Patents Examined by Rodney Butler
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Patent number: 11767032Abstract: A system comprises a lead autonomous vehicle (AV), a control device associated with the lead AV, and a following AV. The control device receives a command to navigate the lead AV to avoid an unexpected road condition. The control device receives sensor data from a sensor of the lead AV, comprising location coordinates of objects ahead of the lead AV. The control device accesses environmental data associated with a portion of a road between the lead AV and following AV. The environmental data comprises location coordinates of objects between the lead AV and following AV. The control device determines whether an object in the sensor data or environmental data impedes performing the command by the following AV. The control device updates the command, if the control device determines that an object impedes performing the command by the following AV, and communicates the updated command to the following AV.Type: GrantFiled: April 29, 2021Date of Patent: September 26, 2023Assignee: TUSIMPLE, INC.Inventors: Changyi Zhao, Joyce Tam, Bin Huang
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Patent number: 11766951Abstract: A through the road (TTR) hybridization strategy is proposed to facilitate introduction of hybrid electric vehicle technology in a significant portion of current and expected trucking fleets. In some cases, the technologies can be retrofitted onto an existing vehicle (e.g., a truck, a tractor unit, a trailer, a tractor-trailer configuration, at a tandem, etc.). In some cases, the technologies can be built into new vehicles. In some cases, one vehicle may be built or retrofitted to operate in tandem with another and provide the hybridization benefits contemplated herein. By supplementing motive forces delivered through a primary drivetrain and fuel-fed engine with supplemental torque delivered at one or more electrically-powered drive axles, improvements in overall fuel efficiency and performance may be delivered, typically without significant redesign of existing components and systems that have been proven in the trucking industry.Type: GrantFiled: September 23, 2022Date of Patent: September 26, 2023Assignee: Hyliion Inc.Inventors: Thomas Joseph Healy, Wilson Sa, Morgan Culbertson, Eric Schmidt, Roger Richter
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Patent number: 11768506Abstract: A system may include a first vehicle and a first control system that may control one or more vehicle operations of the first vehicle. The first control system may perform operations including receiving a first vehicle operation signal from a second control system associated with a second vehicle, sending one or more requests to one or more computing systems for a confirmation of the first vehicle operation signal, and determining a set of vehicle instructions to control the one or more vehicle operations based on whether one or more responses from the one or more computing systems provide the confirmation. The first control system may then control the first vehicle based on the set of vehicle instructions.Type: GrantFiled: March 29, 2021Date of Patent: September 26, 2023Assignee: United Services Automobile Association (USAA)Inventors: Carlos J P Chavez, Sacha Melquiades De'Angeli, David M. Jones, Jr., Gregory Brian Meyer, Christopher Russell, Arthur Quentin Smith
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Patent number: 11767031Abstract: A system comprises an autonomous vehicle (AV) and an operation server operably coupled with the AV. The operation server accesses environmental data associated with a road traveled by the AV. The environmental data is associated with a time window during which the AV is traveling along the road. The operation server compares the environmental data with map data that comprises expected road conditions ahead of the AV. The operation server determines whether the environmental data comprises an unexpected road condition that is not included in the map data. In response to determining that the environmental data comprises the unexpected road condition that is not included in the map data, the operation server determines a location coordinate of the unexpected road condition, and communicates a command to the AV to maneuver to avoid the unexpected road condition.Type: GrantFiled: April 29, 2021Date of Patent: September 26, 2023Assignee: TUSIMPLE, INC.Inventors: Changyi Zhao, Joyce Tam, Bin Huang
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Patent number: 11768507Abstract: A method for efficiently manage traveling planning in automated driving is provided. The method includes large-area planning of planning driving control of a vehicle in a predetermined management area including a vehicle traffic environment having a certain size, and small-area planning of planning driving control of the vehicle in a limited area or for a range of a limited period in the management area in a more detailed manner than the planning by the large-area planning, in which in at least one of the large-area planning and the small-area planning, information for determining planning is received from a plurality of traffic participants, and management of a combination of the received information and mediation thereof are performed, and the vehicle travels according to planning determined in each of the large-area planning and the small-area planning.Type: GrantFiled: November 18, 2021Date of Patent: September 26, 2023Assignees: National University Corporation Tokai National Higher Education and Research System, TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHAInventors: Shigeharu Teshima, Takemi Nohara, Hidehiro Kato, Haruo Fukuda
