Patents by Inventor Daisuke Umetsu

Daisuke Umetsu 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: 10767582
    Abstract: A vehicle control device is provided, which includes an engine, an engine control mechanism configured to control torque generated by the engine, and a processor configured to execute a vehicle attitude controlling module to perform a vehicle attitude control in which the engine control mechanism is controlled to reduce the torque so as to decelerate the vehicle, when a condition that the vehicle is traveling and a steering angle related value that is related to a steering angle of a steering device increases is satisfied, and a preventing module to prevent a combustion frequency of the engine per unit time from falling below a given value while the vehicle attitude controlling module executes the vehicle attitude control.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 21, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 8, 2020
    Assignee: Mazda Motor Corporation
    Inventors: Daisaku Ogawa, Daisuke Umetsu, Osamu Sunahara, Yasunori Takahara, Yuichiro Akiya, Chikako Ohisa, Atsushi Yamasaki, Keiichi Hiwatashi
  • Publication number: 20200238823
    Abstract: A vehicle system comprises an engine driving a vehicle, a front wheel and a rear wheel, a suspension device with an attachment portion to a vehicle body which is located at a higher level than a center axis of the rear wheel, an electromagnetic coupling to distribute a torque of the engine to the front wheel and the rear wheel, a steering wheel to be operated by a driver, a steering angle sensor to detect a steering angle corresponding to operation of the steering wheel, and a controller to control the engine and the electromagnetic coupling. The controller is configured to control the electromagnetic coupling such that the torque distributed to the rear wheel is decreased in accordance with returning operation of the steering wheel which is detected by the steering angle sensor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 24, 2020
    Publication date: July 30, 2020
    Applicant: MAZDA MOTOR CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yasumasa IMAMURA, Naoki NOBUTANI, Daisuke UMETSU
  • Publication number: 20200238995
    Abstract: A vehicle system comprises an engine driving a vehicle, a front wheel and a rear wheel, a suspension device with an attachment portion to a vehicle body which is located at a higher level than a center axis of the rear wheel, an electromagnetic coupling to distribute a torque of the engine to the front wheel and the rear wheel, a steering wheel to be operated by a driver, a steering angle sensor to detect a steering angle corresponding to operation of the steering wheel, and a controller to control the engine and the electromagnetic coupling. The controller is configured to control the electromagnetic coupling such that the torque distributed to the rear wheel is increased in accordance with turning operation of the steering wheel which is detected by the steering angle sensor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 24, 2020
    Publication date: July 30, 2020
    Applicant: MAZDA MOTOR CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yasumasa IMAMURA, Naoki NOBUTANI, Daisuke UMETSU
  • Publication number: 20200217261
    Abstract: Provided is a vehicle control system capable of controlling the behavior of a vehicle, in conformity to a tire longitudinal spring constant, to improve responsivity and linear feeling of the vehicle behavior with respect to a steering manipulation. The vehicle control system comprises a steering angle sensor (8) and a PCM (14). The PCM is configured to set, based on a detection value of the steering angle sensor, an additional deceleration to be added to a vehicle (1), and control the vehicle to generate the set additional deceleration in the vehicle, wherein the additional deceleration is set to be larger when a tire longitudinal spring constant (Kt) of each road wheel of the vehicle is relatively small than when it is not relatively small.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 11, 2018
    Publication date: July 9, 2020
    Applicant: MAZDA MOTOR CORPORATION
    Inventor: Daisuke UMETSU
  • Patent number: 10688999
    Abstract: A vehicle control device includes a drive source for generating torque as driving force that causes a vehicle to travel, a drive source control mechanism for controlling the torque generation by the drive source, a driving force transmission mechanism for transmitting the torque to vehicle wheels, an engageable element provided in the transmission mechanism, and a processor configured to execute an engagement state change control in which an engagement state of the engageable element is changed, a vehicle attitude controlling module for controlling attitude of the vehicle by driving the drive source control mechanism to reduce the torque so as to decelerate the vehicle, when a condition is satisfied, the condition being that the vehicle is traveling and a steering angle related value increases, and an engagement state change restricting module for restricting the execution of the engagement state change control while the vehicle attitude control is executed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2020
    Assignee: Mazda Motor Corporation
