Patents Examined by Nadeem Odeh
  • Patent number: 11584375
    Abstract: A vehicle control device includes a first inputter, a second inputter, a mode controller configured to, when the first inputter is operated by a user, determine a driving mode of a vehicle as a first mode, and when the second inputter is operated by the user in the first mode, switch the driving mode from the first mode to a second mode, and a driving controller configured to control at least one of a steering and speed of the vehicle, and the driving controller is configured to control a steering and speed of the vehicle and prohibit change of a path of the vehicle when the driving mode is the first mode, and control a steering and speed of the vehicle and change of the path of the vehicle is allowed when the driving mode is the second mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2023
    Assignee: HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Daichi Kato, Nozomu Hirosawa
  • Patent number: 11579610
    Abstract: Systems, devices, and methods for identifying a target aerial vehicle, deploying an interceptor aerial vehicle comprising at least one effector, maneuvering the interceptor aerial vehicle to a position to engage a target aerial vehicle, deploying the at least one effector to intercept the target aerial vehicle, and confirming that the target aerial vehicle has been intercepted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 17, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2023
    Assignee: AEROVIRONMENT, INC.
    Inventors: Christopher Eugene Fisher, Michael Franklin Morgan
  • Patent number: 11574544
    Abstract: An impairment analysis (“IA”) computer system for detecting an impairment is provided. The IA computer system is associated with a host vehicle, and includes at least one processor in communication with at least one memory device. The at least one processor is programmed to: (i) interrogate or otherwise scan a target vehicle by using a plurality of sensors included on a host vehicle to scan the target vehicle and a target driver; (ii) receive sensor data including target driver data and target vehicle condition data; (iii) analyze the sensor data by applying a baseline model to the sensor data; (iv) detect an impairment of the target driver or target vehicle based upon the analysis; and/or (v) output an alert signal to a host vehicle controller, or direct collision preventing actions (such as automatically engage vehicle safety systems), based upon the determination that the target driver or target vehicle is impaired.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 7, 2023
    Assignee: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company
    Inventors: Douglas L. Dewey, Jon Hodel, Steve F. Roberson
  • Patent number: 11565724
    Abstract: An operation device including: an operation section configured to receive operation by a remote operator conferred with operation authority to operate a vehicle capable of autonomous driving; a communication section configured to transmit, to the vehicle, operation information for remote driving based on the operation received by the operation section; a memory; and a processor coupled to the memory, the processor being configured to: acquire biometric information regarding the remote operator, determine whether or not a compromised state, in which operation of the vehicle by the remote operator is compromised, has arisen based on the acquired biometric information, and transfer operation authority of the vehicle to another remote operator in a case in which the compromised state has been determined to have arisen.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2023
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Yusuke Yokota, Atsushi Hanawa, Yasuki Nakagawa, Makoto Matsushita, Tomoyuki Kuriyama, Tae Sugimura
  • Patent number: 11557207
    Abstract: An impairment analysis (“IA”) computer system for alerting a first driver of a first vehicle to a driving hazard posed by a second vehicle operated by a second driver is provided. The IA computer system is associated with the first vehicle, and includes at least one processor in communication with at least one memory device. The at least one processor is programmed to: (i) receive second vehicle data including second driver data and second vehicle condition data, where the second vehicle data is collected by a plurality of sensors included on the first vehicle; (ii) analyze the second vehicle data by applying a baseline model to the second vehicle data; (iii) determine that the second vehicle poses a driving hazard to the first vehicle based upon the analysis; and/or (iv) generate an alert signal based upon the determination that the second vehicle poses a driving hazard to the first vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 17, 2023
    Assignee: STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE COMPANY
    Inventors: Douglas L. Dewey, Jon Hodel, Steve F. Roberson
  • Patent number: 11543830
    Abstract: An unsupervised real to virtual domain unification model for highway driving, or DU-drive, employs a conditional generative adversarial network to transform driving images in a real domain to their canonical representations in the virtual domain, from which vehicle control commands are predicted. In the case where there are multiple real datasets, a real-to-virtual generator may be independently trained for each real domain and a global predictor could be trained with data from multiple real domains. Qualitative experiment results show this model can effectively transform real images to the virtual domain while only keeping the minimal sufficient information, and quantitative results verify that such canonical representation can eliminate domain shift and boost the performance of control command prediction task.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2023
    Assignee: PETUUM, INC.
