Patents Examined by Jeffrey C Boomer
  • Patent number: 10832573
    Abstract: For modifying travel estimates, a memory stores maps and a plurality of travel records. A measurement circuit determines travel parameters. A current schedule anxiety is calculated as a difference between a nonzero constant value and the relative arrival time. The memory stores the travel parameters to a travel record of the plurality of travel records each time a specified driver drives to a location. A modification circuit modifies an arrival time travel estimate based on a driver profile for the specified driver calculated from the travel parameters and the plurality of travel records. The modification circuit further updates the driver profile in the memory with the current schedule anxiety and the speed based on current schedule anxiety. A display presents the modified arrival time estimate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 9, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 10, 2020
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Emmanuel Barajas Gonzalez, Shaun E. Harrington, Benjamin K. Rawlins
  • Patent number: 10821967
    Abstract: A temperature detection condition of a temperature detection unit used in a motor system is determined by: obtaining a phase current value flowing through a motor device and obtaining a temperature detection value; calculating, as an integrated phase current value, at least one of a first integrated phase current value, which is obtained by integrating an amount by which the phase current value exceeds a first phase current threshold, and a second integrated phase current value, which is obtained by integrating an amount by which the phase current value is smaller than a second phase current threshold that is equal to or smaller than the first phase current threshold; and determining an amount of variation in the temperature detection value detected by the temperature detection unit following the start of determination of the temperature detection condition and an amount of variation in the calculated integrated phase current value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 13, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 3, 2020
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
    Inventors: Yasukazu Murata, Keiichi Enoki, Masutaka Watanabe, Yoshimasa Nishijima, Shingo Harada
  • Patent number: 10818105
    Abstract: Methods and systems for assessing, detecting, and responding to malfunctions involving components of autonomous vehicles and/or smart homes are described herein. Malfunctions may be detected by receiving sensor data from a plurality of sensors. One of these sensors may be selected for assessment. An electronic device may obtain from the selected sensor a set of signals. When the set of signals includes signals that are outside of a determined range of signals associated with proper functioning for the selected sensor, it may be determined that the selected sensor is malfunctioning. In response, an action may be performed to resolve the malfunction and/or mitigate consequences of the malfunction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 18, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 27, 2020
    Assignee: STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE COMPANY
    Inventors: Blake Konrardy, Scott T. Christensen, Gregory Hayward, Scott Farris
  • Patent number: 10806089
    Abstract: An agricultural baler system has a plunger, a bale chamber, a pre-compression chamber and a stuffer unit, for moving crop from the pre-compression chamber to the bale chamber. The stuffer unit includes a stuffer fork trigger mechanism, an actuator and a controller. The actuator is coupled to the stuffer fork trigger mechanism. The controller is in controlling connection with the actuator. The actuator is configured to arm the stuffer fork trigger mechanism by moving the actuator between a first position and a second position. The actuator is further configured to be held in the first position and/or the second position with substantially no energy use.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 27, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 20, 2020
    Inventors: Patrick Blomme, Didier Verhaeghe, Tom Coen
  • Patent number: 10802501
    Abstract: The disclosure relates to a method and an apparatus to automatically maneuver a wheelchair relative to a vehicle. The vehicle has a first sensor arrangement comprising at least one sensor, and the wheelchair has a second sensor arrangement comprising at least one sensor. The automatic maneuver is carried out both on the basis of sensor signals from the first sensor arrangement and on the basis of sensor signals from the second sensor arrangement.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 13, 2020
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: David Longin, Mark Gijbels, Robin Celis, Gunther Cuypers
  • Patent number: 10793286
    Abstract: An on-board computer system includes a first neural network trained to receive a video stream of a landing approach, runway data, and aircraft state data and identify environmental landmarks corresponding to components of the runway and environmental obstacles that might interfere with autonomous landing. The on-board computer system also includes a second neural network that receives a flight path vector and a flight director corresponding to vectors based on the aircraft energy state and a desired aircraft flight path respectively. The second neural network determines flight control inputs to bring the flight path vector into conformity with the flight director.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 23, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 6, 2020
    Assignee: Rockwell Collins, Inc.
