Patents Examined by Matthew Ho
  • Patent number: 11945498
    Abstract: A work vehicle includes a steering wheel on a rear side with respect to a display, in front of a driver seat, and that includes spokes and a ring-shaped portion connected to the spokes. An opening is between the spokes and the ring-shaped portion. The work vehicle further includes a steering controller to change a steering angle of a steerable wheel based on a wheel angle that is a rotation angle of the steering wheel about a wheel rotation shaft, and an adjuster to adjust a relationship between the wheel angle and the steering angle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2024
    Assignee: KUBOTA CORPORATION
    Inventor: Hiroki Suga
  • Patent number: 11927457
    Abstract: An autonomous vehicle having sensors advantageously varied in capabilities, advantageously positioned, and advantageously impervious to environmental conditions. A system executing on the autonomous vehicle that can receive a map including, for example, substantially discontinuous surface features along with data from the sensors, create an occupancy grid based upon the map and the data, and change the configuration of the autonomous vehicle based upon the type of surface on which the autonomous vehicle navigates. The device can safely navigate surfaces and surface features, including traversing discontinuous surfaces and other obstacles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 10, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2024
    Assignee: DEKA Products Limited Partnership
    Inventors: Dirk A. Van Der Merwe, Arunabh Mishra, Christopher C. Langenfeld, Michael J. Slate, Christopher J. Principe, Gregory J. Buitkus, Justin M. Whitney, Raajitha Gummadi, Derek G. Kane, Emily A. Carrigg, Patrick Steele, Benjamin V. Hersh, Fnu G Siva Perumal, David Carrigg, Daniel F. Pawlowski, Yashovardhan Chaturvedi, Kartik Khanna
  • Patent number: 11919760
    Abstract: A system for a remotely controllable material handling vehicle switchable between a manual mode and a travel request mode is provided. The system can include a control handle configured to at least control a speed and direction of the material handling vehicle when the material handling vehicle is in the manual mode and a remote control device in communication with the material handling vehicle and configured to provide a request to the material handling vehicle to move forward. The system can also include a mode switch configured to switch the material handling vehicle from the manual mode to the travel request mode and an operator compartment sensor configured to trigger a flag when a weight on a floor of an operator compartment of the material handling vehicle is greater than or equal to a predetermined weight.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2024
    Assignee: The Raymond Corporation
    Inventor: Theodore C. Garrison, III
  • Patent number: 11919521
    Abstract: The preview damping control includes an ECU. When the vehicle is traveling within a communications disruption area in which a radio communication device is hard to communicate with a cloud, the ECU uses road surface displacement correlating information that has been stored in an on-board memory device in advance for the communications disruption area so as to perform a preview damping control.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 10, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2024
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hiroki Furuta
  • Patent number: 11913797
    Abstract: Systems and methods for selecting a charging entity based on occupancy status are provided. In one embodiment, a method includes determining a current geo-location and state of charge of a requesting vehicle. A plurality of charging entities that are within a remaining distance of the requesting vehicle are identified. Occupancy statuses for one or more charging entities of the plurality of charging entities are determined. The method also includes estimating charging speeds for the one or more charging entities based on the occupancy statuses. A charging station map user interface that pin points the current geo-location of the requesting vehicle and the one or more charging entities is presented. The one or more charging entities are presented with labels based on the charging speeds. The method further includes reserving a charging station of a selected charging entity of the plurality of charging entities by selecting a label.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 18, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2024
    Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Eri Izumi Maeda, David Wong Cun, Richard Pham
  • Patent number: 11889787
    Abstract: One or more information maps are obtained by an agricultural work machine. The one or more information maps map one or more agricultural characteristic values at different geographic locations of a field. An in-situ sensor on the agricultural work machine senses an agricultural characteristic as the agricultural work machine moves through the field. A predictive map generator generates a predictive map that predicts a predictive agricultural characteristic at different locations in the field based on a relationship between the values in the one or more information maps and the agricultural characteristic sensed by the in-situ sensor. The predictive map can be output and used in automated machine control.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 9, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2024
    Assignee: Deere & Company
    Inventors: Nathan R Vandike, Bhanu Kiran Reddy Palla, Federico Pardina-Malbran, Noel W. Anderson
  • Patent number: 11827503
    Abstract: Operating a materials handling vehicle includes monitoring, by a controller, a first vehicle drive parameter during a first manual operation of the vehicle by an operator; monitoring, by the controller, the first vehicle drive parameter during a second manual operation of the vehicle by the operator; receiving, by the controller after the first manual operation of the vehicle and the second manual operation of the vehicle, a request to implement a semi-automated driving operation; calculating, by the controller, a first weighted average based on the monitored first vehicle drive parameter during the first manual operation of the vehicle and the monitored first vehicle parameter during the second manual operation of the vehicle; and based at least in part on the calculated first weighted average, controlling, by the controller, implementation of the semi-automated driving operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2023
    Assignee: Crown Equipment Corporation
    Inventors: Sebastian Theos, Johannes Nachtigal, Andreas Simon
  • Patent number: 11810376
    Abstract: A method for detecting small obstacles includes: acquiring a first 3D point cloud corresponding to image data acquired by a cleaning robot; extracting, from the first 3D point cloud, a second 3D point cloud of a ground region; extracting, from the second 3D point cloud, a third 3D point cloud having a height value in a set height range; calculating a ground projection point cloud of the third 3D point cloud; and, determining morphologically-connected regions in the ground projection point cloud, and using a morphologically-connected region having an area less than a preset value as a region where a small obstacle is located. By effectively recognizing the ground, acquiring the ground projection point cloud and processing the point cloud by image processing, accuracy and timeliness of the algorithm can be improved compared with directly processing discrete 3D point clouds.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 9, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2023
    Assignee: Beijing Xiaomi Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Yutong Zang
  • Patent number: 11808582
    Abstract: Techniques associated with improving performance and realism of simulation instances associated with simulation testing of autonomous vehicles. In some cases, a simulation system may be configured to run a pre-simulation test to identify and store occlusion data to improve the performance of subsequent simulations associated with a shared scene or route.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2023
    Assignee: Zoox, Inc.