    Inventors: Xiaodan Liang, Eric P Xing
  • Patent number: 11529994
    Abstract: A vehicle control system installed on a vehicle includes: an automatic steering control device configured to execute automatic steering control that determines a steering angle command value and controls steering of the vehicle such that an actual steering angle follows the steering angle command value; a stop state detection device configured to detect a stop state where the vehicle is stopped; and an override detection device configured to detect an override operation by a driver of the vehicle. When the override operation is detected in the stop state, the automatic steering control device prohibits variation in the actual steering angle due to the automatic steering control, until the vehicle starts moving.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2022
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Ryo Irie, Masaki Shiota
  • Patent number: 11524690
    Abstract: The disclosed embodiments are directed to adjusting the operational characteristics of a black box installed in a vehicle. In one embodiment a method is disclosed comprising classifying a mental state of a driver of an automobile, loading at least one setting based on the mental state, the setting defining an operational characteristic of a black box installed in the automobile, configuring the black box using the at least one setting, and recording one or more events by the black box.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2022
    Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
    Inventor: Gil Golov
  • Patent number: 11525698
    Abstract: A computer is programmed to allocate respective connectivity quality data of a geographic area to a first map or a second map. The computer is further programmed to assign one of a plurality of subsets of the first map and one of a plurality of subsets of the second map to a first vehicle, identify respective locations of the first and second vehicles and one of the first or second maps that includes the locations of the first and second vehicles. The computer is further programmed to send, to the first and second vehicles, a map dataset that is a result of applying an XOR function to (1) the subset of the identified map that includes the location of the first vehicle assigned to the first vehicle and (2) the subset of the identified map that includes the location of the second vehicle assigned to the second vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 22, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2022
    Assignee: FORD GLOBAL TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
    Inventors: Mohsen Bahrami, Navid Tafaghodi Khajavi, Hamed Asadi, Praveen Kumar Yalavarty
  • Patent number: 11528612
    Abstract: There is provided a method and a system for authorizing a user device to send a request to a vehicle in order to prevent a physical layer relay attack. The system comprises a vehicle comprising an acoustic transducer and an RF transceiver and a user device comprising an acoustic transducer and an RF transceiver. The method relates to a signaling scheme using a combination of acoustic and RF signals for preventing a successful physical layer relay attack.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2022
    Assignee: Volvo Car Corporation
    Inventor: Ulf Björkengren
  • Patent number: 11511790
    Abstract: According to one or more embodiments, a method includes computing, by a steering system, a model rack force value based on a vehicle speed, steering angle, and a road-friction coefficient value. The method further includes determining, by the steering system, a difference between the model rack force value and a load rack force value. The method further includes updating, by the steering system, the road-friction coefficient value using the difference that is determined.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 29, 2022
    Assignee: Steering Solutions IP Holding Corporation
    Inventors: Mariam S. George, Farhad Bolourchi
  • Patent number: 11498613
    Abstract: According to one or more embodiments, a method includes computing, by a steering system, a model rack force value based on a vehicle speed, steering angle, and a road-friction coefficient value. The method further includes determining, by the steering system, a difference between the model rack force value and a load rack force value. The method further includes updating, by the steering system, the road-friction coefficient value using the difference that is determined.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2022
    Assignee: Steering Solutions IP Holding Corporation
    Inventors: Tejas M. Varunjikar, Mariam S. George
  • Patent number: 11492017
    Abstract: An information presentation device, mounted on a vehicle for which automatic evacuation control functions when it is difficult for a driver to continue driving the vehicle, and presenting information to an occupant of the vehicle except the driver by a display in a display area that is visually recognizable by the occupant, includes: an operation information acquisition unit that acquires operation information of the automatic evacuation control; and a display generation unit that generates an occupant notification display that is displayed in the display area to notify information relating to the automatic evacuation control when the automatic evacuation control is in operation. The occupant notification display includes: an explanatory image that shows an explanation of a process executed currently; and a progress image that indicates a degree of progress in the automatic evacuation control.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 11, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2022
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Mitsuo Tamagaki, Ifushi Shimonomoto, Hiroaki Tanaka, Takuya Mori, Yuki Fujisawa, Akira Kamiya, Takuya Kume
  • Patent number: 11479245
    Abstract: A vehicle control system for a semi-autonomous vehicle is provided. The vehicle control system includes a controller coupled to a plurality of sensors positioned within the vehicle and to a heads-up display (HUD). The controller includes a processor in communication with a memory device. The controller receives sensor data from the plurality of sensors, determines the vehicle is turning, identifies, based on the sensor data, a candidate turn path for the vehicle, and identifies an actual turn path for the vehicle. The controller also transmits, to one or more automation systems of the vehicle, a control signal that instructs the automation systems to perform a turn-assist function to reduce a determined deviation between the actual turn path and the candidate turn path and to transmit, to the HUD, a control signal that instructs the HUD to display a notification to a driver of the vehicle of the turn-assist function.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2022
    Assignee: HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Rita Vense Kong, Guido Rasser, Shinngaram Choi
  • Patent number: 11467607
    Abstract: Method and device for determining trajectory to optimal position of a follower aircraft with respect to vortices generated by a leader aircraft. The method includes controlling trajectory of a follower aircraft to an optimal position where the follower aircraft benefits from effects of at least one of the vortices of a leader aircraft. A first section control step controls flight of the follower aircraft using current measurements of flight parameters, from a safety position to a search position, along an approach section passing through an approach zone. A second section control step controls flight of the follower aircraft using current measurements of flight parameters, from the search position to a precision position, along a search section passing through a search zone, and a third section control step controls flight of the follower aircraft, from the precision position to the optimal position, along an optimization section passing through an optimization zone.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2022
    Assignee: Airbus Operations (S.A.S.)
