Patents Examined by Harry Y Oh
  • Patent number: 11634135
    Abstract: A device of the present disclosure controls a vehicle speed of a vehicle such that the vehicle speed matches a set vehicle speed when a preceding vehicle is not detected, and controls the vehicle speed of the vehicle such that the vehicle follows the preceding vehicle when the preceding vehicle is detected. The device controls the vehicle speed of the vehicle assuming that the preceding vehicle is not detected, when a condition that allows the vehicle to overtake the two-wheeled vehicle is satisfied and an intention of a driver to overtake a two-wheeled vehicle is detected, in a case where the two-wheeled vehicle is detected as the preceding vehicle and the vehicle speed is controlled such that the vehicle follows the two-wheeled vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 25, 2023
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Harue Matsumoto
  • Patent number: 11633855
    Abstract: To provide a robot controller and a robot control method that do not need a logic command to be associated with a teaching position for a robot, and that are thus capable of executing the logic command at a desired position and a desired timing. A robot controller includes: an operation command interpretation unit that interprets an operation command program describing a teaching operation and a teaching position for a robot, and that generates an operation command; a logic command interpretation unit that interprets a logic command program describing a logic command instructing a machining process to be performed by the robot and an execution position for the logic command, independently from the teaching operation and the teaching position, and that generates the logic command that includes the execution position; and a command execution unit that executes the operation command and the logic command.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 25, 2023
    Assignee: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventor: Takahiro Tanaka
  • Patent number: 11629962
    Abstract: Methods and systems for improved positioning accuracy relative to a digital map are disclosed, and which are preferably used for highly and fully automated driving applications, and which may use localisation reference data associated with a digital map. The invention further extends to methods and systems for the generation of localisation reference data associated with a digital map.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 18, 2023
    Assignee: TomTom Global Content B.V.
    Inventors: Krzysztof Kudrynski, Krzysztof Miksa, Rafal Jan Gliszczynski, Blazej Kubiak
  • Patent number: 11628072
    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: January 8, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 18, 2023
    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: 11618168
    Abstract: Provided are dynamic region division and region passage identification methods and a cleaning robot. The dynamic region division method includes: acquiring environment information collected by a robot when working in a first region; determining whether the robot has completed a work task in the first region, when a presence of a passage entering a second region is determined based on the environment information; and complementing a boundary at the passage to block the passage, when the work task is not completed. According to the technical solution provided by the embodiment of the present application, the occurrence probability of repeated sweeping and miss sweeping is reduced, and the cleaning efficiency is high. In addition, the technical solution provided by the embodiment of the present application relies on the environment information collected during the work, rather than relying on historical map data, so that the environmental adaptability is high.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 2, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 4, 2023
    Assignee: ECOVACS ROBOTICS CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Qingxiang Song, Kaili Xu, Yongkang Zhu, Da Liu, Yibin Zhang, Junjie Shan, Jinju Tang
  • Patent number: 11612999
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides a system and a method for manipulating a robotic device. The system includes a human interface device for obtaining information associated with a position and/or movement of a user's finger using the human interface device; and a robotic device for simulating the position and/or movement of the user's finger in real time. The robotic device is in communication with the human interface device. The operating system of the robotic device of the present disclosure can accurately simulate the functions of human hand.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 28, 2023
    Assignee: BRAINCO INC.
