Patents Examined by Kira Nguyen
  • Patent number: 11772263
    Abstract: A method for driving a hand includes: detecting a relative position of a first finger part and a second finger part as of when the first finger part and the second finger part pinch a target object therebetween, as a reference relative position, by a position detection unit; moving the relative position of the first finger part and the second finger part to a target relative position where the first finger part and the second finger part are spaced further apart from each other than at the reference relative position by an amplitude of vibration or more, by a drive unit, on accepting an instruction to release the target object pinched by the first finger part and the second finger part; and causing at least one of the first finger part and the second finger part to vibrate by the drive unit, when the target relative position is achieved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2023
    Assignee: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yusaku Nakamura, Noboru Asauchi, Mitsuhiro Yamamura, Michiko Kawaji
  • Patent number: 11745352
    Abstract: On the basis of a measured shape, which is a three-dimensional shape of a subject measured by means of a measuring unit using an image captured when an image capturing unit is disposed in a first position and a first attitude, a movement control unit determines a second position and a second attitude for capturing an image of the subject again, and sends an instruction to a movement mechanism. The three-dimensional shape is represented by means of height information from a reference surface. The movement control unit extracts, from the measured shape, a deficient region having deficient height information, and determines the second position and the second attitude on the basis of the height information around the deficient region of the measured shape. The position and attitude of the image capturing unit can be determined in such a way as to make it easy to eliminate the effects of shadows.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 9, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2023
    Assignee: OMRON Corporation
    Inventor: Toyoo Iida
  • Patent number: 11745350
    Abstract: A control method of a manipulator is provided. The method includes photographing a target using a camera and detected the target using the photographed data. A holding motion for the target is set based on the detected target and a robot is operated to hold the target based on the set holding motion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 21, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2023
    Assignees: Hyundai Motor Company, Kia Motors Corporation
    Inventors: Jae Ho Lee, Seok Won Lee
  • Patent number: 11745731
    Abstract: To obtain a vehicle control device capable of creating a route that facilitates tracing by a vehicle in autonomous driving and improving positional accuracy of the vehicle at the time of tracing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2023
    Assignee: HITACHI ASTEMO, LTD.
    Inventors: Tatsunori Harai, Takashi Tsutsui
  • Patent number: 11745358
    Abstract: A robotic apparatus including a plurality of rigid body sections that move relative to each other by one or more multi-degree of freedom joints. The robotic apparatus can traverse a fixed frame by attaching its distal ends to the frame and moving the rigid body sections relative to each other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 12, 2021
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2023
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: Shubhabrata Biswas, Samuel Gardner Garrett, Dhruv Dipak Gajaria
  • Patent number: 11737635
    Abstract: Disclosed is a moving robot including: a travel unit configured to move a body; an image acquisition unit configured to acquire a surrounding image of the body; a sensor unit having one or more sensors configured to detect an obstacle while the body moves; a controller configured to: upon detection of an obstacle by the sensor unit, recognize an attribute of the obstacle based on an image acquired by the image acquisition unit, and control driving of the travel unit based on the attribute of the obstacle; and a sound output unit configured to: output preset sound when the recognized attribute of the obstacle indicates a movable obstacle. Accordingly, the moving robot improves stability, user convenience, driving efficiency, and cleaning efficiency.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 13, 2022
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2023
    Assignee: LG ELECTRONICS INC.
    Inventors: Dongki Noh, Seungmyun Baek, Seungmin Baek, Sunghun Lee
  • Patent number: 11738654
    Abstract: The vehicle dispatching system accepts a dispatch request from a user, selects an autonomous vehicle matching with the dispatch request from among a plurality of autonomous vehicles, and dispatches a selected autonomous vehicle to the user. The plurality of autonomous vehicles include a plurality of battery-mounted vehicles having an in-vehicle battery capable of being charged externally as an energy source. Each of the plurality of battery-mounted vehicles performs charging at a charging station when a charging level of the in-vehicle battery decreases. The vehicle dispatching system comprises a management server including a processor for executing programs stored in memory, the management server programmed to act as a charging planning unit that changes an upper limit charging level of the in-vehicle battery when charging at the charging station according to a time slot.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2022
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2023
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Koji Taguchi, Makoto Morita
  • Patent number: 11740625
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to a plurality of autonomous mobile robots. A plurality of autonomous mobile robots comprise a first mobile robot including an antenna configured to transmit and receive signals, and a second mobile robot including a first antenna and a second antenna disposed on a front area of a main body thereof to transmit and receive signals to and from the antenna of the first mobile robot. The second mobile robot comprises a control unit configured to determine a relative position of the first mobile robot using the signal received by the first antenna and the second antenna.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2022
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2023
    Assignee: LG ELECTRONICS INC.
