Patents by Inventor Dietmar Ebner

Dietmar Ebner 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: 12111170
    Abstract: Aspects of the disclosure provide for the selection of a route for a vehicle having an autonomous driving mode. For instance, an initial location of the vehicle may be identified. This location may be used to determine a set of possible routes to a destination location. A cost for each route of the plurality is determined by inputting time of day information, map information, and details of that route into one or more models in order to determine whether the vehicle is likely to be stranded along that route and assessing the cost based at least in part on the determination of whether the vehicle is likely to be stranded along that route. One of the routes of the set of possible routes may be selected based on any determined costs. The vehicle may be controlled in the autonomous driving mode using the selected one.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 10, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2024
    Assignee: Waymo LLC
    Inventors: Ajay Joshi, Joshua Herbach, Igor Tufanov, Xiang Gao, Dietmar Ebner
  • Publication number: 20200264003
    Abstract: A route is selected for travel by an autonomous vehicle based on at least a level of difficulty of traversing the driving environment along that route. Vehicle signals, provided by one or more autonomous vehicles, indicating a difficulty associated with traveling a portion of a route are collected and used to predict a most favorable driving route for a given time. The signals may indicate a probability of disengaging from autonomous driving mode, a probability of being stuck for an unduly long time, traffic density, etc. A difficulty score may be computed for each road segment of a route, and then the scores of all of the road segments of the route are added together. The scores are based on number of previous disengagements, previous requests for remote assistance, unprotected left or right turns, whether parts of the driving area are occluded, etc. The difficulty score is used to compute a cost for a particular route, which may be compared to costs computed for other possible routes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 8, 2020
    Publication date: August 20, 2020
    Inventors: Dietmar Ebner, Joshua Seth Herbach, Michael Steven Montemerlo
  • Patent number: 10684134
    Abstract: A route is selected for travel by an autonomous vehicle based on at least a level of difficulty of traversing the driving environment along that route. Vehicle signals, provided by one or more autonomous vehicles, indicating a difficulty associated with traveling a portion of a route are collected and used to predict a most favorable driving route for a given time. The signals may indicate a probability of disengaging from autonomous driving mode, a probability of being stuck for an unduly long time, traffic density, etc. A difficulty score may be computed for each road segment of a route, and then the scores of all of the road segments of the route are added together. The scores are based on number of previous disengagements, previous requests for remote assistance, unprotected left or right turns, whether parts of the driving area are occluded, etc. The difficulty score is used to compute a cost for a particular route, which may be compared to costs computed for other possible routes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 16, 2020
    Assignee: Waymo LLC
    Inventors: Dietmar Ebner, Joshua Seth Herbach, Michael Steven Montemerlo
  • Publication number: 20190186936
    Abstract: A route is selected for travel by an autonomous vehicle based on at least a level of difficulty of traversing the driving environment along that route. Vehicle signals, provided by one or more autonomous vehicles, indicating a difficulty associated with traveling a portion of a route are collected and used to predict a most favorable driving route for a given time. The signals may indicate a probability of disengaging from autonomous driving mode, a probability of being stuck for an unduly long time, traffic density, etc. A difficulty score may be computed for each road segment of a route, and then the scores of all of the road segments of the route are added together. The scores are based on number of previous disengagements, previous requests for remote assistance, unprotected left or right turns, whether parts of the driving area are occluded, etc. The difficulty score is used to compute a cost for a particular route, which may be compared to costs computed for other possible routes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 15, 2017
    Publication date: June 20, 2019
    Inventors: Dietmar Ebner, Joshua Seth Herbach, Michael Steven Montemerlo
  • Patent number: 7546905
    Abstract: A method schedules cars of an elevator system, the elevator system including a set of cars, and a set of hall calls. For each car, a waiting time is determined independently if the hall call is the only hall call assigned to the car. For each car, a mutual delay ?W(h|g) is determined for each possible pair of unassigned hall calls h and assigned hall calls g. The waiting time and mutual delays are summed. Then, the assignments are made to the set of cars so that the sum is a minimum.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2006
    Date of Patent: June 16, 2009
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.
    Inventors: Daniel N. Nikovski, Matthew E. Brand, Dietmar Ebner
  • Patent number: 7484597
    Abstract: A method schedules cars of an elevator system. Each possible assignment of a set of hall calls to a set of cars is represented by a solution vector maintained as a node in a search tree. Each solution vector is evaluated using an ESA-DP process according to an immediate policy to determine initially a best solution. A branch-and-bound process is applied to each solution vector using the initial best solution and the search tree to determine a globally optimal solution for scheduling the cars according to a reassignment policy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 3, 2009
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.
    Inventors: Daniel N. Nikovski, Matthew E. Brand, Dietmar Ebner
  • Publication number: 20070221455
    Abstract: A method schedules cars of an elevator system. Each possible assignment of a set of hall calls to a set of cars is represented by a solution vector maintained as a node in a search tree. Each solution vector is evaluated using an ESA-DP process according to an immediate policy to determine initially a best solution. A branch-and-bound process is applied to each solution vector using the initial best solution and the search tree to determine a globally optimal solution for scheduling the cars according to a reassignment policy.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 27, 2006
    Publication date: September 27, 2007
    Inventors: Daniel Nikovski, Matthew Brand, Dietmar Ebner
  • Publication number: 20070221454
    Abstract: A method schedules cars of an elevator system, the elevator system including a set of cars, and a set of hall calls. For each car, a waiting time is determined independently if the hall call is the only hall call assigned to the car. For each car, a mutual delay ?W(h|g) is determined for each possible pair of unassigned hall calls h and assigned hall calls g. The waiting time and mutual delays are summed. Then, the assignments are made to the set of cars so that the sum is a minimum.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 27, 2006
    Publication date: September 27, 2007
    Inventors: Daniel Nikovski, Matthew Brand, Dietmar Ebner