    Inventors: Jean-luc Robin, José Torralba, Julie Lebas
  • Patent number: 11453407
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides a method and apparatus of monitoring a sensor of a driverless vehicle, a device and a storage medium, wherein the method comprises: monitoring a physical state of a to-be-monitored sensor; monitoring a data transmission state of the to-be-monitored sensor; monitoring output data of the to-be-monitored sensor, and using predetermined data to perform cross-validation for the output data; when any monitoring result gets abnormal, determining the to-be-monitored sensor as getting abnormal, and giving an alarm. The solution of the present disclosure may be applied to improve safety of the driverless vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 27, 2022
    Assignee: APOLLO INTELLIGENT DRIVING TECHNOLOGY (BEIJING) CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Taiqun Hu
  • Patent number: 11447126
    Abstract: Described herein is a system and method for preemptive chassis control intervention for an autonomous vehicle having a mechanical system and a chassis controller. The chassis controller is configured to output a consumption signal that represents a percentage of an activation threshold consumed by an operation monitored by the chassis controller, wherein the chassis controller is activated to manipulate the mechanical system when the activation threshold is reached. A computing system of the autonomous vehicle receives the consumption signal output by the chassis controller to determine a path plan for the autonomous vehicle based upon the percentage of the activation threshold consumed by the operation monitored by the chassis controller. The computing system further controls the mechanical system to execute the path plan to preempt activation of the chassis controller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 20, 2022
    Assignee: GM CRUISE HOLDINGS LLC
    Inventor: Kevin Danford
  • Patent number: 11447121
    Abstract: When the state of charge of a battery is greater than or equal to a lower limit value and less than or equal to an upper limit value, an electronic control unit calculates a charging electric energy transferred between a motor-generator and the battery such that the battery is neither charged nor discharged. When the state of charge is less than the lower limit value, a required torque of the engine is calculated based on the charging electric energy, a power consumption of an auxiliary device, and a driving torque. When the state of charge is greater than or equal to the lower limit value and less than or equal to the upper limit value, the required torque is calculated based on the charging electric energy and the driving torque, without taking the power consumption into consideration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 20, 2022
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Koji Murakami, Hiroshi Sato
  • Patent number: 11440677
    Abstract: A system is described that includes a controllable component of an engine configured to regulate fuel flow to the engine, a digital control unit configured to control the engine by at least communicating with the controllable component of the engine, and a protection component configured to disable communication between the digital control unit and the controllable component of the engine. The system further includes an analog control unit configured to control the engine by at least communicating with the controllable component of the engine in response to the protection component disabling communication between the digital control unit and the controllable component of the engine.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 16, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 13, 2022
    Assignees: Rolls-Royce Corporation, Rolls-Royce North American Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Dawn Kay Andrus, Daniel John Bitz, Richard Joseph Skertic
  • Patent number: 11415993
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for processing a driving reference line, and a vehicle are provided. The method comprises: acquiring position information of at least one obstacle in a range covered by an original driving reference line; determining a safety range parameter based on the position information of the at least one obstacle; adjusting a coefficient of a polynomial curve corresponding to the original driving reference line based on the safety range parameter, to obtain an adjusted polynomial curve; and determining an adjusted driving reference line based on the updated polynomial curve. The safety problem of the driving reference line caused by the insufficient obstacle avoidance ability of the driving reference line is solved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2022
    Assignee: APOLLO INTELLIGENT DRIVING TECHNOLOGY (BEIJING) CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Xiaoxin Fu, Dayang Hao, Zhenguang Zhu, Zhiyuan Chen, Yuchang Pan, Fan Zhu