Patents by Inventor Garrett Eckerl
Garrett Eckerl 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).
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Patent number: 12704137Abstract: A refuse collection vehicle has various hydraulic actuators including at least one cylinder with an internal seal. A sensor is responsive to movement of the piston and sends a signal to a controller to indicate piston movement information during an associated vehicle body component movement. The controller is configured to determine a motion characteristic of the piston during a predetermined body component movement, compare the determined motion characteristic to a stored reference motion characteristic, and in response to determining that a difference between the determined motion characteristic and the reference motion characteristic is greater than a predetermined value, trigger an indication that the refuse collection vehicle is in need of service.Type: GrantFiled: January 27, 2025Date of Patent: August 11, 2026Assignee: The Heil Co.Inventors: John Forrest Smith, Alejandro de Leon, Garrett Eckerl, Albert Xiaoxia Jiang, Thomas Leon Wilding
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Publication number: 20260037909Abstract: A computer-implemented method for analyzing refuse includes operations of receiving sensor data indicating an operational state of a vehicle body component of a refuse collection vehicle (RCV); analyzing the sensor data to detect a presence of a triggering condition based at least partly on a particular operational state of the vehicle body component, as indicated by the sensor data; in response to detecting the triggering condition, accessing image data indicating a physical state of refuse collected by the RCV; providing the image data as input to at least one contaminant detection model trained, using at least one machine learning (ML) algorithm, to output a classification of the image data, the classification indicating a degree of contamination of the refuse; and storing, in a machine-readable medium, the classification of the image data.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 13, 2025Publication date: February 5, 2026Inventors: Anthony Romano, Michael Dean Geary, John Forrest Smith, Garrett Eckerl
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Publication number: 20250188963Abstract: A refuse collection vehicle has various hydraulic actuators including at least one cylinder with an internal seal. A sensor is responsive to movement of the piston and sends a signal to a controller to indicate piston movement information during an associated vehicle body component movement. The controller is configured to determine a motion characteristic of the piston during a predetermined body component movement, compare the determined motion characteristic to a stored reference motion characteristic, and in response to determining that a difference between the determined motion characteristic and the reference motion characteristic is greater than a predetermined value, trigger an indication that the refuse collection vehicle is in need of service.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 27, 2025Publication date: June 12, 2025Inventors: John Forrest Smith, Alejandro de Leon, Garrett Eckerl, Albert Xiaoxia Jiang, Thomas Leon Wilding
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Patent number: 12209601Abstract: A refuse collection vehicle has various hydraulic actuators including at least one cylinder with an internal seal. A sensor is responsive to movement of the piston and sends a signal to a controller to indicate piston movement information during an associated vehicle body component movement. The controller is configured to determine a motion characteristic of the piston during a predetermined body component movement, compare the determined motion characteristic to a stored reference motion characteristic, and in response to determining that a difference between the determined motion characteristic and the reference motion characteristic is greater than a predetermined value, trigger an indication that the refuse collection vehicle is in need of service.Type: GrantFiled: January 18, 2022Date of Patent: January 28, 2025Assignee: The Heil Co.Inventors: John Forrest Smith, Alejandro de Leon, Garrett Eckerl, Albert Xiaoxia Jiang, Thomas Leon Wilding
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Publication number: 20240346428Abstract: A computer-implemented method for analyzing refuse includes operations of receiving sensor data indicating an operational state of a vehicle body component of a refuse collection vehicle (RCV); analyzing the sensor data to detect a presence of a triggering condition based at least partly on a particular operational state of the vehicle body component, as indicated by the sensor data; in response to detecting the triggering condition, accessing image data indicating a physical state of refuse collected by the RCV; providing the image data as input to at least one contaminant detection model trained, using at least one machine learning (ML) algorithm, to output a classification of the image data, the classification indicating a degree of contamination of the refuse; and storing, in a machine-readable medium, the classification of the image data.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 12, 2024Publication date: October 17, 2024Inventors: Anthony Romano, Michael Dean Geary, John Forrest Smith, Garrett Eckerl
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Patent number: 11875301Abstract: A computer-implemented method for analyzing refuse includes operations of receiving sensor data indicating an operational state of a vehicle body component of a refuse collection vehicle (RCV); analyzing the sensor data to detect a presence of a triggering condition based at least partly on a particular operational state of the vehicle body component, as indicated by the sensor data; in response to detecting the triggering condition, accessing image data indicating a physical state of refuse collected by the RCV; providing the image data as input to at least one contaminant detection model trained, using at least one machine learning (ML) algorithm, to output a classification of the image data, the classification indicating a degree of contamination of the refuse; and storing, in a machine-readable medium, the classification of the image data.Type: GrantFiled: July 26, 2019Date of Patent: January 16, 2024Assignee: The Heil Co.Inventors: Anthony Romano, Michael Dean Geary, John Forrest Smith, Garrett Eckerl
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Publication number: 20220243746Abstract: A refuse collection vehicle has various hydraulic actuators including at least one cylinder with an internal seal. A sensor is responsive to movement of the piston and sends a signal to a controller to indicate piston movement information during an associated vehicle body component movement. The controller is configured to determine a motion characteristic of the piston during a predetermined body component movement, compare the determined motion characteristic to a stored reference motion characteristic, and in response to determining that a difference between the determined motion characteristic and the reference motion characteristic is greater than a predetermined value, trigger an indication that the refuse collection vehicle is in need of service.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 18, 2022Publication date: August 4, 2022Inventors: John Forrest Smith, Alejandro de Leon, Garrett Eckerl, Albert Xiaoxia Jiang, Thomas Leon Wilding
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Publication number: 20200034785Abstract: A computer-implemented method for analyzing refuse includes operations of receiving sensor data indicating an operational state of a vehicle body component of a refuse collection vehicle (RCV); analyzing the sensor data to detect a presence of a triggering condition based at least partly on a particular operational state of the vehicle body component, as indicated by the sensor data; in response to detecting the triggering condition, accessing image data indicating a physical state of refuse collected by the RCV; providing the image data as input to at least one contaminant detection model trained, using at least one machine learning (ML) algorithm, to output a classification of the image data, the classification indicating a degree of contamination of the refuse; and storing, in a machine-readable medium, the classification of the image data.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 26, 2019Publication date: January 30, 2020Inventors: Anthony Romano, Michael Dean Geary, John Forrest Smith, Garrett Eckerl