    Inventors: Matthew J. Carrico, Carlo L. Tiana
  • Patent number: 10787196
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for controlling the ramp in of current to an electronic power assisted steering motor associated with an auto stop-start engine are described. A controller is to determine a moving average voltage of a vehicle battery. The controller is also to determine a voltage rate of change based on the moving average voltage. The controller is also to determine a moving average engine speed of an auto stop-start engine of the vehicle. The controller is also to ramp in current to an electronic power assisted steering motor of the vehicle based on the moving average voltage, the voltage rate of change, and the moving average engine speed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 29, 2020
    Assignee: FORD GLOBAL TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
    Inventors: Hafiz Shafeek Khafagy, Hussam Makkiya, Kirt Eschtruth, Jonathan Edward Gunger, Ahmed Awadi
  • Patent number: 10788843
    Abstract: Disclosed is a cooperative driving method including transmitting information on a merging request to a lead vehicle which is singly driving or cooperatively driving, receiving information indicating whether merging is possible from the lead vehicle which has determined whether the merging is possible, a merging step in which, when information indicating that the merging is possible is received, the follow vehicle merges, transmitting information indicating that the merging is being performed to the lead vehicle, determining whether the merging of the follow vehicle has been completed based on a longitudinal distance from a first preceding vehicle or a transverse distance from a lane line, and a merging completion step of, when it is determined that the merging has been completed, releasing the transmission of the information indicating that the merging is being performed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 25, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 29, 2020
    Assignee: MANDO CORPORATION
    Inventor: Man Bok Park
  • Patent number: 10789835
    Abstract: An autonomous vehicle (AV) software management system can collect historical data of harmful events of human-driven vehicles (HDVs) within an autonomy grid on which AVs operate. For each path segment of the autonomy grid, the system can determine a fractional risk value for HDVs. The system may also receive AV data from a fleet of AVs operating throughout the autonomy grid, and for each path segment of the autonomy grid, the system can evaluate AV performance against the fractional risk values for HDVs based on the received AV data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 23, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 29, 2020
    Assignee: UATC, LLC
    Inventors: Dima Kislovskiy, David McAllister Bradley
  • Patent number: 10775805
    Abstract: A materials handling vehicle comprising a path validation tool and a drive unit, steering unit, localization module, and navigation module that cooperate to navigate the vehicle along a warehouse travel path. The tool comprises warehouse layout data, a proposed travel path, vehicle kinematics, and a dynamic vehicle boundary that approximates the vehicle physical periphery. The tool executes path validation logic to determine vehicle pose along the proposed travel path, update the dynamic vehicle boundary to account for changes in vehicle speed and steering angle, determine whether the dynamic vehicle boundary is likely to intersect obstacles represented in the layout data based on the determined vehicle pose at candidate positions along the proposed travel path, determine a degree of potential impingement at the candidate positions by referring to the dynamic vehicle boundary and obstacle data, and modify the proposed travel path to mitigate the degree of potential impingement.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 15, 2020
    Assignee: Crown Equipment Limited
    Inventor: Justin F. Thode
  • Patent number: 10773722
    Abstract: A method for controlling a motor torque of a hybrid electric vehicle is provided. The method may include: detecting, with a controller, a downshift request during a regenerative braking; determining, with the controller, a target gear stage and a motor torque command, wherein the motor torque command is determined at a pre-shift stage before entering into a torque intervention; determining, with the controller, a motor torque command of the target gear stage; determining, with the controller, an intervention torque based on the motor torque command and the motor torque command of the target gear stage during a downshift control process; and controlling a torque intervention to control a regenerative operation of the motor based on the intervention torque, wherein determining the intervention torque includes changing the intervention torque from the motor torque command to a target value, which is set as the motor torque command of the target gear stage, during a shift control process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 31, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 15, 2020
    Assignees: Hyundai Motor Company, KIA Motors Corporation
    Inventors: Soo Bang Lee, Hye Kil Hwang
  • Patent number: 10760911
    Abstract: An integrity monitoring method for navigation systems with heterogeneous measurements is provided. Measurements from a plurality of different type navigation aiding sources are categorized by an information domain, an aiding class and an aiding section. The information domain is a category of at least one of estimated states and measurements that represent a same physical category. The aiding class is a category that uses a same physical method to acquire measurements. The aiding section is a category of measurements from the same aiding source. The measurements are organized into a plurality of measurement clusters based at least in part on measurement fault modes to be detected, measurement fault modes to be excluded, available computer resources and required performance. An integrity monitoring algorithm is applied to the measurement clusters to determine an integrity solution for all defined integrity monitoring classes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 1, 2020
    Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
    Inventors: Zdenek Kana, Jindrich Dunik, Milos Sotak, Radek Baranek
  • Patent number: 10752231
