Patents Examined by Peter D Nolan
  • Patent number: 11970185
    Abstract: Methods and systems for determining information about an area that includes a polygon for controlling navigation of an autonomous vehicle are disclosed. The methods include defining a bounding box that encloses the area, and generating a KD-tree from the bounding box that partitions the polygon into a plurality of leaf nodes that each include at least some of a plurality of edges of the polygon. The methods also include assigning a reference point to each leaf node, creating a data representation of the area that comprises the KD-tree, and adding the data representation to map data comprising the area. A reference point is associated with a location within that leaf node, and information relating to whether the reference point lies outside or inside the at least one polygon.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 1, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2024
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventor: Gregory Boyd Nichols
  • Patent number: 11964671
    Abstract: The disclosure relates to technology for determining vehicle environment interaction metrics and/or passenger behavioral metrics for autonomous vehicles in a driving environment. A group of one or more autonomous vehicles independently determine a VEI score for a target vehicle within a predefined vicinity of the group of one or more vehicles. A target vehicle may determine a VPB score based on passengers within the target vehicle. VEI scores and/or VPB scores determined for a target vehicle may be used by the target vehicle to reinforce and/or correct driving actions of the target vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2024
    Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Luis Bill, Chengcheng Jia, Lei Yang, Hai Yu, Wei Huang
  • Patent number: 11964763
    Abstract: The invention relates to a motorized flying craft (10) for measuring the contour of a plurality of regions of interest (12a, 12b, 12c) of a surface of a predetermined object (9) to be inspected, said flying craft (10) comprising a carrier frame (20) and motorized means (11, 13) for lifting and moving said carrier frame (20).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2024
    Assignee: DONECLE
    Inventors: Matthieu Claybrough, Alban Deruaz-Pepin, Josselin Bequet
  • Patent number: 11965754
    Abstract: Provided is an information processing apparatus that creates map information on the basis of sensor information obtained by an on-vehicle sensor. The information processing apparatus includes a creation section that creates a map of a surrounding area of a mobile body on the basis of sensor information acquired by one or more sensors mounted on the mobile body, a request section that issues an information request to an external apparatus on the basis of a state of the map created by the creation section, and a merge section that merges information acquired by the request section from the external apparatus with the created map. The request section issues an information request to the external apparatus on the basis of a condition of a dead angle included in the map created by the creation section.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 15, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2024
    Assignee: SONY SEMICONDUCTOR SOLUTIONS CORPORATION
    Inventor: Noribumi Shibayama
  • Patent number: 11964673
    Abstract: Systems and methods for controlling autonomous vehicle are provided. A method can include obtaining, by a computing system, data indicative of a plurality of objects in a surrounding environment of the autonomous vehicle. The method can further include determining, by the computing system, one or more clusters of the objects based at least in part on the data indicative of the plurality of objects. The method can further include determining, by the computing system, whether to enter an operation mode having one or more limited operational capabilities based at least in part on one or more properties of the one or more clusters. In response to determining that the operation mode is to be entered by the autonomous vehicle, the method can include controlling, by the computing system, the operation of the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the one or more limited operational capabilities.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2024
    Assignee: UATC, LLC
    Inventors: Brian C. Becker, Michael Lee Phillips, Yang Xu, Eric Michael Perko, Narek Melik-Barkhudarov
  • Patent number: 11964652
    Abstract: A method for operating a motor vehicle in the event of an unavoidable collision with a collision object, in particular another vehicle. Environment data relating to the collision object are determined by an environment sensor device including at least one environment sensor and are evaluated to determine at least one driving intervention information for reducing the consequences of a collision. The motor vehicle is automatically guided in accordance with the driving intervention information, and the evaluation of the environment data is carried out together with structural information of the own motor vehicle describing the vehicle structure, in particular including elements absorbing collision energy of the motor vehicle, in such a way that a changed collision point maximizing the deformation energy absorbed by the vehicle structure and to be produced by the driving intervention information is determined when the driving intervention information is determined.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 2, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2024
    Assignee: AUDI AG
    Inventor: Markus Lang
  • Patent number: 11964391
    Abstract: A robot system includes a robot body, a memory, an operation controlling module and a manipulator. When the robot body is located at a first position, the operation controlling module stops the robot body and receives a selecting manipulation of operation mode from the manipulator. When a correctable automatic mode is selected at the first position, the operation controlling module makes positional coordinates of a second position provided downstream of the first position in a moving direction, changeable from the second position in automatic operation information. When the positional coordinates of the second position are changed, the operation controlling module corrects the automatic operation information so that the robot body reaches the changed second position while retaining some of elements of the automatic operation information in the correctable automatic mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 30, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2024
    Assignee: KAWASAKI JUKOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Yasuhiko Hashimoto, Shigetsugu Tanaka, Masayuki Kamon, Yoshihiko Maruyama
  • Patent number: 11964670
    Abstract: Safety metrics and/or statistical system assurance of a particular package of autonomy driving software may be substantially measured using data collected from manually driving a vehicle in the real word, simulations of scenarios which may be faced by a vehicle in the real world, simulations executed with actual software and/or hardware on a vehicle, and/or end-to-end testing of a vehicle in a test environment. Safety metrics and performance of AV software and hardware may be further evaluated through vehicle-in-the-loop testing. During each test scenario, a corresponding set of simulated perception data may be injected to the systems of the autonomous vehicle to cause the autonomous vehicle to react and behave as if one or more simulated objects described by the set of simulated perception data were in the environment of the autonomous vehicle. Each test scenario may be triggered to be performed based on, for example, the autonomous vehicle's location within a real-world vehicle testing space.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2024
    Assignee: Nuro, Inc.
