Patents Examined by Tamara L Weber
  • Patent number: 11003184
    Abstract: Communication network architectures, systems, and methods for supporting a network of mobile nodes. As a non-limiting example, various aspects of this disclosure provide autonomous vehicle network architectures, systems, and methods for supporting a dynamically configurable network of autonomous vehicles comprising a complex array of both static and moving communication nodes, including systems and methods for collaborative data learning among autonomous vehicles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 11, 2021
    Assignee: VENIAM, INC.
    Inventor: Ricardo Jorge Magalhäes de Matos
  • Patent number: 11002546
    Abstract: System, methods, and other embodiments described herein relate to determining a location of a vehicle within a structure. In one embodiment, a method includes collecting, from at least one sensor in the vehicle, sensor data that indicates information associated with control of the vehicle in the structure. The method includes classifying gradients along a path of the vehicle through the structure according to the sensor data. The method includes identifying traversed levels of the structure along the path according to the gradients. The method includes providing the location including at least an indicator of the traversed levels as an electronic output.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 11, 2021
    Assignee: Toyota Connected North America, Inc.
    Inventors: Toshikazu Tanaka, Brian M. Kursar, Akshata Dundi Mohan, Nimish Kumar Amlathe, Raja Shekar Kilaru, Christian Gilles Claudel
  • Patent number: 10991254
    Abstract: A user vehicle dispatch dealing system dispatches a passenger transport vehicle according to a vehicle dispatch request, which includes a riding point and a destination point. The system includes a vehicle situation obtaining unit that obtains a freight delivery vehicle situation including a delivery route and a current position of a freight delivery vehicle that delivers freight by autonomous driving, a vehicle situation determination unit that determines whether or not there is the freight delivery vehicle as a dispatch vehicle candidate in a state where a first preset range defined based on the delivery route includes the riding point, and an option presentation unit that presents an option of whether or not to request the dispatch of the freight delivery vehicle as the dispatch vehicle candidate to the user when the vehicle situation determination unit determines that there is the freight delivery vehicle as the dispatch vehicle candidate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 4, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 27, 2021
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Takashi Hayashi, Junya Watanabe, Yuji Sasaki, Seiji Arakawa, Naotoshi Kadotani, Masafumi Hayakawa
  • Patent number: 10967931
    Abstract: To provide a brake controller and a brake system that appropriately brake a rotary body of a human-powered vehicle, a brake controller includes one or more processors configured to programmatically control a braking portion of a brake device so that the braking portion brakes a rotary body of the human-powered vehicle based on first information related to travel of the human-powered vehicle, the first information excluding a road surface gradient.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 6, 2021
    Assignee: Shimano Inc.
    Inventors: Takafumi Nishino, Toshihiko Takahashi, Daisuke Nago, Hitoshi Takayama, Masahiro Nakakura
  • Patent number: 10942510
    Abstract: A mobile robot may include a controller configured to set a virtual boundary based on position information determined by a terminal or a position sensor in an area, and to set an area of any one side of the boundary as a traveling area. The controller may control a traveling unit so that a main body moves within the traveling area without moving outside the boundary. Accordingly, the controller may easily set the boundary using the position information, and may control traveling of the mobile robot by setting the traveling area formed by the boundary. The controller may correct a position error, may reflect information on obstacles in setting the traveling area to set a traveling area appropriate for a traveling environment of the mobile robot, and/or may easily change the set traveling area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 9, 2021
    Assignee: LG ELECTRONICS INC.
