Patents Examined by Sang Kim
  • Patent number: 11623520
    Abstract: An information providing device is equipped with one or more displays that display notification information, a camera that acquires information of a vehicle occupant, a vehicle occupant detection unit that detects a field of view of the vehicle occupant, a display determination unit that determines whether or not there is a display that lies within the field of view, a display decision unit that makes a decision, on the basis of the determination of the display determination unit, regarding a notification display to allow the notification information to be displayed, and a notification control unit that controls the one or more displays.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 11, 2023
    Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Lei Tian, Yuichi Oneda
  • Patent number: 11608086
    Abstract: A display device of a vehicle includes: a display provided inside of the vehicle; an interior lighting device lighting up an inside surface of a passenger compartment of the vehicle at an outside of the display; and a control device controlling the display and the interior lighting device. The control device is configured so that when a condition for moving display stands, the display is made to show a moving display element moving toward an outer circumference of the display, and so that when the moving display element reaches the outer circumference of the display, the interior lighting device lights up an inside surface of a passenger compartment of the vehicle so that a light part lit by the interior lighting device appears to move successively from the moving display element.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2023
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Arei Rodelys Andriamagnevalonaky, Paula Kusinska, Lorcan O'Shanahan, Shang-Poh Yu, Sabrina Hyewon Lee, Matthew Doell, Thor Lewis
  • Patent number: 11603086
    Abstract: An apparatus for an aircraft having one or more aircraft wheel brakes, and a brake wear sensor configured to measure a wear state of a brake of the one or more aircraft wheel brakes, is disclosed. The apparatus includes a processor configured to determine a wear relationship between a wear state of the brake and a number of use cycles of the brake, determine a predicted wear state of the brake based on the wear relationship; determine a number of future use cycles of the brake based on a predicted condition of the brake, the predicted condition comprising the predicted wear state of the brake; and provide an indication of the determined number of the future use cycles to ground crew and/or a pilot of the aircraft, wherein the number of future use cycles is the number of use cycles for which the brake is allowed to be used, and a use cycle comprises all uses of the brake relating to a flight undertaken by the aircraft.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 14, 2023
    Assignees: AIRBUS OPERATIONS LIMITED, AIRBUS OPERATIONS (SAS), AIRBUS (SAS)
    Inventors: Utsav Oza, Andrew Bill, Kurt Bruggemann, Rodrigo Jimenez, Brice Cheray, Maud Consola
  • Patent number: 11584230
    Abstract: An interface device to be mounted on an autonomous vehicle includes: a right operation switch and a left operation switch provided on a steering wheel; a display device disposed ahead of the steering wheel; and an IF controller configured to control the display device, the controller being configured to cause the display device to display an intention confirmation image when it is necessary to confirm a driver's intention regarding autonomous travel. The intention confirmation image includes an inquiry image, a right guide image displayed on the right side of a horizontal center of the inquiry image, the right guide image indicating a choice selectable with the right operation switch, and a left guide image displayed on the left side of the horizontal center of the inquiry image, the left guide image indicating a choice selectable with the left operation switch.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 29, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2023
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hitoshi Kumon
  • Patent number: 11560908
    Abstract: A machine control system can store model weights determined via machine learning using a training dataset correlating preset hydraulic valve displacements to measured movement parameters of a machine component. The machine control system can receive an input command for the component and machine state data from machine sensors. A control mapping model can use the model weights to map a combination of the input command and the machine state data into a predicted displacement of the hydraulic valve that causes movement of the component in response to the input command.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 13, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2023
    Assignee: Caterpillar Inc.
