Patents Examined by Harry Y Oh
  • Patent number: 10293484
    Abstract: Provided is a robot device including a drive unit including a plurality of links and joints connecting the links, a task instruction input unit for inputting an instruction of a task, a drive control unit for controlling an operation of the drive unit on the basis of the input task and determining a restricted area including a space necessary for the operation of the drive unit, and an area display unit for displaying the restricted area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 21, 2019
    Assignee: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Wataru Kokubo, Tetsuharu Fukushima, Masakuni Nagano, Satoru Shimizu
  • Patent number: 10279485
    Abstract: A robot system includes a robotic arm having a wrist in a tip-end part thereof, the wrist being rotatable on a rotational axis extending in a given direction, an end effector attached to the wrist, and a deformation detecting device configured to detect deformation of the end effector by using a target pin having a target part where a given detection part of the end effector reaches. The target part has an indicate function to indicate that the detection part reaches the target part. The deformation detecting device includes a search part configured to control the robotic arm so that the detection part touches the target pin to search for the target part, and detect that the detection part reaches the target part based on the indicate function, and a deformation detecting part configured to compare an assumed position of the detection part when the detection part reaches the target part with a given reference position, and detect the deformation of the end effector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2019
    Assignee: KAWASAKI JUKOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Atsushi Nakaya, Hiroyuki Okada, Masaya Yoshida
  • Patent number: 10272904
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to an apparatus and a method for active vibration control of a hybrid electric vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 13, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2019
    Assignees: Hyundai Motor Company, Kia Motors Corporation
    Inventors: Jeong Soo Eo, Sung Jae Kim, Byunghoon Yang
  • Patent number: 10272903
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to an apparatus and a method for active vibration control of a hybrid electric vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 25, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2019
    Assignees: Hyundai Motor Company, Kia Motors Corporation
    Inventors: Sung Jae Kim, Jeong Soo Eo
  • Patent number: 10275649
    Abstract: Disclosed are an apparatus of recognizing a position of a mobile robot using direct tracking and a method thereof. An apparatus of recognizing a position of a mobile robot includes two wide angle cameras which obtain one pair of stereo images on a region of interest including a vertical direction and a horizontal direction in accordance with movement of a mobile robot; and a position recognizing unit which extracts an edge from the received stereo image to project a seed in a key frame selected based on the extracted edge onto the stereo images, updates a status parameter indicating rotation and movement of a camera using an intensity error in the calculated projected seed as the projection result, and estimates a position of the mobile robot using the update result.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2019
    Inventors: Kyung Chul Shin, Seong Ju Park, Jae Young Lee
  • Patent number: 10272568
    Abstract: There is provided a robot apparatus which is characterized by comprising: a robot comprising a plurality of motors for driving respective joints and a sensor for obtaining force acting on a hand tip; and a controlling unit for obtaining a torque instruction value for each of the plurality of motors such that a force deviation between the force acting on the hand tip and a force target value becomes small, controlling driving of each of the plurality of motors based on the torque instruction value, and performing a stopping process of decreasing the force target value when a stop order for stopping the robot is received.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2019
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Ryoichi Tsuzaki
  • Patent number: 10272795
    Abstract: An electronic control device for controlling a vehicle battery pack comprises a non-programmable monitoring and actuation unit and a two-way serial communication interface. The non-programmable monitoring and actuation unit is electrically and operatively connectable to the battery pack and to each of the battery cells C to detect analog battery parameters P, including at least the magnitudes of battery voltage Vb and battery current Ib, in addition to temperature (Tc1, Tcn), current (Ic1, Icn) and voltage (Vc1, Vcn) of each battery cell C. The non-programmable monitoring and actuation unit generates monitoring signals Sm representative of the detected analog battery parameters P. The two-way serial communication interface is connected to the non-programmable monitoring and actuation unit to receive the monitoring signals Sm and to supply the aforesaid at least one command signal Sc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2019
    Assignee: Magneti Marelli S.p.A.
