follow the trajectory may be determined based on the penetration cost. An autonomous vehicle may be controlled in the autonomous driving mode according to the trajectory based on the determination of whether the autonomous vehicle should follow the trajectory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 2021
    Date of Patent: July 25, 2023
    Assignee: Waymo LLC
    Inventors: Ram Vellanki, Cheng Zhou
  • Patent number: 11702104
    Abstract: Systems and methods of determining a risk distribution associated with a multiplicity of coverage zones covered by a multiplicity of sensors of an autonomous driving vehicle (ADV) are disclosed. The method includes for each coverage zone covered by at least one sensor of the ADV, obtaining MTBF data of the sensor(s) covering the coverage zone. The method further includes determining a mean time between failure (MTBF) of the coverage zone based on the MTBF data of the sensor(s). The method further includes computing a performance risk associated with the coverage zone based on the determined MTBF of the coverage zone. The method further includes determining a risk distribution based on the computed performance risks associated with the multiplicity of coverage zones.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 18, 2023
    Assignee: BAIDU USA LLC
    Inventors: Xiaodong Liu, Ning Qu
  • Patent number: 11680804
    Abstract: Methods and systems for verifying a state of a road. The system includes a sensor of a vehicle configured to detect sensor data associated with the road. The system also includes a memory of the vehicle configured to store map data. The system also includes an electronic control unit (ECU) of the vehicle connected to the sensor and configured to determine road data or maneuvering data associated with the road based on the sensor data, and update the map data with the determined road data or maneuvering data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 20, 2023
    Assignee: TOYOTA MOTOR NORTH AMERICA, INC.
    Inventors: Michael C. Edwards, Jay Bartholomew, John Kenney, Jason Schell
  • Patent number: 11654903
    Abstract: A moving object escape prevention method includes: controlling, by a processor of a moving object, to drive the moving object based on autonomous driving; detecting, by the processor, whether a collision occurred by the moving object; in response to detecting the collision, transmitting, by the processor, a collision occurrence notification signal and position information of the moving object to an Intelligent Transportation System Infrastructure (ITSI); receiving, by the processor, escape-related information from the ITSI. The receiving escape-related information includes: determining, by the ITSI, whether or not the moving object escapes based on position information of the moving object; receiving, by the processor, accident handling information from the ITSI upon determining that the moving object does not escape, and receiving, by the processor, an escape warning message from the ITSI when the position information of the moving object changes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 23, 2023
    Assignees: HYUNDAI MOTOR COMPANY, KIA MOTORS CORPORATION, AJOU UNIVERSITY INDUSTRY-ACADEMIC COOPERATION FOUNDATION
    Inventors: Jae Jun Ha, Ilsoo Yun, Sangmin Park, Sungho Park, Harim Jeong, Cheolwoo Kwon, Jiwon Kim, Kiyeon Park