Patents by Inventor Hiroki Furuta

Hiroki Furuta 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: 11945274
    Abstract: A vehicle roll control apparatus comprises a pair of left and right active suspensions for applying vertical forces in opposite phases to left and right wheels of a rear axle of the vehicle, and a controller for controlling the active suspensions. The controller increases control amounts of the active suspensions so as to increase roll stiffness of the rear axle in accordance with an increase in a lateral acceleration acting on the vehicle. When the lateral acceleration increases beyond the low acceleration range to the high acceleration range, the controller decreases the gain of the control amounts of the active suspensions with respect to the lateral acceleration in accordance with the increase in the lateral acceleration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2024
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hiroki Furuta
  • Patent number: 11945275
    Abstract: A damping control device includes a control force generating device and a controller. The controller is configured to acquire road surface displacement related values related to a plurality of road surface displacements in a predetermined sampling zone, acquire an amplitude index indicating a magnitude of an amplitude of the sampled values, determine an operation delay period of the control force generating device based on the magnitude of the amplitude indicated by the amplitude index, calculate target control force for reducing vibration of a vehicle body based on the road surface displacement related values at a predicted passing position where a wheel is predicted to pass after an elapse of the operation delay period from a current time, and transmit, to the control force generating device, a control command for causing the control force generating device to regulate the control force to agree with the target control force.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2024
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hiroki Furuta
  • Patent number: 11945273
    Abstract: A damping force control apparatus for a vehicle in which road surface displacement-related information detected by an in-vehicle detection device is transmitted to a preview reference database control device together with detection position information, a preview reference database including road surface displacement-related values is made, preview damping control that reduces vibration of a sprung of the vehicle is performed using the road surface displacement-related values in the preview reference database, and it is assumed that a road surface displacement-related value in a predetermined adjacent region located in a direction crossing a traveling direction of the vehicle with respect to a point where the road surface displacement-related information was detected by the in-vehicle detection device is the same as the road surface displacement-related value at the above point.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 5, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2024
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hiroki Furuta
  • Patent number: 11938775
    Abstract: A damping control system comprises a first vehicle, a second vehicle, and a storage device. The first vehicle provides, to the storage device, travel information including a change value of a road surface, position information, and position reliability of the position information. The storage device executes first update processing of updating related value information based on a road surface displacement-related value identified based on the change value, when the position reliability is equal to or higher than a threshold reliability, and executes second update processing of updating the related value information, when the position reliability is lower than the threshold reliability. The second vehicle executes preview damping control using a target control force calculated based on a control related value being a road surface displacement-related value at a predicted passing position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2024
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hiroki Furuta
  • Patent number: 11938779
    Abstract: A behavior control device for a vehicle includes: a first actuator configured to apply a vertical control force to a left wheel on a first axle, the first axle being a front axle or a rear axle of the vehicle; a second actuator configured to operate independently of the first actuator and to apply a vertical control force to a right wheel on the first axle; and a controller. The controller is configured to calculate a required value of a behavior parameter representing a behavior of the vehicle, convert the required value of the behavior parameter to a first required force for the first actuator and a second required force for the second actuator, and control the first actuator such that the vertical control force applied to the left wheel on the first axle becomes the first required force.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2024
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hiroki Furuta
  • Patent number: 11932074
    Abstract: A damping control device is configured to acquire, as a preview condition amount, an unsprung condition amount at a predicted passing position where a wheel of a vehicle is predicted to pass, based on preview reference data being sets of data in which unsprung condition amounts and pieces of positional information of the wheel are linked to each other. The unsprung condition amounts indicate a displacement condition of an unsprung portion displaced in a vertical direction due to a displacement of a road surface acquired when the vehicle has traveled on the road surface. The damping control device is configured to execute, at a timing when the wheel passes through the predicted passing position, preview damping control to cause control force to agree with a target control force.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 7, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2024
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hiroki Furuta
  • Patent number: 11927361
