Patents Examined by Yazan Soofi
  • Patent number: 11417217
    Abstract: A system, method, infrastructure, and vehicle for performing automated valet parking enable an unmanned vehicle to autonomously move to and park at an empty parking space by communicating with a parking infrastructure. The system, method, infrastructure, and vehicle enable an unmanned vehicle to autonomously move from a parking space to a pickup zone by communicating with a parking infrastructure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2022
    Assignees: HYUNDAI MOTOR COMPANY, KIA MOTORS CORPORATION
    Inventor: Dae Gil Cho
  • Patent number: 11415992
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes accessing sensor data associated with an environment of the vehicle; identifying agents in the environment based on the sensor data; determining a probability distribution indicative of whether a preliminary trajectory of each of the agents intersects a potential travel space of the vehicle; generating a prioritization of the agents based on the probability distribution; allocating an amount of computing resources of the vehicle for analyzing each of one or more of the agents based on the prioritization and characteristics of the respective one or more agents; and predicting a trajectory of one or more of the agents according to the allocated computing resources. An accuracy of the prediction is proportional to the amount of allocated computing resources. The method also includes determining, based on the analysis of the agents, one or more operations for the vehicle to perform.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2022
    Assignee: Woven Planet North America, Inc.
    Inventors: Sammy Omari, Ana Sofia Rufino Ferreira
  • Patent number: 11414100
    Abstract: A travel assistance method generates a first traveling path based on map information around a circumference of a host vehicle, generates a second traveling path based on the surroundings, determines that a switch from the first traveling path to the second traveling path is needed when detecting that the first traveling path being generated is to end ahead of the host vehicle while the host vehicle is traveling on the first traveling path, and controls the host vehicle to make a transition from the first traveling path to the second traveling path when the switch is determined to be needed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 2, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2022
    Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Masafumi Tsuji, Hirotoshi Ueda
  • Patent number: 11407430
    Abstract: In an information processing device, a first acquisition portion acquires a usage end time and a usage end point of an automatic driving vehicle. A second acquisition portion acquires information about a side trip point of the automatic driving vehicle. A derivation portion derives an expected time of arrival of the automatic driving vehicle at the usage end point by way of the side trip point. A permission portion permits a drop-in at the side trip point when the expected time of arrival at the usage end point is before the usage end time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2022
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Shin Sakurada
  • Patent number: 11409293
    Abstract: A method of operating an autonomous shuttle includes attempting to recognize a guideline based on a route recognition device of the autonomous shuttle, transmitting an additional information request message to first nodes located within a predetermined range from the autonomous shuttle when failing to recognize the guideline, receiving a response message to the additional information request message from the first nodes, and driving along the guideline based on the received response message.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2022
    Assignees: Hyundai Motor Company, Kia Motors Corporation
    Inventors: Jae Jun Ha, Young Jun Moon
  • Patent number: 11399454
    Abstract: A working vehicle includes a vehicle body to travel, a steering handle to be turned to steer the vehicle body, and a steering switch to steer the vehicle body separately from the steering handle. The steering switch may be a switch to be operated in a pressing manner or in a sliding manner to steer the vehicle body. In addition, the steering switch may be arranged around the steering handle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2022
    Assignee: KUBOTA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Shunsuke Miyashita, Kenichi Iwami, Hiroki Suga, Yuki Kubota, Toru Tambo, Kunihiko Nishino, Yasuaki Morioka, Kumiko Kobayashi, Misako Kawai, Manabu Togo, Yoshihiko Kuroshita
  • Patent number: 11402216
    Abstract: A system for use in a facility area including reservable spaces and common spaces and comprising a database storing space information, space map data and space scheduling information and including a user interface display screen mounted in a common space, a user location sensor and a processor linked to the databases and programmed to receive sensor signals and determine when a user is located within the sensing zone, the processor further programmed to generate and present a graphical facility area map representation of the facility area on the display screen and, upon detecting a user within the sensing zone, automatically identifying a destination space within the zone that the user likely intends to travel to and presenting an indication of the space on the graphical map indicating the location of the destination space within the facility.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2022
    Assignee: Steelcase Inc.