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Patent number: 11755019Abstract: There are provided a vehicle control device and a vehicle control system capable of improving efficiency and reliability of auto valet parking compared to the related art when a communication failure occurs. A vehicle control device mounted on a vehicle includes a recognition unit, an estimation unit, a communication unit, a determination unit, a trajectory generation unit, a vehicle control unit, and a retreated position decision unit. When the determination unit determines that communication of the communication unit is abnormal, the trajectory generation unit generates a target trajectory along which the vehicle drives to a retreated position decided by the retreated position decision unit.Type: GrantFiled: March 6, 2019Date of Patent: September 12, 2023Assignee: Hitachi Astemo, Ltd.Inventors: Ryoh Inaba, Naoyuki Tashiro, Tsutomu Kaneko, Katsuro Watanabe
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Patent number: 11755010Abstract: A method of automatically driven transportation vehicles (AV) that are tele-operated driving (TOD) in cases when the AV is not able to solve a situation due to unclear traffic conditions. Because TOD sessions arise from special, unclear and relatively rare circumstances and apply measures which go against normal traffic rules or normal behaviour expected from an AV, based on the solution, a transportation vehicle informs other AV's in the vicinity of the TOD session. Other transportation vehicles use the information on the TOD session to aid their situational awareness and driving.Type: GrantFiled: March 1, 2021Date of Patent: September 12, 2023Inventors: Andreas Pfadler, Guillaume Jornod, Israel Gonzalez Vazquez
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Patent number: 11747816Abstract: Achieved is an autonomous traveling control device which generates a safety priority path for avoiding passage through or approach to a dangerous region where a contact with another mobile object is possible, and travels along the safety priority path. The autonomous traveling control device includes a traveling path determination unit that generates a safety priority path for avoiding passage through or approach to a dangerous region where a contact with another mobile object is possible; and a traveling control unit that executes control causing the own device to travel along the safety priority path generated by the traveling path determination unit. The traveling path determination unit generates a cost priority path in a metric map on the basis of a minimum cost path in a topology map, and generates a safety priority path bypassing the dangerous region by correcting the cost priority path in the metric map.Type: GrantFiled: May 15, 2020Date of Patent: September 5, 2023Assignee: SONY GROUP CORPORATIONInventor: Masaomi Nabeta
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Patent number: 11731525Abstract: A system and method are disclosed for strategically positioning and aligning an object, for example, a vehicle at a charging station, parking station, port, depot or dock for orientation, alignment and pairing. The system includes an active-alignment module that measures the three-dimensional orientation of the object within the particular working envelope of the charging station and provides it to a supervisory-control module, which synchronizes the three-dimensional planar data, for example, plane 1 or plane 3 with planar data of the object, for example, plane 2 or plane 4, a robot-assisted-alignment module, and a vehicle-control module. The supervisory-control module acquires and synchronizes the 3D planar data of the active-alignment module (plane 1 or 3) to the planar data of vehicle or object (plane 2 or 4).Type: GrantFiled: October 19, 2021Date of Patent: August 22, 2023Assignee: Clearpoint Ventures LLCInventor: Daniel Cong
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Patent number: 11733701Abstract: When a vehicle control interface receives information indicating “Standstill” from a VP, the vehicle control interface sets a value 2 in a signal indicating an actual moving direction. When the number of wheels rotating in a forward rotation direction is larger than two, the vehicle control interface sets a value 0 in the signal indicating the actual moving direction. When the number of wheels rotating in a reverse rotation direction is larger than two, the vehicle control interface sets a value 1 in the signal indicating the actual moving direction. When the number of wheels rotating in the forward rotation direction is equal to the number of wheels rotating in the reverse rotation direction, the vehicle control interface sets a value 3 in the signal indicating the actual moving direction. The vehicle control interface provides the signal indicating the actual moving direction to an ADK.Type: GrantFiled: April 18, 2022Date of Patent: August 22, 2023Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHAInventors: Ikuma Suzuki, Yuta Ohashi
