Patents Examined by Yonel Beaulieu
  • Patent number: 10649469
    Abstract: Indoor mapping and modular control for UAVs and other autonomous vehicles, and associated systems and methods. A representative unmanned aerial vehicle system includes a body, a propulsion system carried by the body, a sensor system carried by the body, and a controller carried at least in part by the body and operatively coupled to the propulsion system and the sensor system. The controller is programmed with instructions that, when executed, operate in a first autonomous mode and a second autonomous mode. In the first autonomous mode, the instructions autonomously direct the propulsion system to convey the body along a first route within an indoor environment. While the body travels along the first route, the instructions receive inputs from the sensor system corresponding to features of the indoor environment. The features are stored as part of a 3-D map.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 19, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 12, 2020
    Assignee: VTRUS INC.
    Inventors: Renato Fernando Salas-Moreno, Carlos Rafael Sanchez, Jonathan David Lenoff
  • Patent number: 10640116
    Abstract: A traveling control system for vehicle includes a map database, a detector, a traffic signal searching unit, and a speed adjusting unit. The map database is configured to store map data including information regarding one or more traffic signals on a road. The detector is configured to detect a signal state of any, of the one or more traffic signals, ahead of the own vehicle. The traffic signal searching unit is configured to search, from the map database, for a nearest traffic signal ahead of and nearest to the own vehicle. The speed adjusting unit is configured to perform, when the signal state of the nearest traffic signal is undetectable, adjustment of a passing speed at which the own vehicle passes around the nearest traffic signal, to perform a passing speed decreasing operation including decreasing of the passing speed of the own vehicle, stopping of the own vehicle, or both.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2020
    Assignee: SUBARU CORPORATION
    Inventor: Hajime Oyama
  • Patent number: 10625873
    Abstract: A control system for controlling a controlled parameter of an aeronautical equipment device, the controlled parameter being governed by an operating law linking the controlled parameter to a command and to a plurality of input parameters, the control system including a control loop controlling the controlled parameter to a setpoint with the control of the device by the command, the system including an operating law compensation module and a determination module determining a local gain configured to determine the local gain of a static part of a model of the operating law representative of the gain of the controlled parameter in response to a variation in the command in a stabilised operating regime of the operating law, the operating law compensation module using the inverse of the local gain.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 18, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 21, 2020
    Assignee: SAFRAN AIRCRAFT ENGINES
    Inventor: Cedrik Djelassi
  • Patent number: 10618519
    Abstract: Systems and methods are directed to lane change control for an autonomous vehicle. In one example, a computer-implemented method for determining whether to abort a lane change in an autonomous vehicle includes initiating, by a computing system comprising one or more computing devices, a lane change procedure for an autonomous vehicle. The method further includes obtaining, by the computing system, data indicative of one or more changed objects relative to the autonomous vehicle. The method further includes determining, by the computing system, that the lane change procedure cannot be completed by the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the data indicative of one or more changed objects. The method further includes in response to determining that the lane change cannot be completed by the autonomous vehicle, generating, by the computing system, a motion plan that controls the autonomous vehicle to abort the lane change procedure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 5, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 14, 2020
    Assignee: UATC LLC
    Inventors: Samuel Philip Marden, Eric Michael Perko
  • Patent number: 10612961
    Abstract: A method for estimating the mass of a vehicle system includes a number of steps including a first step of providing a vehicle system having at least a powertrain and a vehicle control module. Three different mass estimates are assigned with the last mass estimate being the most accurate. The mass estimates are used in the vehicle control module calculations for vehicle control parameters in the event that the weight of the vehicle changes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 7, 2020
    Assignee: GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATEONS LLC
    Inventor: Xiaoyu Huang
  • Patent number: 10607177
    Abstract: A method and system for determining a delivery location is provided. The method includes enabling a UAV delivery application specifying a delivery location for delivery of a package. A street address defining the delivery location is received and an eyewear based video device is enabled and directed towards a geographical area associated with the delivery of the package. GPS data associated with the geographical area is retrieved from the eyewear based video device and first GPS coordinates identifying a location of an embedded computing device are retrieved from a GPS system. A distance between the first GPS coordinates and the geographical area is calculated. Additionally, second GPS coordinates identifying the geographical area are calculated based on the GPS data, the distance, and the first GPS coordinates and it is determined if the second GPS coordinates are located within a specified perimeter surrounding the street address defining the delivery location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 8, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 31, 2020
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Ahamed Jalaldeen, Chivukula Venkata L. Narayana
  • Patent number: 10599143
    Abstract: A system may include one or more sensors configured to acquire data associated with a driver of a vehicle and a processor. The processor may receive the data and determine whether the data is within a baseline data associated with expected behavior of the driver. The processor may then control one or more operations of the vehicle in response to the data being outside the baseline data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 12, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 24, 2020
    Assignee: United Services Automobile Association (USAA)