    Inventor: James Graham Dolan
  • Patent number: 11761773
    Abstract: A computer implemented method for reconstructing a path taken by a vehicle using periodically sampled geographical position data is disclosed comprising accessing telemetric data including a plurality of GPS points; ordering the plurality of GPS points sequentially, where in a first GPS point is a starting point; identifying a next GPS point in the sequence; generating an area around the identified next GPS point; determining all street segments located within the area; calculating a distance from the starting point to each of the street segments located within the area; storing the street segments that are the shortest distance from the starting point; setting the endpoints of the stored street segments as the starting points; repeat these until a final GPS point is processed; and determining the shortest path by joining the shortest path from each point starting at the starting point and ending at the final GPS point.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 18, 2021
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2023
    Assignee: Azuga, Inc.
    Inventors: Ananth Rani, Ashwin Sabapathy
  • Patent number: 11761779
    Abstract: A navigation method is provided. The method includes obtaining a navigation destination of a first navigation application of a mobile terminal. Once the navigation destination is sent from the mobile terminal to a vehicle-mounted device, a second navigation application of the vehicle-mounted device is controlled to navigate based on the navigation destination.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2023
    Assignee: Mobile Drive Netherlands B.V.
    Inventor: Ri-Wen Zhao
  • Patent number: 11733696
    Abstract: Aspects of the disclosure provide for determining whether a vehicle is in a loop for an autonomous vehicle. For instance, a route from a current location of the vehicle to a destination for a trip may be generated. Locations traversed by the vehicle during the trip may be tracked. Locations of the route may be compared to the tracked locations to determine an overlap value. Whether the vehicle is in a loop may be determined based on the overlap value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 17, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2023
    Assignee: Waymo LLC
    Inventors: Carl Yang, Jialiu Lin, Austin Abrams, Vishay Nihalani
  • Patent number: 11733714
    Abstract: There is disclosed in one example an inner loop controller for an aircraft flight computer, including: a stall protection circuit to compute, for an attitude angle ?, an attitude limit ?max as a function of a flight path angle (?) and an angle of attack limit (?max); a transfer function circuit to convert ? to an attitude rate {dot over (?)}, wherein {dot over (?)} is a time derivative of ?; and a load protector circuit to compute a limit on {dot over (?)} ({dot over (?)}max) as a function of a load factor limit (Nz,max) and a true airspeed (v).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 14, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2023
    Assignee: TEXTRON INNOVATIONS INC.
    Inventors: Steven G. Hagerott, Jonathan Andrew Toth
  • Patent number: 11724719
    Abstract: The disclosure generally pertains to minimizing battery power consumption while employing local wireless communication to activate an operation of an autonomous vehicle. In an example implementation, a vehicle controller of an autonomous vehicle transitions to a powered-down state after the autonomous vehicle is parked at a parking spot that lacks cellular communication coverage. The vehicle controller may transition to a powered-up state at a scheduled time to execute an autonomous operation based on a directive stored in a cloud-based device. In no directive has been stored, the vehicle controller wakes up periodically in a partially powered-up state and transmits a query in a local wireless communications format to the cloud-based device to check for a directive. If no directive is present, the vehicle controller transitions back to the powered-down state. If a directive is present, the vehicle controller transitions to a fully powered-up state to execute the autonomous operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 8, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2023
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Hamid M. Golgiri, Yangho Kim, Luke Niewiadomski
  • Patent number: 11720123
    Abstract: A yaw control system for a helicopter having an airframe that includes a tailboom includes one or more tail rotors rotatably coupled to the tailboom and a flight control computer implementing an airframe protection module. The airframe protection module includes an airframe protection monitoring module configured to monitor one or more flight parameters of the helicopter and an airframe protection command module configured to modify one or more operating parameters of the one or more tail rotors based on the one or more flight parameters of the helicopter, thereby protecting the airframe of the helicopter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2023
    Assignee: Textron Innovations Inc.
