Patents Examined by Mark A Connolly
  • Patent number: 11106188
    Abstract: The system generally includes a crosspoint switch in the local data collection system having multiple inputs and multiple outputs including a first input connected to the first sensor and a second input connected to the second sensor. The multiple outputs include a first output and a second output configured to be switchable between a condition in which the first output is configured to switch between delivery of the first sensor signal and the second sensor signal and a condition in which there is simultaneous delivery of the first sensor signal from the first output and the second sensor signal from the second output. Each of multiple inputs is configured to be individually assigned to any of the multiple outputs. Unassigned outputs are configured to be switched off producing a high-impedance state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 12, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 31, 2021
    Assignee: Strong Force IOT Portfolio 2016, LLC
    Inventors: Charles Howard Cella, Gerald William Duffy, Jr., Jeffrey P. McGuckin
  • Patent number: 11105527
    Abstract: A controller includes a plurality of configurable input ports, a plurality of configurable output ports, and a configuration circuit. The configuration circuit is configured to provide a graphical user interface configured to facilitate a user in inputting an equipment description, determine a controller configuration based on the equipment description, configure the plurality of configurable input ports in accordance with the controller configuration, configure the plurality of configurable output ports in accordance with the controller configuration, and enable a set of control logic based on the controller configuration. The controller also includes an online control circuit configured to receive inputs via the plurality of configurable input ports, generate outputs based on the inputs and the set of control logic, and provide the outputs to building equipment via the plurality of configurable output ports.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 31, 2021
    Assignee: Johnson Controls Tyco IP Holdings LLP
    Inventors: Aaron D. Wagner, Chaitra Shastry, Jameel Ahmed, Homero L. Noboa, Camille M. Aucoin, Hunter R. Hobgood, Dinesh Trikha
  • Patent number: 11093017
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides a method for automatically optimizing power consumption. The method includes: (S1) a baseboard management controller determines whether system information is correct or not after powered on. If correct, further proceeding the method. If not correct, stopping further proceeding the method. (S2) the baseboard management controller periodically detects the surface temperature and the internal temperature of the essential element with a first loop cycle and determines whether the surface temperature or the internal temperature is higher than a preset temperature. (S3) If the surface temperature or the internal temperature is higher than the preset temperature, performing a PID adjustment to the fan rotation speed according to the surface temperature or the internal temperature of the essential element.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 18, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 17, 2021
    Assignees: INVENTEC (PUDONG) TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION, INVENTEC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Shuaifeng Zhu, Lian-Fei Zhang, Pin-Yi Xiang, Lei Yang
  • Patent number: 11079733
    Abstract: A method of adaptive anti-windup protection for a control system with cascaded inner control loop and an outer control loops. The method includes receiving an outer loop feedback signal indicative of the response of a plant controlled by the outer control loop and calculating an inner control loop request such that, it would cause saturation of the control device controlled by the inner control loop. The method also includes converting the calculated inner loop request to outer loop anti-windup request limits using kinematic relationships and transmitting the outer loop anti-windup request limits to a controller of the outer control loop. The method may also include applying the outer loop anti-windup request limits to a controller of the outer control loop to limit the inner loop request generated thereby, and executing an outer control loop control law and an inner control loop control law subject to the anti-windup request limits.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 3, 2021
    Assignee: RAYTHEON TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Richard P. Meisner, Kyle C. Musselman
  • Patent number: 11067959
    Abstract: The system generally includes a crosspoint switch in a local data collection system having multiple inputs and multiple outputs including a first input connected to a first sensor and a second input connected to a second sensor. The multiple outputs include a first output and a second output configured to be switchable between a condition in which the first output is configured to switch between delivery of a first sensor signal and a second sensor signal and a condition in which there is simultaneous delivery of the first sensor signal and the second sensor signal. Each of multiple inputs is configured to be individually assigned to any of the multiple outputs. The local data collection system includes multiple data acquisition units each having an onboard card set configured to store calibration information and maintenance history. The local data collection system is configured to manage data collection bands.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 20, 2021
    Assignee: Strong Force IOT Portfolio 2016, LLC
    Inventors: Charles Howard Cella, Gerald William Duffy, Jr., Jeffrey P. McGuckin
  • Patent number: 11067956
    Abstract: A method for controlling a variable refrigerant flow (VRF) system includes applying a time window to sensor data associated with the VRF system, the sensor data including input data points and having a first resolution, wherein applying the time window to the sensor data isolates a subset of the input data points; applying a timing weight to one or more input data points in the subset of the input data points to generate corrected data points having a second resolution higher than the first resolution; creating a virtual sensor and mapping the corrected data points to an output of the virtual sensor; and controlling the VRF system based on an output of the virtual sensor. The use of virtual sensors with a higher resolution than corresponding physical sensors in this manner allows for existing physical sensors to be used while improving performance of the VRF system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 8, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 20, 2021
    Assignee: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: Ruoyu Chen, Liming Yang, Robert D. Turney
  • Patent number: 11054167
    Abstract: A control system is provided for controlling heating and/or cooling with a conditioning load such as fan coils and chilled beams. Based on user input and ambient conditions, the control system determines a desired temperature for the liquid entering the load and combines fresh supply liquid (e.g., from a chiller or boiler) with a portion of the liquid that has passed through the load, to achieve the target load input temperature for the liquid. A recirculation pump may be used to return a portion of the liquid exiting the load for mixing with the fresh supply liquid and a control valve may be used to adjust the ratio of fresh supply liquid and recirculated liquid to achieve the targeted temperature. The control systems can be compatible with a variety of liquid supply systems such as two- and four-pipe systems.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 1, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 6, 2021
