Patents by Inventor Hirotada Otake

Hirotada Otake 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).

  • Publication number: 20150212107
    Abstract: A deceleration factor estimation apparatus estimating a deceleration factor of a vehicle includes: a driving force acquisition unit that obtains a driving force of the vehicle; a speed acquisition unit that obtains a speed of the vehicle; an acceleration acquisition unit that obtains an acceleration of the vehicle; and a deceleration factor estimation unit that estimates a plurality of deceleration factors on the basis of a relationship between the obtained driving force, speed, and acceleration, wherein the deceleration factor estimation unit switches the deceleration factor to be estimated on the basis of a travel condition of the vehicle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 28, 2011
    Publication date: July 30, 2015
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Shinya Sannodo, Hirotada Otake
  • Publication number: 20150019158
    Abstract: A decelerating factor estimating device configured to estimate a decelerating factor of a vehicle includes a drive force acquiring unit configured to acquire a drive force of the vehicle; a vehicle speed acquiring unit configured to acquire a vehicle speed of the vehicle; an acceleration acquiring unit configured to acquire an acceleration of the vehicle; and a decelerating factor estimating unit configured to estimate a plurality of decelerating factors based on a relationship of the acquired drive force, speed, and acceleration, wherein the decelerating factor estimating unit determines a type of the decelerating factor to estimate based on a traveling state of the vehicle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 3, 2012
    Publication date: January 15, 2015
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Shinya Sannodo, Hirotada Otake
  • Patent number: 8930057
    Abstract: A driving assistance device capable of increasing fuel economy by setting a driving assistance unit that is appropriate for running environment information of a vehicle, is provided with a first reliability assessment device, a second reliability assessment device, and a third reliability assessment device, to assess the reliability of the running environment information. The driving assistance device is provided with an HMI control unit, a drive force control amount calculation unit, and non-drive force control amount calculation unit, to select a driving assistance unit on the basis of fuel economy among driving assistance units that can be set, in accordance with the assessed reliability of the running environment information. The driving assistance device sets a driving assistance unit that is appropriate for the running environment information, and assists the driving of the vehicle on the basis of the set driving assistance unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 8, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 6, 2015
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Hirotada Otake
  • Publication number: 20150006052
    Abstract: A deceleration factor estimating device that estimates a deceleration factor of a vehicle includes a road load calculating unit configured to calculate a road load estimated value, and a filtering calculating unit configured to perform filtering processing of extracting a predetermined frequency component of the road load estimated value calculated by the road load calculating unit. The filtering calculating unit extracts a vehicle-originated road load component, an environment-originated road load component, and the like by filtering the road load estimated value to extract a certain predetermined frequency component.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 3, 2012
    Publication date: January 1, 2015
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Shinya Sannodo, Hirotada Otake
  • Publication number: 20140379213
    Abstract: A drive assisting device includes an assisting device capable of outputting a driving assistance information for assisting driving a vehicle; and an assistance control device configured to control the assisting device and capable of changing a form of the driving assistance information at a period from a first assistance timing to a second assistance timing after the first assistance timing and at a period after the second assistance timing. Then, one of the first assistance timing and the second assistance timing is determined based on a target traveling state amount of the vehicle at a predetermined position, and the other of the first assistance timing and the second assistance timing is determined based on one of the first assistance timing and the second assistance timing, so that the driving assistance operation can be appropriately performed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 7, 2012
    Publication date: December 25, 2014
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hirotada Otake
  • Publication number: 20140335994
    Abstract: A driving assistance apparatus includes an assistance control unit determining an on/off state of an engine and a drive control unit controlling driving of the engine on the basis of the on/off state determined by the assistance control unit. The assistance control unit determines whether a vehicle stops at a target stopping position, and carries out setting such that the engine is more easily switched from the on state to the off state when the assistance control unit determines to stop at the target stopping position and it is timing at which the vehicle is able to reach the target stopping position in a state where driving force is not generated.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 14, 2011
    Publication date: November 13, 2014
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hirotada Otake
  • Publication number: 20140309903
    Abstract: A driving assistance apparatus includes: an assistance control apparatus that accumulates vehicle stopping position information, which is information indicating an actual stopping position, i.e. a position in which a vehicle stops, in relation to a reference stopping position, calculates an estimated variation distance between the actual stopping position and the reference stopping position on the basis of the accumulated vehicle stopping position information, and creates a target vehicle travel condition in which a timing at which to start stopping assistance is varied on the basis of the estimated variation distance; and an assistance apparatus that is capable of outputting driving assistance information to assist driving of the vehicle on the basis of a target travel condition quantity of the vehicle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 14, 2011
    Publication date: October 16, 2014
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hirotada Otake
  • Publication number: 20140303868
    Abstract: A driving support apparatus is provided with a support control device configured to calculate, based on a remaining distance from a stop position at which a vehicle stops by stop indication of a first traffic signal located in a travel direction of the vehicle to a point of the first traffic signal, an estimated variation distance for a second traffic signal located in the travel direction of the vehicle after the first traffic signal, and create a target vehicle travel state obtained by changing timing to start stopping support at the second traffic signal based on the estimated variation distance; and a support device capable of outputting driving support information to support driving of the vehicle based on a target travel state quantity of the vehicle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 14, 2011
