Patents Examined by Michael D Lang
  • Patent number: 10330482
    Abstract: A network system dynamically determines a route, including start and end points, for vehicles in a transportation network. The transportation network receives a service request from a user of the transportation network including an origin location for the trip and a destination location for the trip. The transportation network then generates a waypoint plan for one or more vehicles, which includes the requested origin and destination in addition to any previously requested origins and destinations included in the vehicles current route. The network system then determines a directionality for each of the waypoints in the waypoint plan and retrieves candidate start and end points that have an associated directionality within a threshold angle of the directionality of each waypoint and are proximate to the waypoint. The network system evaluates each combination of retrieved candidate points to select a route for the vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 28, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 25, 2019
    Assignee: Uber Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Qi Chen, Casey Lawler, Linfeng Shi, Qing Xu, Miao Yu
  • Patent number: 10315673
    Abstract: A positive train control may comprise a plurality of different sensors coupled to a processor that determines whether there is an anomaly of a track way, and if there is, provides an alert and/or a train control action. The plural sensors may include a visual imager, an infrared imager, a radar, a doppler radar, a laser sensor, a laser ranging device, an acoustic sensor, and/or an acoustic ranging device. Data from the plural sensors is geo-tagged and time tagged. Some embodiments of the train control employ track monitors, switch monitors and/or wayside monitors, and some employ locating devices such as GPS and inertial devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 11, 2019
    Assignee: Avante International Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Kevin Kwong-Tai Chung, Albert Han-Ping Chung, Yulin Huang, Dexi Zhu
  • Patent number: 10311658
    Abstract: Aspects of the disclosure relate to detecting vehicle collisions. In one example, one or more computing devices may receive acceleration data of a vehicle and the expected acceleration data of the vehicle over a period of time. The one or more computing devices may determine a change in the vehicle's acceleration over the period of time, where the change in the vehicle's acceleration over the period of time is the difference between the expected acceleration data and the acceleration data. The one or more computing devices may detect an occurrence when the change in the vehicle's acceleration is greater than a threshold value and assign the occurrence into a collision category. Based on the assigned collision category, the one or more computing devices may perform a responsive action.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 7, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 4, 2019
    Assignee: Waymo LLC
    Inventors: Aleksandra Faust, Nathaniel Fairfield
  • Patent number: 10299424
    Abstract: A row unit has a frame with an upper portion and a lower portion. The upper portion has a parallel linkage and the lower portion is coupled to plural gauge wheels. A first sensor is configured to provide an output signal and a controllable device is coupled to the upper portion and configured to provide an adjustable down force. A dampening device is coupled to the upper portion and configured to provide adjustable dampening of the row unit based on the output signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 20, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 28, 2019
    Assignee: AGCO Corporation
    Inventor: Kevin J Hamilton
  • Patent number: 10300760
    Abstract: Some embodiments provide a fully-actuated suspension system which can provide adjustable displacement of a sprung mass from a neutral suspension position over an unsprung mass. The system includes a variable pressure air spring which can adjust the neutral suspension position and execute low-frequency displacements and a hydraulically-driven piston which can execute high-frequency displacements. The system can communicate information to a driver, via haptic feedback provided via actuator displacements, which can augment the driver's situational awareness. The system can provide augmented vehicle braking via displacing the unsprung mass of the vehicle towards the surface upon which the vehicle rests to increase the normal force and contact area of the unsprung mass on the surface, unload torsion of the wheel induced by applied braking pressure to the wheel, etc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 28, 2019
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Randol W. Aikin, Thaddeus Stefanov-Wagner
  • Patent number: 10293654
    Abstract: A method according to an exemplary aspect of the present disclosure includes, among other things, automatically preconditioning a passenger cabin of an electrified vehicle during a DC fast charging event of a battery assembly if the electrified vehicle is turned OFF.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2015
    Date of Patent: May 21, 2019
    Assignee: FORD GLOBAL TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
    Inventors: William David Treharne, Thomas Scott Gee, Christopher Adam Ochocinski
  • Patent number: 10288440
    Abstract: An apparatus for calculating a route in consideration of a vehicular driving situation includes a situation recognizer determining whether a route is required to be calculated; a distance calculator calculating an estimated movement distance in consideration of a vehicle speed and a first estimated time required for searching for a route leading to a destination when the route is required to be calculated; and a route calculator calculating a future position of a vehicle to which the vehicle will have moved by the estimated movement distance along a lane in which the vehicle is driving or along an optimal route from a vehicle position at a first point in time when the situation recognizer determined the route was required to be calculated, and calculating an additional optimal route leading to the destination, based on the future position of the vehicle as a starting point.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 14, 2019
