Patents by Inventor Daiji Watanabe

Daiji Watanabe 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: 11312391
    Abstract: A display apparatus mounted on a vehicle may comprise: a display device that is placed in a vehicle compartment of a vehicle configured to perform a cooperative driving mode in which a manual operation by a driver and an autonomous operation by an autonomous driving function cooperate with each other to control a driving of the vehicle; an acquisition section that is configured to acquire a degree of restriction applied to an autonomous operation torque controlled by the autonomous driving function in the cooperative driving mode in response to set of the degree of restriction according to a manual operation amount input by the driver; and a display control device that causes the display device to display a cooperative ratio of the manual operation and the autonomous operation in the cooperative driving mode based on the degree of restriction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 16, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2022
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yousuke Hirate, Daiji Watanabe
  • Patent number: 11299203
    Abstract: In a cruise assist system, a turning angle controller executes at least one of an automatic cruise control task that automatically controls a turning angle of the vehicle, and an assist control task that controls the turning angle of the vehicle in accordance with an occupant's operation of the steering wheel. A holding determiner includes an input detector detecting an occupant's physical input to a steering shaft via a steering wheel based on at least one of a first type physical quantity and second type physical quantities. Each of the first and second physical quantities depends on rotational movement of the steering shaft. The first type physical quantity contains the occupant's physical input, and a disturbance input, which is different therefrom, to the steering shaft. The second type physical quantities have a physical relationship therebetween, which is changed depending on the occupant's physical input.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2022
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Shun Shimizu, Yosuke Hirate, Daiji Watanabe, Toshiya Kabayama, Hisaya Akatsuka
  • Patent number: 11027740
    Abstract: A forward information acquisition unit acquires a road profile ahead of the own vehicle. A position acquisition unit acquires a current position of the own vehicle. A state acquisition unit acquires a current speed of the own vehicle. A command calculation unit calculates a target speed at each point on a road ahead of the own vehicle, based on the road profile and the current position, and calculates a drive command for driving the own vehicle in the longitudinal direction of the own vehicle, based on the target speed and the current speed. The road profile includes a road gradient. The command calculation unit is configured to adjust the drive command, based on variation in the road gradient and Gzmax that is an acceleration limit limiting acceleration of the own vehicle in the vertical direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 6, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 8, 2021
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Daiji Watanabe, Toshiki Matsumoto, Hisaya Akatsuka
  • Patent number: 10864939
    Abstract: A steering assist apparatus on a vehicle is provided, including a steering drive unit that drives a steering apparatus; a steering control unit that executes an automatic steering mode in which the steering drive unit is controlled such that a turning angle is determined based on at least either a running state of the vehicle or road information to accomplish the determined turning angle; and a transmission ratio determining unit that determines, based on at least either a running state of the vehicle or the road information, a first transmission ratio in the automatic steering mode to be a value different from a second transmission ratio in a manual steering mode in which the steering apparatus operates in accordance with the steering angle inputted via a steering input apparatus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 20, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 15, 2020
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yosuke Hirate, Daiji Watanabe, Hisaya Akatsuka, Toshiya Kabayama
  • Patent number: 10843726
    Abstract: In a vehicle, an amount of change of a turning angle of a turning mechanism to an amount of change of a steering angle of a steering input device is defined as a transfer ratio, the turning mechanism is rotationally driven by a turning drive unit, and a driver's body posture parameter is detected by a body posture parameter detector. An apparatus for steering the vehicle includes a controller that executes an automatic steering mode that determines a target value for the turning angle of the turning mechanism based on a travelling condition of the vehicle and/or information about a road on which the vehicle is travelling, and controls the turning mechanism to adjust the turning angle of the turning mechanism to the target value. A transfer ratio adjuster adjusts the transfer ratio in accordance with the body posture parameter during execution of the automatic steering mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 24, 2020
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yosuke Hirate, Daiji Watanabe, Hisaya Akatsuka
  • Patent number: 10745046
    Abstract: A steering assist apparatus is provided with a steering drive unit driving a steering apparatus, a steering control unit executing an automatic steering mode where a steering drive unit is controlled such that a turning angle is determined based on at least either a running state of the vehicle or road information to produce the determined turning angle, and a target differential angle control unit determining a target differential angle. The target differential angle control unit determines the target differential angle to be close to an automatic steering target differential angle used for the automatic steering mode, when input variation through a steering input apparatus is not detected during a transition period from a manual steering mode where the steering apparatus operates in response to the steering angle inputted through the steering input apparatus to the automatic steering mode or during an elapsed period after completing the transition period.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 23, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 18, 2020
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yosuke Hirate, Daiji Watanabe, Hisaya Akatsuka, Toshiya Kabayama
  • Patent number: 10654519
