Patents Examined by Thomas G. Black
  • Patent number: 11164405
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides a method in a vehicle, comprising detecting an engine stop opportunity and recording, in a memory, data corresponding to a first engine stop that occurred in response to detection of the engine stop opportunity. The method further includes detecting an engine stop inhibit, and recording, in a memory, data corresponding to a first missed engine stop wherein the first missed engine stop indicates detection of the engine stop opportunity without an engine stop in response to the detection of the engine stop opportunity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 2, 2021
    Assignee: Cummins Inc.
    Inventors: Martin T. Books, Praveen Chitradurga Muralidhar, Jeffrey S. Rauch, Jon S. Wardlow
  • Patent number: 11161623
    Abstract: A flight-time variable associated with an aircraft is determined including by determining the flight-time variable while the aircraft is flying. It is determined whether the aircraft is airworthy based at least in part on the flight-time variable. In response to determining that the aircraft is not airworthy, the aircraft is automatically landed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 2, 2021
    Assignee: Kitty Hawk Corporation
    Inventors: Alexander David Selwa, Mark Johnson Cutler
  • Patent number: 11154442
    Abstract: A motorized mobile system includes a human machine interface (HMI) to provide control instructions to the system. A controller in the system receives the control instructions and generates a control signal, wherein the generated control signal causes one or more components of the motorized mobile system to respond. One or more sensors generate health data related to a user, wherein the health data is stored in a secure memory connected to the controller, and wherein the stored user health data is used to bias the control signal for the motorized mobile system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 26, 2021
    Assignee: Patroness, LLC
    Inventors: Jered Harvey Dean, Charles C G Cooper, Barry George Dean, Dan Alan Preston
  • Patent number: 11155299
    Abstract: An automatic parking system includes a sensor system measuring whether there is a parking section line and positions of surrounding vehicles, and a controller configured to analyze data sensed by the sensor system to calculate parking areas around a subject vehicle, calculate a range allowing generation of a moving path based on the parking areas, provide a moving path range for a parking type that is selected among the moving path ranges provided for the at least two parking types, and an optimal parking area for the selected moving path range, and automatically park the subject vehicle in the optimal parking area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 26, 2021
    Assignees: HYUNDAI MOTOR COMPANY, KIA MOTORS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yoon Soo Kim, Joo Woong Yang, Dae Joong Yoon, Eu Gene Chang, Jae Seob Choi, Kyung Soo Ha, Min Byeong Lee, Seung Wook Park, Jin Ho Park, In Yong Jung
  • Patent number: 11157023
    Abstract: A method, computer system, and computer program product for using a radio frequency trigger to move an unmanned aerial vehicle from an incoming vehicle path are provided. The embodiment may include receiving, by a processor, a radio frequency signal transmitted from a vehicle or an emergency response center. The embodiment may also include determining whether an unmanned aerial vehicle is in flight within a pre-configured threshold radius from the first responder vehicle or emergency response center. The embodiment may further include in response to determining the unmanned aerial vehicle is within the pre-configured radius, activating a “return home” function. The embodiment may also include commanding the unmanned aerial vehicle to fly out of the threshold radius.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 26, 2021
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Diogo Tadeu Silva de Araujo, Bruno dos Santos Silva
  • Patent number: 11157867
    Abstract: Routes for performing missions such as deliveries by air within a region may be selected based on historic exposures to noise within the region. Where a plurality of missions are performed by aerial vehicles at or near locations within a region, noises radiated by such aerial vehicles during such missions may be tracked or determined, and the extent to which ground-based locations are exposed to such noises may be modeled accordingly. Subsequently, when another mission is to be performed by air within the region, aspects of an optimal route to be traveled by an aerial vehicle while performing the mission, including but not limited to courses, speeds, altitudes, orientations or operational characteristics of the aerial vehicle, as well as paths to be traveled by the aerial vehicle or waypoints to be reached, may be selected in a manner that takes into account historical exposures to noises within the region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 26, 2021
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Ian Beck Jordan, Aaron John Kapaldo, Brian Paul Whiteside
  • Patent number: 11148662
    Abstract: A method for controlling a hydraulic servo steering system in a vehicle includes reading out a collision warning signal to establish that a collision assistance case exists, and in response to determining that the collision assistance case exists, providing a hydraulic fluid by a hydraulic pump of the servo steering system. Serving for steering assistance has an actual volumetric flow-rate that is greater than or equal to a minimum volumetric flow-rate. The method additionally includes increasing a pump speed if the actual volumetric flow-rate is less than the minimum volumetric flow-rate, the pump speed being dependent on an engine/motor speed of a drive engine/motor interacting with the hydraulic pump.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 17, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 19, 2021
    Assignee: ZF CV SYSTEMS EUROPE BV
    Inventors: Daniel Hanslik, Stephan Kallenbach
  • Patent number: 11150103
    Abstract: A parking cruise request is received. A network version starting segment is identified and a route determination algorithm is expended starting at the network version starting segment. When the route determination algorithm is expanded to a new segment, a cost value is determined for the new segment based at least on the likelihood of finding parking on the new segment. Responsive to determining that the likelihood of finding parking along the cruise route does satisfy the threshold probability requirement, map version agnostic identifiers for each segment of the cruise route are generated. Each of the map version agnostic identifiers are coded using at least one coding function to generate coded map version agnostic identifiers. A bloom filter having the coded map version agnostic identifiers as members is generated. A parking cruise route response comprising the bloom filter is provided such that a mobile apparatus receives the parking cruise route response.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 22, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 19, 2021
    Assignee: Here Global B.V.
