Patents Examined by Mary Cheung
  • Patent number: 11132848
    Abstract: A system for monitoring a vehicle component through a mobile device is provided. The mobile device includes an application configured to receive a Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) indicative of a vehicle with which the vehicle component is associated. The application is configured to receive operational data corresponding to the vehicle component based on the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN). The application is configured to evaluate an operational status of the vehicle component based on the operational data. The application is configured to generate a diagnostic code corresponding to the operational status of the vehicle component. The diagnostic code refers to a suggested action in response to the operational status. The application is also configured to track usage of the application by a user after generating the diagnostic code. The application is further configured to generate a reward based on the tracked usage of the application by the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 28, 2021
    Assignee: Tenneco Automotive Operating Company Inc.
    Inventor: Brian Kunkel
  • Patent number: 11126202
    Abstract: An obstacle-avoidance control method comprises acquiring a distance between an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and a front object in a flying direction of the UAV; and controlling a flying altitude of the UAV according to the distance between the UAV and the front object.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 21, 2021
    Assignee: SZ DJI TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Yao Zou, Chunming Wang, Junxi Wang, Guang Yan
  • Patent number: 11124164
    Abstract: An emergency braking control method for a vehicle may include: controlling, by a controller, an ambient information detector to take an image of surroundings of the road on which a vehicle is traveling; controlling, by the controller, a camera recognition fail state detector to analyze the image taken by the ambient information detector, and to determine a severity level of a temporary camera recognition fail state; and controlling, by the controller, an operation of an emergency braking apparatus or setting a control strategy according to the severity level of the temporary camera recognition fail state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 16, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 21, 2021
    Assignee: Hyundai Mobis Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Du Hyung Kim, Yun Jung Jo, Jung Gue Lee
  • Patent number: 11124080
    Abstract: Vehicle control systems can include one or more location sensors, an energy storage device, one or more charge sensors and one or more vehicle computing devices. The location sensor(s) can determine a current location of a vehicle, while the charge sensor(s) can determine a current state of charge of an energy storage device that can be located onboard the vehicle to provide operating power for one or more vehicle systems. The vehicle computing device(s) can communicate the current location of the vehicle and current state of charge of the energy storage device to a remote computing device, receive from the remote computing device a charging control signal determined, at least in part, from the current location of the vehicle and the current state of charge of the energy storage device, and control charging of the energy storage device in accordance with the charging control signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 21, 2021
    Assignee: UATC, LLC
    Inventors: Richard Brian Donnelly, Sean Jeffrey Kelly, Justin Wayne Ho, James Lee Epifano
  • Patent number: 11110912
    Abstract: An embodiment of the present invention provides higher ride comfort to a driver in control of steering and suspension. An ECU (600) includes: a steering control section (610) which controls a magnitude of an assist torque or a reaction torque; and a suspension control section (650) which controls a damping force of a suspension. The steering control section (610) refers to a state of a vehicle which state is predicted by the suspension control section (650), and the suspension control section (650) refers to a steering torque.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 12, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 7, 2021
    Assignee: SHOWA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Ken Isshiki, Eishi Ishimaru, Kyouichi Tagami, Katsutoshi Yokoi
  • Patent number: 11113964
    Abstract: An unmanned aerial vehicle system for deployment at a scene includes an unmanned aerial vehicle, a command center, a communication suite, and a display. The unmanned aerial vehicle is configured to travel between two or more destinations. Command center is configured to monitor and regulate movement of the unmanned aerial vehicle in flight during deployment. The communication suite is transported within the unmanned aerial vehicle to permit the transfer of electronic data between itself and the command center. The display is mounted to the unmanned aerial vehicle and broadcasts information visually to observers near the scene. The command center can regulate the information broadcast on the display via the communication suite.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 7, 2021
    Inventor: Khalil Siddiq
  • Patent number: 11097715
    Abstract: Disclosed is a method for calculating a control setpoint of a hybrid powertrain of a motor vehicle, the hybrid powertrain including an electric motor and an internal combustion engine (ICE) that is equipped with a gearbox and that is supplied with fuel. The method includes: acquiring a value relative to a power requested at the vehicle's drive wheels; and determining the contribution of the electric motor and the ICE in order to satisfy the request for power at the drive wheels. The determination step involves calculating a triplet of three values, one value relating to the electromechanical power that the electric motor must provide, one value relating to the thermomechanical power that the ICE must provide and one value relating to the ratio that needs to be engaged in the gearbox, this triplet minimising the fuel consumption of the ICE and the current consumption of the electric motor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 22, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 24, 2021
