Patents Examined by Renee Larose
  • Patent number: 11485354
    Abstract: A parking control method calculates a first control instruction and causing a control device of a vehicle to execute the first control instruction on the basis of an operation command acquired from an operator. The first control instruction is for moving the vehicle along a first route to a target parking space. The parking control method includes: when detecting an object after start of execution of the first control instruction, presenting the operator with selection information for selecting a first mode in which the execution of the first control instruction is continued or a second mode in which the control device of the vehicle is caused to execute an alternative control instruction for moving the vehicle along an alternative route different from the first route; and causing the control device to execute the first control instruction or the alternative control instruction in accordance with selection input information from the operator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 5, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 1, 2022
    Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yasuhisa Hayakawa, Yasuhiro Sakurai, Yasuhiro Suzuki
  • Patent number: 11487013
    Abstract: Systems and methods for generating mapping data for an autonomous vehicle (e.g., robotic devices). The methods include obtaining three-dimensional environmental data of an environment from a distance sensor. The three-dimensional environmental data includes information relating to one or more objects in the environment. The method further includes identifying at least one planar layer of two-dimensional data from the three-dimensional environmental data to be included in mapping data based on one or more characteristics of an autonomous vehicle, generating mapping data comprising the at least one planar layer of two-dimensional data from the three-dimensional environmental data, and transmitting the mapping data to the autonomous vehicle for use during operation within the environment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 8, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 1, 2022
    Assignee: Diversey, Inc.
    Inventors: David M. Knuth, Philip Hennessy, Aurle Gagne
  • Patent number: 11474530
    Abstract: Autonomous ground vehicles capture images during operation, and process the images to recognize ground surfaces or features within their vicinity, such as by providing the images to a segmentation network trained to recognize the ground surfaces or features. Semantic maps of the ground surfaces or features are generated from the processed images. A point on a semantic map is selected, and the autonomous ground vehicle is instructed to travel to a location corresponding to the selected point. The point is selected in accordance with one or more goals, such as to maintain the autonomous ground vehicle at a selected distance from a roadway or other hazardous surface, or along a centerline of a sidewalk.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2022
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Hakan Boyraz, Sheng Chen, Aleksandar Kojic
  • Patent number: 11467573
    Abstract: A vehicle computing system may identify a scenario in an environment that violates an operating constraint. The vehicle computing system may request remote guidance from a guidance system of a service computing device. The vehicle computing system may receive input from the guidance system including one or more waypoints and/or associated orientations for the vehicle to navigate through the scenario. The vehicle computing system may be configured to validate the input. A validation may include processing the input to determine whether the waypoint(s) and/or orientation(s) associated therewith may cause the vehicle to violate a safety protocol. Based on a determination that the input will not cause the vehicle to violate the safety protocol, the vehicle computing system may control the vehicle according to the input, such as by causing a drive system to operate the vehicle to each waypoint at the associated orientation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2022
    Assignee: Zoox, Inc.
    Inventors: Timothy Caldwell, Ravi Gogna, Meredith James Goldman, Frank Reinaldo Ramirez, Matthew Miller Young, Rick Zhang
  • Patent number: 11458990
    Abstract: An automatic driving vehicle is appropriately fielded into a travel route. Provided is an automatic driving vehicle that is controlled by an operation management center, and has an automatic mode to automatically travel along a set travel route. An input to shift to the automatic mode is performed by an operator, a travel start instruction is received from the operation management center, a state of waiting for a start manipulation by the operator is provided, and in the start manipulation waiting state, in a case where the start manipulation is performed and a case where the start manipulation is not performed and a predetermined time elapses, start is performed to start travel in the automatic mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2022
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Hirohito Ide, Yuchi Yamanouchi, Kazuhiro Umeda
  • Patent number: 11460311
    Abstract: A path planning method, system, and device for autonomous driving are provided, where the method includes: acquiring environment perception information and vehicle positioning and navigation information, where the environment perception information includes obstacle information, roadside information, and lane line information, and the vehicle positioning and navigation information includes a vehicle pose and a target route; generating sub-paths according to the environment perception information and the vehicle positioning and navigation information, to obtain candidate sub-paths meeting vehicle constraints; performing a collision detection on the candidate sub-paths meeting the vehicle constraints, to obtain collision-free candidate sub-paths; performing a sub-path search on the collision-free candidate sub-paths by using an A* search algorithm; and obtaining, according to a result of the sub-path search, a local path of a vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 31, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2022
    Assignee: GUANGZHOU XIAOPENG MOTORS TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Qiang Tu, Jianming Lai, Peng Li, Shengjun Chen, Zhiguang Xiao
  • Patent number: 11454982
    Abstract: Directed audio-encoded data emissions systems and methods may include one or more sensors, one or more audio transmitters, and a controller configured to cause emission of directed audio-encoded data toward various objects, such as vehicles, user devices, audio input/output devices, or others. For example, responsive to detecting a potential safety situation and/or a potential intended communication situation associated with one or more detected objects, audio-encoded data having selected audio characteristics may be emitted toward the detected objects using selected audio transmitters. The audio characteristics may be selected to encode one or more instructions to be executed by the detected objects, and the instructions may cause emission of audio, visual, or haptic notifications and/or initiation of various functions or operations by the objects.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 27, 2022