    Inventors: Keiichi Hiwatashi, Yasunori Takahara, Daisaku Ogawa, Daisuke Umetsu, Osamu Sunahara, Chikako Ohisa
  • Patent number: 10625731
    Abstract: There is provided a vehicle behavior control device capable of improving responsivity of a vehicle behavior and a linear feeling with respect to a steering wheel operation without causing a driver to experience a strong feeling of intervention of the control, and capable of controlling behavior in such a manner as to improve stability of the vehicle attitude and riding comfort. The device includes a PCM which acquires a steering speed relating to a jerk in a width direction of the vehicle, sets a torque reduction flag, indicative of whether or not a condition for allowing reduction of an output torque of an engine is satisfied, based on the steering speed, and starts to reduce a torque when the torque reduction flag is set to True indicative of a state in which the condition for allowing reduction of the torque is satisfied.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 21, 2020
    Assignee: MAZDA MOTOR CORPORATION
    Inventors: Toru Yoshioka, Daisuke Umetsu, Osamu Sunahara, Yasunori Takahara, Masaki Chiba
  • Patent number: 10597036
    Abstract: The vehicle driving force control device comprises: a behavior control mechanism for reducing a driving force of an engine according to a steering speed; a driving force distribution mechanism for distributing the driving force of the engine to rear road wheels; and an ECU for controlling the mechanisms. The behavior control mechanism reduces the driving force by a target torque reduction amount set based on the steering speed, to thereby generate a deceleration, and the driving force distribution mechanism distributes the driving force to the front road wheels and the rear road wheels based on a distribution rate set for the rear road wheels depending on a traveling state, and the ECU corrects the distribution rate based on the target torque reduction amount during cornering of the vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 24, 2020
    Assignee: Mazda Motor Corporation
    Inventors: Yasumasa Imamura, Osamu Sunahara, Daisuke Umetsu, Naoki Nobutani
  • Publication number: 20200070812
    Abstract: There is provided a vehicle behavior control device capable of improving responsivity of a vehicle behavior and a linear feeling with respect to a steering wheel operation without causing a driver to experience a strong feeling of intervention of the control and, at the same time, capable of controlling behavior of a vehicle in such a manner as to also improve stability of the vehicle attitude and riding comfort. In a vehicle behavior control device applied to a vehicle 1 having steerable front road wheels 2, the vehicle behavior control device includes a PCM 14 which acquires a steering speed of the vehicle, and increases a vertical load on the front road wheels when the steering speed becomes equal to or greater than a given threshold TS1 which is greater than zero.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 30, 2017
    Publication date: March 5, 2020
    Applicant: MAZDA MOTOR CORPORATION
    Inventors: Toru YOSHIOKA, Daisuke UMETSU, Osamu SUNAHARA, Yasunori TAKAHARA, Masaki CHIBA
  • Publication number: 20200070811
    Abstract: There is provided a vehicle behavior control device capable of improving responsivity of a vehicle behavior and a linear feeling with respect to a steering wheel operation without causing a driver to experience a strong feeling of intervention of the control and, at the same time, capable of controlling behavior of a vehicle in such a manner as to also improve stability of the vehicle attitude and riding comfort. In a vehicle behavior control device applied to a vehicle 1 having steerable front road wheels 2, the vehicle behavior control device includes a PCM 14 which acquires a steering speed of the vehicle, and increases a pitch angle in such a direction that a front portion of the vehicle dips when the steering speed becomes equal to or greater than a given threshold TS1 which is greater than zero.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 30, 2017
    Publication date: March 5, 2020
    Applicant: MAZDA MOTOR CORPORATION
    Inventors: Toru YOSHIOKA, Daisuke UMETSU, Osamu SUNAHARA, Yasunori TAKAHARA, Masaki CHIBA
  • Publication number: 20200070813
    Abstract: A vehicle control device includes an engine (10), an engine control mechanism that controls an engine torque, and a PCM (50) that performs vehicle posture control for generating vehicle deceleration by controlling the engine control mechanism to reduce the engine torque upon satisfaction of a condition that a vehicle is travelling and a steering angle-related value related to a steering angle of a steering device increases. When a driver performs an accelerator operation for reducing an accelerator opening during execution of vehicle posture control, the PCM (50) suppresses reduction of a generated torque of the engine due to the accelerator operation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 9, 2018
    Publication date: March 5, 2020
    Applicant: Mazda Motor Corporation
    Inventors: Daisaku OGAWA, Osamu SUNAHARA, Yasunori TAKAHARA, Chikako OHISA, Yuichiro AKIYA, Atsushi YAMASAKI, Keiichi HIWATASHI, Daisuke UMETSU
  • Patent number: 10569765