    Inventors: Robert Scheper, Darrin Sculley
  • Patent number: 11400914
    Abstract: A system and method for interfacing an autonomous or remote control drive-by-wire controller with a vehicle's control modules. Vehicle functions including steering, braking, starting, etc. are controllable by wire via a control network. A CAN architecture is used as an interface between the remote/autonomous controller and the vehicle's control modules. A CAN module interface provides communication between a vehicle control system and a supervisory, remote, autonomous, or drive-by-wire controller. The interface permits the supervisory control to control vehicle operation within pre-determined bounds and using control algorithms.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2022
    Assignee: Polaris Industries Inc.
    Inventors: Amber P. Malone, David J. Koenig, Kevin P. Blair, Patrick D. Weldon, Cole A. Sytsma
  • Patent number: 11402217
    Abstract: A system for use in a facility area including reservable spaces and common spaces and comprising a database storing space information, space map data and space scheduling information and including a user interface display screen mounted in a common space, a user location sensor and a processor linked to the databases and programmed to receive sensor signals and determine when a user is located within the sensing zone, the processor further programmed to generate and present a graphical facility area map representation of the facility area on the display screen and, upon detecting a user within the sensing zone, automatically identifying a destination space within the zone that the user likely intends to travel to and presenting an indication of the space on the graphical map indicating the location of the destination space within the facility.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2022
    Assignee: Steelcase Inc.
    Inventors: Robert Scheper, Darrin Sculley
  • Patent number: 11378408
    Abstract: A network computing system can receive transport requests from user computing devices of requesting users of an on-demand carpool service. The system can further receive sensor data from the user computing devices of each carpool passenger of a vehicle. Based on the sensor data, the system can determine a relative position of each carpool passenger within the vehicle, and based on the relative position of each carpool passenger within the vehicle, the system can transmit route data to a transport provider device of the vehicle to rendezvous with a next carpool passenger at an upcoming pick-up location such that an open seat within the vehicle is adjacent to the next carpool passenger.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2022
    Assignee: Uber Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Yuri Choi, Guangqiang Zhang
  • Patent number: 11380107
    Abstract: A power and data center (PDC) can serve as a combined data concentrator and power distributor that delivers scalable and affordable network/power redundancy into an automotive electrical/electronic architecture (E/EA) that supports partially or fully autonomous vehicles. In some embodiments, a vehicle that includes the smart E/EA is divided into zones, where each zone includes one or more PDCs and one or more sensors, actuators, controllers, loudspeakers or other devices that are coupled to and powered by their zone PDC(s). Each PDC collects and processes (or passes through) raw or pre-processed sensor data from the one or more sensors in its zone. The sensors provide their data to the PDC by way of cost efficient, short-range data links. In some embodiments, one or more actuators in each zone are coupled to their respective zone PDC, and receive their control data from the PDC over a high-speed data bus or data link.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2022
    Assignee: Aptiv Technologies Limited
    Inventors: Lee Bauer, Martin Bornemann, Christian Schäfer
  • Patent number: 11378960
    Abstract: A mobile entity includes: a position decision unit configured to determine a position of itself; an environment information acquisition unit configured to acquire environment information at the position; and a motion determination unit configured to determine whether a motion scheduled to be performed holds based on the environment information. The environment information includes at least one of environment information related to a vocal apparatus and environment information related to a display device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2022
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Akihiro Yamamoto, Ryosuke Nakamura, Azusa Amino, Taishi Ueda
  • Patent number: 11378957
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a method and apparatus for controlling vehicle driving. The method includes: generating a global path of a driving site of a vehicle; executing following controlling: generating a local path of a site in front of a current position of the vehicle based on the global path, the local path following a direction of the global path, controlling the vehicle to drive along the local path until reaching an end point of the local path, determining whether the vehicle reaches an end point of the global path, and terminating the controlling if the vehicle reaches the endpoint of the global path; and continuing, in response to determining the vehicle failing to reach the end point of the global path, executing the controlling.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 7, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2022
    Assignee: Beijing Baidu Netcom Science And Technology Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Xinjing Cheng, Ruigang Yang, Yajue Yang, Feixiang Lu, Hao Xu
  • Patent number: 11378949
    Abstract: The disclosure provides a system and method for autonomously routing delivery vehicles. An autonomous routing system may generate, a plurality of routing passes, each routing pass including a set of parameters, by a processor using one or more business rules that describe a set of allowed values for one or more of the parameters. The autonomous routing system may Execute each the plurality of routing passes on a routing platform configured to generate a routing plan corresponding to a single routing pass. autonomous routing system may select, by the processor, one of the plurality of routing passes according to a comparison rule set that assigns a score to each routing plan corresponding to a respective one of the plurality of routing passes. The autonomous routing system may dispatch the selected routing pass via the routing platform.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 20, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2022