    Inventors: Kade L. Scott, Benjamin D. Ethington, Richard Daniel Graham, Matthew T. Flachsbart
  • Patent number: 10597156
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method for managing the flight of a drone comprising a physical treatment device, the method comprises the steps repeated over time of measuring the distance between the drone and an object present in the environment of the drone; adjusting the distance from the drone to the object according to predefined internal parameters; and performing a physical treatment on the object from the drone. Developments describe the management of distances to objects, surface tracking, object recognition, the installation of beacons in the environment, the use of on-board or remotely accessed sensors (e.g. position and contact sensors, cameras, motion detectors) and various types of treatment (e.g. cleaning, dusting, sterilization). Both software aspects (e.g. learning, central or distributed logic, autonomy, cooperation with floor robots) and system aspects (addition of a fan, brush, duster or germicidal lamp) are described.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 24, 2020
    Inventor: Pierre Emmanuel Viel
  • Patent number: 10584972
    Abstract: A system and method for mapping, tracking, positioning, and navigating in GPS-denied or GPS-inaccurate areas features accurate and automatic generation and update of a pedestrian lane map based on crowd-sourcing unique path features (UPFs) in combination with associated path estimates from a plurality of mobile devices. Searching and matching newly generated UPFs and associated path estimates, to a pedestrian lane map with known UPFs and associated lanes (or lane estimates) provides simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) of mobile devices in GPS-denied or GPS-inaccurate areas, including indoors, underground; dense urban streets with high buildings, natural canyons, and similar environments. UPFs are robust to noise and orientation invariant, enabling operation on low cost mobile device sensors and handling of real life human behavior. The innovative UPFs and pedestrian lane map enable route finding, generating guiding instructions, tracking, and analysis of pedestrian traffic.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 1, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2020
    Assignee: Oriient New Media Ltd.
    Inventors: Amiram Frish, Dror Reif, Michael Balter
  • Patent number: 10575461
    Abstract: A controller for a harvester. The controller is configured to receive crop flow information representative of how crop is flowing through the harvester and generate display information for providing a visual display to an operator of the harvester. The visual display includes an animation of crop flowing through the harvester. The controller is further configured to set one or more properties of the animation of the crop flowing through the harvester based on the received crop flow information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 8, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2020
    Assignee: CNH Industrial America LLC
    Inventors: Bart M. A. Missotten, Glenn Aesaert, Michael Carpentier, Dre W. J. Jongmans, Thomas Mahieu, Ricardo Mesquita, Karel M. C. Viaene, Bart Vroman, Johnny M. F. Scherrens
  • Patent number: 10576947
    Abstract: Provided is an electric brake system that changes responsiveness depending on responsiveness required for an electric brake device, thereby enabling operation sound and power consumption to be reduced without influencing movement of a vehicle. The electric brake system includes one or more electric brake device (3) each having a control operation module (12) for performing follow-up control for a target braking force. The electric brake system includes a response requirement determination module (14) for determining responsiveness required for the brake actuator (4) from one or both of a braking requirement and the vehicle travelling condition. The braking requirement is outputted from a brake operation member or a vehicle-stable-travelling control system. The electric brake system includes a control modification module (15) for changing a control operation formula to be used for follow-up control by the module (12), depending on responsiveness determined by the module (14).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2020
    Assignee: NTN CORPORATION
    Inventor: Yui Masuda
  • Patent number: 10578457
    Abstract: An onboard robust and stable vision-inertial navigation system that makes an unmanned vehicle autonomous in its navigation capabilities in the absence of external navigation aids like a global positioning system (GPS). The system is robust to the sensor noise properties of the onboard vision and inertial sensors, as well as errors in initial estimates of the position and orientation of the vehicle. The system enables any unmanned vehicle to autonomously navigate an unfamiliar or unknown environment. The system is also stable and robust to uncertainties in the measurement noise and dynamics of the unmanned vehicle, and does not exhibit any instability when sensors are changed or when sensor noise properties change over time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2020
    Assignee: SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY
    Inventors: Sasi Prabhakaran Viswanathan, Amit K. Sanyal
  • Patent number: 10579057
    Abstract: A vehicle control device can include a memory; and a processor to generate driving information including information of driving the vehicle in a manual driving mode from a first point to a second point in a preset manner based on traffic regulations stored in the memory, store the driving information in the memory, and drive the vehicle in an autonomous driving mode based on the driving information stored in the memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 19, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2020
    Assignee: LG ELECTRONICS INC.
    Inventor: Heedong Choi
  • Patent number: 10573186
    Abstract: Methods and systems are provided for monitoring conformance of an aircraft to an actual and predicted 4-dimensional (4D) trajectory with respect to a reference business trajectory (RBT). First, a flight plan for the aircraft is acquired from an onboard flight management system (FMS) computer. A predicted flight trajectory is generated based on the latitude, longitude, altitude, speed and time of the flight plan for the aircraft. An onboard trajectory conformance monitor that is independent of the FMS computer, monitors the present flight trajectory of the aircraft and anticipates any actual or future deviations from the RBT. The trajectory conformance monitor will generate an advisory of any actual or anticipated deviations from the RBT.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2020
    Assignee: HONEYWELL INTERNATIONAL INC.