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Gur Kimchi, Brian Beckman, Pragyana K. Mishra
  • Patent number: 11427220
    Abstract: An automatic driving vehicle is appropriately fielded into a travel route. Provided is an automatic driving vehicle that is controlled by an operation management center, and has an automatic mode to automatically travel along a set travel route. An input to shift to the automatic mode is performed by an operator, a travel start instruction is received from the operation management center, a state of waiting for a start manipulation by the operator is provided, and in the start manipulation waiting state, in a case where the start manipulation is performed and a case where the start manipulation is not performed and a predetermined time elapses, start is performed to start travel in the automatic mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2022
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Hirohito Ide, Yuchi Yamanouchi, Kazuhiro Umeda
  • Patent number: 11401051
    Abstract: An aircraft inspection system is configured to inspect one or more components of an aircraft before a flight. The aircraft inspection system includes an inspection robot that is configured to inspect the component(s) of the aircraft. The inspection robot includes a conveying sub-system that is configured to efficiently move the inspection robot to different locations, and a sensing sub-system including one or more sensors that are configured to sense one or more characteristics of the component(s) during an inspection. The sensing sub-system is configured to record the characteristic(s) as inspection data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2022
    Assignee: THE BOEING COMPANY
    Inventors: Alireza Shapoury, James J. Troy, Gary Georgeson, Branko Sarh
  • Patent number: 11377108
    Abstract: Among other things, a vehicle drives autonomously on a trajectory through a road network to a goal location based on an automatic process for planning the trajectory without human intervention; and an automatic process alters the planning of the trajectory to reach a target location based on a request received from an occupant of the vehicle to engage in a speed-reducing maneuver.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 3, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2022
    Assignee: Motional AD LLC
    Inventors: Harshavardhan Ravichandran, Karl Iagnemma, Eric Wolff
  • Patent number: 11372416
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to navigational systems for vehicles. In one implementation, such a navigational system may receive a first output from a first sensor and a second output from a second sensor; identify a target object in the first output; determine whether the target object is included in the second output; and determine a detected driving condition associated with the target object and whether the condition triggers a navigational constraint. If the navigational constraint is not triggered, the system may cause a first navigational adjustment if the target object is included in both the first output and the second output, and may forego any navigational adjustments if the target object is included in the first output but not in the second output. If the navigational constraint is triggered and the target object is included either in the first or second output, the system may cause a second navigational adjustment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 1, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2022
    Assignee: Mobileye Vision Technologies Ltd.
    Inventors: Shai Shalev-Shwartz, Shaked Shammah, Amnon Shashua
  • Patent number: 11361599
    Abstract: A damage quantifier for a vehicle component formed of composite material is determined based on vehicle sensor data. The vehicle is operated based on a mission determined according to determined damage quantifier.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 23, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2022
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: David Michael Herman, Antonios Koumpias
  • Patent number: 11347216
    Abstract: A remote parking system includes: a control device mounted on a vehicle and configured to execute remote parking processing; an operation terminal configured to be carried by a user; and a position determination unit mounted on the vehicle and/or the operation terminal and configured to determine a terminal position which is a position of the operation terminal. The control device is configured to calculate a first traveling route and a first recommended area. The first traveling route is a traveling route of the vehicle from an alighting position to a parking position. The first recommended area is an area where the user should be present when the vehicle moves along the first traveling route. The control device calculates a second traveling route on determining that the terminal position is not present within the first recommended area set for the first traveling route that has already been calculated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2022
    Assignee: HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Gaku Shimamoto, Junpei Noguchi
  • Patent number: 11346684
    Abstract: The preferred embodiments of the present invention are directed to methods and systems for dynamic route estimation and prediction using discrete sampled location updates from various mobile devices for the purpose of providing a graphical representation of a mobile device's route along a known network path of map data. The embodiments also provide supplemental route metrics, such as traveled distance, elapsed time, etc., and the capability to assign destination points for the purpose of providing the ability to modify location update points in an application, such as a route planner, and/or to store the dynamically generated route based on various preferences for later retrieval.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 1, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2022
    Inventors: Michael Sheha, Angie Sheha, Stephen Petilli, Arun Yarlagadda
  • Patent number: 11295269
    Abstract: In an approach to cognitive retail facing, one or more computer processors receive data associated with a shelf facing of one or more products on display. Based, at least in part, on the received shelf facing data, the one or more computer processors determine whether the shelf facing matches a predetermined pattern. In response to determining the shelf facing does not match a predetermined pattern, the one or more computer processors generate one or more instructions to adjust the one or more products to match the predetermined pattern. The one or more computer processors transmit the generated one or more instructions to one or more autonomous robots.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 16, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 5, 2022
    Assignee: Kyndryl, Inc.
