Patents Examined by Yuen Wong
  • Patent number: 12197232
    Abstract: A system, apparatus and method are provided for robotically assisting the harvest of a crop. Instrumented picker carts include sensors for detecting amounts of harvested crop (e.g., fill ratios) of containers carried by the carts, communication modules for communicating their locations and detected crop amounts to a field computer, and components for signaling for robotic service. The field computer predicts when a cart that requests service will have a full container and where it will be located at that time, then decides whether to approve the request. If the request is approved, a robot is assigned and is given (or generates) a path to the cart's predicted location, and begins moving toward the location so as to arrive near (and preferably before) the predicted time. Robots include means for moving (e.g., wheels, motors, steering components, power sources), navigation modules, computing components for controlling their movement, and communication modules.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 24, 2022
    Date of Patent: January 14, 2025
    Assignee: The Regents of the University of California
    Inventors: Stavros Vougioukas, Chen Peng, Dennis L. Sadowski
  • Patent number: 12194886
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are systems and methods for temperature-based vehicle operation analysis. A thermal sensor measures a temperature associated with an energy storage unit that stores energy. A vehicle attribute sensor measures one or more attributes of a vehicle. The energy storage unit is configured to power a propulsion mechanism of the vehicle. A control system with a processor and memory identifies an effect of the measured temperature associated with the energy storage unit on the one or more attributes of the vehicle. The control system identifies a change to vehicle operation of the vehicle based on the identified effect of the measured temperature associated with the energy storage unit on the one or more attributes of the vehicle. An output interface outputs an indication of the change to vehicle operation of the vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2022
    Date of Patent: January 14, 2025
    Assignee: SUSTAINABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventor: John Cronin
  • Patent number: 12187100
    Abstract: An information processing device that controls a vehicle including a plurality of heating devices. The information processing device executes acquiring an air conditioning request transmitted from a user terminal, and selecting a heating device to be operated, among the heating devices in which an operation is specified by the air conditioning request, based on a remaining battery amount of the vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2025
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Kunihiro Murakami, Hiroyasu Hadano, Takaaki Inokuchi
  • Patent number: 12181307
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to a control arrangement (200) for a vehicle (100, 102), specifically adapted for use and creation of map data for improved operation of the vehicle (100, 102). The present disclosure also relates to a corresponding method and computer program product.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2024
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2024
    Assignee: VOLVO TRUCK CORPORATION
    Inventor: Johan Bjernetun
  • Patent number: 12179608
    Abstract: Systems and methods for monitoring and managing temperature of power packs of supercapacitors are disclosed. The system comprises a plurality of supercapacitor power packs associated with an electric motor. Further, an energy database is provided and configured to store data related to the charge of the supercapacitor power packs and thermal energy requirements related to the supercapacitor power packs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2024
    Assignee: SUSTAINABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventor: John Cronin
  • Patent number: 12181889
    Abstract: An upper point cloud estimator is configured to estimate a three-dimensional representation of the crop canopy based on collected stereo vision image data. A lower point cloud estimator is configured to estimate a ground three-dimensional representation or lower point of the ground based on the determined average. The electronic data processor is configured to determine one or more differences between the upper point cloud (or upper surface) of the crop canopy and a lower point cloud of the ground, where each difference is associated with a cell within a grid defined by the front region. The electronic data processor is capable of providing the differences to a data processing system to estimate a yield or differential yield for the front region, among other things.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 18, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2024
    Assignee: DEERE & COMPANY
    Inventors: Ashraf Qadir, Qiang Ray Liu, Ryan R. White
  • Patent number: 12172582
    Abstract: An autonomous vehicle and related method include, at each corner of the vehicle, a sensor module including a cast frame configured to mount on a corner component of the vehicle, and a plurality of sensors mounted on the cast frame. The plurality of sensors are configured to sense an environment around the autonomous vehicle and to communicate data about the environment to a navigation system of the autonomous vehicle for navigating the autonomous vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 24, 2024
    Assignee: HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Taiga Marukawa, Gilberto Larrache-Irizarry, Douglas M. Dafler, Patrick J. Ellison, Kosaku Tomozawa, Keiichiro Tsuji, Takashi Nakano, Anthony John Leanza
  • Patent number: 12162428
    Abstract: The disclosure provides a vehicle control system (VCS) capable of safely and forcibly controlling a vehicle. The VCS includes a mode setting unit configured to output a forced mode signal upon receiving a forced control instruction from outside the vehicle via a communication device, and a forced operation unit configured to output a forced operation signal of forcibly operating vehicle to an operation control unit. Further, the VCS includes a signal selection unit configured to allow all the operation signals to pass therethrough before receiving the forced mode signal, and block at least a part of the operation signals and allow the forced operation signal instead of the blocked operation signal to pass therethrough after receiving the forced mode signal. The VCS controls an operation of the vehicle by controlling the operation control unit based on the operation signal or the forced operation signal passing through the signal selection unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2024
    Assignee: Hitachi Astemo, Ltd.
