Patents Examined by Rodney A. Butler
  • Patent number: 11899458
    Abstract: Described herein are technologies relating to computing a likelihood of an operation-influencing event with respect to an autonomous vehicle at a geographic location. The likelihood of the operation-influencing event is computed based upon a prediction of a value that indicates whether, through a causal process, the operation-influencing event is expected to occur. The causal process is identified by means of a model, which relates spatiotemporal factors and the operation-influencing events.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 16, 2023
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: GM CRUISE HOLDINGS LLC
    Inventors: Antony Joseph, Geoffrey Louis Chi-Johnston, Nimish Patil, Vishal Suresh Vaingankar, Laura Athena Freeman
  • Patent number: 11899104
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide a navigation system which, on the one hand, is arranged on sides of the underwater vehicle/AUV and, on the other hand, includes a surface transmitter as a counterpart. The two units communicate with each other such that the surface transmitter emits its signal directed to the position of the underwater vehicle and/or that the surface transmitter follows the underwater vehicle to improve the position determination capability.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 9, 2023
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: FRAUNHOFER-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V.
    Inventors: Gunnar Brink, Edwin Devassykutty, Christian Langen
  • Patent number: 11900806
    Abstract: A vehicle communication system includes: a communication server and a vehicle control device. The vehicle control device includes at least one electronic control unit configured to: recognize a position of the host vehicle; acquire section information on the communication established section and the communication interrupted section; determine in which section, either the communication established section or the communication interrupted section, the host vehicle is traveling or is to travel; perform system driven control of the host vehicle based on the road condition information when the host vehicle travels in the communication established section; and perform driver driven control of the host vehicle when the host vehicle travels in the communication interrupted section.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Satoshi Uno
  • Patent number: 11897634
    Abstract: A system includes one or more components within an internal cabin of a vehicle. An imaging device is configured to obtain an image of the one or more components. A state determination control unit includes a processor. The state determination control unit is in communication with the imaging device. The state determination control unit receives image data including the image from the imaging device. Further, the state determination control unit determines a state of the one or more components based on the image data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: THE BOEING COMPANY
    Inventors: Venkatesh Babu Radhakrishnan, Mugaludi Ramesha Rakesh, Madhanmohan Savadamuthu, Shubham Tripathi, Ethan Carl Owyang
  • Patent number: 11900807
    Abstract: A vehicle communication system includes: a communication server and a vehicle control device. The vehicle control device includes at least one electronic control unit configured to: recognize a position of the host vehicle; acquire section information on the communication established section and the communication interrupted section; determine in which section, either the communication established section or the communication interrupted section, the host vehicle is traveling or is to travel; perform system driven control of the host vehicle based on the road condition information when the host vehicle travels in the communication established section; and perform driver driven control of the host vehicle when the host vehicle travels in the communication interrupted section.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 8, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Satoshi Uno
  • Patent number: 11900816
    Abstract: A vehicle platoon following deciding system based on cloud computing is configured to decide a plurality of vehicle platoon accelerations of a leading vehicle and at least one following vehicle. A cloud processing unit receives a leading vehicle parameter group and at least one following vehicle parameter group. The cloud processing unit is configured to implement a cloud deciding step. The cloud deciding step includes judging whether the leading vehicle is manually driven according to the leading vehicle parameter group to generate a driving mode judging result, calculating a driving acceleration range according to a leading vehicle acceleration range and at least one following vehicle acceleration range, estimating a compensated acceleration according to the leading vehicle parameter group, and calculating the vehicle platoon accelerations according to the driving mode judging result and at least one of the driving acceleration range and the compensated acceleration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: Automotive Research & Testing Center
    Inventors: Hsiang Chieh Hsu, Tsung-Ming Hsu
  • Patent number: 11891089
    Abstract: A vehicle determines whether or not a passage permit condition of the vehicle according to an instruction content of a traffic light in front of the vehicle is satisfied. If it is determined that the passage permit condition is not satisfied, the vehicle temporally stops in front of the traffic light and transmits an assist requiring signal to a remote facility. A display device of the remote facility displays reference image information indicating shot image information of the vehicle that temporally stops in front of the traffic light. An operator of the remote facility inputs positional information of pixels that make up the traffic light contained in the reference image information. The remote facility transmits assist information including the positional information to the vehicle. Based on the positional information, the vehicle determines again whether or not the passage permit condition is satisfied.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2024
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Yoshiaki Matsuo
  • Patent number: 11891090
    Abstract: Provided herein is a system and method implemented on a vehicle. The system comprises one or more sensors, one or more processors, and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the system to perform: obtaining data from the one or more sensors; comparing the obtained data from the one or more sensors with reference data; determining whether one or more characteristics of the obtained data deviate from corresponding characteristics of the reference data by more than a respective threshold; in response to determining that one or more characteristics of the data obtained deviate from corresponding characteristics of the reference data by more than a respective threshold, determining an action of the vehicle based on amounts of the one or more deviations; and performing the determined action.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2024
    Assignee: Pony AI Inc.