    Inventors: Thomas Van Alsenoy, Sachin Patil, Brian Neil, Randol Aikin, Peter Melick, Yiming Huang
  • Patent number: 11966221
    Abstract: Provided is a method for delivering goods in collaboration of a plurality of autonomous vehicles including a master vehicle and one or more slave vehicles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 13, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2024
    Assignees: PABLO AIR Co., Ltd., PABLO AIR International, INC.
    Inventors: Youngjoon Kim, Seung Han Lim
  • Patent number: 11964651
    Abstract: A traveling control apparatus for a vehicle includes a steering angle detector, a vehicle speed detector, and a cruise control unit. The cruise control unit includes a steering angle speed detector, a steering angle correction value setting unit, and a target acceleration rate setting unit. The steering angle correction value setting unit sets a steering angle correction value, on the basis of a speed of the vehicle detected by the vehicle speed detector and a steering angle speed calculated by the steering angle speed detector. The target acceleration rate setting unit sets a target acceleration rate of a cruise control, on the basis of a steering angle and the speed of the vehicle. The steering angle is based on an addition of the steering angle correction value set by the steering angle correction value setting unit to the steering angle absolute value detected by the steering angle detector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2024
    Assignee: SUBARU CORPORATION
    Inventor: Yuki Kadoya
  • Patent number: 11958449
    Abstract: A level indication system for a vehicle includes a control system. The control system is configured to acquire stability data regarding a stability characteristic of the vehicle at a current location, determine whether the stability characteristic is within an operational range, provide a first indication that the vehicle is reconfigurable at the current location into an operable state in response to determining that the stability characteristic is within the operational range, and provide a second indication that the vehicle is not reconfigurable at the current location into the operable state in response to determining that the stability characteristic is within a nonoperational range.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 11, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2024
    Assignee: Oshkosh Corporation
    Inventors: Eric R. Linsmeier, David W. Archer
  • Patent number: 11958487
    Abstract: An example operation includes one or more of traveling, by a first transport, in a first lane, determining, by the first transport, that a speed of a second transport is greater than a speed of the first transport when the second transport is behind the first transport, determining, by the first transport, that no other transports are ahead of the first transport by a first distance in the first lane and beside the first transport by a second distance in a second lane, maneuvering, by the first transport, to the second lane allowing the second transport to pass the first transport in the first lane, and maneuvering, by the first transport, to the first lane when there are no other transports traveling in the first lane at a third distance behind the first transport and at or near the speed of the second transport.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2024
    Assignee: TOYOTA MOTOR NORTH AMERICA, INC.
    Inventors: Joshua V. Marasigan, Robert D. Slater, Felipe G. Salles, Jaya Bharath R. Goluguri
  • Patent number: 11961337
    Abstract: Aspects of the disclosed technology encompass solutions for automatically requesting a backup vehicle for passengers of an autonomous vehicle provisioned ride-hailing service. In some aspects, a process of the disclosed technology includes steps for collecting diagnostic data relating to at least one AV operation, and analyzing the diagnostic data to determine if the AV needs maintenance. Moreover, in response to a determination that the AV needs maintenance, the process can include steps for automatically requesting a backup service for a passenger of the AV. Systems and machine-readable media are also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 22, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2024
    Assignee: GM Cruise Holdings LLC
    Inventors: Thomas Bachant, Nadav Ullman, Joseph Thibeault, Jake McCloskey, Paul Garcia, Jose Arturo Covarrubias-Reynoso, Michael Magnoli
  • Patent number: 11958467
    Abstract: A hybrid driving apparatus is provided which enables a driver to sufficiently enjoy a driving feeling of a vehicle driven by an internal combustion engine. A hybrid driving apparatus includes an internal combustion engine that drive main driving wheels, a motive power transmission mechanism transmitting a driving force to the main driving wheels, a main driving electric motor driving the main driving wheels, an accumulator, sub-driving electric motors transmitting motive power to sub-driving wheels of the vehicle, and a control apparatus executing an electric motor traveling mode and an internal combustion engine traveling mode. The control apparatus causes the internal combustion engine to generate the driving force, the internal combustion engine is a flywheel-less engine, and the control apparatus causes the main driving electric motor to generate a torque for maintaining idling of the internal combustion engine in the internal combustion engine traveling mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2024
    Assignee: MAZDA MOTOR CORPORATION
    Inventors: Isao Toda, Seiyo Hirano, Hideki Sanai
  • Patent number: 11963077
    Abstract: Examples described herein relate to a system including a BC network associated with a plurality of entities in a defined geographic scope. A first entity of the plurality of entities includes a connected vehicle that generates vehicular data. The BC network is governed by a smart contract. The smart contract includes a data sharing policy defined by a user of the connected vehicle, wherein the data sharing policy allows the user of the connected vehicle to selectively share the vehicular data with one or more other entities of the plurality of entities.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 6, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2024
    Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP
    Inventors: Nitin Singla, Thomas Golway, Yashavantha Nagaraju Naguvanahalli
  • Patent number: 11953897
    Abstract: A control method, for the semi-automatic transfer of a driven utility vehicle into a sensor-identifiable target position, includes sensing a relative position of the utility vehicle in relation to the target position and deriving, from the relative position, an automatic, rules-based lateral control of the utility vehicle configured to, together with a longitudinal control, transfer the utility vehicle into the target position. The method further includes detecting, with the aid of a remote control transmitter of the utility vehicle, the presence of an activation signal generated by an operator located outside of the utility vehicle, initiating, in response to the detection of the presence of the activation signal, the transfer of the utility vehicle according to the lateral control and the longitudinal control, and detecting an absence of the activation signal and interrupting the transfer to bring the utility vehicle to a standstill.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 8, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2024
    Assignee: ZF CV SYSTEMS EUROPE BV
    Inventor: Oliver Wulf
  • Patent number: 11952004
    Abstract: A lane change assistance method is provided. The method includes recognizing styles of two traffic lines corresponding to a lane where a vehicle is located. Whether the vehicle violates traffic rules is determined according to the styles of the two traffic lines when the vehicle is performing an operation of changing lanes. A prompt is issued when the vehicle violates traffic rules.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 20, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2024
    Assignee: Chiun Mai Communication Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Hsiu-Hua Yen, Jian-Cheng Lin, Chih-Pu Hsu
  • Patent number: 11953918
    Abstract: A split control system for UAV incorporating auto pilot is disclosed. Control system comprises a real-time low-level main processor, and a non-real-time high-level co-processor. The co-processor computes desired body rate values and feeds them to the main processor which may be with latency. Main processor computes one or more motor control signals based on the desired body rate values. The main processor also executes a rate damping loop algorithm based on instantaneous body rate values to generate one or more motor control signals to maintain stability of the UAV even in events of latency in desired body rate values from the co-processor. Instantaneous body rate values are either obtained directly from sensors without any latency or obtained by main processor indirectly with negligible latency. Main processor acts as an intermediate between sensors and co-processor by collecting raw sensor data and feeding the data to co-processor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2024
    Assignee: ideaForge Technology PVT. LTD
    Inventor: Ashish Bhat
  • Patent number: 11954482
    Abstract: According to certain aspects, a computer-implemented method for operating an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle may be provided. With the customer's permission, an identity of a vehicle operator may be identified and a vehicle operator profile may be retrieved. Operating data regarding autonomous operation features operating the vehicle may be received from vehicle-mounted sensors. When a request to disable an autonomous feature is received, a risk level for the autonomous feature is determined and compared with a driver behavior setting for the autonomous feature stored in the vehicle operator profile. Based upon the risk level comparison, the autonomous vehicle retains control of vehicle or the autonomous feature is disengaged depending upon which is the safer driver—the autonomous vehicle or the vehicle human occupant. As a result, unsafe disengagement of self-driving functionality for autonomous vehicles may be alleviated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 11, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2024
    Assignee: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company
    Inventors: Brian Mark Fields, Chien Che Huang, Mohamed A. Wazeer, Shawn C. Bennett, Steven Cielocha, Ronny S. Bryant, Stephen Kohaus, Terry Quakenbush, Richard A. Novak, Aaron Scott Chan, Craig M. Main, Weixin Wu, Torri Wollenschlager, Carol Marie Csanda, Stacey Gorsuch, Todd Binion
  • Patent number: 11951979
    Abstract: Disclosed are systems and methods for autonomous vehicles and vehicles with automatic driver-assistance systems (ADAS) to automatically detect an imminent collision, determine whether the collision is avoidable or unavoidable, and plot a course minimizing the hazard using an artificial intelligence (AI) model. For example, a collision is avoidable if the vehicle can avoid it by steering, braking, and/or accelerating in a particular sequence. The AI model finds the best sequence for collision avoidance, and if that is not possible, it finds the best sequence for minimizing the harm. The harm is based on an estimated number of fatalities, injuries, and property damage predicted to be caused in the collision. The AI-based situation analysis and sequence selection are directly applicable to human-driven vehicles with an emergency-intervention ADAS system, as well as fully autonomous vehicles. With fast electronic reflexes and multi-sensor situation awareness, the AI model can save lives on the highway.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 27, 2023
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2024
    Inventors: David E. Newman, R. Kemp Massengill