    Inventors: Bicheng Han, Jianing Li, Zhen Lin, Max Newlon, Sicong Shan, Lawrence Franchini, Hung-Chen Yu
  • Patent number: 11612445
    Abstract: A robotic surgical system for treating a patient comprises a first robotic arm configured to remotely control a surgical instrument that is positionable within a cavity of the patient; a second robotic arm configured to remotely control a device that is passable through an orifice of the patient; and a control circuit communicatively couplable to the first and second robotic arm. The first and second robotic are each attached to a surgical platform. The control circuit is configured to determine a position of the arms; cause each of the first and second robotic arm to change their respective position and orientation based on an adjustment of a platform position of the surgical platform; and control the first robotic arm and the second robotic arm to cooperatively interact to perform a surgical operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 28, 2023
    Assignee: Cilag GmbH International
    Inventors: Frederick E. Shelton, IV, Jason L. Harris
  • Patent number: 11608102
    Abstract: A vehicle comprising a steering wheel; a steering switch disposed on the steering wheel; an other-vehicle-detector for detecting another vehicle; a tactile sensation presentation unit for presenting a tactile sensation to an operator by vibrating the steering switch; and a controller configured to, according to detection by the other-vehicle-detector, cause the tactile sensation presentation unit to vibrate the steering switch to present a tactile sensation to the operator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2023
    Assignee: KYOCERA Corporation
    Inventors: Shigeto Hattori, Kazuhiro Murakami
  • Patent number: 11597094
    Abstract: A method for characterising the environment of a robot, the robot having a flexible arm having a plurality of joints, a datum carried by the arm, a plurality of drivers arranged to drive the joints to move and a plurality of position sensors for sensing the position of each of the joints, the method comprising: contacting the datum carried by the arm with a first datum on a second robot in the environment of the first robot, wherein the second robot has a flexible arm having a plurality of joints, and a plurality of drivers arranged to drive those joints to move; calculating in dependence on the outputs of the position sensors a distance between a reference location defined in a frame of reference local to the robot and the first datum; and controlling the drivers to reconfigure the first arm in dependence on at least the calculated distance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 7, 2023
    Assignee: CMR SURGICAL LIMITED
    Inventor: Luke David Ronald Hares
  • Patent number: 11597078
    Abstract: A robotic control system directs a robot to take an object from a human grasp by obtaining an image of a human hand holding an object, estimating the pose of the human hand and the object, and determining a grasp pose for the robot that will not interfere with the human hand. In at least one example, a depth camera is used to obtain a point cloud of the human hand holding the object. The point cloud is provided to a deep network that is trained to generate a grasp pose for a robotic gripper that can take the object from the human's hand without pinching or touching the human's fingers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 28, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 7, 2023
    Assignee: NVIDIA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Wei Yang, Christopher Jason Paxton, Yu-Wei Chao, Dieter Fox
  • Patent number: 11591071
    Abstract: According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a method for operating a multicopter experiencing a failure during flight, the multicopter comprising a body, and at least four effectors attached to the body, each operable to produce both a torque and a thrust force which can cause the multicopter to fly when not experiencing said failure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 9, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2023
    Assignee: ETH Zurich
    Inventors: Mark W. Mueller, Sergei Lupashin, Raffaello D'Andrea, Markus Waibel
  • Patent number: 11587373
    Abstract: In particular embodiments, a computing system may determine a predicted amount of ride requests for a plurality of collectively-managed vehicles and determine an availability of the collectively-managed vehicles to satisfy the predicted amount of ride requests. Subsequent to determining that the availability fails to satisfy one or more predetermined criteria for servicing the predicted amount of ride requests, the system may determine status information associated with the collectively-managed vehicles and determine, based on at least the status information, one or more minimum services for servicing one or more vehicles among the plurality of collectively-managed vehicles at one or more service centers such that the availability satisfies the one or more predetermined criteria. The system may instruct the one or more vehicles that are to receive the one or more minimum services to travel to the one or more service centers to be serviced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2023
    Assignee: Lyft, Inc.
    Inventors: Farzad Cyrus Foroughi Abari, Aaron Jacob Levine Friedman, John Houston, Adam Hart Reis, Alexander Thomas Starns
  • Patent number: 11584004
    Abstract: A method includes receiving, by a control system of a robotic device, data about an object in an environment from a remote computing device, where the data comprises at least location data and identifier data. The method further includes, based on the location data, causing at least one appendage of the robotic device to move through a predetermined learning motion path. The method additionally includes, while the at least one appendage moves through the predetermined learning motion path, causing one or more visual sensors to capture a plurality of images for potential association with the identifier data. The method further includes sending, to the remote computing device, the plurality of captured images to be displayed on a display interface of the remote computing device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2023
    Inventors: Gearoid Murphy, Patrick Leger
  • Patent number: 11583999
    Abstract: A system includes a robotic system including a robot disposable at a mobile workstation, where the robot is configured to perform an automated operation on a workpiece. The system includes one or more transfer robots configured to transfer the robotic system to or from the mobile workstation. The system includes a control system configured to command the transfer robot to perform a transfer operation of the robotic system, where the transfer operation includes at least one of disposing the robotic system at the mobile workstation or retrieving the robotic system from the mobile workstation. The control system is configured to control the mobile workstation and the robotic system based on image data from the one or more infrastructure sensors, position data from the one or more on-board position sensors, the automated operation to be performed by the robot, or a combination thereof.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 5, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2023
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Raj Sohmshetty, Mario Anthony Santillo, Justin Miller, Meghna Menon, Matthew Cui, Shankar Mohan
  • Patent number: 11576730
    Abstract: Provided are systems and methods for registration of location sensors. In one aspect, a system includes an instrument and a processor configured to provide a first set of commands to drive the instrument along a first branch of the luminal network, the first branch being outside a path to a target within a model. The processor is also configured to track a set of one or more registration parameters during the driving of the instrument along the first branch and determine that the set of registration parameters satisfy a registration criterion. The processor is further configured to determine a registration between a location sensor coordinate system and a model coordinate system based on location data received from a set of location sensors during the driving of the instrument along the first branch and a second branch.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 22, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2023
    Assignee: Auris Health, Inc.