    Assignees: RENAULT S.A.S., UNIVERSITE D'ORLEANS
    Inventors: Souad Hadj-Said, Ahmed Ketfi-Cherif, Guillaume Colin
  • Patent number: 11099575
    Abstract: The safe operation and navigation of robots is an active research topic for many real-world applications, such as the automation of large industrial equipment. This technological field often requires heavy machines with arbitrary shapes to navigate very close to obstacles, a challenging and largely unsolved problem. To address this issue, a new planning architecture is developed that allows wheeled vehicles to navigate safely and without human supervision in cluttered environments. The inventive methods and systems disclosed herein belong to the Model Predictive Control (MPC) family of local planning algorithms. The technological features disclosed herein works in the space of two-dimensional (2D) occupancy grids and plans in motor command space using a black box forward model for state inference. Compared to the conventional methods and systems, the inventive methods and systems disclosed herein include several properties that make it scalable and applicable to a production environment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 29, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 24, 2021
    Assignee: Brain Corporation
    Inventors: Oleg Sinyavskiy, Borja Ibarz Gabardos, Jean-Baptiste Passot
  • Patent number: 11091035
    Abstract: An automatic driving system includes: an information acquiring device configured to acquire driving environment information indicating a driving environment of the vehicle; a running control device configured to execute lane change control from a first lane to a second lane during automatic driving of the vehicle based on the driving environment information; and a display device configured to display an upper limit value of a running speed of the vehicle which is set by a driver of the vehicle during automatic driving. The display device is configured to display a deviation value which is calculated based on a target value of the running speed and the upper limit value along with the upper limit value during a speed-deviation running in which the running speed is higher than the upper limit value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 17, 2021
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Yu Okada
  • Patent number: 11082817
    Abstract: A method for monitoring vehicle motion using a mobile device associated with a user including collecting activity data at a mobile device associated with the user; determining a user activity state based on the activity data; determining motion data collection parameters associated with an operating state of the mobile device, based on the user activity state; and collecting motion data at the mobile device based on the motion data collection parameters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 3, 2021
    Assignee: Zendrive, Inc
    Inventors: Jonathan Matus, Pankaj Risbood
  • Patent number: 11064647
    Abstract: A system for harvesting nitrogen, comprising a motored robotic litter processing vehicle including an elongate housing creating an inner space for mounting components. A nitrogen harvester box connected to a rear portion of the vehicle is provided including a vacuum canopy connecting four sides to a floor, and wheels. A scoop level to ground having an opening facing the vehicle is enabled to collect litter material including nitrogen. A sieve screen having a mesh size positioned laterally at a height above the floor enables nitrogen particles smaller than the mesh size to fall through the sieve and nitrogen particles larger than the mesh size to be captured on a top surface of the sieve, wherein a vacuum chute collects the particles smaller than the mesh size and deposits them into a collection bin.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 16, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 20, 2021
    Inventor: Mike Altomare
  • Patent number: 11061410
    Abstract: According to one implementation of the present disclosure, a method for determining angle-of-attack for an unpowered vehicle is disclosed. The method includes: determining a monotonic portion of a look-up curve of an angle-of-attack operating plot; during flight, determining, by an accelerometer disposed on the unpowered vehicle, first and second accelerometer outputs, where the first and second accelerometer outputs correspond to first and second body-fixed load factor measurements, respectively; determining an operating point on the monotonic portion by applying a quotient of the first and second accelerometer outputs to the angle-of-attack operating plot; and determining an angle-of-attack parameter corresponding to the determined operating point.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 13, 2021
    Assignee: TEXTRON INNOVATIONS INC.
    Inventor: Kip Gregory Campbell
  • Patent number: 11027738
    Abstract: A vehicle includes an engine, a transmission coupled to the engine, a pumping system selectively coupled to the engine by the transmission, and a controller. The pumping system is configured to receive an inlet flow of water from a water source. The controller is configured to receive an indication regarding a pressure of the inlet flow of water and transmit a control signal to the transmission to change a gear of the transmission based on the indication regarding the pressure of the inlet flow of water.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 8, 2021
    Assignee: Oshkosh Corporation
    Inventors: Eric R. Linsmeier, Brian Piller, David W. Archer, Chad T. Dolphin
  • Patent number: 11030834
    Abstract: Disclosed is a data recording unit and data recording system for use in connection with a vehicle, such as a train, a locomotive of a train, a railcar of a train, and the like.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 8, 2021
    Assignee: WABTEC HOLDING CORP.
