Patents Examined by Richard Camby
  • Patent number: 9157383
    Abstract: A system, method and computer program for simulating vehicle energy use is provided. Drive cycle data collected during real-world driving of at least one vehicle is received by at least one computing device, and engine torque information associated with the real-world driving of the at least one vehicle is also received. Vehicle payload mass of the at least one vehicle is estimated based at least partly on the respective received engine torque information, and energy use of the at least one vehicle is estimated based at least partly on the respective drive cycle data, the respective torque information, and the estimated vehicle payload mass.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 13, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 13, 2015
    Assignee: CROSSCHASM TECHNOLOGIES INC.
    Inventors: Matthew Stevens, Christopher J. Mendes
  • Patent number: 9156469
    Abstract: Systems and methods for improving operation of a hybrid vehicle are presented. In one example, compensation for a driveline disconnect clutch is provided. The approaches may reduce driveline torque disturbances.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 25, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 13, 2015
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Alex O'Connor Gibson, Felix Nedorezov, Jeffrey Allen Doering, Hong Jiang
  • Patent number: 9157755
    Abstract: A method and system for providing navigational support through corrective data includes monitoring a user's current position and travel pattern. A likelihood that the user is lost may be calculated based on the user's travel pattern and current position. If the likelihood exceeds a threshold value, the user may be provided with corrective data such as photographs or landmark information through visual or audio communication to assist the user in taking a corrective action or preventing getting lost.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 13, 2015
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: James R. Kozloski, Clifford A. Pickover, Robert W. Wisniewski
  • Patent number: 9157750
    Abstract: A touch panel device includes a display unit and a controller. The display unit displays, on a map or a nautical chart, a position acquired from a GNSS sensor and a symbol set on the map or the nautical chart. The controller controls, when an operation of specifying the symbol is detected, an auxiliary tool to appear on a display screen of the display unit, the auxiliary tool for recognizing a touch operation of moving the symbol.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 3, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 13, 2015
    Assignee: Furuno Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Tadahiro Miichi, Sadao Sato
  • Patent number: 9150123
    Abstract: A method and device adapt a sitting position of a vehicle occupant in a vehicle with at least one driver assistance system that includes at least one optical sensor unit, and with a vehicle seat with a drive unit for adjusting the sitting position. At least one physical parameter of a vehicle occupant and/or a hazardous situation is sensed by the optical sensor unit, and on the basis of the sensed physical parameter automatic setting and/or pre-setting of the sitting position of the vehicle seat are/is carried out.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 1, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 6, 2015
    Assignee: JOHNSON CONTROLS GMBH
    Inventors: Daniel J. Jendritza, Wei Lange-Mao
  • Patent number: 9145051
    Abstract: A method for a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, comprising: during a first condition, including an engine-off condition and the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle coupled to an external power source; heating a fuel vapor canister based on a fuel tank vacuum; and opening a fuel tank isolation valve to draw heated vapors into a fuel tank. In this way, a passive purge operation may be executed, thereby purging the fuel vapor canister without forcing the engine to turn on. Thus, the vehicle may be operated at peak fuel economy without increasing emissions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 29, 2015
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Aed M. Dudar, Dennis Seung-Man Yang, Russell Randall Pearce
  • Patent number: 9132900
    Abstract: A trolling motor control system that includes a main controller configured interface with a trolling motor is provided. The main controller is configured to control the output power and directional heading of the trolling motor. In at least one embodiment, the main controller has an electronic interface configured to establish a two-way day data connection between the main controller and an electronic GPS-equipped mapping device. This two-way connection allows the main controller to use data stored on the GPS-equipped mapping device to execute functions of the trolling motor control system. It also allows functions of the trolling motor control system to be executed via controls on the GPS-equipped mapping device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 9, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 15, 2015
    Assignee: Johnson Outdoors Inc.