    Inventors: Franco Ciampolini, Danilo Pritelli, Rosanna Suglia, Gianluca Aurilio
  • Patent number: 10272573
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for an automation system. The systems and methods calculate a motion trajectory of a manipulator and an end-effector. The end-effector is configured to grasp a target object. The motion trajectory defines successive positions of the manipulator and the end-effector along a plurality of via-points toward the target object. The systems and methods further acquire force/torque (F/T) data from an F/T sensor associated with the end-effector, and adjusts the motion trajectory based on the F/T data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2019
    Assignee: GE GLOBAL SOURCING LLC
    Inventors: Huan Tan, John Michael Lizzi, Douglas Forman, Charles Burton Theurer, Omar Al Assad, Romano Patrick, Balajee Kannan, Yonatan Gefen
  • Patent number: 10265858
    Abstract: A cleaning robot that performs cleaning while travelling a space to be cleaned, the cleaning robot including: a travelling unit that moves the cleaning robot; a cleaning unit that cleans the space to be cleaned; an image capturing unit that captures an image viewed from the cleaning robot; a voice input unit to which a user's voice instructions are input; and a controller obtaining the user's motion instructions through the image capturing unit and determining a restricted area in which entry of the cleaning robot is prohibited and/or a focused cleaning area to be intensely cleaned by the cleaning robot based on the user's motion instructions or the user's voice instructions when the user's voice instructions are input through the voice input unit. The restricted area and the focused cleaning area may be input to the cleaning robot through the user's voice and motion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 2, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2019
    Assignee: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Sang Sik Yoon, Woo Ram Chung
  • Patent number: 10266171
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to active vibration control of a hybrid electric vehicle. One form provides a method that may include setting up a period of fast Fourier transform (FFT) and performing FFT of an engine speed or a motor speed corresponding to the period of the FFT from a reference angle signal; setting up a reference spectrum; extracting vibration components to be removed based on information of the reference spectrum; selecting and adding a removal object frequency from the vibration of each frequency and performing inverse FFT; determining a basic amplitude ratio according to the engine speed and the engine load; determining an adjustable rate which decreases an anti-phase torque as a change amount of the engine speed is decreased; and performing active vibration control of each frequency based on the information of the basic amplitude ratio, the adjustable rate, and the engine torque.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 13, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2019
    Assignees: Hyundai Motor Company, Kia Motors Corporation
    Inventors: Sung Jae Kim, Jeong Soo Eo
  • Patent number: 10261508
    Abstract: A robot control system includes: plural robots; a receiving unit that receives a robot dispatch request from a user; a sensor that detects a state of the user who performs the robot dispatch request; and a controller that determines priority on the robot dispatch request based on the state of the user detected by the sensor, selects, in a case where plural robot dispatch requests are received, a robot to be dispatched among the plural robots in order of the priority on the robot dispatch requests, and dispatches the robot.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2019
    Assignee: FUJI XEROX CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Ryota Mizutani, Roshan Thapliya, Kazunari Komatsuzaki
  • Patent number: 10251716
    Abstract: Robotic surgical systems are provided for control of an end effector in response to actuation of a user interface device based upon different control states. In each control state, selected movement directions of the user interface device are either coupled to or decoupled from corresponding movements directions of the end effector. Decoupled movement directions can be recoupled by positioning the user interface device within a range of where the user interface device and the end effector were decoupled. To assist with such recoupling, a graphical image estimating a position of the end effector that would be achieved, based upon a current position of the user interface device, if the decoupled movement direction was recoupled can be overlaid upon a current position of the end effector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2019
    Assignee: Ethicon LLC
    Inventor: Mark D. Overmyer
  • Patent number: 10246015
    Abstract: An autonomous transit vehicle includes a vehicle body, a drive mechanism for propelling the body, an audio/video communications device that is in communication with a remote control system, an imaging sensor, a processing unit in communication with the drive mechanism, the communications device, and the sensor. The vehicle includes a memory having instructions stored thereon that cause the processing unit to detect improper behavior by a passenger on the transit vehicle, communicate a notification to the passenger that the improper behavior was detected, detect that the passenger has not rectified the improper behavior, record an image of the passenger, and communicate an alert to a security device. The alert may include the image of the passenger and an indication of the improper behavior. The instructions further cause the processing unit to notify the passenger that the image has been recorded and sent to the security device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 27, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2019
    Assignee: Cubic Corporation
    Inventors: Steffen Reymann, Gavin Smith
  • Patent number: 10220856
    Abstract: An Electronic Stability Control (ESC) system for a vehicle is disclosed. An electronic control unit (ECU) is programmed to reduce vehicle lateral skidding by reducing differences between an intended vehicle direction and/or yaw rate and an actual vehicle direction and/or yaw rate by applying modifications to operation of the vehicle brakes and/or throttle. The ESC system receives inputs from wheel speed sensors, a steering wheel position sensor, a yaw rate sensor and a lateral acceleration sensor. The ESC system also receives input that indicates at least a property of the road upon which the vehicle is located, wherein the road upon which the vehicle is located is determined from a positioning system that uses a map database and the property is determined from the map database. The ESC system incorporates the road property information in determining when and/or how to modify operation of the vehicle to reduce vehicle skidding.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 3, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2019
    Assignee: HERE Global B.V.