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Patent number: 11720122Abstract: System is configured to receive article information corresponding to articles to be transported by computer-controlled vehicles, the articles comprising a first article and a second article, each having a maximum article dimension. System is also configured to assign travel routes about a grid comprising grid cells for the vehicles to travel thereon. The travel route of a first vehicle carrying the first article includes a turning maneuver at a first grid cell. System is configured to control the turning maneuver of the first vehicle in the first grid cell such that there is no contact between the first article carried on the first vehicle with a second article carried on a second vehicle present in a second grid cell that is adjacent to the first grid cell when the first vehicle is undertaking the turning maneuver.Type: GrantFiled: October 27, 2022Date of Patent: August 8, 2023Assignee: Tompkins Robotics, Inc.Inventors: James M. Serstad, Michael C. Futch, Shenghong Zhang
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Patent number: 11712973Abstract: An electric vehicle includes in-vehicle multimedia set in a rotatable manner, and the rotatable in-vehicle multimedia is used for providing a charge operation interface and a discharge operation interface. The charge and discharge control method includes: receiving a wake-up instruction input by a user, where the wake-up instruction is generated by rotating the in-vehicle multimedia by the user, and the wake-up instruction includes a charge wake-up instruction and a discharge wake-up instruction; waking up the in-vehicle multimedia in a sleep mode according to the wake-up instruction, so that the in-vehicle multimedia correspondingly displays the charge operation interface or the discharge operation interface; receiving a setting instruction input by the user through an operation interface, where the setting instruction includes a charge setting instruction and a discharge setting instruction; and controlling the electric vehicle to execute the setting instruction.Type: GrantFiled: September 13, 2018Date of Patent: August 1, 2023Assignee: BYD COMPANY LIMITEDInventors: Jian Pan, Zhifeng He, Qun Liang, Liming Xu
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Patent number: 11714416Abstract: The disclosed subject matter includes a method and system for navigating an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), that include: generating, based on the scanning output data, a first map comprising a first group of cells and characterized by a first size; generating, based on the scanning output data, a second map representing an area smaller than that of the first map comprising a second group of cells, which are characterized by a second size being smaller than the first size; wherein each cell in the first group of cells and the second group of cells is classified to a class selected from at least two classes, comprising traversable and non-traversable, wherein the second part at least partly overlaps the first part; navigating the UGV based on data deduced from crossing between cells in the first map and second map.Type: GrantFiled: April 13, 2022Date of Patent: August 1, 2023Assignee: ELTA SYSTEMS LTD.Inventors: Ofir Cohen, Dina Appelman, Arnon Degani
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Patent number: 11715378Abstract: Provided herein is a system and method of a vehicle that detects a signal and reacts to the signal. The system comprises one or more sensors; one or more processors; a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the system to perform detecting a signal from a source; determining an intended action of the vehicle based on the detected signal; sending, to the source, a response signal indicative of the intended action; determining whether the source has sent a response to the response signal; and in response to determining that the source has sent a response to the response signal, taking the intended action based on the response to the response signal.Type: GrantFiled: July 1, 2022Date of Patent: August 1, 2023Assignee: Pony AI Inc.Inventor: Piaoyang Cui
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Patent number: 11709492Abstract: An information processing device (20) includes a route acquisition unit (202) and an automatic driving section determination unit (204). The route acquisition unit (202) acquires route information indicating a moving route of a mobile body. The automatic driving section determination unit (204) acquires adaptation coefficients for a plurality of sections included in the moving route indicated by the route information, with reference to an adaptation coefficient storage unit (206) that stores automatic driving adaptation coefficients set for the respective sections. Further, the automatic driving section determination unit (204) determines the automatic driving sections of the mobile body in the moving route, based on the acquired adaptation coefficients.Type: GrantFiled: January 5, 2022Date of Patent: July 25, 2023Assignee: Pioneer CorporationInventors: Hiroshi Nagata, Makoto Kurahashi, Akira Gotoda