    Inventors: Paul D. Salmon, David C. Evers
  • Patent number: 9132739
    Abstract: The vehicle includes a motor capable of producing motive power for movement; a storage battery capable of supplying electric power to drive the motor; and a secondary coil capable of performing wireless transmission of electric power between the secondary coil and a primary coil at an outside of the vehicle. In addition, the vehicle includes a command generation part capable of generating a command to move the vehicle so as to adjust a relative position of the secondary coil with respect to the primary coil, using a first received power value indicating an amount of electric power received by the secondary coil from the primary coil or using a second received power value indicating an amount of electric power received by the primary coil from the secondary coil.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 22, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 15, 2015
    Assignee: IHI CORPORATION
    Inventor: Motonao Niizuma
  • Patent number: 9115682
    Abstract: Systems and methods for improving operation of a hybrid vehicle are presented. In one example, application of a driveline disconnect clutch to start an engine is described. The approach applies the driveline disconnect clutch to rotate an engine and at least partially disengages the driveline disconnect clutch to reduce the possibility of a reduction in torque applied to vehicle wheels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2015
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Alexander O'Connor Gibson, Felix Nedorezov, Jeffrey Allen Doering, Hong Jiang, Seung-Hoon Lee, James William Loch McCallum, Gregory Michael Pietron, Yuji Fujii
  • Patent number: 9114719
    Abstract: Disclosures herein are related to increasing vehicle security.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2015
    Inventor: Bryan Marc Failing
  • Patent number: 9114711
    Abstract: An electric vehicle includes a slip ratio estimator to estimate a slip ratio of a drive wheel on a road surface based on a detection value indicating a vehicle travel speed and a drive wheel rotational frequency; an applied torque estimator to estimate an entire torque applied to the drive wheel based on motor torque command value or motor current value of a motor unit and the torque estimated by a disturbance observer attributable to external force; a coefficient of friction estimator to estimate a coefficient of friction between a road surface and a tire of the drive wheel, based on the estimated torque and the estimated slip ratio; and a motor torque command value limiter to limit, based on a determined maximum acceptable torque, the motor torque command value to the motor unit that is generated responsively to an acceleration manipulation unit and a deceleration manipulation unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2015
    Assignee: NTN CORPORATION
    Inventor: Takayoshi Ozaki
  • Patent number: 9114812
    Abstract: An apparatus and method for controlling a locomotive assembly having a locomotive and an auxiliary power unit is disclosed. The locomotive assembly includes at least one locomotive having a power bus, a primary engine-generator set electrically coupled to the power bus, and a locomotive controller programmed to control the primary engine-generator set. The locomotive assembly also includes an auxiliary power unit having an auxiliary engine-generator set electrically coupled to a locomotive power bus, and a first auxiliary controller. The auxiliary controller is programmed to receive a command signal from the locomotive controller indicating a desired amount of power, and control the auxiliary engine-generator set of the auxiliary power unit to produce the desired amount of power.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2015
    Assignee: Bright Energy Storage Technologies, LLP
    Inventors: Scott Raymond Frazier, Kevin Pykkonen, Karl Ginter, Jeffrey Orion Pritchard
  • Patent number: 9108525
    Abstract: Implementations of the present invention contemplate using the communicative connections between telematics units in vehicles and a telematics service provider (TSP) to facilitate discharging and recharging of high energy electrical power storage devices, e.g. batteries, in vehicles. Specifically, implementations of the present invention contemplate an entity, e.g. a TSP, located remotely from a vehicle, that issues a command to a telematics unit in the vehicle to discharge or recharge an electrical power storage device in the vehicle. In some implementations, the command to discharge the storage device is issued by the TSP or other remote entity in response to a prior transmission sent by the telematics unit in the vehicle to the TSP or other entity. In other implementations, the command to discharge or recharge the storage device issued by the TSP or remote entity is triggered by the determination that a disaster may impact the vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 4, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 18, 2015
    Assignee: GENERAL MOTORS LLC
    Inventor: Matthew G. Przybylski
  • Patent number: 9108582
    Abstract: A system and method for collaborative vehicle crash planning employs a model-based approach for mitigating damage and injuries resulting from a vehicle collision. A real-time crash model is generated to determine an optimal crash sequence within a parallel computing environment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 25, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 18, 2015
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: James R Kozloski, Timothy Michael Lynar, Clifford Alan Pickover, John Michael Wagner
  • Patent number: 9111296
    Abstract: Digital signage systems and methods are provided for advertising and vehicle maintenance-related content based on vehicle telematics data. Example method steps include receiving vehicle telematics data from an in-vehicle telematics device, creating a content production request based on the vehicle telematics data, retrieving context-aware information based on the content production request from a local database or a remote networked resource, creating a digital signage message based at least in part on the context-aware information and at least one predetermined rule, and causing display of the digital signage message on one or more displays.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 12, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 18, 2015
    Assignee: COGNIANCE, INC.