    Inventors: Raul Cajias, Daniel Rolf
  • Patent number: 11145141
    Abstract: Electric vehicle predictive range estimating systems and methods are provided herein. An example method includes determining an initial state of charge (SOC) for an energy source of a vehicle at a first point in time; determining one or more boundary conditions for the vehicle during a time frame extending from the first point in time to a second point in time, the one or more boundary conditions causing a loss in the energy source during the time frame; determining a predicted future SOC for the energy source based on the one or more boundary conditions and the initial SOC; and predicting an availability of a vehicle operating condition based on the predicted future SOC for the energy source.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 12, 2021
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Brendan Diamond, Erik Christen, Kevin James Rhodes
  • Patent number: 11143511
    Abstract: Provided is an on-vehicle processing device that can estimate the position of a vehicle with higher accuracy. A storage unit stores a parking lot point group including a plurality of coordinates of points of a part of an object in a parking lot coordinate system. A sensor input unit acquires peripheral information from a camera. A movement information acquisition unit acquires movement information. A local peripheral information creation unit generates local peripheral information expressing second point group data including a position of the vehicle in a local coordinate system and a plurality of coordinates of points of a part of the object in the local coordinate system on the basis of the peripheral information and the movement information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 12, 2021
    Assignee: Clarion Co., Ltd
    Inventors: Morihiko Sakano, Takehito Ogata, Shinya Tagawa, Masahiro Kiyohara, Yoshitaka Uchida
  • Patent number: 11142187
    Abstract: A parking assistance device includes: distance sensors for transmitting detection waves toward a side of a host vehicle while the host vehicle is traveling and receiving reflected waves of the detection waves; a reflection point calculating unit for calculating reflection points indicating positions where the detection waves have been reflected; a grouping unit for grouping the reflection points; a reference distance setting unit for setting a reference distance corresponding to a distance between a host vehicle position indicating the position of the traveling host vehicle and a reflection point group set by grouping; and an object determining unit for setting an object determining threshold value to be compared with the reference distance and determining whether an object corresponding to the reflection point group is a parked vehicle or a parking reference object by comparing the reference distance with the object determining threshold value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 18, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 12, 2021
    Assignee: MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Shinichi Harase, Satoru Inoue, Ryotaro Suzuki, Wataru Tsujita, Tsutomu Asahina, Yoshitsugu Sawa
  • Patent number: 11138889
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for reserving airspace for UAV operations. In some implementations, a flight planning system can reserve and allocate airspace for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operations. For example, a UAV operator device can submit a flight plan to the flight planning system. The flight planning system can submit a flight authorization request to an airspace management system to reserve airspace necessary for the flight plan. The flight planning system can receive approval and/or a reservation of the airspace for the flight plan from the airspace management system, generate a flight data package, and send the flight data package to the operator's device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 5, 2021
    Assignee: Skydio, Inc.
    Inventors: Eric David Johnson, Jesse Daniel Kallman, Bernard J. Michini
  • Patent number: 11131997
    Abstract: A route generation apparatus (13) has: a generating device (132) and a setting device (132). The generating device generates, on the basis of an evaluation score (SC2), a moving route of a movable object (1) that reaches a second position (WP_end) from a first position (WP_start) so as to avoid an interference between the movable object and an obstacle (O). The evaluation score is obtained by executing a weighting process on a distance (D_FL, D_FR, D_RL, D_RR) between the obstacle and specific portions (E_FL, E_FR, E_RL, E_RR) of the movable object on the basis of weighting coefficients (w_FL, w_FR, w_RL, w_RR). The setting device sets at least one weighting coefficient on the basis of a moving condition of the movable object during a period when the movable objects moves on the moving route.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 28, 2021
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Aya Yamada
  • Patent number: 11131992
    Abstract: A RLP system for a host vehicle includes a memory and levels. The memory stores a RLP algorithm, which is a multi-agent collaborative DQN with PER algorithm. A first level includes a data processing module that provides sensor data, object location data, and state information of the host vehicle and other vehicles. A second level includes a coordinate location module that, based on the sensor data, the object location data, the state information, and a refined policy provided by the third level, generates an updated policy and a set of future coordinate locations implemented via the first level. A third level includes evaluation and target neural networks and a processor that executes instructions of the RLP algorithm for collaborative action planning between the host and other vehicles based on outputs of the evaluation and target networks and to generate the refined policy based on reward values associated with events.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 28, 2021
    Assignees: DENSO International America, Inc.