    Assignee: OMNITRACS, LLC
    Inventors: Maxwell Cabell Moore, Christopher Harlan Hove
  • Patent number: 11373539
    Abstract: A base module may be used to receive and house one or more unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) via one or more cavities. The base module receives commands from a manager device and identifies a flight plan that allows a UAV to execute the received commands. The base module transfers the flight plan to the UAV and frees the UAV. Once the UAV returns, the base module once again receives it. The base module then receives sensor data from the UAV from one or more sensors onboard the UAV, and optionally receives additional information describing its flight and identifying success or failure of the flight plan. The base module transmits the sensor data and optionally the additional information to a storage medium locally or remotely accessible by the manager device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2022
    Assignee: ImageKeeper LLC
    Inventors: Jerry Speasl, Mike Patterson, Marc Roberts
  • Patent number: 11372414
    Abstract: A robotic motion control method provided by the present disclosure includes: obtaining a position and orientation of a starting point where the robot is currently located through a positioning sensor, and obtaining a position and orientation of a preset target point where the robot is moved to; determining an arc path and a straight path of the robot according to the position and orientation of the starting point, the position and orientation of the preset target point, and a preset arc radius; and moving the robot to the preset target point according to the determined arc path and straight path. Because there are only pure circular motion and pure linear motion which are simple during the movement of the robot, it is beneficial to improve the precision of the motion control of the robot and enable the robot to reach the target position in a reliable manner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2022
    Assignee: UBTECH ROBOTICS CORP LTD
    Inventors: Xiangbin Huang, Musen Zhang, Wenzhi Xu, Youjun Xiong
  • Patent number: 11370455
    Abstract: A boarding-alighting position determination method determines a boarding position and an alighting position in a vehicle dispatch system that dispatches a vehicle in response to a vehicle dispatch request. A plurality of boarding position candidates and a plurality of alighting position candidates are calculated around a geographical point from which the vehicle dispatch request was transmitted. A vehicle position is detected when the vehicle dispatch request was transmitted. For each boarding position candidate, a travel route is calculated from the vehicle position at a time of the vehicle dispatch request to at least one of the alighting position candidates via the boarding position candidate. A travel time is calculated for the vehicle to travel the travel route calculated for each of the boarding position candidates. A selected boarding position is determined from among the boarding position candidates based on the traveling time for each boarding position candidate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 13, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2022
    Assignees: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., Renault S.A.S.
    Inventor: Naoki Kojo
  • Patent number: 11372413
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a method and apparatus for outputting information. The method includes: acquiring a target excavating trajectory, the target excavating trajectory including at least two sub-trajectories; determining trajectory parameters of the at least two sub-trajectories; determining, based on the trajectory parameters, positions of a plurality of control points; and outputting the positions of the plurality of control points.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 7, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2022
    Inventors: Xinjing Cheng, Ruigang Yang, Yajue Yang, Feixiang Lu, Hao Xu
  • Patent number: 11364953
    Abstract: The vehicle control system includes, a path generation unit that generates a target path for parking a vehicle at a parkable target parking space in a destination area including a parking area, a travel control unit that causes the vehicle to travel so as to follow the target path, and a control device that controls the path generation unit and the travel control unit to automatically park the vehicle at the target parking space. The path generation unit includes a search path generation unit that generates a search path for searching for a target parking space as a target path based on vehicle peripheral information including an image of the periphery of the vehicle without using map data in the destination area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2022
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Takuya Nemoto
  • Patent number: 11367360
    Abstract: A base module may be used to receive and house one or more unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) via one or more cavities. The base module receives commands from a manager device and identifies a flight plan that allows a UAV to execute the received commands. The base module transfers the flight plan to the UAV and frees the UAV. Once the UAV returns, the base module once again receives it. The base module then receives sensor data from the UAV from one or more sensors onboard the UAV, and optionally receives additional information describing its flight and identifying success or failure of the flight plan. The base module transmits the sensor data and optionally the additional information to a storage medium locally or remotely accessible by the manager device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2022
    Assignee: Imagekeeper LLC
    Inventors: Jerry Speasl, Mike Patterson, Marc Roberts