    Inventors: Benjamin John Hodel, Nicholas Anthony Payne, Russell Aaron Schloss, Corey Lee Gorman
  • Patent number: 11548534
    Abstract: A vehicle includes: a permission unit configured to permit a remote operation performed by a remote operation device provided outside the vehicle; a transmission unit configured to transmit surrounding information of the vehicle; a reception unit configured to receive a remote operation signal input by an operator outside the vehicle via the remote operation device; a traveling control unit configured to control the vehicle to travel based on the remote operation signal; a drive data acquisition unit configured to acquire drive data input by a driver in the vehicle; and a handover determination unit configured to determine, while the remote operation is permitted by the permission unit, that handover of a driving operation of the vehicle to the remote operation is allowed when a difference between the drive data acquired by the drive data acquisition unit and the remote operation signal is within a predetermined range.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2023
    Assignees: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA, DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yosuke Nozaki, Tatsuya Matsunami, Takashi Hayashi, Tomoya Makino, Yohei Tanigawa
  • Patent number: 11541938
    Abstract: A CPU of a control device provided in a traveling unit causes a display to display information indicating that it is necessary to mount an energy absorbing unit capable of absorbing collision energy in a case where it is determined that a vehicle cabin forming unit is for the purpose of carrying a person, and causes the display to display information indicating that it is not necessary to mount the energy absorbing unit in a case where it is determined that the vehicle cabin forming unit is not for the purpose of carrying a person.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 8, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2023
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Mitsuyoshi Ohno
  • Patent number: 11535273
    Abstract: A vehicle control interface connects a vehicle platform including a first computer that performs travel control of a vehicle and an autonomous driving platform including a second computer that performs autonomous driving control of the vehicle. The vehicle control interface includes a control unit configured to execute: acquiring, from the second computer, a first control command including a plurality of commands for the vehicle platform; removing, from the first control command, a command that does not correspond to a predetermined kind of command by filtering the plurality of commands included in the first control command; converting the first control command, after filtering the plurality of commands, into a second control command for the first computer; and transmitting the second control command to the first computer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2022
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Eisuke Ando
  • Patent number: 11529963
    Abstract: A control system for a vehicle may include a plurality of vehicle subsystems associated with respective different dynamic vehicle control functions and a plurality of subsystem controllers associated with respective ones of the vehicle subsystems. The subsystem controllers may be configured to control actuators associated with the respective different dynamic vehicle control functions to change an operational state of components of the vehicle subsystems based on respective configuration settings. The system further includes an attribute configuration module operably coupled to the subsystem controllers. The attribute configuration module may include processing circuitry configured to save current configuration settings as a saved configuration responsive to a first actuation of a configuration mode actuator and, after an on/off cycle of the vehicle, instruct the subsystem controllers to implement the saved configuration responsive to a second actuation of the configuration mode actuator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2022
    Assignee: FORD GLOBAL TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
    Inventors: Craig Edward Esler, Ehab Aleid, Ahmed Awadi, Matheus Bianchi Dambros, Helmuth Bosch, Thomas Richard Wroblewski
  • Patent number: 11511774
    Abstract: A method and an apparatus for controlling an autonomous driving vehicle are provided. The method includes: receiving environment information sent by an autonomous driving vehicle, the environment information including vehicle exterior environment information; determining whether the autonomous driving vehicle is in an abnormal operation status, based on the vehicle exterior environment information and operation information of an operation executed by the autonomous driving vehicle; and sending a braking control instruction and a data acquisition instruction to the autonomous driving vehicle, in response to determining that the autonomous driving vehicle is in the abnormal operation status, the braking control instruction being used for controlling braking of the autonomous driving vehicle, and the data acquisition instruction being used for acquiring data of a driving recorder in the autonomous driving vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 29, 2022
    Assignee: Apollo Intelligent Driving Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yue Wang, Zelin Wu, Jingjing Xue, Yingnan Liu, Wenlong Rao, Zijie Wang, Wei Gong
  • Patent number: 11505211
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a method, apparatus, and system for planning the trajectory of an autonomous driving vehicle (ADV) in view of an object within a buffer area in front of the ADV is disclosed. A buffer area in front of an ADV is identified. A first object of one or more objects that have entered the buffer area is identified. A first distance cost and a first relative speed cost associated with the first object are determined. A first object cost associated with the first object is determined based on a combination of the first distance cost and the first relative speed cost. A trajectory for the ADV is planned based at least in part on a cost function comprising the first object cost, where the cost function is minimized in the planning. Control signals are generated to drive the ADV based on the planned trajectory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2022
    Assignee: BAIDU USA LLC
    Inventor: Fan Zhu
  • Patent number: 11498590
    Abstract: A method for controlling autonomous driving in an autonomous vehicle includes: determining whether a human driver is in a forward gaze state under an autonomous driving mode, setting a first steering wheel torque threshold and a first torque holding time, based on a result of determining whether the human driver is in the forward gaze state, determining whether human driver intervention has occurred, based on the first steering wheel torque threshold and the first torque holding time, and switching the autonomous driving mode to a manual driving mode when the human driver intervention has occurred.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2022
    Assignees: HYUNDAI MOTOR COMPANY, KIA MOTORS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Dong Hwi Lee, Su Jung Yoo
  • Patent number: 11492004