    Assignee: Chilled Beam Controls, LLC
    Inventors: Richard Furman, Zachary M Thomas
  • Patent number: 11054892
    Abstract: An information processing apparatus includes a first power source generation unit configured to generate a first voltage lower than a predetermined supply voltage based on at least power supplied from a battery, from a supply voltage power source of the predetermined supply voltage, and output the first voltage as a first voltage power source; a second power source generation unit configured to generate a second voltage lower than the first voltage and used when at least a system is activated, and output the second voltage as a second voltage power source; and a power source switching unit configured to switch the supply voltage power source with the first voltage power source to supply the first voltage power source to the second power source generation unit, and cause the second power source generation unit to generate the second voltage power source from the first voltage power source.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 17, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 6, 2021
    Assignee: LENOVO (SINGAPORE) PTE. LTD.
    Inventors: Yuta Tagami, Hideshi Tsukamoto, Yohichi Kozasu, Yoshihiro Takase
  • Patent number: 11054879
    Abstract: The present invention achieves high speed safe response performance. A safety controller (100) includes a first voltage monitoring circuit (12) and a second voltage monitoring circuit (22). The first voltage monitoring circuit (12) is an AD converter which operates upon receiving electric power from a second electric power source (21) and which transmits, to a second MPU (20), a signal that gives notification of occurrence of an anomaly in a first voltage value. The second voltage monitoring circuit (22) is an AD converter which operates upon receiving electric power from a first electric power source (11) and which transmits, to a first MPU (10), a signal that gives notification of occurrence of an anomaly in a second voltage value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 6, 2021
    Assignee: OMRON Corporation
    Inventors: Keiichi Teranishi, Daisuke Yagi, Akihiro Yonezawa, Shotaro Koga
  • Patent number: 11047362
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for applying optimized yaw settings to wind turbines including receiving operating data from at least one wind turbine on a wind farm and sending the data to a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system on the at least one wind turbine to generate current SCADA data. The current SCADA data is sent a central processing center away from the wind farm. The central processing center includes an optimization system that can generate a new look up table (LUT) including at least one new wind turbine yaw setting calculated using information comprising wind direction, wind velocity, wind turbine location in the wind farm, information from a historic SCADA database, and yaw optimizing algorithms. The new LUT is then sent to a yaw setting selection engine (YSSE) where instructions regarding the use of the new LUT are generated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 29, 2021
    Assignee: VayuAI Corp.
    Inventors: Jim Kiles, Jon Sigerman, Zachary Lebovitz, August Kiles, Ashish Badjatia
  • Patent number: 11042139
    Abstract: A Building Management System (BMS) includes a plurality of building subsystems and communications interface. The building subsystems include device(s) for controlling aspect(s) of the building subsystem. The communications interface receives commands from a cloud-based controller and a local client device. The commands from the cloud-based controller and local client device are structured to modify setting(s) for a device of the building subsystems. A BMS controller receives, via the communications interface from the cloud-based controller, a command for modifying a setting of a device for a first building subsystem. The BMS controller identifies a local setting of the device provided by the local client device. The BMS controller identifies a priority of the command from the cloud-based controller in relation to a priority of the local setting. The BMS controller controls the device based on the respective priorities.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 3, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 22, 2021
    Assignee: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: Sandeep Dinkar Deshpande, Kaustubh Devasthali, Prathamesh Sunil Yadav, Rajesh Nayak
  • Patent number: 11002458
    Abstract: A method carries out an outside temperature-dependent control of at least one thermal power indicative parameter of a supply temperature of a first heating or cooling system in a first building (H). The control is carried out on the basis of the at least one thermal power indicative parameter. The at least one thermal power indicative parameter is indicative of the heat consumption or of the cooling power of at least one second heating or cooling system of a second building (H?, H?, H??), located at a distance from the first building, and is received via a data network (1), in particular, via the Internet. An arrangement is provided for controlling a first heating or cooling system of a first building, wherein the arrangement is adapted to carry out the method mentioned above. A server is further provided that is adapted to receive at least one thermal power indicative parameter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 11, 2021
    Assignee: GRUNDFOS HOLDING A/S
    Inventors: Casper Hillerup Lyhne, Peter Elvekjær
  • Patent number: 10983495
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to a control module circuit having a circuit communication input port, a circuit communication output port, a first controllable unit that has a first controller module, and a second controllable unit having a second controller module. The first controller module has a first communication input port connected with the circuit communication input port and a first communication output port. The second controller module has a second communication input port connected with the first communication output port and a second communication output port connected with the circuit communication output port. The first and second controllable units are adapted to be identified with a permanent identity by way of a transmittable data signal receivable at the communication input port and sequentially received by the first and second controllable units.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2021
    Assignee: GE Aviation Systems Limited
    Inventors: David Alan Elliott, James Angelo Elder, Peter James Handy, Denis Vaughan Weale
  • Patent number: 10983040
    Abstract: An airborne or liquid particle sensor with integrated bootloader. A particle sensor incorporating at least one bootloader for programming or retrieval of program or data in local memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2021
    Assignee: Particles Plus, Inc.
