Patents Examined by Jess Whittington
  • Patent number: 11952746
    Abstract: Systems and techniques are described for implementing autonomous control of powered earth-moving vehicles, including to automatically determine and control movement around a site having potential obstacles. For example, the systems/techniques may determine and implement autonomous operations of powered earth-moving vehicle(s) (e.g., obtain/integrate data from sensors of multiple types on a powered earth-moving vehicle, and use it to determine and control movement of the powered earth-moving vehicle around a site), including in some situations to implement coordinated actions of multiple powered earth-moving vehicles and/or of a powered earth-moving vehicle with one or more other types of construction vehicles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2024
    Assignee: AIM Intelligent Machines, Inc.
    Inventors: Robert Kotlaba, Adam Sadilek
  • Patent number: 11953912
    Abstract: A method for traveling down a prescribed arrangement of paths which are connected to one another at nodes with a mobile robot. The robot changes from an initial route, which contains all as yet untraveled paths, to a different replacement route including a loop route which retakes at least one path and at least one further path, and a subsequent remaining route which contains all as yet untraveled paths at that time if a value of a quality function for the replacement route is lower than a value of this quality function for the initial route. The quality function is dependent on a first effort, a second effort, and a variable weighting of the first and second values in relation to one another. The variable weighting weights the second effort lower for a first localization uncertainty of the robot.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2024
    Assignee: KUKA Deutschland GmbH
    Inventors: Marco Baldini, Alberto Soragna, Rainer Keummerle
  • Patent number: 11938970
    Abstract: A control device that is mounted in a second vehicle which a first vehicle having a following travel function is detachably connected to or loaded on is provided. The control device includes a control unit configured to perform: detecting another vehicle that is within a predetermined range from the second vehicle in a state in which the second vehicle has the first vehicle connected thereto or loaded thereon and of which some or all of a scheduled travel route is the same as some or all of a scheduled travel route of the first vehicle after the first vehicle has been disconnected from the second vehicle; and transmitting following instruction information to the first vehicle and disconnecting the first vehicle from the second vehicle such that the first vehicle travels with the detected other vehicle as a preceding vehicle by the following travel function.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 25, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2024
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Takahiro Harada, Teppei Nishiguchi, Kazuki Komoriya, Tomoaki Ihara, Miyu Higashimura, Toshihiro Nakaichi, Kazunobu Okasaka, Ryo Hattori, Yohei Tanigawa, Ryohei Kimbara, Hiroshi Nakamura
  • Patent number: 11938940
    Abstract: A traveling control apparatus to be applied to a vehicle includes a traveling controller, a traveling environment recognizer, a target traveling course setting section, a steering assist controller, a target traveling course switching section, and an own-vehicle position and own-vehicle traveling course estimator. The own-vehicle position and own-vehicle traveling course estimator estimates a first lateral position of the vehicle, an estimated traveling course along which the vehicle is to travel after start of a lane change control, and a second lateral position of the vehicle to be reached after the vehicle travels for a predetermined time period from the first lateral position. The target traveling course switching section regards the vehicle as traveling within an adjacent lane, and switches a target traveling course from within a traveling lane to within the adjacent lane, if the two lateral positions are determined as each satisfying a relationship with a predetermined threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 1, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2024
    Assignee: SUBARU CORPORATION
    Inventor: Toyokazu Aso
  • Patent number: 11938936
    Abstract: In a stand-up vehicle having a vehicle upper part having a riding surface configured for a user to stand on, one or more electronic control units execute emergency situation detection processing for detecting an emergency of the user when receiving notification from the user or based on information from one or more sensors, safety posture determination processing for determining whether or not the user takes a safety posture based on information from one or more sensors after detecting the emergency, and upper limit speed management processing executed when detecting the emergency and determining that the user takes the safety posture. The upper limit speed management process increases the upper limit speed to be higher than the basic upper limit speed selected when the safety posture determination process determines that the user is not in the safety posture, or cancels the upper limit speed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 1, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2024
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Yuta Maniwa, Tetsuya Kanata, Yozo Iwami, Daisaku Honda, Yuhei Katsumata, Hideki Fukudome, Takuya Watabe, Naoko Ichikawa, Saki Narita, Yuki Nishikawa
  • Patent number: 11933618
    Abstract: A method of determining a first route on a first map based on a second route on a second map, comprising the steps of determining second points on the second map, the second points being included in the second route; determining first points on the first map; wherein the first points correspond in pairs to second points; and determining the first route comprising the first points by means of trace matching with respect to the second route.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2024
    Assignee: Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Andreas Hackeloeer, Stefan Holder
  • Patent number: 11932247
    Abstract: A device according to the present disclosure is configured to, when it is determined that the road on which a vehicle travels is an uphill road and the speed of the vehicle is controlled such that the vehicle follows a preceding vehicle, in a case where the preceding vehicle is no longer detected, inhibit the acceleration of the vehicle or decelerate the vehicle until it is determined that the road on which the vehicle travels is no longer the uphill road, or alternatively, until a certain period of time elapses.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2024