    Inventor: Robert Dingli
  • Patent number: 11891070
    Abstract: A method, apparatus, and system for collecting and evaluating powered vehicle operation utilizing on-board diagnostic components and location determining components or systems. The invention creates one or more databases whereby identifiable behavior or evaluative characteristics can be analyzed or categorized. The evaluation can include predicting likely future events. The database can be correlated or evaluated with other databases for a wide variety of uses.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2024
    Assignee: Allstate Insurance Company
    Inventors: Joseph Patrick Phelan, Johannes A. Perquin
  • Patent number: 11891071
    Abstract: Systems and methods of analyzing a target vehicle based on other vehicles are disclosed. One or more computing devices may receive monitoring vehicle driving data collected from vehicle operation sensors within at least one monitoring vehicle by a telematics device. The one or more computing devices may further receive target vehicle driving data from the telematics device of the at least one monitoring vehicle. The one or more computing devices may determine a driving behavior associated with the target vehicle based on an analysis of the monitoring vehicle driving data and the target vehicle driving data. The one or more computing devices may calculate one or more driver scores based on the driving behavior.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 3, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2024
    Assignee: Allstate Insurance Company
    Inventor: Dana Ferguson
  • Patent number: 11886199
    Abstract: In accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure, method includes obtaining multi-level environment data corresponding to a plurality of driving environment levels, encoding the multi-level environment data at each level, extracting features from the multi-level environment data at each encoded level, fusing the extracted features from each encoded level with a spatial-temporal attention framework to generate a fused information embedding, and decoding the fused information embedding to predict driving environment information at one or more driving environment levels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 13, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2024
    Assignee: Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc.
    Inventors: Xuewei Qi, Kentaro Oguchi, Yongkang Liu
  • Patent number: 11886187
    Abstract: Aspects of the disclosure relate to controlling a vehicle in an autonomous driving mode using trajectories. For instance, a trajectory may be received by one or more first computing devices from one or more second computing devices. While the first computing devices are controlling the vehicle in the autonomous driving mode based on the trajectory, an error may be generated by second computing devices. Whether the error is a recoverable error may be determined, and if so, the second computing devices attempt to generate a new trajectory. When the second computing devices generate the new trajectory, the vehicle may be controlled by the first computing devices according to the new trajectory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 3, 2022
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2024
    Assignee: Waymo LLC
    Inventor: Ioan-Alexandru Sucan
  • Patent number: 11886202
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are system, method, and computer program product embodiments for switching between local and remote guidance instructions for autonomous vehicles. For example, the method includes, in response to monitoring one or more actions of objects detected in a scene in which the autonomous robotic system is moving, causing the autonomous robotic system to slow or cease movement in the scene. The method includes detecting a trigger condition based on movement of the autonomous robotic system in the scene. In response to the one or more monitored actions and detecting the trigger condition, the method includes transmitting a remote guidance request to a remote server. After transmitting the remote guidance request, the method includes receiving remote guidance instructions from the remote server and causing the autonomous robotic system to begin operating according to the remote guidance instructions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 22, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2024
    Assignee: Argo AI, LLC
    Inventors: Shenglong Gao, Ruben Zhao, Marcial Hernandez, Thomas Petroff, Edward Venator
  • Patent number: 11861865
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are system, method, and computer program product embodiments for automated autonomous vehicle pose validation. An embodiment operates by generating a range image from a point cloud solution comprising a pose estimate for an autonomous vehicle. The embodiment queries the range image for predicted ranges and predicted class labels corresponding to lidar beams projected into the range image. The embodiment generates a vector of features from the range image. The embodiment compares a plurality of values to the vector of features using a binary classifier. The embodiment validates the autonomous vehicle pose based on the comparison of the plurality of values to the vector of features using the binary classifier.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2024
    Assignee: ARGO AI, LLC
    Inventors: Philippe Babin, Kunal Anil Desai, Tao V. Fu, Gang Pan, Xxx Xinjilefu
  • Patent number: 11860621
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a travel control device includes a passing order determiner configured to determine passing order of a plurality of mobile objects in a first area through which the plurality of mobile objects pass on a basis of a conflict condition at which conflict among the mobile objects occurs; and a controller configured to control traveling of the plurality of mobile objects on a basis of the passing order.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2024
    Assignee: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
    Inventors: Hideyuki Aisu, Shizu Sakakibara, Michio Yamashita, Noriyuki Hirayama
  • Patent number: 11851847
    Abstract: Disclosed are power machines and systems configured to provide autonomous or augmented control of the machines in a localized positioning environment in which GPS navigation is not available. Also disclosed are methods of providing augmented control of a power machine in such an environment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 6, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2023
    Assignee: DOOSAN BOBCAT NORTH AMERICA INC.