    Abstract: A PCM (14) for controlling a behavior of a vehicle (1) having steerable front road wheels is configured to perform a control to reduce a driving force for the vehicle (1) according to a yaw rate-related quantity (e.g., steering speed) of the vehicle (1). Specifically, the PCM (14) is configured, after reducing the driving force in response to a change in the yaw rate-related quantity and according to the yaw rate-related quantity being changing, to increase the driving force so as to restore a value of the driving force before the reduction, and the PCM (14) is operable, when increasing the driving force so as to restore a value of the driving force before the reduction, to change a change rate during the increasing of the driving force, according to a magnitude of the yaw rate-related quantity thereduring.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 2, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2020
    Assignee: MAZDA MOTOR CORPORATION
    Inventors: Osamu Sunahara, Daisuke Umetsu
  • Patent number: 10562537
    Abstract: The vehicle control device is designed to control a vehicle equipped with an engine, and an automatic transmission comprising a torque converter with a lockup clutch. The vehicle control device comprises a controller configured to perform control of changing an engagement degree of the lockup clutch and to, when such a condition that the vehicle is traveling and a steering angle-related value as a parameter related to a steering angle of a steering apparatus of the vehicle increases is satisfied, reduce an output torque of the engine to generate a deceleration of the vehicle to thereby execute a torque reduction control for controlling an attitude of the vehicle. The controller is configured to reduce the output torque of the engine, in accordance with the engagement degree of the lockup clutch controlled by a lockup control.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2020
    Assignee: MAZDA MOTOR CORPORATION
    Inventors: Keiichi Hiwatashi, Daisuke Umetsu, Osamu Sunahara, Yasunori Takahara, Daisaku Ogawa, Takahiro Kawamura, Chikako Ohisa
  • Patent number: 10526981
    Abstract: An engine control device is provided, that includes an air amount controller, an ignition timing controller, a basic target torque determinator which determines a basic target torque, a change rate acquirer for acquiring a change rate of a steering operation, a target additional deceleration setter for increasing a target additional deceleration while an increase rate thereof becomes less as the change rate increases, a torque reduction amount determinator for determining an engine torque reduction amount, a final target torque determinator for determining a final target torque, and an actual air amount estimator for estimating an actual air amount introduced into a combustion chamber. The air amount controller determines a target air amount and controls the intake air amount to achieve the target air amount. The ignition timing controller retards the ignition timing more as the actual air amount becomes more excessive with respect to the target amount.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2020
    Assignee: Mazda Motor Corporation
    Inventors: Chikako Ohisa, Osamu Sunahara, Daisuke Umetsu, Takahiro Kawamura, Yasunori Takahara, Daisaku Ogawa, Takeatsu Ito
  • Patent number: 10525962
    Abstract: A vehicle control device comprises: a downshift control part (51) configured, upon issuance of a downshift request for downshifting an automatic transmission (200), to execute a downshift control of downshifting the automatic transmission (200) and driving an engine torque regulating mechanism to increase an output torque of an engine (10); a vehicle attitude control part (53) configured, upon satisfaction of a condition that the vehicle is traveling and a steering angle-related value pertaining to a steering angle of a steering device increases, to execute a vehicle attitude control of reducing the output torque of the engine (10) to generate deceleration of the vehicle so as to control vehicle attitude; and a downshift suppression part (55) configured, when the vehicle attitude control is executed, to suppress the execution of the downshift control.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 13, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2020
    Assignee: MAZDA MOTOR CORPORATION
    Inventors: Keiichi Hiwatashi, Daisuke Umetsu, Osamu Sunahara, Yasunori Takahara, Chikako Ohisa, Daisaku Ogawa
  • Publication number: 20190389466
    Abstract: A method of controlling a vehicle (1) in which rear road wheels (2) are driven by a prime mover (4, 20). This vehicle control method comprises: a basic torque setting step of setting, based on a driving state of the vehicle, a basic torque to be generated by the prime mover; an incremental torque setting step of setting an incremental torque such that the basic torque is increased in accordance with an increase in steering angle of a steering device (26) equipped in the vehicle; and a torque generation step of controlling the prime mover to generate a torque which is determined by increasing the basic torque based on the incremental torque.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 12, 2019
    Publication date: December 26, 2019
    Applicant: MAZDA MOTOR CORPORATION
    Inventors: Daisaku OGAWA, Daisuke UMETSU, Fuminori KATO
  • Publication number: 20190390612