    Inventor: David Pariseau
  • Patent number: 10980445
    Abstract: A shoe-type device and a control method of the shoe-type device are disclosed. A control method of a shoe-type device including an actuator and at least one sensor includes estimating a posture of a user wearing the shoe-type device based on sensor data output from the sensor, and controlling the actuator based on the estimated posture of the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2021
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Changhyun Roh
  • Patent number: 10976793
    Abstract: A rack computer system can provide data indicating electrical power consumption by separate sets of the mass storage devices, including separate individual mass storage devices, of the rack computer system. A power sensor can be electrically coupled to a power transmission line for each mass storage device. The power sensor can be coupled to the power transmission line externally to the mass storage device. The power sensor can be an internal power sensor of the mass storage device, where a mass storage device microcontroller transmits internally-generated data to an external power monitoring system. A microcontroller can transmit the data to a baseboard management controller via a side-band connection between the mass storage device and the controller. The data can be transmitted via an in-band connection between a baseboard management controller and an instance of firmware which accesses internally-generated data from mass storage device microcontrollers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 10, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 13, 2021
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Felipe Enrique Ortega Gutierrez, Jason Alexander Harland, Roey Rivnay, David Edward Bryan, Christopher Strickland Beall
  • Patent number: 10955822
    Abstract: Provided is a technique for controlling a door of a toilet cubicle according to a situation in the toilet cubicle at the time of an abnormality occurrence. A toilet system according to the present invention is provided with a detection unit that detects a state of the inside of a toilet cubicle, an abnormality determination unit that determines the occurrence of an abnormality and the type thereof on the basis of a detection result obtained by the detection unit, and a door control unit that controls opening and closing of a door according to the type of the abnormality when it is determined that the abnormality has occurred.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 23, 2021
    Assignee: KIMURA CORPORATION
    Inventor: Tomoei Kimura
  • Patent number: 10948209
    Abstract: A system and method for controlling HVAC equipment in a residential setting. The system may include an outdoor temperature sensor positioned to measure outdoor temperatures, an indoor air temperature sensor to measure indoor space air temperatures, a supply duct air temperature sensor positioned to measure supply duct air temperatures, a return duct air temperature sensor positioned to measure return duct air temperatures, an air blower current sensor positioned to measure air blower currents, and/or an air compressor current sensor positioned to measure air compressor currents, and a controller operable to receive the measures of outdoor temperature, indoor space air temperature, supply duct air temperature, return duct air temperature, air blower current, air compressor current, and measures of solar irradiation intensity and wind speed. The controller may be programmed with instructions to input the measures into a thermal model for outputting signals for implementing changes in the system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 16, 2021
    Assignee: The Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma
    Inventors: Li Song, Choon Yik Tang
  • Patent number: 10948896
    Abstract: One goal in automated product designing of additive manufacturing is to obtain designs having overhangs without support structures if the criterion for overhangs is rigorously geometrical. In an embodiment of the present invention, designers can request automated optimization and design, using simulation and sensitivity-based optimization, of structures having overhangs in the print direction that do not need any support structures. In an embodiment, a method includes, at a processor, calculating model design responses and model sensitivities of a computer-aided engineering (CAE) model in a CAE system based on design variables of the CAE model for various design responses being either applied in objective or constraints. The method further includes optimizing values of the design variables. The method further includes calculating physical design variables by employing a penalty function. Additionally, the calculations can also be in conjunction with employing material interpolation schemes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 16, 2021
    Assignee: Dassault Systemes Simulia Corp.
    Inventor: Claus Bech Wittendorf Pedersen
  • Patent number: 10948210
    Abstract: The present invention provides systems and methods where an intelligent thermostat optimizes operation of HVAC system by learning based on thermal profile of a zone and improvising past performance with the goal of energy and cost savings while managing user comfort. The systems and methods further use adaptive clustering to dissect huge problem space, and dynamic collaboration strategy between thermostat units to rapidly enhance performance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 16, 2021
    Inventor: Harshal V Bharatia