    Abstract: The automated driving system automatically drives a vehicle by cooperative operation of a travel control device controlling travel of the vehicle and a portable device possessed by a driver of the vehicle. In the cooperative operation, the portable device transmits route data to the travel control device; the travel control device sets an event location on the route, based on the route data, controls travel of the vehicle in an automated-driving control area, based on the route data and circumstance data, and transmits notification data for notifying the driver of a change of a travel condition to the portable device; and the portable device notifies the driver of the change, based on the notification data. Upon receiving an operational input to stop the cooperative operation, the portable device notifies the driver of a warning message or ignores the received operational input if the event location is set in the area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2022
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hironori Ito
  • Patent number: 11492016
    Abstract: A method for controlling autonomous driving in an autonomous vehicle includes detecting a situation in which autonomous driving is impossible while the vehicle operates in an autonomous driving mode, outputting a control-right handover request warning alarm and then activating a minimal risk maneuver driving mode, determining a human driver gaze validity based on the detected situation, determining a human driver intervention validity upon determination that the human driver gaze is valid, and determining control-right handover of the autonomous vehicle based on the human driver intervention validity. Thus, the control-right may be reliably transferred from a system to a human driver.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2022
    Assignees: HYUNDAI MOTOR COMPANY, KIA MOTORS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Su Jung Yoo, Dong Hwi Lee
  • Patent number: 11472440
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus to provide accident avoidance information to passengers of autonomous vehicles are disclosed. An example apparatus includes a safety analyzer to determine an autonomously controlled vehicle is in a safe situation at a first point in time and in a dangerous situation at a second point in time. The example apparatus also includes a user interface generator to: generate user interface data to define content for a user interface to be displayed via a screen, the user interface to include a graphical representation of the vehicle, the user interface to graphically indicate the vehicle is in the safe situation at the first point in time; and modify the user interface data so that the user interface graphically indicates the vehicle is in the dangerous situation at the second point in time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 31, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2022
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Matt Yurdana, John Weast, Ignacio Alvarez
  • Patent number: 11472406
    Abstract: A vehicle control apparatus comprises: a path deviation determination unit configured to output a request signal for requesting driving takeover if a deviation amount of information representing a traveling state with respect to a target track is not less than a first threshold; and an operation monitoring unit configured to monitor processing of the path deviation determination unit. The operation monitoring unit determines that an abnormality has occurred in the path deviation determination unit if the deviation amount of the information representing the traveling state with respect to the target track is not less than a second threshold larger than the first threshold, and a state in which the request signal is not output continues for a predetermined period.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2022
    Assignee: HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Seiji Watanabe, Tatsuya Arikai, Takuyuki Mukai, Hiroyuki Nakashima
  • Patent number: 11458995
    Abstract: Among other things, techniques are described for screening and monitoring the health of a vehicle user including receiving sensor data produced by a sensor at the vehicle, processing the sensor data to determine at least one health condition of the user of the vehicle, and in response to determining the at least one health condition, executing a vehicle function selected from a plurality of vehicle functions based on the at least one health condition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 28, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2022
    Assignee: Motional AD LLC
    Inventors: Eric Wolff, Abhimanyu Singh, Linh Pham
  • Patent number: 11458994
    Abstract: Systems and methods for semi-autonomously controlling a vehicle are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method includes determining a trajectory of a semi-autonomous vehicle based on data received from one or more vehicle sensors, determining a state of the vehicle based on data received from the vehicle sensors, determining an optimal trajectory of the vehicle based on the state of the vehicle, determining a level of confidence in the determined state of the vehicle and in the determined optimal trajectory of the vehicle, determining a plurality of possible future states of the vehicle based on the state of the vehicle, the trajectory of the vehicle, and the level of confidence, determining whether a subset of the possible future states of the vehicle are recoverable, and when it is determined that the subset of the possible future states of the vehicle are recoverable, issuing a security certificate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2022
    Assignee: TOYOTA RESEARCH INSTITUTE, INC.
    Inventors: Stephen G. McGill, Guy Rosman
  • Patent number: 11427217
    Abstract: A vehicle control system includes a steering input member rotatably supported by a vehicle body, a first capacitive sensor provided on a first surface portion of the steering input member facing in one direction along a rotational center line of the steering input member, a second capacitive sensor provided on a second surface portion of the steering input member opposite to the first surface portion, and a control unit configured to control a drive unit and/or a brake unit of the vehicle according to signals from the first and second capacitive sensors. The control unit executes an acceleration control to control the drive unit to accelerate the vehicle when a prescribed signal is received from the first capacitive sensor, and to execute a deceleration control to control the drive unit and/or the brake unit to decelerate the vehicle when a prescribed signal is received from the second capacitive sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2022
    Assignee: HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD
    Inventors: Takashi Yanagi, Ryo Yamazaki, Takeyuki Suzuki
  • Patent number: 11407316
    Abstract: A vehicle travel control device includes: a control section controlling operation of a motor generator and a power storage device. The control section performs SOC reduction control based on determination that while the own vehicle is traveling on a travel scheduled route, a section is present in which a predetermined amount of regenerative power generation by the motor generator in the own vehicle exceeds an SOC upper limit value. The SOC reduction control reduces a current SOC of the power storage device by setting an SOC lower limit value as a lower limit, to recover all electric power generated by the regenerative power generation. The control section performs efficiency priority travel based on determination that the predetermined amount of regenerative power generation is not actually expected to be available. The efficiency priority travel places priority on vehicle fuel economy or electric power efficiency.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2022
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventor: Yutaro Ito