    Inventors: Sergii Gorpynich, Vasyl Pasternak, Oleg Uzenkov
  • Patent number: 9102295
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method (400) for monitoring a rental vehicle, said vehicle including a navigation/geolocation device arranged such as to determine and report the positioning coordinates of said vehicle, said method including the following steps: verifying (406) that the positioning coordinates of said vehicle are inside a previously recorded predetermined area and, if the positioning coordinates are not inside the predetermined area, executing a step (408-440) of indicating the anomaly. The invention also relates to a system implementing such a method.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 2, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 11, 2015
    Assignee: Bluecarsharing
    Inventors: Sandrine Ressayre, Franck Thieulent
  • Patent number: 9090254
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method for operating a preferably serial hydraulic hybrid drive system (1), comprising an internal combustion engine (8), a first expulsion machine (11), a second expulsion machine (12), a pressure accumulator (20) and an isolating valve device (30). For the purpose of optimization it is proposed that for various operating modes in each case a total efficiency level is read out from characteristic maps. These total efficiency levels are compared with one another. The operating mode with the best total efficiency level is subsequently selected.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 28, 2015
    Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
    Inventor: Richard Bauer
  • Patent number: 9086283
    Abstract: An apparatus for estimating the location of a terminal obtains definite location information of the terminal, estimates a dead reckoning location of the terminal using finally obtaining definite location information when definite location information of the terminal is not obtained for a set time, and combines positioning information of an adjacent terminal, definite location information of the terminal, and dead reckoning location information of the terminal with each other when reliability of dead reckoning location information of the adjacent terminal is higher than reliability of dead reckoning of the terminal to estimate combinatorial location information of the terminal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 21, 2015
    Assignee: ELECTRONICS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH INSTITUTE
    Inventor: Manho Park
  • Patent number: 9086399
    Abstract: Diagnostic system including a sensor device with a sensor for generating signals corresponding to a first operational condition, a control device with a timer and function for performance of measurements, and a signal transmission device. The system includes a device for determination of a second operational condition of the system component and configured where the sensor value of the signal transmission device corresponding to the first operational condition is furnished when the sensor value corresponding to a second operational condition of the transmission mechanism is higher or lower than a comparative value, and housing component of a lubricant container and in particular closure device for sealing an opening of such a housing component from a lubricant which is present in the operational use thereof in an internal space thereof, having arranged therein: at least one sensor device comprising at least one sensor for determining the water content in the lubricant.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 21, 2015
    Assignee: Airbus Operations GmbH
    Inventors: Björn Dorr, Franz Nuscheler, Sumit Paul
  • Patent number: 9076348
    Abstract: Methods and computer readable medium for collaborating on geographical maps between two or more computers are disclosed. In particular, sharing a geographical location on a map between two or more computers and co-navigating a map between two or more computers are disclosed. With respect to sharing a geographical location, the geographical location is retrieved to the first computer. The geographical location is added to the map being rendered at the first computer and is sent to a second computer. A map including the geographical location is rendered at the second computer. With respect to co-navigating, a map is displayed from a map perspective at the first computer. The map perspective is sent to the second computer. A map from the same map perspective being displayed at the first computer is rendered at the second computer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2015
    Assignee: VID SCALE, INC.
    Inventors: Gabriel Coch, David Mark Smith, Graham Knight