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hiroki Aikawa
  • Patent number: 11926045
    Abstract: Systems and methods for improved power supply and use in a battery powered device, such as a mobile manipulation robot, are disclosed. These systems include field replaceable batteries that may be hot-swapped with no robot downtime, methods for automating battery replacement messaging and robot operation when battery power is low, and improved mechanical systems having lower energy requirements, and thus extending the lifetime of the battery operated mobile manipulation robot.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2024
    Assignee: IAM Robotics, LLC
    Inventors: Vladimir Altman, Thomas Galluzzo
  • Patent number: 11927456
    Abstract: Systems and methods are presented for providing dynamic in-vehicle content. A path of a vehicle is predicted, and an intersection is identified along the predicted path. Based on vehicle status data, a determination is made as to whether the vehicle is decelerating along the predicted path within a threshold distance of the intersection. In response to determining that the vehicle is decelerating along the predicted path within the threshold distance of the intersection, a further determination is made as to whether a geographical location of the intersection is associated with a content item. In response to determining that the geographical location of the intersection is associated with the content item, the content item is presented via an entertainment device of the vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 27, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2024
    Assignee: Rovi Guides, Inc.
    Inventors: Akshay Chetan Shah, Padmassri Chandrashekar, Daina Emmanuel
  • Patent number: 11927451
    Abstract: Provided is a route search device and a non-transitory computer-readable medium that can search a route where a transportation means more suitable for a user is selected. When searching a route to a destination, a change point at which the transportation means is changed is set, and then the priority in selecting a transportation means for moving in a section from a plurality kinds of transportation means is set based on at least one of an attribute of a start point and an attribute of an end point in the section for each section where a distance between a departure place and a destination is divided at the change point to search the route to the destination using the transportation means selected for each of the plurality of sections based on the set priority.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2024
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Motohiro Nakamura, Yoko Sakurai, Norihiro Nakamura, Hidefumi Okabe, Naoto Miura, Koichi Iwatsuki
  • Patent number: 11919581
    Abstract: A steering control device includes an electronic control unit. The electronic control unit is configured to perform end contact relaxation control for correcting a current command value such that a decrease of an end separation angle indicating a distance of an absolute steering angle from an end-position-corresponding angle is limited when the end separation angle is equal to or less than a predetermined angle and to perform partial release control for decreasing a correction value of the current command value due to execution of the end contact relaxation control based on a steering torque which is input to a steering system when a vehicle is intended to travel while turning at the time of execution of the end contact relaxation control.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 14, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2024
    Assignee: JTEKT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Takafumi Yamaguchi, Takahiro Toko, Nobuaki Kataoka, Shingo Nitta, Yukinobu Ezaki
  • Patent number: 11919541
    Abstract: Automated drive system comprises a control device. The control device executes run control processing of the automated drive vehicle provided to a driverless transportation service. The run control processing includes carriage porch control processing. The carriage porch control processing is performed when a PUDO position of a user corresponds to a carriage porch of a facility including a zone for run and a zone for PUDO. In the carriage porch control processing, it is judged whether or not there is an empty space in the zone for PUDO. If it is judged that there is no empty space, it is judged whether or not a quick PUDO of the user in the carriage porch is expected. If it is judged that the quick PUDO is expected, a target PUDO position to perform a PUDO action of the automated drive vehicle is set to any position in the zone for run.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2024
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Hiroshi Nakamura, Akihide Tachibana, Katsuhiro Sakai, Kentaro Ichikawa, Taisuke Sugaiwa
  • Patent number: 11914370
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides an aerial system, comprising: a body; a lift mechanism coupled to the body; an optical system coupled to the body; and a computer system having at least one processor and at least one memory comprising first program instructions. When the first program instructions are executed by the at least one processor, the at least one processor may be configured to: receive a target operation, the target operation associated with a flight trajectory and a predefined action performed by the optical system and execute the target operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 18, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2024
    Assignee: HANGZHOU ZERO ZERO TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Tong Zhang, Mengqiu Wang
  • Patent number: 11905036
    Abstract: A base apparatus for docking of at least one flying apparatus includes a controller. The controller outputs information of a location to which the base apparatus is to be moved, the location being determined based on a predetermined condition including a condition related to the battery level of the at least one flying apparatus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 23, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2024
    Assignee: KYOCERA Corporation
    Inventors: Takeshi Higuchi, Toi Kanda
  • Patent number: 11904866
    Abstract: A method of confirming an identity of a user, including displaying a first visual indicator, where the first visual indicator is flashing at a first frequency to induce a first brainwave activity. The first brainwave activity of the user may be measured by a sensor. The measured first brainwave activity may be compared against a user profile to confirm the identity of the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2024
    Assignee: TOYOTA MOTOR ENGINEERING & MANUFACTURING NORTH AMERICA, INC.