    Inventors: Kevin Moran, Robert Denaro
  • Patent number: 10213920
    Abstract: A method for monitoring a payload-handling robot assembly having at least one robot includes identifying a robot-handled payload arrangement on the basis of a current position of the robot assembly relative to a specified change position of the robot assembly. In another aspect, a robot assembly includes at least one robot, a monitoring apparatus configured to determine a current position of the robot assembly and to identify a robot-handled payload arrangement on the basis of the current position of the robot assembly relative to a specified change position of the robot assembly, and a payload receptacle for receiving a plurality of different payloads. The robot is configured for handling the plurality of payloads in an alternating manner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 23, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 26, 2019
    Assignee: KUKA Deutschland GmbH
    Inventors: Torsten Geiler, Florian Steigenberger, Frank Roland, Uwe Bonin, Richard Rudolf
  • Patent number: 10201435
    Abstract: A robotic assembly control system is disclosed. The robotic assembly control system includes an exoskeleton apparatus adapted to be worn by a user, at least one robotic assembly, the at least one robotic assembly controlled by the user by way of the exoskeleton, and at least one mobile platform, the at least one mobile platform controlled by the user and wherein the at least one robotic assembly is attached to the at least one mobile platform.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2019
    Assignee: DEKA Products Limited Partnership
    Inventors: Dirk A. van der Merwe, Christopher C. Langenfeld, Stewart M. Coulter, Christopher M. Werner, Michael J. Slate, Ethan D. Stern
  • Patent number: 10195744
    Abstract: A control device controls a robot including an arm, an end effector provided in the arm, and a force detector provided in the arm and configured to detect force. After bringing a first portion of the end effector close to a work surface and detecting contact of the first portion and the work surface on the basis of an output from the force detector, the control device brings a second portion of the end effector different from the first portion close to the work surface, detects contact of the second portion and the work surface on the basis of an output from the force detector, and teaches the robot a position of the end effector with respect to the work surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 6, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2019
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Atsushi Harada, Kenji Onda
  • Patent number: 10198953
    Abstract: Obstruction detection and management systems and methods are performed through an Air Traffic Control (ATC) system for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The obstruction detection and management method includes receiving UAV data from a plurality of UAVs, wherein the UAV data includes operational data for the plurality of UAVs and obstruction data from one or more UAVs; updating an obstruction database based on the obstruction data; monitoring a flight plan for the plurality of UAVs based on the operational data; and transmitting obstruction instructions to the plurality of UAVs based on analyzing the obstruction database with their flight plan.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 2, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2019
    Assignee: ETAK Systems, LLC
    Inventor: Lee Priest
  • Patent number: 10193945
    Abstract: Systems and methods for distributing media to computing devices are provided. Specifically, customers of airlines frequently desire media during a flight. The present invention provides various media, including audio, video, periodicals, maps for tracking purposes, and other like media to personal electronic devices, such as would be desired for a flight.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2019
    Inventor: Robert T. Valentine
  • Patent number: 10173318
    Abstract: In a method according to the invention for controlling a peripheral component (1) of a robot system (2), a power output, in particular a force, of the peripheral component is adjusted on the basis of an ascertained force (F1; m3g+m3d(x3)2/dt2), said force acting dependent on at least one robot pose, in particular a robot path (x3(t)).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2019
    Assignee: KUKA Deutschland GmbH
    Inventor: Johannes Kurth