Patents Examined by Michael Berns
  • Patent number: 11370415
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided herein for adaptive user input boundary support for remote vehicle motion commands. The systems and methods described herein may be used to allow more flexibility in continuous inputs provided to trigger commands to a vehicle to perform an autonomous function, such as Remote Park Assist (RePA). The systems and methods may allow RePA to continue even if the continuous input is not provided in the form of a perfect circle or if the continuous input drifts gradually over time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 25, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2022
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Gabrielle Jost, Ali Hassani, Erick Michael Lavoie
  • Patent number: 11370328
    Abstract: An ISS is a seating system that actively adjusts to improve an occupant's comfort, performance, and safety in a specific driving environment. The ISS determines the occupant's posture, position on the seat surface, and/or physiological state, for example, by applying a machine vision process. The ISS can further determine a driving environment. The ISS adjusts its settings and settings of the vehicle according to one or more factors such as an occupant's posture, the occupant's physiological state, the occupant's preferences, and/or the driving environment. The ISS can include a state machine that determines a current state and determines if a change has occurred such that the system should shift to another state that best suits this change. The ISS makes adjustment according to system settings associated with the best suitable state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2022
    Assignee: XSENSOR Technology Corporation
    Inventors: Ian Main, Melissa Elizabeth Remus Jones
  • Patent number: 11359924
    Abstract: An information processing apparatus determines whether or not a predetermined transfer condition for urging a target user sharing a ride in a ride-sharing vehicle with another user with a different destination to transfer between ride-sharing vehicles during movement is established, on the basis of a predicted travel route of each of a transfer source vehicle and a transfer destination vehicle. Then, in the case where the predetermined transfer condition is determined to be established, the information processing apparatus transmits transfer information for urging the target user to transfer from the transfer source vehicle to the transfer destination vehicle during movement, to a terminal associated with the transfer source vehicle and a terminal associated with the transfer destination vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 12, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2022
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Kosuke Kotake, Ryosuke Tanimura, Yuki Ito, Akira Nishida, Zekai Qiu, Kenichi Hagiya, Naoki Yamamuro
  • Patent number: 11353871
    Abstract: A method comprises obtaining smart seat sensor data, the smart seat sensor data being detected by a tactile-sensitive surface material of a seat of an autonomous vehicle in response to a user interacting with the tactile-sensitive surface material. Other sensor data is obtained from one or more other sensors disposed within the autonomous vehicle. The smart seat sensor data and the other sensor data are integrated. A behavior of the user is estimated based on the integrated data, and the autonomous vehicle is controlled based on the estimated behavior of the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 26, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2022
    Assignee: Pony AI Inc.
    Inventor: Sinan Xiao
  • Patent number: 11353864
    Abstract: A wireless communication terminal device for operating a work vehicle that autonomously travels including: a device main body having a display that is capable of accepting a touch panel operation; and an emergency-stop remote controller having an emergency stop button that is used to stop autonomous travel of the work vehicle. The device main body and the emergency-stop remote controller perform a wireless communication with the work vehicle via different wireless communication networks having different communication schemes, respectively.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 29, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2022
    Assignee: YANMAR POWER TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Kazuhisa Yokoyama
  • Patent number: 11338935
    Abstract: An automated flight control functional testing system includes a first sensor on a pilot input device for sensing position of the pilot input device, and a distributed network of sensors on a plurality of control surfaces of an aircraft for sensing positions of the control surfaces. A controller determines an expected position of each control surface based on data signals received from the first sensor, and the controller determines an actual position of each control surface based on data signals received from the distributed network of sensors. An automated flight control functional testing method includes transmitting angle information to a controller from a first angle sensor on a pilot input device and a second angle sensor on a control surface of an aircraft, and comparing an expected angle of a control surface based on the first sensor with an actual angle of the control surface based on the second sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2022
    Assignee: Textron Innovations, Inc.