    Assignee: HYUNDAI MOTOR COMPANY
    Inventor: Ji Hyun Yoon
  • Patent number: 10276045
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method includes receiving a data stream, the data stream including one or more driving factors. The computer-implemented method further includes comparing the one or more driving factors to one or more known driving factors to identify a driving scenario. The computer-implemented method further includes monitoring the driving scenario for a risk. Monitoring the driving scenario for a risk further includes detecting the risk. The computer-implemented method further includes generating an intervention, wherein the intervention is generated based on detecting the risk for the driving scenario. A corresponding computer system and computer program product are also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Ci-Wei Lan, Wen Zhu Liu, Dong Ni, Yiping Qu, Yu Wei Sun, Li Yue, Jie Xu, Ting Ting Zhang
  • Patent number: 10259578
    Abstract: Provided are an unmanned aerial vehicle executing relief work in an emergency such as a disaster, a relief system, and a relief method for performing relief work by using an unmanned aerial vehicle. An unmanned aerial vehicle capable of performing autonomous flight includes a receiving unit receiving an input of relief work from a user A2 and a control unit controlling the execution of the relief work based on content of the input received by the receiving unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2019
    Assignee: TERUMO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Yuusuke Sekine, Shinya Sano, Chisato Iwakiri, Ryouta Yamane
  • Patent number: 10254768
    Abstract: An aspect includes space partitioning for vehicle motion planning. A plurality of obstacle data is analyzed to determine a plurality of obstacle locations in a configuration space of a vehicle. A partitioning of the configuration space is performed to compute a skeletal partition representing a plurality of obstacle boundaries based on the obstacle locations. The skeletal partition is used to preferentially place a plurality of samples by a sampling-based motion planner. At least one obstacle-free path is output by the sampling-based motion planner based on the samples.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2019
    Assignee: SIKORSKY AIRCRAFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Harshad S. Sane, Jason C. Derenick, Brendan J. Englot, Thomas A. Frewen
  • Patent number: 10248125
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are a cleaning robot in which light emitting portions emitting infrared rays are installed to face forward, sideward, and upward and infrared rays which are reflected by obstacles and return are received by one light receiving module to sense obstacles to prevent an increase in manufacturing cost caused by installing a plurality of light receiving portions and simultaneously to sense obstacles located above and a method of controlling the cleaning robot. The cleaning robot including a body and a driving portion which moves the body includes at least one light emitting portion which emits light to an obstacle, a light receiving module which obtains an image signal of the obstacle by receiving the light reflected by the obstacle, and a control portion which generates obstacle sensing information based on a position of the image signal obtained by the light receiving module and controls the driving portion based on the generated obstacle sensing information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2019
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Chin Woo Kang, Kyong Su Kim, Jong Seok Park, Suk Hoon Song, Kyu Ha Lee
  • Patent number: 10217364
    Abstract: A lane assistance system of a host vehicle for reacting to fast and extremely fast approaching vehicles includes a rear radar sensing unit having a sensor and an electronic controller. The electronic controller determines the distance and relative velocity of the fast approaching vehicle to the host vehicle. Further, depending on the closeness of the approaching vehicle, the lane of the approaching vehicle is determined from angular resolution of the radar signal. When the vehicle is approaching at an extremely fast rate and the angular resolution of the radar signal is not capable of determining an exact relative lane of the approaching vehicle due to the vehicle being too far away, the assistance system warns against or prevents lane changes by the host vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 17, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 26, 2019
    Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
    Inventors: Oliver Schwindt, Kevin Buckner, Bhavana Chakraborty, Raphael Hellinger, Thomas Voorheis
  • Patent number: 10207706
    Abstract: A system for detecting a lane line of a road and a method thereof is disclosed. An image-retrieving device retrieves an image in front of a vehicle to generate a picture, and transmits the picture to a processing device. The processing device transforms one or two lane lines on the picture into a plurality of characteristic values, processes the characteristic values to generate one or two prediction lane lines, and uses them to dynamically predict and complete the lane lines, thereby forming a lane line prediction model. The processing device uses the lane line prediction model to determine whether the vehicle deviates, and transmits the picture and the lane line prediction model to a display device to display. When the vehicle deviates, the display device warns. The present invention can improve to recognize an unclear lane line, a single lane line and a far lane line.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2019
    Assignee: Automotive Research & Testing Center
    Inventors: Hung-Pang Lin, Ming-Fang Chang, Li-You Hsu
  • Patent number: 10207724
