Patents by Inventor Craig B Ashmore

Craig B Ashmore has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 9643614
    Abstract: Clutch protection systems and methods include calculating a slip of a clutch of a manual transmission based on an input rotational velocity of a flywheel coupled to a torque generating system. The calculated slip is used to calculate an energy into the clutch. In one implementation, an accumulated energy into the clutch is calculated based on a rate of the calculated energy and a torque request for the torque generating system is limited based on the accumulated energy. In one implementation, an energy capacity remaining in the clutch until a threshold indicative of damage occurring is calculated based on the calculated energy and a limited torque request for the torque generating system is generated. The limited torque request corresponds to an amount of allowable torque before full clutch engagement occurs, where this time is calculable based on a rate at which the clutch slip is decreasing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2015
    Date of Patent: May 9, 2017
    Assignee: FCA US LLC
    Inventors: Ryan Masters, Brace Bade, Craig B Ashmore
  • Patent number: 9567920
    Abstract: Rev-matching techniques that do not require a gear position sensor or a clutch position sensor are provided for a manual transmission of a vehicle. The techniques include predicting an intent of a driver to shift gears of the manual transmission based on whether the vehicle is accelerating or decelerating; predicting a shift of the manual transmission from a current gear to a different target gear based on the predicted driver intent; and detecting a trigger condition indicative of the predicted shift of the manual transmission based on a position of a clutch pedal configured to control engagement/disengagement of a clutch of the manual transmission. In response to detecting the trigger condition, a torque request for the torque generating system is modified to obtain a modified torque request, and the torque generating system is controlled based on the modified torque request.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2017
    Assignee: FCA US LLC
    Inventors: Craig B Ashmore, Brace H Bade, Ryan Masters, Robert Stack
  • Publication number: 20160288793
    Abstract: Clutch protection systems and methods include calculating a slip of a clutch of a manual transmission based on an input rotational velocity of a flywheel coupled to a torque generating system. The calculated slip is used to calculate an energy into the clutch. In one implementation, an accumulated energy into the clutch is calculated based on a rate of the calculated energy and a torque request for the torque generating system is limited based on the accumulated energy. In one implementation, an energy capacity remaining in the clutch until a threshold indicative of damage occurring is calculated based on the calculated energy and a limited torque request for the torque generating system is generated. The limited torque request corresponds to an amount of allowable torque before full cutch engagement occurs, where this time is calculable based on a rate at which the clutch slip is decreasing.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 30, 2015
    Publication date: October 6, 2016
    Inventors: Ryan Masters, Brace Bade, Craig B Ashmore
  • Publication number: 20160290252
    Abstract: Rev-matching techniques that do not require a gear position sensor or a clutch position sensor are provided for a manual transmission of a vehicle. The techniques include predicting an intent of a driver to shift gears of the manual transmission based on whether the vehicle is accelerating or decelerating; predicting a shift of the manual transmission from a current gear to a different target gear based on the predicted driver intent; and detecting a trigger condition indicative of the predicted shift of the manual transmission based on a position of a clutch pedal configured to control engagement/disengagement of a clutch of the manual transmission. In response to detecting the trigger condition, a torque request for the torque generating system is modified to obtain a modified torque request, and the torque generating system is controlled based on the modified torque request.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 30, 2015
    Publication date: October 6, 2016
    Inventors: Craig B Ashmore, Brace H Bade, Ryan Masters, Robert Stack