    Inventors: Kiran Mancheiah Venkataramana, Mohan Gowda Chandrashekarappa, Prashanth Thirumalaivenjamur
  • Patent number: 10571291
    Abstract: A method is provided to generate a route between an origin and a destination using historical travel times between segments of a road network map. Methods may include accessing a memory configured to store road network data segmented into tiles represented by quadkeys; determining a travel time between any two quadkeys of the stored road network data; receiving an origin and a destination within a road network corresponding to the road network data; calculating a route between the origin and the destination using the travel time between quadkeys that can be traversed from the origin to the destination; generating route guidance for the route between the origin and the destination; and providing the route guidance to a user indicating the route between the origin and the destination. The travel time between any two quadkeys may be determined based on historical travel times between the respective two quadkeys.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 8, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2020
    Assignee: HERE Global B.V.
    Inventors: James Fowe, Filippo Pellolio
  • Patent number: 10551198
    Abstract: An apparatus of providing guidance information provides guidance information about the result of recognizing a crosswalk around a vehicle as information for inducing safe driving. The guidance information about a crosswalk is differently provided in accordance with a surrounding situation concerned with forward traveling of the vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 17, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 4, 2020
    Assignee: Thinkware Corporation
    Inventor: Han Woo Lee
  • Patent number: 10551205
    Abstract: The invention discloses a vehicle management system which is energy centric. The system may be configured to operate on a terrestrial vehicle, a nautical or on an aerial vehicle. It is configured to allow a user input a route comprising legs, each leg associated with an activity and an energy consumption mode. The system captures parameters from sensors or sensor emulators to compute a position of the vehicle and a predicted energy consumption per leg. The system comprises a display unit which associates graphically the activities, their energy consumptions and their duration. It allows the user to simulate what-if scenarios, to continuously visualize the impact of modifications of some of the parameters of energy consumption on an energy/time/range budget. The invention discloses a vehicle energy management system wherein the simulation capability is configured to display the time spent on each activity in a scale which is commensurate to the energy consumption.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 10, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 4, 2020
    Assignee: ECOLE NATIONALE DE L'AVIATION CIVILE
    Inventors: Hélène Gaspard-Boulinc, Stéphane Conversy, Jean-Luc Vinot, Mickaël Loubriat, Alexandre Duchevet, Clëment Dupont, Matthieu Riedinger, Matthieu Pujos, Raïlane Benhacene, Denis Louviot
  • Patent number: 10543759
    Abstract: Provided is a vehicle seat apparatus for a vehicle capable of executing a manual steering mode in which a vehicle occupant steers the vehicle by using a steering device and an automatic steering mode in which steering of the vehicle is controlled without intervention of the occupant. The vehicle seat apparatus includes a seat back, an arm rest, and a controller. The seat back is configured to support a back of the occupant. The arm rest is configured to support an arm of the occupant. The controller is configured to moves at least one of the seat hack and the arm rest. During a transition period of the vehicle from the automatic steering mode to the manual steering mode, the controller performs control to move the seat back in a direction to raise the seat back and performs control to move at least a portion of the arm rest forward.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2020
    Assignee: SUBARU CORPORATION
    Inventor: Isamu Nagasawa
  • Patent number: 10545509
    Abstract: The subject matter of this specification generally relates to modular vehicles including separable pod and base units. In some implementations, a computing system installed in a vehicle base identifies a vehicle pod that is detachably connected to a chassis on the vehicle base. In response to identifying that the vehicle pod is detachably connected to the chassis on the vehicle base, a communications link can be established between the computing system installed in the vehicle base and a computing system installed in the vehicle pod. Based on information obtained through the communications link, the computing system installed in the vehicle base can determine a particular configuration of the vehicle pod that is detachably connected to the chassis. The computing system can then verify that the vehicle base can safely transport the vehicle pod while the vehicle pod is detachably connected.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2020
    Assignee: X Development LLC
    Inventors: Johan Ulrich Lewin Jessen, Kristina Liv Larsen, Martin Friedrich Schubert, Michael Patrick Bauerly, Michael Jason Grundmann, Rowan M. Ogden, Phillip Edwin Watson
  • Patent number: 10539423
    Abstract: A key point based guiding navigation method, device, and equipment are disclosed. Said method includes the following steps: based on a first location and a second location, determining a plurality of navigation points from among a plurality of key points located in a predetermined indoor map, where the key points are used to represent accessible directions in the indoor map; generating navigation information for pilot based on orientation of a specific navigation point relative to a current location; and following a predefined displaying rule and based on at least part of the indoor map, displaying the navigation information and navigation point and/or second location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 21, 2020
    Assignee: Legao Lejia (Beijing) Information Technology Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Haoyang Yuan, Xian Wu, Geng Chen