    Inventors: Pramod Vadayadiyil Raveendran, Sarbajit K. Rakshit, Kuntal Dey
  • Patent number: 11284955
    Abstract: A virtual reality system providing a virtual robotic surgical environment, and methods for using the virtual reality system, are described herein. The virtual reality system may be used to expedite the R&D cycle during development of a robotic surgical system, such as by allowing simulation of potential design without the time and significant expense of physical prototypes. The virtual reality system may also be used to test a control algorithm or a control mode for a robotic surgical component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2022
    Assignee: VERB SURGICAL INC.
    Inventors: Haoran Yu, Pablo Eduardo Garcia Kilroy, Bernard Fai Kin Siu, Eric Mark Johnson
  • Patent number: 11279475
    Abstract: A plurality of sensor datasets is received including: (1) an interference sensor dataset which is associated with interference between airflow from a first rotor in a multicopter and airflow from a second rotor in the multicopter, (2) a first and a second isolated sensor dataset which are associated with isolated airflows from the first rotor and the second rotor, respectively. A generalized flow model associated with a generalized rotor is received and an altitude for the multicopter is generated based at least in part on the plurality of sensor datasets and the generalized flow model, including by using a non-linear filter that builds a consolidated probability function associated with altitude that reconciles the plurality of sensor datasets with the generalized flow model.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 27, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 22, 2022
    Assignee: Kitty Hawk Corporation
    Inventor: Chin Gian Hooi
  • Patent number: 11260855
    Abstract: Methods and systems to predict object movement within a driving environment is disclosed. In one embodiment, one or more objects are detected within the driving environment. One or more predicted trajectories are computed for each of the objects based on map and route information to produce a set of predicted trajectories for the objects. The set of predicted trajectories is used to enumerate a number of combinations of predicted trajectories on which the objects possibly travel within the driving environment. A risk value is computed for each of the combinations to generate a number of corresponding risk values. An autonomous vehicle is controlled based on a combination having a lowest risk value included in the corresponding risk values.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 17, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 1, 2022
    Assignee: BAIDU USA LLC
    Inventor: Yajia Zhang
  • Patent number: 11235760
    Abstract: The purpose of the present invention is to provide a system in which the reliability of an automatic driving system can be excellently complemented by a different control system while the automatic driving system is effectively used. The vehicle control device outputs to a drive device one of a first control signal generated on the basis of automatic driving control information, and a second control signal generated on the basis of the relative information between a vehicle and a surrounding object. If an abnormality is detected in the automatic driving control information, the second control signal is output to the drive device in place of the first control signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 1, 2022
    Assignee: HITACHI AUTOMOTIVE SYSTEMS, LTD.
    Inventors: Satoshi Otsuka, Kohei Sakurai
  • Patent number: 11229154
    Abstract: Disclosed are systems and methods to determine path selection for automated industrial vehicles. A control system includes a control unit operatively connected to a vehicle engine. A location device is operatively connected to the control unit. A steering controller is operatively connected to the control unit and configured to automatically control the path of the vehicle. The control unit includes a path correction system configured to, determine a current vehicle path from location data received from the location device, determine if the current vehicle path is different from a first automatic path, establish a second automatic path, and send a signal to the steering controller to follow the second automatic path.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 25, 2022
    Assignee: DEERE & COMPANY
    Inventor: James Hershbarger