    Inventors: Subashini Srinivasan, David Paul Noonan, David Burdick Berman, Brian Matthew Patenaude
  • Patent number: 11576741
    Abstract: A manipulator system includes a manipulator configured for guiding an instrument. The system furthermore includes a controller configured to actuate the manipulator such that the instrument is pressed with a pressing force against a human body. A force reduction input device is provided separately from the manipulator and is operable by an operator to reduce the pressing force.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 22, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2023
    Assignee: KUKA Deutschland GmbH
    Inventors: Henrik Keller, Salvatore Virga
  • Patent number: 11577387
    Abstract: A method includes steps of: capturing an image of a container; recognizing at least one object in the container based on the image; determining at least one first coordinate set corresponding to the at least one object; determining at least one second coordinate set that corresponds to target one (s) of the at least one first coordinate set and that relates to a fixed picking device of a robotic arm; adjusting position(s) of unfixed picking device(s) of the robotic arm if necessary; controlling the robotic arm to pick up one (s) of the at least one object that correspond(s) to the at least one second coordinate set with the fixed picking device and/or at least one unfixed picking device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 15, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2023
    Assignee: SOLOMON TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Cheng-Lung Chen, Tsung-Cheng Lai, Yu-Yen Liu, Xuan Loc Nguyen
  • Patent number: 11565408
    Abstract: An object manipulation apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes a memory and a hardware processor coupled to the memory. The hardware processor is configured to: calculate, based on an image in which one or more objects to be grasped are contained, an evaluation value of a first behavior manner of grasping the one or more objects; generate information representing a second behavior manner based on the image and a plurality of evaluation values of the first behavior manner; and control actuation of grasping the object to be grasped in accordance with the information being generated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2023
    Assignee: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
    Inventors: Ping Jiang, Seiji Tokura, Yoshiyuki Ishihara, Akihito Ogawa, Atsushi Sugahara, Haruna Eto, Kazuma Komoda
  • Patent number: 11561542
    Abstract: A navigational system for a host vehicle may comprise at least one processing device. The processing device may be programmed to receive a first output and a second output associated with the host vehicle; identify a representation of a target object in the first output; and determine whether a characteristic of the target object triggers a navigational constraint. If the navigational constraint is not triggered, the processing device may verify the identification of the representation of the target object based on a combination of the first output and the second output. If the navigational constraint is triggered, the processing device may verify the identification of the representation of the target object based on the first output; and in response to the verification, cause at least one navigational change to the host vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 25, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2023
    Assignee: Mobileye Vision Technologies Ltd.
    Inventors: Amnon Shashua, Shai Shalev-Shwartz, Shaked Shammah
  • Patent number: 11559361
    Abstract: A locator of a surgical port of a surgical robot system, the surgical robot system comprising an instrument attached to a robot arm, the instrument having an instrument shaft able to pass through the surgical port to a surgical site, the locator comprising: an interface configured to couple to the surgical port; a mechanism configured to permit relative linear and/or rotational motion of the interface and the instrument shaft; and a controller comprising a processor operable to estimate the position of a part of the robot arm, the controller configured to control the mechanism in dependence on the estimated position of the part of the robot arm such that as the robot arm retracts the instrument from the patient, the locator moves the port away from the robot arm and provides a reaction force to keep the port in place.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 8, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2023
    Assignee: CMR Surgical Limited
    Inventors: Andrew Murray Scholan, Ben Robert Chaplin, Keith Marshall, Luke David Ronald Hares, Nikki Priyam Su-Ling Phoolchund, Thomas Bates Jackson