    Abstract: A vehicle control device includes an engine 10 capable of switching between reduced-cylinder operation and all-cylinder operation, an engine control mechanism that controls an engine torque, and a PCM 50 that executes vehicle posture control for generating vehicle deceleration by controlling the engine control mechanism to reduce the engine torque upon satisfaction of a condition that a vehicle is travelling and a steering angle-related value related to a steering angle of a steering device increases. In addition, this PCM 50 permits the execution of the vehicle posture control when an engine rotation speed is more than or equal to a first rotation speed Ne1 and permits the execution of the reduced-cylinder operation of the engine 10 when the engine rotation speed is more than or equal to a second rotation speed Ne2 that is more than the first rotation speed Ne1.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 9, 2018
    Publication date: December 26, 2019
    Applicant: Mazda Motor Corporation
    Inventors: Daisaku OGAWA, Osamu SUNAHARA, Yasunori TAKAHARA, Chikako OHISA, Yuichiro AKIYA, Atsushi YAMASAKI, Keiichi HIWATASHI, Daisuke UMETSU
  • Publication number: 20190389469
    Abstract: A method of controlling a vehicle (1) in which rear road wheels (2) are driven by a prime mover (4, 20). This vehicle control method comprises: a basic torque setting step of setting, based on a driving state of the vehicle, a basic torque to be generated by the prime mover; a decremental torque setting step of setting a decremental torque such that the basic torque is reduced in accordance with a decrease in steering angle of a steering device (26) equipped in the vehicle; and a torque generation step of controlling the prime mover to generate a torque which is determined by reducing the basic torque based on the decremental torque.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 12, 2019
    Publication date: December 26, 2019
    Applicant: MAZDA MOTOR CORPORATION
    Inventors: Daisaku OGAWA, Daisuke UMETSU, Fuminori KATO
  • Publication number: 20190389510
    Abstract: The present invention provides a method of controlling a vehicle (1) in which rear road wheels (2b) are driven. The method includes: a step of selecting a first pedal mode in which an acceleration is set based on a depression amount of an accelerator pedal, or a second pedal mode in which the acceleration and a deceleration are set; a step of setting a basic torque based on a driving state of the vehicle; a step of setting an incremental torque to allow the basic torque to be increased in accordance with an increase in steering angle; and a step of generating a torque which is determined by adding the incremental torque to the basic torque, wherein the incremental torque setting step includes setting the incremental torque to different values between when the first pedal mode is selected and when the second pedal mode is selected.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 12, 2019
    Publication date: December 26, 2019
    Applicant: MAZDA MOTOR CORPORATION
    Inventors: Daisaku OGAWA, Daisuke UMETSU, Fuminori KATO
  • Patent number: 10465614
    Abstract: Disclosed is a vehicle control device which is applied to a vehicle equipped with an engine (10) and an engine torque adjustment mechanism for adjusting an output torque (engine torque) of the engine (10). The vehicle control device comprises a PCM (50) configured, upon satisfaction of a condition that the vehicle is traveling and a steering angle-related value relevant to a steering angle of a steering device is increasing, to control the engine torque adjustment mechanism to reduce the engine torque so as to generate vehicle deceleration to control vehicle attitude. The PCM (50) is further configured to gradually ease the condition, as the number of times of combustion per unit time in the engine (10) becomes smaller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2019
    Assignee: MAZDA MOTOR CORPORATION
    Inventors: Keiichi Hiwatashi, Yasunori Takahara, Daisaku Ogawa, Daisuke Umetsu, Osamu Sunahara, Chikako Ohisa, Koichi Kimoto
  • Patent number: 10414400
    Abstract: A control device for a vehicle includes: an engine (10); an engine torque adjustment mechanism; and a PCM (50) configured to execute vehicle attitude control for, upon satisfaction of a vehicle attitude control executing condition that the vehicle is traveling and a steering angle-related value is increasing, reducing the engine torque to thereby generate deceleration of the vehicle. The PCM (50) is configured, upon satisfaction of a given terminating condition for terminating the vehicle attitude control, to control the engine torque adjustment mechanism to restore the reduced engine torque to an original state before the execution of the vehicle attitude control. The PCM (50) sets a rate of change in the engine output torque being restored, such that it becomes larger as the number of times of combustion per unit time becomes smaller, and restores the engine torque according to the rate of change set in the above manner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 2016
    Date of Patent: September 17, 2019
    Assignee: MAZDA MOTOR CORPORATION
    Inventors: Keiichi Hiwatashi, Chikako Ohisa, Daisuke Umetsu, Osamu Sunahara, Koichi Kimoto, Yasunori Takahara, Daisaku Ogawa