    Abstract: In a steering assistance apparatus mounted in a vehicle, a steering input device and a turning device differentiate at a transmission ratio that is a ratio of an amount of change in the turning angle to an amount of change in the steering angle. A turning device actuator actuates the turning device. A controller executes an automatic steering mode, in which the controller determines the turning angle based on at least one of a travel condition and travel path information of the vehicle and controls the turning device actuator so as to achieve the determined turning angle. If detecting an input variation from the steering input device during execution of the automatic steering mode, the controller changes the transmission ratio to a value less than the transmission ratio in the automatic steering mode and prioritizes a manual steering mode over the automatic steering mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 20, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2020
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yosuke Hirate, Daiji Watanabe, Hisaya Akatsuka, Toshiya Kabayama
  • Patent number: 10589777
    Abstract: A motor controller of a steering control apparatus is configured to drive, based on an assist command and a tracking command, a motor to thereby generate assist torque and automatic steering torque. A state determiner of the steering control apparatus is configured to determine at least whether a driver's steering state is a biased steering state or a return steering state in accordance with a first parameter associated with steering torque based on the driver's steering, and a second parameter associated with an angular velocity of the motor. A ratio changer of the steering control apparatus is configured to change a ratio of the assist torque to the automatic steering torque in accordance with a determination result of the state determiner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2020
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yosuke Hirate, Daiji Watanabe, Hisaya Akatsuka
  • Patent number: 10501115
    Abstract: A driving support device for a vehicle includes an assist control unit for generating an assist command for generating an assist torque, a tracking control unit for generating a tracking command for generating an automatic steering torque, an intervention detection unit for detecting an intervention in a tracking process by a steering operation, a tracking limiting unit that limits the tracking process during a detection of the intervention, a steering force correcting unit for generating a correction command for reducing a difference in steering reaction force caused by an operation direction of a driver during the detection of the intervention and a motor driving unit for driving the motor based on the assist command, the tracking command and the correction command.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 13, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2019
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hisaya Akatsuka, Daiji Watanabe
  • Patent number: 10435024
    Abstract: A driving support apparatus performing a plurality of driving support includes: a reliability acquiring unit that acquires each reliability of a plurality of detection apparatus, the reliability representing likelihood of a detection result of the detection apparatus; a determination unit that determines whether or not each of the detection apparatus is a high reliability apparatus determined based on a reliability threshold; a correspondence acquiring unit that acquires correspondence information representing a correspondence between combinations of the plurality of detection apparatus including information of whether or not each apparatus is a high reliability apparatus, and types of driving support to be performed; a setting unit that sets a driving support to be performed, based on a result of the determination; an executing unit that executes the driving support to be performed; and an output unit that outputs a command to allow the executing unit to execute the driving support.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 18, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2019
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hisaya Akatsuka, Daiji Watanabe
  • Patent number: 10399592
    Abstract: In a drive assist system, a map data acquiring section acquires at least one of a driver's operation ability and a load of a vehicle. An adjustment section determines an assist control amount as a control parameter of drive assist for the vehicle so that a degree of the driver's operation is increased according to reduction of the driver's operation ability or increasing of the load of the vehicle. An assist control amount calculation section transmits the assist control amount to a steering motor and a notification section so as to execute the drive assist for the vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 7, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2019
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hisaya Akatsuka, Daiji Watanabe
  • Patent number: 10131331
    Abstract: A braking force control device includes an actuator configured to control a braking force generated in vehicle wheels of a vehicle and a control unit configured to output a braking force command value to the actuator. The control unit is configured to perform at least one of the following processes of generating a braking force command value by performing a filter processing on a required braking force based on a braking operation amount using a filter having a smaller damping ratio than a damping ratio of a pitch motion of the vehicle when the required braking force increases, or generating the braking force command value by performing the filter processing on the required braking force based on the braking operation amount using a filter having a greater damping ratio than the damping ratio of the pitch motion of the vehicle when the required braking force decreases.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2018
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Shiro Monzaki, Tamio Kano, Tomoaki Morimoto, Daiji Watanabe
  • Publication number: 20180065657
    Abstract: A motor controller of a steering control apparatus is configured to drive, based on an assist command and a tracking command, a motor to thereby generate assist torque and automatic steering torque. A state determiner of the steering control apparatus is configured to determine at least whether a driver's steering state is a biased steering state or a return steering state in accordance with a first parameter associated with steering torque based on the driver's steering, and a second parameter associated with an angular velocity of the motor. A ratio changer of the steering control apparatus is configured to change a ratio of the assist torque to the automatic steering torque in accordance with a determination result of the state determiner.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 24, 2017
    Publication date: March 8, 2018
    Inventors: Yosuke Hirate, Daiji Watanabe, Hisaya Akatsuka
  • Patent number: 9764758