    Inventors: Marc Ouellet, Guillaume Biron, Alexis Dugré
  • Patent number: 11703337
    Abstract: A method, apparatus, and computer program product are provided for anonymizing the trajectory of a vehicle. Methods may include: receiving a sequence of probe data points defining a trajectory; for a subset of the sequence of probe data points defining the trajectory beginning at an origin: updating a counter value at each probe data point, where the counter value is updated based, at least in part, on properties of a number of road links emanating from each junction through which the trajectory passed to reach a location associated with the respective probe data point; in response to the counter value satisfying a predetermined value after an update relative to a given probe data point, removing probe data points before the given probe data point in the sequence of probe data points to obtain origin-obscured probe data points; and creating a cropped trajectory including the origin-obscured probe data points.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 18, 2023
    Assignee: HERE GLOBAL B.V.
    Inventors: Stefano Bennati, Aleksandra Kovacevic, Elena Vidyakina
  • Patent number: 11693429
    Abstract: A method of controlling a multi-rotor aircraft (1) including at least five, preferably at least six, lifting rotors (2; R1-R6), each having a first rotation axis which is essentially parallel to a yaw axis (z) of the aircraft (1), and at least one forward propulsion device (3), preferably two forward propulsion devices (P1, P2), the at least one forward propulsion device having at least two rotors (P1_R1, P1_R2, P2_R1, P2_R2) that are arranged coaxially with a second rotation axis which is essentially parallel to a roll axis (x) of the aircraft. The at least one or each of the forward propulsion devices (3, P1, P2) being arranged at a respective distance (+y, ?y) from said roll axis (x). The method further includes: using at least one of the rotors of the at least one forward propulsion device to control the aircraft's moment about the yaw and/or roll axes independently from each other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2021
    Date of Patent: July 4, 2023
    Assignee: Volocopter GmbH
    Inventors: Sebastian Mores, Krishna Rajput
  • Patent number: 11681303
    Abstract: The system receives position information in both an internal coordinate frame and an external coordinate frame. The system uses a comparison of position information in these frames to determine orientation information. The system determines one or more orientation hypotheses, and analyzes the position information based on these hypotheses. The system may include on-board accelerometers, gyroscopes, or both that provide the measurements in the internal coordinate frame. These measurements may be integrated or otherwise processed to determine position, velocity, or both. Measurements in the external frame are provided by GPS sensors or other positioning systems. Position information is transformed to a common coordinate frame, and an error metric is determined. Based on the error metric, the system estimates a likelihood metric for each hypothesis, and determines a resulting hypothesis based on the maximum likelihood or a combination of likelihoods.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 8, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 20, 2023
    Assignee: Verity AG
    Inventors: Luciano Beffa, Markus Hehn
  • Patent number: 11674811
    Abstract: Systems and methods related to ridesharing may involve receiving a ride request from a user including a desired destination and information associated with a current location of the user, and receive location information of on-demand and of fixed-line ridesharing vehicles and based on the received location information, identify a fixed-line ridesharing vehicle available to pick from a first pick-up location identify an on-demand ridesharing vehicle available to pick from a second pick-up location, both locations other than the current location of the user, determine a first value and a second value indicative of a time duration for the fixed-line and one demand ridesharing vehicles to arrive at the first and second pick-up locations, respectively, and when the first value is less than the second value, inform the user that the fixed-line ridesharing vehicle is enroute and direct the user to the first pick-up location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 2, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2023
    Assignee: VIA TRANSPORTATION, INC.
    Inventors: Oren Shoval, Daniel Ramot, Shmulik Marcovitch, Yaron Rakah, Avishai Shoham
  • Patent number: 11662735
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method for updating a control model for automatic control of at least one mobile unit. A central control unit generates a detection task and transmits same to the mobile unit. The mobile unit comprises sensors, and the detection task comprises conditions for detecting sensor data sets by means of the sensors. The mobile unit detects the sensor data sets by means of the sensors using the detection task, generates transmission data using the detected sensor data sets, and transmits the transmission data to the central control unit. The central control unit receives the transmission data and generates an updated control model using the received transmission data. The system according to the invention for updating a control model for automatic control of at least one mobile unit comprises a central control unit by means of which a detection task may be generated and transmitted to the mobile unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 30, 2023
    Assignee: VOLKSWAGEN AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT
    Inventors: Fabian Hüger, Peter Schlicht