Patents by Inventor Hiroaki Wakahara

Hiroaki Wakahara 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: 10457371
    Abstract: For a vessel steering apparatus for performing a movement control to move a vessel to a target position on the basis of a signal of a GPS apparatus, a movement control stop area, a buffer area adjacent to the movement control stop area, and a movement-controlling area adjacent to the buffer area are set on the basis of the distance from the target position, wherein in the movement control stop area, thrust generation by a propulsion apparatus is stopped; in the movement-controlling area, thrust is generated by the propulsion apparatus; and in the buffer area, thrust is generated by the propulsion apparatus of the vessel for movement control only in the case where the vessel moves from the movement-controlling area to the buffer area, then stays in the buffer area, and moves in a direction away from the target position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2019
    Assignee: YANMAR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Naohiro Hara, Hiroaki Wakahara, Jun Watanabe, Gakuji Tamura
  • Patent number: 10078332
    Abstract: A ship handling device may be provided with which a ship moves and turns in a target orientation toward target coordinates without monitoring the behavior of the ship against disturbance or the characteristics of the ship. The ship handling device moves the ship toward the target coordinates and in the target orientation from a GPS device and a signal from an orientation sensor, wherein the target coordinates and the target orientation are calculated from operation of a joystick lever, and a thrust is generated by a propulsion device so as to move the ship to the target coordinates and the target orientation after a signal finalizing the target coordinates and the target orientation has been acquired.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 20, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 18, 2018
    Assignee: YANMAR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Gakuji Tamura, Jun Watanabe, Hiroaki Wakahara, Naohiro Hara
  • Patent number: 9963214
    Abstract: The purpose is providing a ship handling device easily determining a predetermined correction coefficient regardless of positions of a side thruster and a forward/backward propeller and the center of gravity of a ship and the shape of the ship. The device is provided with a joystick lever for indicating a propulsion direction and the magnitude of thrust by tilting direction and angle, wherein: a lateral movement thrust is generated by the side thruster in accordance with the joystick lever; a first correction thrust is generated by the forward/backward propeller in accordance with the joystick lever so as to cancel out a rotation moment; and a first correction coefficient for calculating a first correction thrust with respect to the lateral movement thrust is determined.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 2015
    Date of Patent: May 8, 2018
    Assignee: YANMAR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Jun Watanabe, Gakuji Tamura, Hiroaki Wakahara, Naohiro Hara
  • Publication number: 20170351259
    Abstract: A ship handling device may be provided with which a ship moves and turns in a target orientation toward target coordinates without monitoring the behavior of the ship against disturbance or the characteristics of the ship. The ship handling device moves the ship toward the target coordinates and in the target orientation from a GPS device and a signal from an orientation sensor, wherein the target coordinates and the target orientation are calculated from operation of a joystick lever, and a thrust is generated by a propulsion device so as to move the ship to the target coordinates and the target orientation after a signal finalizing the target coordinates and the target orientation has been acquired.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 20, 2015
    Publication date: December 7, 2017
    Applicant: YANMAR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Gakuji TAMURA, Jun WATANABE, Hiroaki WAKAHARA, Naohiro HARA
  • Publication number: 20170349257
    Abstract: For a vessel steering apparatus for performing a movement control to move a vessel to a target position on the basis of a signal of a GPS apparatus, a movement control stop area, a buffer area adjacent to the movement control stop area, and a movement-controlling area adjacent to the buffer area are set on the basis of the distance from the target position, wherein in the movement control stop area, thrust generation by a propulsion apparatus is stopped; in the movement-controlling area, thrust is generated by the propulsion apparatus; and in the buffer area, thrust is generated by the propulsion apparatus of the vessel for movement control only in the case where the vessel moves from the movement-controlling area to the buffer area, then stays in the buffer area, and moves in a direction away from the target position.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 24, 2015
    Publication date: December 7, 2017
    Applicant: Yanmar Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Naohiro HARA, Hiroaki WAKAHARA, Jun WATANABE, Gakuji TAMURA
  • Publication number: 20170305520
    Abstract: The purpose is providing a ship handling device easily determining a predetermined correction coefficient regardless of positions of a side thruster and a forward/backward propeller and the center of gravity of a ship and the shape of the ship. The device is provided with a joystick lever for indicating a propulsion direction and the magnitude of thrust by tilting direction and angle, wherein: a lateral movement thrust is generated by the side thruster in accordance with the joystick lever; a first correction thrust is generated by the forward/backward propeller in accordance with the joystick lever so as to cancel out a rotation moment; and a first correction coefficient for calculating a first correction thrust with respect to the lateral movement thrust is determined.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 24, 2015
    Publication date: October 26, 2017
    Inventors: Jun WATANABE, Gakuji TAMURA, Hiroaki WAKAHARA, Naohiro HARA
  • Patent number: 9494094
    Abstract: An engine rotational speed control device (4) includes a noise removal processing unit (6) which corrects a command value, wherein the noise removal processing unit (6) is configured to set a current first output value (B(i)) to be identical to a previous first output value (B(i?1)) in a case where, in a latest step group, the number of successive increase steps is smaller than a first predetermined number (n) and the number of successive decrease steps is smaller than the first predetermined number (n), the increase step is a step in which a current first input value (A(i)) is greater than the previous first output value (B(i?1)) by a first set width (n) or more, and the decrease step is a step in which the current first input value (A(i)) is smaller than the previous first output value (B(i)) by the first set width (n) or more.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2016
    Assignee: Yanmar Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Naohiro Hara, Jun Watanabe, Hiroaki Wakahara, Akiyoshi Hayashi, Takao Nakanishi
  • Publication number: 20150094934
    Abstract: An engine rotational speed control device (4) includes a noise removal processing unit (6) which corrects a command value, wherein the noise removal processing unit (6) is configured to set a current first output value (B(i)) to be identical to a previous first output value (B(i?1)) in a case where, in a latest step group, the number of successive increase steps is smaller than a first predetermined number (n) and the number of successive decrease steps is smaller than the first predetermined number (n), the increase step is a step in which a current first input value (A(i)) is greater than the previous first output value (B(i?1)) by a first set width (n) or more, and the decrease step is a step in which the current first input value (A(i)) is smaller than the previous first output value (B(i)) by the first set width (n) or more.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 15, 2013
    Publication date: April 2, 2015
    Inventors: Naohiro Hara, Jun Watanabe, Hiroaki Wakahara, Akiyoshi Hayashi, Takao Nakanishi