    Abstract: An electric power steering system includes a basic assist amount calculation section calculating a basic assist amount for assisting the manipulation of a steering wheel, and an assist compensation amount calculation section calculating an assist compensation amount for correcting the basic assist amount. The system includes an assist amount correction section calculating a corrected assist amount by correcting the basic assist amount based on the assist compensation amount, and a motor drive section driving a motor using the corrected assist amount. The assist compensation amount calculation section uses a reverse input specification that more transmits the signal components of specific frequency in road-surface input torque, to a steering wheel than in the case of using only the basic assist amount, and calculates the assist compensation amount suitable for a vehicle-state value, such as a steering torque, to suppress variation in the transmission characteristics due to variation of the vehicle-state value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2017
    Assignees: DENSO CORPORATION, TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Hisaya Akatsuka, Daiji Watanabe, Motoaki Kataoka, Yoshio Kudo, Yoshiaki Suzuki
  • Patent number: 9457837
    Abstract: A steering device (1) includes: a steering member (4) that is provided in a vehicle (2) and configured to be rotationally operated; an actuator (8) that generates a torque assisting a steering operation on the steering member (4); a detection device (9) that detects a torque applied to a steering shaft portion (5) that rotates together with the steering member (4); and a steering control device (11) that performs vibration suppression control to suppress vibrations transmitted to the steering member (4) by adjusting a torque generated by the actuator (8), on a basis of a detected torque that is a torque detected by the detection device (9). The steering control device (11) controls the actuator (8) such that a torque of a frequency band in a first predetermined range, which corresponds to the detected torque is not suppressed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 16, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2016
    Assignees: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA, DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yoshio Kudo, Yoshiaki Suzuki, Motoaki Kataoka, Daiji Watanabe, Hisaya Akatsuka
  • Publication number: 20150210310
    Abstract: An electric power steering system includes a basic assist amount calculation section calculating a basic assist amount for assisting the manipulation of a steering wheel, and an assist compensation amount calculation section calculating an assist compensation amount for correcting the basic assist amount. The system includes an assist amount correction section calculating a corrected assist amount by correcting the basic assist amount based on the assist compensation amount, and a motor drive section driving a motor using the corrected assist amount. The assist compensation amount calculation section uses a reverse input specification that more transmits the signal components of specific frequency in road-surface input torque, to a steering wheel than in the case of using only the basic assist amount, and calculates the assist compensation amount suitable for a vehicle-state value, such as a steering torque, to suppress variation in the transmission characteristics due to variation of the vehicle-state value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 31, 2013
    Publication date: July 30, 2015
    Inventors: Hisaya Akatsuka, Daiji Watanabe, Motoaki Kataoka, Yoshio Kudo, Yoshiaki Suzuki
  • Publication number: 20150120140
    Abstract: A steering device (1) includes: a steering member (4) that is provided in a vehicle (2) and configured to be rotationally operated; an actuator (8) that generates a torque assisting a steering operation on the steering member (4); a detection device (9) that detects a torque applied to a steering shaft portion (5) that rotates together with the steering member (4); and a steering control device (11) that performs vibration suppression control to suppress vibrations transmitted to the steering member (4) by adjusting a torque generated by the actuator (8), on a basis of a detected torque that is a torque detected by the detection device (9). The steering control device (11) controls the actuator (8) such that a torque of a frequency band in a first predetermined range, which corresponds to the detected torque is not suppressed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 16, 2013
    Publication date: April 30, 2015
    Applicants: DENSO CORPORATION, TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Yoshio Kudo, Yoshiaki Suzuki, Motoaki Kataoka, Daiji Watanabe, Hisaya Akatsuka
  • Patent number: 8996251
    Abstract: A base assist section generates a base assist command so that a steering reaction according to a road surface reaction returns to a steering wheel side. A modifying section generates a torque modifying command for modifying the base assist command so that an unstable movement of a vehicle converges appropriately. A sum of the each command becomes a final assist torque command. The base assist section estimates a road surface force based on the self-generated base assist command and a steering torque actually detected. A target steering torque is generated based on the estimated force, and the base assist command is generated based on a deviation of the target steering torque and the steering torque.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 31, 2015
    Assignee: Denso Corporation
    Inventors: Motoaki Kataoka, Daiji Watanabe
  • Publication number: 20130060427
    Abstract: A base assist section generates a base assist command so that a steering reaction according to a road surface reaction returns to a steering wheel side. A modifying section generates a torque modifying command for modifying the base assist command so that an unstable movement of a vehicle converges appropriately. A sum of the each command becomes a final assist torque command. The base assist section estimates a road surface force based on the self-generated base assist command and a steering torque actually detected. A target steering torque is generated based on the estimated force, and the base assist command is generated based on a deviation of the target steering torque and the steering torque.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 29, 2012
    Publication date: March 7, 2013
    Applicant: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Motoaki Kataoka, Daiji Watanabe
  • Publication number: 20130060426
    Abstract: In an electric power steering control device, a target assist torque calculation unit calculates a target assist torque or a target current, and a current control unit calculates a basic current instruction so that an actual current Im flowing in an electric motor becomes equal to the target current. An output of the unit is adjusted on the basis of an output of a stable current compensation unit. The unit uses a transfer function Gi expressed by using a differential operator s of not more than fourth order terms. The unit generates a compensation instruction on the basis of the actual current Im in order to produce stable operation of the entire system. A motor drive unit receives a current instruction adjusted on the basis of the compensation instruction, and controls the current flowing in the electric motor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 29, 2012
    Publication date: March 7, 2013
    Applicant: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Daiji Watanabe, Tomoyuki Hori, Motoaki Kataoka