    Inventors: Yizhe Chang, Robert J. Gonzalez, Jingnan Shi, Sirapatsorn Pongpiriyakarn, Felipe Borja, Chi-Yen Lee, Maxwell Maleno
  • Patent number: 11842585
    Abstract: A path providing system for a vehicle includes: a communication unit configured to receive, from a server, map information including a plurality of layers of data from a server, a path providing device configured to provide a path information to a vehicle. The path providing device includes an interface unit configured to receive sensing information from one or more sensors disposed at the vehicle, and a processor. The processor is configured to determine an optimal path for guiding the vehicle from an identified lane, generate autonomous driving visibility information based on the sensing information and the determined optimal path, and update the optimal path based on dynamic information related to a movable object located on the optimal path and the autonomous driving visibility information. The path providing system includes an event data recorder configured to store vehicle status information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 12, 2023
    Assignee: LG Electronics Inc.
    Inventors: Seunghwan Bang, Sungmin Kim
  • Patent number: 11840254
    Abstract: A system for autonomously driving a vehicle along a road segment includes at least one processor. The processor is configured to: acquire at least one piece of peripheral object data indicating information about an object disposed around the vehicle from a peripheral monitoring sensor; analyze the peripheral object data to calculate a position of the landmark with respect to the road on which the vehicle travels; determine position coordinates of the vehicle based on the position of the landmark calculated from the peripheral object data and the map data; and change a relative position of the vehicle with respect to an obstacle so as to easily detect the landmark by the peripheral monitoring sensor when the obstacle is disposed within a detection range of the peripheral monitoring sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 25, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 12, 2023
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tomohito Terazawa, Takahisa Yokoyama
  • Patent number: 11832548
    Abstract: In an agricultural machine, a route creator creates a planned traveling route for a traveling vehicle body in a work area where a working device works using a material. An area setter sets, outside the work area, a replenishment area to replenish the material. A charge amount acquirer acquires a charge amount of the material. A remaining amount calculator calculates a remaining amount of the material based on the charge amount acquired and a material consumption of the material consumed by the work. A position setter sets a replenishment position to replenish the material in the replenishment area set by the area setter based on the remaining amount calculated by the remaining amount calculator. A position changer changes the replenishment position when a change reception switch receives change of the replenishment position. A display displays the changed replenishment position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 16, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2023
    Assignee: KUBOTA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Shinnosuke Ishikawa, Fumiya Yoshimura, Ken Sakuta
  • Patent number: 11829146
    Abstract: A method includes detecting, by a sensing system of an autonomous vehicle (AV) executing a trip from a first location to a second location, a signal from a source external to the AV to stop the AV, and analyzing the signal to determine whether the AV is to be stopped in response to the signal. Responsive to determining that the AV is to be stopped, the method includes causing a vehicle control system of the AV to stop the AV at a third location, determining that one or more parking brakes are to be engaged, and causing the vehicle control system to automatically engage the one or more parking brakes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 29, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2023
    Assignee: Waymo LLC
    Inventor: Vijaysai Patnaik