    Inventors: Kyoungsuk Ko, Sungwook Lee, Jongjin Woo, Jaehoon Lee, Junghee Kim, Hyungsub Lee, Koh Choi
  • Patent number: 10942036
    Abstract: An information providing system includes: a power-supplying vehicle; a plurality of power-receiving vehicles; and a server. The server is configured to generate a candidate power-supplying target list including information of the plurality of power-receiving requesting vehicles, and notify the candidate power-supplying target list to the power-supplying vehicle so as to make an inquiry to a user of the power-supplying vehicle to select any of the plurality of power-receiving requesting vehicle. The power-supplying vehicle having received this inquiry is configured to present locations of candidate power-supplying targets on a map screen and make a response to the server by notifying, to the server, a power-supplying target selected by the user. The server having received this response matches the power-supplying target notified from the power-supplying vehicle to the power-supplying vehicle, and notifies matching determination information to both the matched vehicles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 9, 2021
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Atsushi Mizutani, Daiki Kaneichi, Hirotaka Karube, Jun Kondo, Kenichi Komuro
  • Patent number: 10933752
    Abstract: A device comprises motor controller coupled to a drive motor and a battery pack of a vehicle. The motor controller comprises a processor that is configured to: determine that the vehicle is engaged in a neutral braking mode, and after determining that the vehicle is engaged in the neutral braking mode: select a neutral braking torque curve, determine a rotational velocity of the drive motor, based on the determined rotational velocity of the drive motor, determine an amount of regenerative braking torque to apply to the drive motor based on the selected neutral braking torque curve, apply the determined amount of regenerative braking torque to the drive motor, wherein applying the determined amount of regenerative braking torque to the drive motor results in a regenerative current generated by the drive motor, and supply the regenerative current to the battery pack to at least partially recharge the battery pack.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 2, 2021
    Assignee: TOMCAR HOLDING COMPANY LLC
    Inventors: Moshe Miller, Jonathan Drori, Yoram Zarchi
  • Patent number: 10916136
    Abstract: Systems and methods for providing geo-tagged vehicle-to-vehicle communication to a follower vehicle during off-road caravanning. In some embodiments, verbal instructions spoken by a leader driver are captured by the vehicle-to-vehicle communication system, tagged with geospatial location information, and broadcast to follower vehicles. Follower vehicles can receive the broadcast verbal instructions, and the system can cause the verbal instructions to be reproduced when the follower vehicle is determined to be within a threshold distance of the geospatial location where the leader driver gave the verbal instructions. The verbal instructions can be accompanied by visual data, such as images and videos. The system can add navigation and landmark markers in the visual data to enhance a leader driver's geo-tagged instructions. A message path can formed from several verbal instructions spoken by the leader driver.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 4, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 9, 2021
    Assignee: Alpine Electronics, Inc.
    Inventors: Maung Wynn Aung Han, Atsushi Nakagawa
  • Patent number: 10909149
    Abstract: In a method and a device for creating and providing a map, a highly accurate map that includes multiple highly accurate map features is obtained, a shared map feature attribute is determined as a function of the multiple highly accurate map features, a derivative map is created as a function of the shared map feature attribute, and the map is output.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2021
    Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
    Inventors: Roland Homeier, Christian Passmann, Daniel Zaum
  • Patent number: 10902731
    Abstract: A computer implemented method and system for representing the schedule and time interval of a plurality of hauling vehicles between a pick-up location and a drop-off location. The method and system incorporating mobile computing and a dynamic graphical interface to assist administrators in scheduling and administering hauling vehicles from pick-up location to drop-off location. The dynamic graphical interface capable of real-time information to hauling vehicles on the route and calculating in real-time changes in the pick-up time and drop-off time. The dynamic graphical interface also displaying the time interval between hauling vehicles for more efficient scheduling administration. The method and system capable of updating the hauling vehicle operators in real-time of the estimated time of arrival for pick-up and drop-off as well as interval time between the plurality of hauling vehicles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 26, 2021
    Assignee: TRUCK IT LLC
    Inventor: Pace Davis
  • Patent number: 10889152
    Abstract: Systems, apparatus, and methods to determine vehicle tire wear are disclosed. A disclosed apparatus includes a vehicle controller configured to determine, based on data associated with operation of a vehicle, behavior of one or more drivers of the vehicle that causes tire wear. The controller is also configured to calculate, based on the behavior, a condition of a tire of the vehicle. The controller is also configured to generate, via an output device, a notification indicating the condition of the tire to a user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 23, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 12, 2021
    Assignee: TOYOTA MOTOR NORTH AMERICA, INC.
    Inventors: Raja Shekar Kilaru, Joshua Cocke Batie, Aghyad Majdi Saleh
  • Patent number: 10890917
    Abstract: A vehicle controller configured to control traveling of a vehicle includes a processor configured to execute a nearby-object detection module, a first route computation module configured to compute a first target travel route specifying route and speed of a vehicle, a second route computation module configured to compute a second target travel route specifying route and speed of so as to prompt the vehicle to avoid the detected nearby object, and a control module configured to control at least one of a traveling speed and vehicle steering so as to prompt the vehicle to travel on the first or second target travel route. The first route computation module computes the route so as to prompt the vehicle to travel with lower energy consumption, and the control module switches the target travel route to the second route when the nearby object to be avoided is detected within a range.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 12, 2021
    Assignee: Mazda Motor Corporation
    Inventor: Hiroshi Ohmura
  • Patent number: 10876850