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Patent number: 11703869Abstract: The described techniques relate to modifying a trajectory of a vehicle, such as an autonomous vehicle, based on a latency associated with one or more systems of the vehicle. In examples, a planning system of the vehicle may predict a future latency (e.g., based on an interval between receipt of sensor data and/or object predictions), and use the future latency to determine a time at which to predict object behavior. Additionally, in some cases, the described techniques may include associating a predetermined acceleration with a predicted future location of the object to create a safety distance around the object, where the predetermined acceleration may be based on a maximum expected acceleration of the object. The safety distance may account for the object potentially accelerating in one or more directions at the future time.Type: GrantFiled: November 26, 2019Date of Patent: July 18, 2023Assignee: Zoox, Inc.Inventor: Andrew E. Beller
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Patent number: 11705008Abstract: A vehicle policy server maintains a set of policies for constraining operations of one or more remote vehicles. The policies may specify areas, locations, or routes that specified vehicles are restricted from accessing based on a set of acquired information. An application programming interface (API) enables programmatic updates of the policies or related information. Policies may be enforced by transmitting control signals fully or in part to onboard vehicle computers or to a teleoperation support module providing remote support to the vehicles using human teleoperators and/or artificial intelligence agents. The control signals may directly control the vehicles or teleoperation, or may cause a navigation system to present known restrictions in a suitable fashion such as generating an augmented reality display or mapping overlays.Type: GrantFiled: October 15, 2021Date of Patent: July 18, 2023Assignee: Phantom Auto Inc.Inventors: Shay Magzimof, David Parunakian, Michael Kris
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Patent number: 11703870Abstract: A method of determining a drivable space trajectory of an ego vehicle is described. The method includes determining a set of vehicle trajectories corresponding to a same semantic driving maneuver during motion planning of the ego vehicle. The method also includes identifying the drivable space trajectory to perform the same semantic driving maneuver. The method further includes performing a vehicle control action to maneuver the ego vehicle along the drivable space trajectory.Type: GrantFiled: May 11, 2021Date of Patent: July 18, 2023Assignee: TOYOTA RESEARCH INSTITUTE, INC.Inventors: Daniele Molinari, Constantin Hubmann
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Patent number: 11702137Abstract: Methods and apparatus to control a torque threshold for hands on/off detection are disclosed. An example apparatus includes memory including instructions, and one or more processors to execute the instructions to cause the one or more processors to at least compare a velocity of a rack to at least one of a first velocity threshold or a second velocity threshold, adjust a first torque threshold in response to the velocity of the rack satisfying the first velocity threshold, adjust a second torque threshold in response to the velocity of the rack satisfying the second velocity threshold, compare a torque between the rack and a steering shaft to the first torque threshold and the second torque threshold, and detect a hands off condition in response to the torque between the rack and the steering shaft not satisfying the first torque threshold or the second torque threshold.Type: GrantFiled: January 15, 2021Date of Patent: July 18, 2023Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLCInventors: Quazi Farooqi, Darrel Alan Recker
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Patent number: 11687094Abstract: A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided for managing autonomous vehicles. In this regard, vehicle context data associated with an indication of a change in an autonomous level for a vehicle traveling along a road segment is determined. Furthermore, the vehicle is assigned to a queue of vehicles traveling along the road segment in response to a determination that the vehicle context data corresponds to particular vehicle context data associated with the queue of vehicles. An indication of the queue of vehicles may also be provided to the vehicle to facilitate navigation of the vehicle.Type: GrantFiled: December 15, 2020Date of Patent: June 27, 2023Assignee: HERE Global B.V.Inventors: Leon Stenneth, Jeremy Michael Young, Jerome Beaurepaire