    Inventors: Tetsuya Yamada, Mikio Kataoka, Nobuyoshi Morita
  • Patent number: 12157481
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and computer program products for vehicle path planning. The methods comprise: estimating a current state of a vehicle based on sensor data; generating a control error representing a difference between the estimated current state of the vehicle and a desired state of the vehicle as described by a previously published trajectory; comparing the control error to a threshold value; generating a first plan for the vehicle using an open-loop path planning approach when the control error is below the threshold value or a second plan for the vehicle using a closed-loop path planning approach when the control error is above the threshold value; and causing the vehicle to execute the first or second plan.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2024
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Daniel Althoff, Andreas Joachim Knoblach, Scott Julian Varnhagen
  • Patent number: 12157494
    Abstract: Systems and methods for controlling an autonomous vehicle. One system includes an electronic processor and a memory configured to store an occupancy grid map. The occupancy grid map includes a set of cells associated with respective positions in an environment. A sensor is configured to output sensed occupancy information associated with positions in the environment. The electronic processor is configured to determine a position of the autonomous vehicle within the environment, and receive, from a server, a high density map. The high density map contains occupancy information. The electronic processor initializes the cells with occupancy information based on the high density map. The electronic processor confirms, based on the sensed occupancy information, a state of the set of the cells of the occupancy grid map, and controls vehicle movement based on the occupancy grid map.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2024
    Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
    Inventors: Oliver F. Schwindt, Stephan Reuter, Marcel Brueckner
  • Patent number: 12151560
    Abstract: A superimposed image display device is configured to: acquire a recommended lane in which a vehicle is recommended to travel on a road on which the vehicle is currently traveling; identify a lane of travel that is a lane in which the vehicle is currently traveling on the road on which the vehicle is currently traveling; acquire a confidence indicating how confident an identification result of the lane of travel is; and display a guide object providing guidance on the recommended lane in a display mode according to the confidence.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 2022
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2024
    Assignee: AISIN CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hiroyuki Miyake, Daisuke Kobayashi
  • Patent number: 12151715
    Abstract: During execution of lane keeping control, a vehicle driving support device sets a center line passing through a center of a travelable width of an own vehicle within a current lane as a target traveling line, and autonomously steers the own vehicle such that a reference point of the own vehicle moves along the target traveling line. The vehicle driving support device changes a position of the target traveling line such that the target traveling line is a line located between the center line and the reference point of the own vehicle, when a driver performs a steering operation for steering the own vehicle during the execution of the lane keeping control and a steering operation force of the driver becomes equal to or larger than a target change start threshold value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2022
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2024
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Jiro Miyawaki
  • Patent number: 12145453
    Abstract: The invention relates to the technical field of battery safety, and in particular to a safety monitoring method and system for a vehicle. The safety monitoring method includes: when a vehicle is in a parked state, waking up a battery management controller at specific time intervals, and obtaining status data of the battery by means of a battery management controller; determining, based on the status data, whether the battery is in an anomalous state; and when the battery is not in the anomalous state, controlling the battery management controller to enter hibernation state again; or when the battery is in the anomalous state, further waking up a wireless communications network, and uploading the status data and/or an alarm signal to a remote monitoring platform by means of the wireless communications network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 7, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2024
    Assignee: NIO TECHNOLOGY (ANHUI) CO., LTD
    Inventors: Teng He, Rui Hua, Shizhe Zeng, Haoming Yan
  • Patent number: 12148308
    Abstract: Server apparatus, by controlling flight vehicle, causes flight vehicle to fly to a close range of a power-transmission line, and causes flight vehicle to capture images of the power-transmission line. Flight vehicle includes a positioning apparatus of GPS, and the flight of flight vehicle is controlled based on this measured position. On the other hand, each base station in communication network is provided with a positioning apparatus of GPS. The measured position of base station measured by the positioning apparatus is used to specify the error in position of flight vehicle determined by the positioning apparatus. Server apparatus restricts the flight of flight vehicle if the error in position of flight vehicle, which is determined by the positioning apparatus, that captures images of the power-transmission line is a threshold value or more.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2024
    Assignee: NTT DOCOMO, INC.