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method, computer program product, and computer processing system are provided for computing a trajectory-based Point of Interest recommendation. The method includes generating, by a processor device, a set of embeddings. Each of the embeddings in the set relates to a respective different trajectory contextual element of a user trajectory. The method further includes computing, by the processor device based on the set of embeddings, an activity representation that includes a set of POI candidate embeddings. The method also includes composing, by the processor device, a stop embedding based on the activity representation and the embeddings in the set and corresponding to a given stop in the user trajectory. The method additionally includes computing, by the processor device, the trajectory-based POI recommendation using an attention-based, user-specific, multi-stop trajectory, Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) model applied to the stop embedding.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2020
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Shiwan Zhao, Zhi Hu Wang, Changhua Sun, Zhong Su
  • Patent number: 10875530
    Abstract: A travel control device includes a controller for controlling travel of an autonomous host vehicle. The controller detects left and right lane boundaries and controls travel of the host vehicle based on a result of lane boundary detection. The controller includes a road geometry distinguishing unit and a rate limiter unit. The road geometry distinguishing unit distinguishes a curve, and a direction of the curve, based on road geometry information. When traveling through the curve, the rate limiter unit sets a result of lane boundary detection at an inside of a corner to a value for which change in a lateral direction approaching the host vehicle is restricted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2020
    Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Takashi Fukushige, Satoshi Tange
  • Patent number: 10875538
    Abstract: Exhaustive driving analytical methods, systems, are apparatuses are described. The methods, systems, are apparatuses relate to monitoring driver and/or driving behaviors in view of an exhaustive list of variables to determine safety factors, identify times to react to events, and contextual information regarding the events. The methods, systems, and apparatuses described herein may determine, based on a systematic model, reactions and reaction times, compare the vehicle behavior (or lack thereof) to the modeled reactions and reaction times, and determine safety factors and instructions based on the comparison.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 18, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2020
    Assignee: Allstate Insurance Company
    Inventors: Anuradha Kodali, Sunil Chintakindi, Regina Madigan
  • Patent number: 10864903
    Abstract: A vehicle controller for use with a vehicle is configured to control the vehicle. The vehicle includes an internal combustion engine, an electric generator, an auxiliary machine, an electricity storage device, and a DC-DC converter. The controller is configured to execute an automatic stop process of stopping combustion control of the internal combustion engine in response to an automatic stop request of the internal combustion engine, and an increase process of operating, when the automatic stop process is executed, the DC-DC converter to increase an amount of electricity supplied to the electricity storage device, thereby increasing an electricity generation amount of the electric generator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 15, 2020
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Takeaki Suzuki
  • Patent number: 10850726
    Abstract: There is provided a vehicle behavior control device capable of improving responsivity of a vehicle behavior and a linear feeling with respect to a steering wheel operation without causing a driver to experience a strong feeling of intervention of the control and, at the same time, capable of controlling behavior of a vehicle in such a manner as to also improve stability of the vehicle attitude and riding comfort. In a vehicle behavior control device applied to a vehicle 1 having steerable front road wheels 2, the vehicle behavior control device includes a PCM 14 which acquires a steering speed of the vehicle, and increases a pitch angle in such a direction that a front portion of the vehicle dips when the steering speed becomes equal to or greater than a given threshold TS1 which is greater than zero.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 1, 2020
    Assignee: MAZDA MOTOR CORPORATION
    Inventors: Toru Yoshioka, Daisuke Umetsu, Osamu Sunahara, Yasunori Takahara, Masaki Chiba
  • Patent number: 10853894
    Abstract: A method begins by a computing device allocating a plurality of tasks of an agricultural prescription for a farming geographic area to a fleet of farming equipment. While executing tasks of the plurality of tasks, the method continues with at least some of the fleet of farming equipment collecting task execution data. Based on the task execution data, the method continues with the computing device updating at least one of the agricultural prescription, the plurality of tasks, and the allocation of at least one task of the plurality of tasks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 19, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 1, 2020
    Assignee: THE CLIMATE CORPORATION
    Inventors: Craig Eugene Rupp, A. Corbett S. Kull, Christopher Sears Mikelson, Patrick Lee Dumstorff
  • Patent number: 10845203
    Abstract: Embodiments are disclosed for indoor/outdoor detection using a mobile device, such as wearable computer (e.g., smartwatch). In an embodiment, a method comprises: receiving, by one or more processors of a wearable computer, wireless access point (AP) scan data, global navigation satellite system (GNSS) data and inertial sensor data; determining, by the one or more processors, a first state of the wearable computer based on the wireless AP scan data; determining, by the one or more processors, a second state of the wearable computer based on a comparison of the GNSS data and the inertial sensor data; and outputting, by the one or more processors, an indoor/outdoor signal indicating that the wearable computer is indoors or outdoors based on the first and second states.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 24, 2020
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Vinay R. Majjigi, Suresh B. Malakar, Bharath Narasimha Rao, Karthik Jayaraman Raghuram, Hung A. Pham
  • Patent number: 10843732
    Abstract: A remote control device includes: a user input device that receives a user input; a display that displays a user interface for controlling torque of a power source of a vehicle; a communication device in wireless communication with a remote parking assist system; and a processor that operates the user interface in response to the user input and transmits a control signal according to an operation of the user interface to the remote parking assist system. The processor resizes a component of the user interface and displays the resized component when the vehicle is immovable while the remote parking assist system is in operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 26, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 24, 2020
    Assignees: HYUNDAI MOTOR COMPANY, KIA MOTORS CORPORATION
    Inventor: Yun Sik Kim