    Abstract: A method of conducting a diagnostic procedure for a braking system includes analyzing via an electronic control unit whether only a first input device is engaged or only a second input device is engaged, conducting a first diagnostic test if only the first input device is engaged, and conducting a second diagnostic test if only the second input device is engaged.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2020
    Assignee: Harley-Davidson Motor Company Group, LLC
    Inventors: Matthew David Rasmussen, Joseph Christopher Sharp, Bryan Todd Fulmer
  • Patent number: 10744997
    Abstract: A method for operating a motor vehicle. To determine a total operating strategy, predictive basic data describing the operation of the motor vehicle for a known route is determined from input data comprising route data. The operating strategies of the motor vehicle are evaluated based on the predictive basic data in order to determine the total operating strategy. The motor vehicle is then operated according to the total operating strategy. To determine the basic data, a performance profile is determined based on the total required performance of the vehicle throughout the route. The route is divided into route sections, each assigned characterizing performance information. Successive route sections are combined into a common segment when at least one similarity criterion is satisfied comparing the performance information of the route sections. Thereafter, the segments are provided with this assigned total performance information associated with the total performance information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 3, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 18, 2020
    Assignee: AUDI AG
    Inventors: Florian Mühlfeld, Boris Blasinski
  • Patent number: 10744903
    Abstract: Provided is a method for controlling a fuel cell vehicle capable of informing a user outside of the vehicle of the possibility that the fuel cell stops power generation and external power-feeding stops, whereby problems due to unexpected stopping of power feeding can be avoided. In a method for controlling a fuel cell vehicle 100 including an external power-feeding device 50, when it is determined that a state of a fuel cell exceeds a limiting point where deterioration of the fuel cell 20 or a failure of a driving device to supply fuel to the fuel cell 20 occurs during external power feeding, warning is issued to outside of the vehicle 10 before the fuel cell 20 stops power generation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 11, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 18, 2020
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yohei Okamoto, Hiroyuki Imanishi, Mitsuhiro Nada, Takashi Yamada
  • Patent number: 10730642
    Abstract: A method for evaluating a rate of change of a failure between a first unit type and a second unit type of an avionic system, the method taking into account, for each aircraft comprising the unit type, the number of flights made and the number of fault messages associated with the failure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2020
    Assignee: Airbus (S.A.S.)
    Inventor: Mustafa Demirel
  • Patent number: 10703359
    Abstract: A computer is programmed to predict, based at least in part on a stored road topology for a predetermined vehicle route, a vehicle body orientation based on lateral, longitudinal, and vertical accelerations predicted for the route. The computer is programmed to, based on the predicted vehicle body orientation, adjust at least one of an orientation of the vehicle body and an orientation of an object in the vehicle as the vehicle traverses the route.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2020
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Scott Varnhagen, Schuyler Cohen, Johannes Strom, Ghassan Atmeh, Alice Kassar
  • Patent number: 10697795
    Abstract: A navigation system for vehicles, such as rotorcraft, includes a directional gyroscope having a magnetic heading correction mode, a nonmagnetic manual heading correction mode and a nonmagnetic automatic heading correction mode. A magnetic field sensor is operably coupled to the directional gyroscope and is operable to generate magnetic north-based signals. A heading correction input is operably coupled to the directional gyroscope and is operable to generate manual signals upon actuation thereof. A global positioning system sensor is operably coupled to the directional gyroscope and is operable to generate track-based signals. In the magnetic heading correction mode, the directional gyroscope receives the magnetic north-based signals for heading corrections. In the nonmagnetic manual heading correction mode, the directional gyroscope receives the manual signals for heading corrections.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 30, 2020
    Assignee: Bell Textron Inc.
    Inventors: Erik John Oltheten, Aaron Thomas Halverson
  • Patent number: 10681872
    Abstract: A controller for an unloading system. The unloading system includes an unloading vehicle having an unloading apparatus and a collection vehicle having a container. The unloading apparatus is configured to direct material to the container driven in the vicinity of the unloading vehicle. The controller is configured to receive a user input signal representative of user operation of a vehicle input device associated with driving the unloading vehicle or the collection vehicle and set an attribute of the unloading system in accordance with the user input signal in order to direct the material from the unloading apparatus to the container.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 16, 2020
    Assignee: CNH Industrial America LLC
    Inventors: Karel M. C. Viaene, Pieter Vanysacker, Bernard E. D. Depestel, Bart M. A. Missotten, Joachim Boydens
  • Patent number: 10675926
    Abstract: An inspection system for use in measuring several vehicle conditions in a high volume vehicle inspection line. A plurality of sensors are installed on a vehicle for measuring a plurality of vehicle conditions to assist in the rapid evaluation of critical vehicle conditions or parameters. At least one tool is positioned along a vehicle path in a monitoring station. As the vehicle passes through the monitoring station, the tool received electronic data from the plurality of sensors and displays one or more signals to alert an inspector of acceptable or unacceptable vehicle conditions. In one example, the plurality of sensors includes tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) data from the vehicle tires to rapidly assess the condition of the tire air pressure and other monitored tire conditions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 9, 2020
    Assignee: ATEQ CORPORATION
    Inventor: Jacques Mouchet