    Inventors: Jodi Jo Yee Lo, Nicolas Lucas Gallo, Johnny Ross Moore
  • Patent number: 11338819
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a computer-implemented method for calibrating autonomous driving vehicles at a cloud-based server includes receiving, at the cloud-based server, one or more vehicle calibration requests from at least one user, each vehicle calibration request including calibration data for one or more vehicles and processing in parallel, by the cloud-based server, the one or more vehicle calibration requests for the at least one user to generate a calibration result for each vehicle. The method further includes sending, by the cloud-based server, the calibration result for each vehicle to the at least one user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2022
    Assignee: BAIDU USA LLC
    Inventors: Shu Jiang, Qi Luo, Jinghao Miao, Jiangtao Hu, Xiangquan Xiao, Jiaxuan Xu, Yu Wang, Jinyun Zhou, Runxin He
  • Patent number: 11327505
    Abstract: A control apparatus of a work vehicle includes a course data acquisition unit acquiring course data indicating a traveling condition of a work vehicle that includes a travel route, a travel range data acquisition unit acquiring travel range data indicating a travel range of the work vehicle that is defined with a preset travel width based on the travel route, a detection data acquisition unit acquiring detection data of a detection device that has detected a travel direction of the work vehicle, a prediction unit predicting, based on the detection data, a prescribed position distant from a current position of the work vehicle traveling according to the course data, a determination unit determining whether the prescribed position exists within the travel range, and a drive control unit stopping traveling of the work vehicle when it is determined that the prescribed position does not exist within the travel range.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 10, 2022
    Assignee: Komatsu Ltd.
    Inventors: Masanori Ogihara, Ryuu Yamamura
  • Patent number: 11328586
    Abstract: Methods and systems for processing vehicle to everything (V2X) messages for use by machine learning applications are disclosed. From each of a plurality of vehicles, one or more V2X messages are received, each V2X message including vehicle-related data associated with the vehicle and the received message. A sequence of frames is generated based on the vehicle-related data from at least a subset of vehicles in the plurality of vehicles. Slices of the sequence of frames are aggregated to generate a plurality of time-lapse images. One or more time-lapse images are processed using a machine learning algorithm to generate an output indicative of a traffic-related prediction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 10, 2022
    Assignee: Autotalks Ltd.
    Inventors: Nir Raviv, Leonid Prokupets, Onn Haran
  • Patent number: 11318984
    Abstract: Provided are an electronic device and method for assisting driving of a vehicle, the electronic device including a sensor configured to sense a rotation direction of a steering wheel of the vehicle, a processor configured to monitor rotation direction switching events of the steering wheel, obtain a rotation direction switching pattern about a number of rotation direction switching events of the steering wheel per unit time, and determine whether to provide an alert to a driver of the vehicle, based on the obtained rotation direction switching pattern, and an outputter configured to output the alert to the driver, based on the determination.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 3, 2022
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Sang-min Shin, Deok-young Kim, Yong-wook Kim, Dae-in Choi, Gang-heok Kim
  • Patent number: 11321974
    Abstract: A method for carrying out an on-board diagnostic function of a vehicle includes activating an on-board diagnostic function of the vehicle and subjecting a predefined gas pedal value of the vehicle to low-pass filtering in order to obtain a smoothed gas pedal value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 18, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 3, 2022
    Assignee: Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Philip Jost, Thomas Melzig, Markus Reiber
  • Patent number: 11312392
    Abstract: A system, method and architecture for providing highly granular driving recommendations to a vehicle based on network-assisted scanning of a surrounding environment. In one embodiment, the system is operative for receiving environmental data from one or more collection agents, each operating with a plurality of sensors configured to sense data relating to the environment. At least one collection agent is operative in association with the vehicle for providing vehicular condition data and vehicular navigation data. The system is configured to calibrate the vehicle to identify a vehicle type responsive to the vehicular condition/navigation data. Road condition information and obstacle condition information relating to a road segment, the vehicle is traversing may also be obtained. Responsive to the road condition/navigation data, vehicle type and positioning, etc., an optimal racing line path over the road segment may be determined.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 18, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2022
    Assignee: TELEFONAKTIEBOLAGET LM ERICSSON (PUBL)
    Inventors: Vladimir Katardjiev, Julien Forgeat, Meral Shirazipour, Dmitri Krylov
  • Patent number: 11312354
    Abstract: A method and a system for automatic yaw torque equalization (AYTE) in an electrically driven vehicle having wheel-individual torque distribution (torque vectoring drive).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2022
    Assignee: AUDI AG
    Inventor: Franz Honkomp
  • Patent number: 11308740
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method for locating a cause of the premature discharge of a battery in a vehicle. To simplify locating a cause of the premature discharge of a battery in a vehicle, it is proposed to monitor the current drawn from the battery via an electrical system of the vehicle in the ignition-off-state. Data collected as part of the monitoring can then be examined either alone or in conjunction with additional, in particular, vehicle-specific and/or global data, for information relevant to isolating and/or determining the cause.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 6, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 19, 2022
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Ekkehard Pofahl, Christoph Arndt Dr habil
  • Patent number: 11273906
    Abstract: Aircraft fly-by-wire systems and related vehicle electrical systems are provided. A vehicle electrical system includes a bus arrangement having a plurality of buses, a first control module coupled to a first subset of the buses, a second control module coupled to a second subset of the buses, and a third control module coupled to a third subset of the buses. The first subset includes a first bus, a second bus, a third bus, and a fourth bus, the second subset includes the third bus, the fourth bus, a fifth bus, and a sixth bus, and the third subset includes the first bus, the second bus, the fifth bus and the sixth bus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 2, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2022
    Assignee: HONEYWELL INTERNATIONAL INC.