    Inventors: Tomoe Ushiro, Naoki Kameyama, Yuichiro Segawa, Yasuhiro Kitamura
  • Patent number: 12147234
    Abstract: An improved method for controlling a lifting device, which moves a load along a first movement direction and along a second movement direction within a specified working area of the lifting device from a starting point to an end point. Individual movements are planned for the first movement direction and for the second movement direction, by which the load is moved further along the movement directions and brought to a newly specified end point.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 29, 2022
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2024
    Assignee: B&R INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION GMBH
    Inventors: Andreas Stöger, Thomas J. Frauscher, Hubert Rams
  • Patent number: 12145599
    Abstract: Systems and methods for clustering human trust dynamics are provided. In one embodiment, a computer implemented method for clustering human trust dynamics is provided. The computer implemented method includes receiving trust data for a plurality of participants interacting with one or more agents in an interaction. The computer implemented method also includes identifying a plurality of phases for the interaction. The computer implemented method further includes extracting features characterizing trust dynamics from the trust data for at least one interaction for each participant of the plurality participants. The at least one interaction is between the participant and an agent of the one or more agents. The computer implemented yet further includes assigning the features characterizing trust dynamics to a phase of the plurality of phases. The computer implemented method includes grouping a subset of the participant of the plurality of participants based on the on features characterizing trust dynamics.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 2022
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2024
    Assignee: HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Kumar Akash, Teruhisa Misu, Xingwei Wu, Jundi Liu
  • Patent number: 12147232
    Abstract: A method for determining a geographical location of a vehicle (10) includes using a camera/sensor device (20) of the vehicle for recording (S10) first image and sensor data (30) from surroundings of the vehicle (10) while the vehicle (10) is traveling a route. The first image and sensor data (30) are assigned geographical coordinates and are sent to a data evaluation unit (50) for creating a digital map. The method continues by using a second camera and sensor device (20) for recording (S40) second image and sensor data (30) from surroundings while the vehicle (10) is traveling the same route and sending (S50) the recorded second image and sensor data (30) to the data evaluation unit (50). The data evaluation unit (50) compares (S60) the recorded second image and sensor data (30) with the digital map of the surroundings (70) and determines (S70) a position of the vehicle (10).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 2022
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2024
    Assignee: Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Fabian Haas-Fickinger, Simon Tobias Isele
  • Patent number: 12142351
    Abstract: A telepresence device may autonomously check patients. The telepresence device may determine the frequency of checking based on whether the patient has a risk factor. The telepresence device may include an image sensor, a thermal camera, a depth sensor, one or more systems for interacting with patients, or the like. The telepresence device may be configured to evaluate the patient's condition using the one or more sensors. The telepresence device may measure physiological characteristics using Eulerian video magnification, may detect pallor, fluid level, or fluid color, may detect thermal asymmetry, may determine a psychological state from body position or movement, or the like. The telepresence device may determine whether the patient is experiencing a potentially harmful condition, such as sepsis or stroke, and may trigger an alarm if so. To overcome alarm fatigue, the telepresence device may annoy a care provider until the care provider responds to an alarm.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 21, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2024
    Assignee: TELADOC HEALTH, INC.
    Inventors: Marco Pinter, Timothy C. Wright, H. Neal Reynolds, Fuji Lai, Yulun Wang
  • Patent number: 12134293
    Abstract: A method for controlling vehicle motion is described. The method includes accessing a set of control signals including a measured vehicle speed value associated with a movement of a vehicle. A control signal associated with user-induced input is also accessed. The method compares the measured vehicle speed value with a predetermined vehicle speed threshold value to achieve a speed value threshold approach status, and then compares the set of values to achieve a user-induced input threshold value approach status. The method monitors a state of a valve within the vehicle suspension damper, and determines a control mode for the vehicle suspension damper. The method also regulates damping forces within the vehicle suspension damper.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2024
    Assignee: Fox Factory, Inc.
    Inventors: Everet Owen Ericksen, Christopher Paul Cox, Philip Tsiaras, Mark Larson, Mario Galasso, Matt McLellan
  • Patent number: 12122377
    Abstract: A traveling control apparatus includes a microprocessor configured to perform: determining whether a second other vehicle is located within a predetermined range from a subject vehicle when the subject vehicle and a first other vehicle are closer than a predetermined degree in a traveling direction, when the first other vehicle traveling in a first adjacent lane adjacent to a current lane, which has a same traveling direction as the current lane, and the second other vehicle traveling in a second adjacent lane adjacent to the current lane are recognized; and when it is determined in the determining that the second other vehicle is located within the predetermined range, controlling a actuator so that a distance in the traveling direction from the subject vehicle to the first other vehicle becomes not less than a predetermined distance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2022
    Date of Patent: October 22, 2024
    Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shun Iwasaki, Nana Niibo, Shota Ishikawa