    Abstract: An indoor unit includes a housing that houses an electrical-component storage box that includes a body portion, a lid portion, and an engagement mechanism portion that engages the body portion and the lid portion with each other in a detachable manner. The lid portion covers an open region on a side of the body portion. The engagement mechanism portion includes an engagement claw portion provided at one of the body and lid portions and an engagement hole portion into which the claw portion is inserted, and which is formed at the other of the body and lid portions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 22, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2024
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
    Inventors: Hiroki Nakashima, Keisuke Tomomura, Tatsuo Furuta
  • Patent number: 11919353
    Abstract: A control unit configured to control a control force generating device configured to generate a control force for damping a sprung portion of a vehicle controls the control force generating device based on a target control force Fcit for damping the sprung portion when a wheel passes through a predicted wheel passing position. The control unit acquires an unsprung displacement z1i at the predicted wheel passing position, and calculates the target control force as a value proportional to an unsprung displacement z1ai that is the unsprung displacement z1i having a phase that has been advanced to advance a phase of a transfer function from the unsprung displacement z1i to the target control force by a phase advance amount larger than 0 degrees and smaller than 180 degrees.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2024
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hiroki Furuta
  • Patent number: 11919521
    Abstract: The preview damping control includes an ECU. When the vehicle is traveling within a communications disruption area in which a radio communication device is hard to communicate with a cloud, the ECU uses road surface displacement correlating information that has been stored in an on-board memory device in advance for the communications disruption area so as to perform a preview damping control.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 10, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2024
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hiroki Furuta
  • Patent number: 11912090
    Abstract: A damping control device for a vehicle calculates a combined control force by adding together a control force when a front wheel passes through a predicted passing position and a control force when a rear wheel passes through a predicted passing position, and calculates a final control force for the front wheel and a final control force for the rear wheel by distributing the combined control force at a predetermined distribution ratio.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2024
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hiroki Furuta
  • Patent number: 11904864
    Abstract: An update system for related value information, comprises a first vehicle and a storage device which stores related value information. The first vehicle provides, to the storage device, travel information formed by associating a sensor value for identifying a road surface displacement-related value, and a measurement position at which the sensor value is measured, with each other, in a period from a time at which a predetermined measurement start condition is satisfied to a time at which a predetermined measurement end condition is satisfied. The storage device updates the related value information based on based on the road surface displacement-related values from which a low frequency component is removed. The storage device updates related value information based on the road surface displacement-related values obtained by excluding, at least one of start-stage related values or end-stage related values.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 8, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2024
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hiroki Furuta
  • Patent number: 11897302
    Abstract: A damping force control apparatus for a vehicle in which road surface displacement-related information corresponding to left and right wheels detected by a pair of in-vehicle detection devices is transmitted to a preview reference database control device together with the detection position information, a preview reference database including road surface displacement-related values is created, preview damping control that reduces vibration of a sprung of the vehicle is performed using the road surface displacement-related values in the preview reference database, and it is assumed that road surface displacement-related values in predetermined adjacent regions located in a direction crossing a traveling direction of the vehicle with respect to two points where the road surface displacement-related information was detected by the pair of in-vehicle detection devices are the same as an in-phase component of the road surface displacement-related values at the two points.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 5, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hiroki Furuta
  • Patent number: 11897301
    Abstract: A control unit is configured to execute vibration suppression control, in which the control force generation device is controlled based on a target vibration suppression control force when a wheel passes through a predicted wheel passage position, and roll control, in which the control force generation device is controlled based on a target roll control force for reducing roll of the sprung portion based on a roll index value. When the vibration suppression control and the roll control are executed concurrently, the control force generation device is controlled based on the target vibration suppression control force and the target roll control force obtained after at least one of a reduction correction for the target vibration suppression control force and an increase correction for the target roll control force is performed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hiroki Furuta
  • Patent number: 11890909