    Inventors: Theodore E. Allwardt, Khim Bittie, Carl L. Haas, Brian Kurz
  • Patent number: 11021214
    Abstract: A bicycle system includes controller devices. Each controller device includes at least one respective input element configured to receive input from a user. The system includes operation-enacting devices. Each operation-enacting device is configured to enact at least one respective operation on the bicycle. The system includes a network coordinator device configured to (i) establish a wireless network for communications between the network coordinator device, the controller devices, and the operation-enacting devices, and (ii) transmit to the operation-enacting devices, via the wireless network, a roster identifying the controller devices and the operation-enacting devices paired to the wireless network. The controller devices are configured to transmit to the operation-enacting devices, via the wireless network, signals indicating input received by the input elements of the controller devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 5, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 1, 2021
    Assignee: SRAM, LLC
    Inventor: Alexander Kon-I Ho
  • Patent number: 11014621
    Abstract: Certain embodiments disclosed in the present document relate to an electronic device and a method for operating the same. According to an embodiment, it is possible to provide an electronic device including: a ball structure including a housing and a first driving module configured to contact at least a part of an inner surface of the housing and to drive the housing; an outer ring structure rotatably coupled to an outer surface of the ball structure; an inner ring structure arranged inside the housing so as to face the outer ring structure with the housing interposed therebetween; and a second driving module arranged inside the housing so as to drive the inner ring structure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2021
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Mihyun Jeong, Minsung Jung, Kibeom Kim, Woocheol Jung
  • Patent number: 11001272
    Abstract: A method for controlling a vehicle includes: receiving, by a controller, route data, wherein the route data is continuously updated while the vehicle is moving, and the vehicle includes a plurality of vehicle operating modes; receiving, by the controller, feature data, wherein the feature data is information about a plurality of features needed for each of the plurality of vehicle operating modes; determining, by the controller, a plurality of ranges for each of the plurality of vehicle operating modes, wherein each of the plurality of ranges is a function of the route data and the feature data for each of the plurality of vehicle operating modes; and commanding, by the controller, a user interface to display a list of range-mode combinations, wherein the list of range-mode combinations includes the plurality of ranges for each of the plurality of vehicle operating modes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 5, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 11, 2021
    Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC
    Inventors: Unmesh Dutta Bordoloi, Shige Wang, Xinyu Du
  • Patent number: 10990104
    Abstract: A sensor calibration system includes a plurality of sensors and a user interface configured to receive user-provided locations of at least two sensors of the plurality of sensors. The sensor calibration system further includes a motorized apparatus including a drive system, at least one detector, and a localization system. The sensor calibration system further includes a controller communicatively coupled to the user interface and the motorized apparatus. The controller is configured to determine a whether each of at least two sensors is a key sensor based on the user-provided locations. The controller is configured to determine a path for the motorized apparatus based on the user-provided locations. The controller is further configured to determine a position of each sensor based on the location of the motorized apparatus when each sensor is detected by the at least one detector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 10, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 27, 2021
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventors: Huan Tan, Todd William Danko, Brandon Stephen Good, Charles Burton Theurer
  • Patent number: 10984660
    Abstract: An aircraft detection system supplements the identification of aircraft with information that is obtained from two or more different detection channels. The system may obtain a first set of identifying information about a particular aircraft or flight via a first detection channel at a first time, may determine that the first set of identifying information lacks commonality with previously received sets of identifying information for other detected aircraft of flights, and may track the particular aircraft or flight based on the first set of identifying information. The system may then obtain a second set of identifying information via a different second detection channel at a second time, may determine commonality between the second set of identifying information and the first set of identifying information, and may update the tracking of the particular aircraft or flight by incorporating or adding identifying information from the second set of identifying information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 24, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2021
    Assignee: Kittyhawk.io, Inc.
    Inventors: Jonathan Hegranes, Andrew Elefant, Michael Curry, Joshua Ziering
  • Patent number: 10971003
    Abstract: Exemplary embodiments described in this disclosure are generally directed to systems and methods for predicting a behavior of a pedestrian on the basis of a behavioral profile of the pedestrian. The behavioral profile may be generated in a personal communication device of the pedestrian (such as a smartphone) based on activities performed by the pedestrian such as walking on a sidewalk, stepping off the sidewalk to walk on a road, standing on a sidewalk waiting for a traffic light to change, stepping onto the road when waiting for a traffic light to change, and/or crossing a road when the traffic light is red. The behavioral profile may also be based on other factors such as a traffic citation, an accident report, a status of a driver's license, and/or physical characteristics of the pedestrian (age, gender, etc.).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 29, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 6, 2021
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Leah Busch, Andrea Chowanic, Jessamyn Smallenburg