    Inventors: Donghoon Kwak, Kyoungsuk Ko, Sungwook Lee
  • Patent number: 11735057
    Abstract: A method for operating a transport system for passenger transportation, including the following steps: providing a plurality of vertically taking-off and vertically landing aircraft for passengers; providing a plurality of handing facilities for the take-off and landing of aircraft, wherein each handling facility has parking spaces for a plurality of aircraft; setting-up air routes between the handing facilities so that each handing facility is connected to at least one further handling facility via an air route, wherein there is continuous air traffic of aircraft on the air routes, at least in one flight direction, with automated take-off, automated flight along the air routes, and automated landing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2023
    Assignee: Volocopter GmbH
    Inventors: Alexander Zosel, Florian Reuter
  • Patent number: 11724883
    Abstract: Systems and methods for presorting and executing robot-assisted putaway tasks in a navigational space include assigning each of a plurality of item storage arrays to one of a plurality of zones defined within the navigational space, scanning an item identifier of at least one of a plurality of unsorted items to be stored at locations throughout the warehouse, retrieving, in response to receiving identifying information corresponding to the at least one scanned unsorted item, item data describing a storage location for putaway within the warehouse of each of the at least one scanned items, determining, from the storage location, a corresponding one of the plurality of zones of the warehouse in which the storage location is located, and placing each scanned unsorted item into an interconnected container of one of the item storage arrays assigned to the corresponding one of the zones.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2023
    Assignee: Locus Robotics Corp.
    Inventors: Sean Johnson, Luis Jaquez, Michael Charles Johnson
  • Patent number: 11720081
    Abstract: A method includes receiving, by a mobile computing device from an electroencephalogram (EEG) monitoring headset, an incoming wireless communication signal including an EEG data stream. The method may further include processing, by an application running on the mobile computing device, the received EEG data stream to determine at least one actionable command for at least one peripheral device. The method may also include transmitting, by the mobile computing device to the at least one peripheral device, at least one outgoing wireless communication signal including the at least one determined actionable command.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2023
    Assignee: DUKE UNIVERSITY
    Inventors: Allen Song, Chris Petty
  • Patent number: 11721159
    Abstract: An autonomous augmented reality gaming interaction apparatus configured to provide a remote player an ability to participate in games disposed within a gaming facility from a remote location. The autonomous augmented reality gaming interaction apparatus includes a primary robotic member that is operable to traverse through the gaming facility. The primary robotic member includes a first gaming arm member and a second gaming arm member. The first gaming arm member and second gaming arm member being configured to provide an ability to physically engage with games. A game piece reading tray member is secured to the second gaming arm member and is configured to optically scan game piece images to be transferred to a remote control unit. An air quality module is further provided in the primary robotic member and is configured to provide filtration and contaminant detection of air.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 16, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2023
    Inventor: Karriem Adams
  • Patent number: 11696807
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are methods to detect a free-falling or other non-surgical motions of the user interface device (UID) of a surgical robotic system so that the surgical robotic system may pause the robotic arm controlled by the UID to prevent the robotic arm from mimicking the unintentional movement of the UID. Contact sensors embedded in the UID may be used to detect conditions indicating that a user does not possess full control of the UID. After determining that the user does not have full control of the UID, the UID may detect if the UID is experiencing non-surgical motions using motion sensors such as inertial sensors. By conditioning analysis of the data from the motion sensors by the initial determination that the UID is not being held based on the contact sensors, the method increases the robustness of the detection of non-surgical motions and reduces the probability of false positives.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 11, 2023
    Assignee: Verb Surgical Inc.