    Inventors: Zhiyuan Du, Joseph Lull, Rajesh Malhan, Sriram Subramanian, Sushrut Bhalla, Jaspreet Sambee, Mark Crowley, Sebastian Fischmeister, Donghyun Shin, William Melek, Baris Fidan, Ami Woo, Bismaya Sahoo
  • Patent number: 11130523
    Abstract: A driving supporter includes a support inhibitor that inhibits support of driving when a steering-operation value is greater than a threshold value. The support inhibitor includes a threshold-value determiner that determines the threshold value to a value greater when a first object and a second object are present than when the first object is present, and the second object is absent. The first object has a relationship in which a relative positional relationship between the object and an own vehicle is a relationship in which a steering operation is estimated to be performed in a first direction in which the own vehicle avoids the object. The second object has a relationship in which the relative positional relationship is a relationship in which the steering operation is estimated to be performed in a second direction reverse to the first direction such that the own vehicle avoids the object.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 28, 2021
    Assignees: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA, DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hiroaki Kataoka, Taisuke Hasegawa
  • Patent number: 11127226
    Abstract: An onboard device to acquire data relating to motion and/or driving parameters of a vehicle is described, the device, comprising: at least one data source internal to the on-board device adapted to provide in output a first data signal containing data correlated to motion and/or driving parameters of the vehicle; a data processing unit to receive and process said first data signal; a long-range radio communication interface to allow a data transmission on a telecommunications network between the data processing unit and a remote processing centre; a first short-range Bluetooth radio communication interface to allow the on-board device to receive at least one data signal from an external device, the external device comprising a data source external to the on-board device and a second short-range Bluetooth radio communication interface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 21, 2021
    Assignee: OCTO TELEMATICS S.P.A.
    Inventors: Paolo Zucconelli, Giuseppe Zuco
  • Patent number: 11124203
    Abstract: An autonomous driving device is configured to switch a driving mode, and includes a destination setting type autonomous driving mode in which a vehicle is made to travel to a destination and a following road autonomous driving mode in which, when a destination is not set, the vehicle is made to travel along a road. The autonomous driving device includes a display unit and an electronic control unit. The electronic control unit is configured to, when the display unit is made to display a traveling route along a following road traveling route, make the display unit display a traveling route from a current position of the vehicle to a nearest branch road in front in a moving direction along the following road traveling route and a moving direction on the nearest branch road along the following road traveling route.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 6, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 21, 2021
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Hiromitsu Urano, Bunyo Okumura
  • Patent number: 11124179
    Abstract: A vehicle comprising a steering axle, a steering device configured to steer the steering axle, wherein a steering wheel angle can be input via the steering device, wherein the steering wheel angle leadings to a steering angle of wheels of the steering axle, and a quotient of the steering wheel angle to the steering angle defines a steering ratio, a first drive, wherein the first drive allows a wheel-selective distribution of a first torque to the wheels of the steering axle, a second drive, wherein the second drive allows a wheel-selective distribution of a second torque to the wheels of a drive axle, and a controller configured to receive input variables defining driving dynamic variables of the vehicle, wherein the drive dynamic variables allow a change in the steering ratio to ascertained, and the controller outputs control information for distributing the drive torque.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 23, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 21, 2021
    Assignee: SCHAEFFLER TECHNOLOGIES AG & CO. KG
    Inventors: Juergen Roemer, Marcel Philipp Mayer
  • Patent number: 11126186
    Abstract: Systems and methods described herein relate to predicting a trajectory of a road agent external to a vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 21, 2021
    Assignee: Toyota Research Institute, Inc.
    Inventors: Stephen G. McGill, Jr., Guy Rosman, John Joseph Leonard, Luke S. Fletcher, Yusuke Sawamura, Xin Huang
  • Patent number: 11126185
    Abstract: Systems and methods described herein relate to predicting a trajectory of a vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 21, 2021
    Assignee: Toyota Research Institute, Inc.
    Inventors: Stephen G. McGill, Jr., Luke S. Fletcher, Guy Rosman, Xin Huang