    Abstract: A vibration damping control apparatus of a vehicle obtains first data from a road surface information in which position information, a road surface displacement related value, and speed information are rerated to one another. The first data represents a time series change of the road surface displacement related value on a predicted route of a wheel. The vibration damping control apparatus obtains speed information at a predicted passage position from the road surface information. In the case where the speed of the vehicle at the present point in time is higher than a speed represented by the speed information, the vibration damping control apparatus executes a first process (low-pass filter process) on the first data, obtains preview information from the first data having been subjected to the first process, and controls a control force generating apparatus on the basis of a target control force computed by using the preview information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2024
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hiroki Furuta
  • Patent number: 11891068
    Abstract: In a method of creating a database for preview vibration damping control, road surface displacement-associated information detected by a detection device is acquired, positional information capable of identifying a position where the road surface displacement-associated information is detected is acquired, a road surface displacement-associated value associated with a vertical displacement of a road surface is calculated based on the road surface displacement-associated information, and a set of data obtained by linking the road surface displacement-associated value and the positional information with each other is stored into a storage device as part of a database. When it is determined that the magnitude of the road surface displacement-associated value exceeds a permissible reference value set in advance, the magnitude of the road surface displacement-associated value is corrected in a reducing manner, prior to the step of storing the set of data into the storage device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 3, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2024
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hiroki Furuta
  • Patent number: 11884118
    Abstract: A damping control apparatus has a control unit that controls an active actuator that generates a control force for damping a sprung, and the control unit determines a predicted wheel passage position where a wheel is predicted to pass, performs a high-pass filtering on a first road surface displacement-related value, performs a low-pass filtering on a second road surface displacement-related value, calculates a target control force for damping the sprung when the wheel passes through the predicted wheel passage position based on a sum of the first road surface displacement-related value after high-pass filtering and the second road surface displacement-related value after low-pass filtering, and the second road surface displacement-related value has a higher possibility that a position where a control force corresponding to the target control force is generated misaligns with the predicted wheel passage position as compared with the first road surface displacement-related value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2024
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hiroki Furuta
  • Patent number: 11884120
    Abstract: A vibration damping control apparatus of a vehicle executes preview vibration damping control for controlling a control force generating apparatus on the basis of a final target control force including a first target control force computed by using preview information. When the vibration damping control apparatus determines that the probability that a road surface condition has changed after a past point in time is high, the vibration damping control apparatus executes particular control for setting the magnitude of the first target control force to become smaller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2024
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hiroki Furuta
  • Patent number: 11814120
    Abstract: A data processing system including a data processing apparatus that can generate an accurate road surface displacement correlating value that is used for a preview damping control is provided. The system includes a cloud having a data processing section and a processing-data-base-section for temporally storing data. The data processing apparatus stores sensing data in the processing-data-base-section, wherein the sensing data is a chunk of sensor values from which a road surface displacement correlating value correlating with a vertical displacement of a road surface on which said vehicle is traveling can be calculated. The sensor values are sequentially and successively detected/obtained by various sensors of the vehicle. The data processing section performs specific offline data processing for a chunk of the sensing data stored in the processing-data-base-section so as to generate data of the road surface displacement correlating value from the sensing data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 17, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 14, 2023
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hiroki Furuta
  • Patent number: 11814036
    Abstract: A control method of a vehicle includes determining a look-ahead time, calculating a predicted passage position by using specific vehicle information having at least a position of a wheel at the current time point, velocity of the vehicle, and the proceeding direction of the vehicle, acquiring a road surface displacement-associated value at the predicted passage position, calculating a final target control force based on the road surface displacement-associated value at the predicted passage position, and controlling a control force generator based on the final target control force.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 14, 2023
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hiroki Furuta
  • Patent number: 11807063
    Abstract: The cloud includes a server and a storage device. The storage device includes a road surface information map. When a first sampling distance is equal to or longer than a first distance threshold, the server performs re-sampling to interpolate data in such a manner that sampling positions located at a second sampling distance and unsprung mass member displacements of the respective sampling positions exist so as to produce re-sampled data-for-producing-map. The server stores a sub-sectional unsprung mass displacement in a storage area corresponding to a sub-section of the road surface information map, based on the re-sampled data-for-producing-map.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2023
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hiroki Furuta