    Abstract: A method is provided for operating a vehicle having a drive unit, a driving-data determination unit, a consumer set, and a power management unit for managing the consumer set. The driving-data determination unit identifies or determines driving curve data and the drive unit is controlled on the basis of the driving curve data. The method achieves an optimization with regard to a defined quality criterion while also taking the consumer set into account, in that the power management unit receives consumer data from the consumer set, the power management unit determines anticipatory load profile data at least on the basis of the consumer data, determination or identification data are transmitted to the driving-data determination unit in accordance with the load profile data, and the driving-data determination unit determines or identifies the driving curve data in accordance with the determination data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 22, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2019
    Assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Thorsten Frenzke, Sascha Giebel
  • Patent number: 10202186
    Abstract: Aerial vehicles may include propulsion units having motors with drive shafts that may be aligned at a variety of orientations, propellers with variable pitch blades, and common operators for aligning the drive shafts at one or more orientations and for varying the pitch angles of the blades. The common operators may include plate elements to which a propeller hub is rotatably joined, and which may be supported by one or more linear actuators that may extend or retract to vary both the orientations of the drive shafts and the pitch angles of the blades. Operating the motors and propellers at varying speeds, gimbal angles or pitch angles enables the motors to generate forces in any number of directions and at any magnitudes. Attributes of the propulsion units may be selected in order to shape or control the noise generated thereby.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 2, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2019
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Dominic Timothy Shiosaki, Ricky Dean Welsh
  • Patent number: 10183677
    Abstract: Example ice and snow detection systems and methods are described. In one implementation, a method activates an ice and snow detection system in response to receiving weather data indicating a likelihood of ice or snow on a roadway near a vehicle. The method receives data from multiple vehicle sensors and analyzes the received data to identify ice or snow on the roadway. If ice or snow is identified on the roadway, the method adjusts vehicle operations and reports the ice or snow condition to a shared database.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 22, 2019
    Assignee: FORD GLOBAL TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
    Inventors: Scott Vincent Myers, Ashley Elizabeth Micks, Sneha Kadetotad, Harpreetsingh Banvait, Ashok E. Rodrigues
  • Patent number: 10173669
    Abstract: An arrangement for improving maneuverability of a vehicle combination that includes a first vehicle unit, a second vehicle unit and a third vehicle unit interconnected by articulated joints, where the vehicle combination includes two driven axles and where each driven axle can be controlled independently, an arrangement for determining the articulation angel between the vehicle units, an arrangement for determining a steering wheel angle of the vehicle combination, an arrangement for determining the speed of the vehicle combination, an arrangement for determining the yaw rate of the vehicle units, and an arrangement for determining a delay value between the steering wheels of the vehicle combination and at least one articulated joint, where the arrangement is adapted to control a desired articulation angle of the articulated joints by coordinating the force ratio between the two driven axles by using the determined yaw rate of the vehicle units and the determined delay value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2019
    Assignee: Volvo Truck Corporation
    Inventors: Filip Alm, Andreas Jansson, Leo Laine
  • Patent number: 10175694
    Abstract: A flight control module for computing localizer deviation during landing of an aircraft is provided. The flight control module includes a communication interface and a processor. The communication interface is configured to receive inertial data for the aircraft. The processor is coupled to the communication interface and is configured to compute an inertial localizer deviation based on the inertial data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2019
    Assignee: THE BOEING COMPANY
    Inventors: Robert E. McLees, Robert Erik Freeman, Prachya Panyakeow
  • Patent number: 10169930
    Abstract: A vehicle lift comprising a main housing and a carriage assembly configured to engage a wheel of a vehicle, with the carriage assembly being vertically shiftable relative to the main housing. The vehicle lift additionally includes a lift control module for controlling actuation of said carriage assembly. The vehicle lift further includes a docking area configured to receive a diagnostic device, with the docking area including a power port configured to provide power to the diagnostic device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2019
    Assignee: Gray Manufacturing Company, Inc.
    Inventors: Larry M. Jaipaul, Todd Michalski
  • Patent number: 10160327
    Abstract: A system and method for assisting the start of an electrically powered vehicle comprising a battery and processing means configured to: a) receive a sequence of voltage measurements by a sensor connected between the high voltage terminals of the battery and a chassis, b) compare the sequence of voltage measurements received from the sensor with previously established voltage patterns, wherein each voltage pattern is formed by a sequence of voltage values, and wherein each voltage pattern is associated to an insulation resistance value, c) select the voltage pattern whose voltage values are closest to the voltage values of the sequence of voltage measurements received from the sensor, d) establish the insulation resistance value of the battery from selected voltage pattern, and e) enable starting of the vehicle if the insulation resistance value obtained exceeds a predetermined insulation resistance threshold value that ensures the insulation of the battery.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2018
    Assignee: FICO TRIAD, S.A.
    Inventors: Adriá Torná Albert, Enric Sala Masip