    Inventors: Muhamed Kusay Farooq, Chungchih Chou
  • Patent number: 11898870
    Abstract: An apparatus, method and computer program product provide a route using a map layer of one or more sound events. For example, the apparatus receives a user preference indicating a sound type, identifies a road segment associated with the sound type from a plurality of road segments, selects a subset from the plurality of road segments as a route based on association of the subset with respect to the road segment, and outputs the route.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 2, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: HERE GLOBAL B.V.
    Inventors: Leon Stenneth, Jerome Beaurepaire, Jeremy Young
  • Patent number: 11899108
    Abstract: A guiding system guides an autonomous movable object. The guiding system has a time-of-flight imaging system, which has a first light source to illuminate a first field of detection; and a light sensor. The light sensor detects first and second reflected light. The first reflected light has light emitted by the first light source reflected at the first field of detection. The second reflected light originates from a second field of detection illuminated by a second light source, which is independent from the first light source and is coupled to a different movable object. The imaging system differentiates between the first and second reflected light, determines a depth map of the first field of detection based on the detected first reflected light, and generates feedback. The imaging system has a motion controller that receives the feedback, and modifies a motion of the autonomous movable object based on the feedback.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 17, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: TRUMPF PHOTONIC COMPONENTS GMBH
    Inventors: Stephan Gronenborn, Jan Jasper Van den Berg, Matthew John Lawrenson, Nicholas Walker
  • Patent number: 11898858
    Abstract: Systems and methods for determining a set of routes using a graph having nodes and links connecting the nodes. The routes are determined for one or more tokens, and each token is associated with an origin node and a destination node included in the graph and with a token weight. Token constraints, which include at least one constraint relative to the token weight, are received for each token. Candidate routes satisfying at least some of the token constraints are received for each token. Each candidate route includes at least one route link included in the graph and the each route link is associated with a link weight. Shared route links are those route links that share at least two tokens. The candidate routes are filtered based on a condition related to the link weight of each shared route link and to the weights of the tokens sharing the link.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 1, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: Amadeus S.A.S.
    Inventors: Michel Demazeau, Jacques Bonaud, Marco Salibba, Jean-Philippe Perret, Celine Soubra
  • Patent number: 11897482
    Abstract: A control device for a vehicle is configured to request that a driver grip a steering wheel at the time of a predetermined driving scene, judge whether a steering wheel grip status is a one-handed grip status or a two-handed grip status, and judge based on the steering wheel grip status whether the status is a grip completion status where the steering wheel has finished being gripped. The control device is further configured to change whether to judge the status is a grip completion status if at least a one-handed grip status or to judge whether the status is a grip completion status only if a two-handed grip status in accordance with the driving scene.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 2, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Kiyotoshi Sekine, Takahiko Kuwabara
  • Patent number: 11897459
    Abstract: An avoidance route calculation part calculates an avoidance route for avoiding a collision between an own vehicle and an obstacle through a collision avoidance assist control (an automatic brake control and an automatic steering control). A post-avoidance route calculation part calculates a post-avoidance route. A post-avoidance route collision determination part determinates whether a secondary obstacle is present on the post-avoidance route. When the secondary obstacle is determined to be present, the automatic steering control is prohibited from being performed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Kotaro Saiki