    Inventor: Michael Keir
  • Patent number: 11254312
    Abstract: Techniques for analysis of autonomous vehicle operations are described. As an example, a method of autonomous vehicle operation includes storing sensor data from one or more sensors located on the autonomous vehicle into a storage medium, performing, based on at least some of the sensor data, a simulated execution of one or more programs associated with the operations of the autonomous vehicle, generating, based on the simulated execution of the one or more programs and as part of a simulation, one or more control signal values that control a simulated driving behavior of the autonomous vehicle, and providing a visual feedback of the simulated driving behavior of the autonomous vehicle on a simulated road.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 22, 2022
    Assignee: TUSIMPLE, INC.
    Inventors: Yixin Yang, Dinghua Li
  • Patent number: 11255669
    Abstract: A device and method for marking indicia on terrestrial surfaces implemented in topographical surveying comprises is described; the device includes: a support element connectable to topographic surveying instrument, a container holder and paint container; an actuator; at least one nozzle configured to reversibly assume: a divergent configuration and convergent configuration; at least one driving mechanism, for driving the nozzle between the divergent configuration and convergent configurations and an outlet to dispense the paint on the terrestrial surface; the method includes: selecting a point of interest on a terrestrial surface; positioning the pointed tip; determining geographical coordinates; activating the actuator, dispensing the paint form the outlet; altering the configuration of the nozzle between the divergent and convergent configuration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 22, 2022
    Inventor: Shadi Khnifes
  • Patent number: 11254442
    Abstract: A control system and method of controlling access to storage bins in a vehicle. The system includes a lock configured to be selectively movable between a locked position to prevent access to an interior of the storage bins and an unlocked position to allow access to the interior of the storage bins. A switch is positioned in a cabin of the vehicle. A control circuit is configured to determine an operational status of the vehicle and selectively position the locks. The control circuit can also receive an override signal from the switch and unlock the locks in certain situations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 29, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 22, 2022
    Assignee: THE BOEING COMPANY
    Inventor: Mahesh Chengalva
  • Patent number: 11225252
    Abstract: A device for controlling driving of a vehicle includes: a detector to acquire driving information, driver information, and surrounding environment information about the vehicle, and a controller to determine whether to activate a safety driving mode based on at least one of the driving information, driver information, and surrounding environment information about the vehicle, and to determine whether to maintain the safety driving mode state based on a vehicle state after the activation of the safety driving mode. Thus, the device may support a safety driving of the vehicle by restricting a speed of the vehicle even when the driver incorrectly operates an accelerator pedal in place of a brake pedal of the vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 18, 2022
    Assignees: HYUNDAI MOTOR COMPANY, KIA MOTORS CORPORATION
    Inventor: Byung Soo Moon
  • Patent number: 11225239
    Abstract: A hybrid vehicle may include an engine controller that determines an activation state of an oxygen sensor when the engine controller is requested to operate an engine and controls a voltage applied to the oxygen sensor depending on whether or not the oxygen sensor is in an activated state, and a vehicle controller that controls a voltage of a battery of the hybrid vehicle and applies the voltage of the battery to the engine controller. The engine controller outputs an activation demand signal for the oxygen sensor to be activated to the vehicle controller when it is determined that the oxygen sensor is not in the activated state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 31, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 18, 2022
    Assignees: HYUNDAI MOTOR COMPANY, KIA MOTORS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hyun Mo Ahn, Sang Yoon Shin, Jae Yui Kim, Yun Chan Heo, Min Kyu Lee