    Inventors: Denise Ann Miller, Joan Savaii, Randall Blake Hellman
  • Patent number: 11697430
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for providing a route stipulation for a route system of a vehicle, comprising the following steps: providing a plurality of detected trajectories of further vehicles in a route section to be used, ascertaining a trajectory stipulation from the detected trajectories, ascertaining a deviation zone from the detected trajectories, wherein the deviation zone is determined on the basis of a deviation of at least individual detected trajectories from the trajectory stipulation, determining the route stipulation at least on the basis of the trajectory stipulation and the deviation zone.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 11, 2023
    Assignee: VOLKSWAGEN AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT
    Inventors: Thomas Eigel, Timur Aminev, Stefan Detering, Jens Hoedt
  • Patent number: 11691274
    Abstract: A software compensated robotic system makes use of recurrent neural networks and image processing to control operation and/or movement of an end effector. Images are used to compensate for variations in the response of the robotic system to command signals. This compensation allows for the use of components having lower reproducibility, precision and/or accuracy that would otherwise be practical.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 25, 2022
    Date of Patent: July 4, 2023
    Assignee: Sanctuary Cognitive Systems Corporation
    Inventor: Adrian Kaehler
  • Patent number: 11693097
    Abstract: An optical scanning device includes a light source unit having a light exiting portion from which a light is output, a scanning unit having a mirror supported by a supporting part and reflecting the light output from the light exiting portion while swinging the mirror around a swing axis, and a housing having an enclosed space partitioned by a plurality of wall portions including a first wall portion and a second wall portion, in which the light exiting portion and the scanning unit are placed in the enclosed space, wherein the first wall portion transmits the light reflected by the scanning unit, and the second wall portion includes a part of the light source unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 4, 2023
    Assignee: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventor: Hirokazu Yamaga
  • Patent number: 11685054
    Abstract: A method of decontaminating an object removed from a nuclear power plant utilizing a decontamination system is disclosed. The decontamination system includes a platform, an imaging system, a robotic arm including an end effector configured to discharge a decontamination medium, and a control system operably coupled to the imaging system and the robotic arm. The method includes placing the object on the platform, scanning, by the imaging system, the object, generating, by the control system, a three-dimensional model of the object based on the scanned object, planning, by the control system, a decontamination path based on the generated three-dimensional model, controlling, by the control system, a position of the robotic arm according to the planned decontamination path, and discharging, by the end effector, the decontamination medium onto the object at a plurality of positions along the planned decontamination path.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 27, 2023
    Assignee: Westinghouse Electric Company LLC
    Inventors: Michael A. Lapresti, Dane P. Brown, W. Edward Bruce, IV, Lyman J. Petrosky, Nicholas N. Bhai, Joonwhee Park, Murali Tejo Vijay Narasimhadevara, Mark Schnepf, Jared Glover
  • Patent number: 11685046
    Abstract: A continuum robot having at least two independently manipulateable bendable section for advancing the robot through a passage, without contacting fragile elements within the passage, wherein the robot incorporates control algorithms that enable the continuum robot to operate and advance into the passage, as well as the systems and procedures associated with the continuum robot and said functionality.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 16, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 27, 2023
    Assignee: Canon U.S.A., Inc.
    Inventors: Kiyoshi Takagi, Yusuke Tanaka, Takahisa Kato, Hitoshi Nakamura
  • Patent number: 11679499
    Abstract: A system includes a robotic manipulator including a serial chain comprising a first joint, a second joint, and a first link. The system further includes a processing unit including one or more processors. The processing unit is configured to receive first link data from a first sensor system located at the first link, generate a first joint state estimate of the first joint based on the first link data, and generate a second joint state estimate of the second joint. The processing unit is further configured to apply a first weight to the first joint state estimate to generate a first weighted joint state estimate, apply a second weight to the second joint state estimate to generate a second weighted joint state estimate, and control the first and second joints based on the first weighted joint state estimate and second weighted joint state estimate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 5, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 20, 2023
    Assignee: INTUITIVE SURGICAL OPERATIONS, INC.
    Inventors: Dinesh Rabindran, Simon P. DiMaio, Kollin M. Tierling
  • Patent number: 11679502
    Abstract: To provide a robot control system that performs a process by a robot for a continuously-moving process target or a repeatedly-moving/stopped process target, the robot control system being configured so that even in a case where the robot process cannot be properly performed in the robot control system, disadvantages such as occurrence of damage of equipment can be avoided by sensing of such failure in the robot process. The robot control system includes a robot that performs a process for a process target, a control unit that controls drive of the robot, a first area setting unit that sets a first area where the process is performed for the process target, and a second area setting unit that sets a second area outside the first area such that the robot performs a retraction motion when a working apparatus provided at the robot moves out of the first area and enters the second area while the robot is following the moving process target.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 20, 2023
    Assignee: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventor: Masafumi Ooba