    Publication date: October 9, 2014
    Inventor: Hirotada Otake
  • Publication number: 20140285331
    Abstract: A drive assisting apparatus includes an assistance controller configured to create a target vehicle travelling state in which a timing to start stop assistance is changed in accordance with an elapsed time elapsed from at the time a traffic light, which exists in an advancing direction of a vehicle, is switched to a stop display, and an assisting device configured to be able to output drive assisting information for assisting the driving of the vehicle based on the target travelling state amount of the vehicle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 15, 2011
    Publication date: September 25, 2014
    Applicant: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Hirotada Otake
  • Publication number: 20140142797
    Abstract: A driving assistance apparatus includes an assistance apparatus that is capable of outputting driving assistance information for assisting driving of the vehicle on the basis of a target travel state quantity of a vehicle, and an assistance control apparatus that controls the assistance apparatus to change a mode of the driving assistance information between a time period from a first assistance timing based on the target travel state quantity to a second assistance timing, which is based on the target travel state quantity and subsequent to the first assistance timing, and a time period from the second assistance timing onwards, hence the driving assistance apparatus is capable of providing suitable driving assistance.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 2, 2011
    Publication date: May 22, 2014
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hirotada Otake
  • Publication number: 20140046509
    Abstract: A signal information processing device and a signal information processing method for calculating the state of a traffic light for driving assistance for traffic lights for which signal information is not transmitted from a roadside apparatus, and a driving assistance device and a driving assistance method for performing driving assistance on the basis of the calculated state of the traffic light. A driving assistance ECU of a vehicle acquires signal information corresponding to a first traffic light and information indicating the driving environment of the vehicle corresponding to a second traffic light placed at a position different from the first traffic light. The driving assistance ECU is provided with a signal information processing unit, which estimates signal information of the second traffic light by performing a computation on the basis of the signal information corresponding to the first traffic light and the information indicating the driving environment of the vehicle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 13, 2011
    Publication date: February 13, 2014
    Applicant: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Hirotada Otake
  • Publication number: 20130338852
    Abstract: A drive assist apparatus which performs driving assistance in a predetermined interval having a gradient, includes an average gradient information acquisition unit that acquires average gradient information of the predetermined interval, a driving status information acquisition unit that acquires driving status information of a host vehicle, and a gradient estimation unit that estimates a gradient of a certain point within the predetermined interval or an average gradient of a certain interval within the predetermined interval, based on the average gradient information acquired by the average gradient information acquisition unit and the driving status information of the host vehicle that is acquired by the driving status information acquisition unit, and performs driving assistance in the predetermined interval, using the gradient that is estimated by the gradient estimation unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 18, 2011
    Publication date: December 19, 2013
    Applicant: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hirotada Otake, Masaaki Yamaoka
  • Patent number: 8566008
    Abstract: A control device for an internal-combustion engine designed to ensure that required responsiveness is obtained as actual torque responsiveness with respect to a torque demand even when the torque responsiveness with respect to the actuation of a particular actuator is affected by the operating conditions. A response compensating filter is provided at a preceding stage to an air inverse model, and the target torque which has been corrected by the response compensating filter is converted by the air inverse model to obtain a target opening degree of a throttle. A time constant of the response compensating filter is set on the basis of the operating conditions of the internal-combustion engine so that the responsiveness of actual torque with respect to the torque demand reaches a preset standard responsiveness.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2009
    Date of Patent: October 22, 2013
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Shinichi Soejima, Ken Koibuchi, Hirotada Otake, Keisuke Kawai
  • Publication number: 20130253750
    Abstract: A driving assistance device capable of increasing fuel economy by setting a driving assistance unit that is appropriate for running environment information of a vehicle, is provided with a first reliability assessment device, a second reliability assessment device, and a third reliability assessment device, to assess the reliability of the running environment information. The driving assistance device is provided with an HMI control unit, a drive force control amount calculation unit, and non-drive force control amount calculation unit, to select a driving assistance unit on the basis of fuel economy among driving assistance units that can be set, in accordance with the assessed reliability of the running environment information. The driving assistance device sets a driving assistance unit that is appropriate for the running environment information, and assists the driving of the vehicle on the basis of the set driving assistance unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 8, 2010
    Publication date: September 26, 2013
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hirotada Otake
  • Patent number: 8515632
    Abstract: An object of the present invention is to effectively reduce driving force of a vehicle, when the driving force of the vehicle must be reduced, while avoiding an increase in the temperature of exhaust gas and resultant deterioration of an exhaust gas purification catalyst, the object being achieved by effectively utilizing delaying of the ignition timing or reduction of the fuel supply amount to a possible extent, while preventing elongation of the execution time of control of delaying the ignition timing or control of reducing the fuel supply amount. When the driving force of the vehicle is excessively large, a target driving force Fxt is computed. When an indicator value SAa indicating the degree of necessity of reducing the driving force is equal to or greater than a first reference value SAa1, the throttle opening is reduced so that the driving force of the vehicle decreases more slowly than the target driving force Fxt.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 20, 2013
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Hirotada Otake
  • Patent number: 8504240
    Abstract: Provided is an alternator controller that sets a target current value based on a target voltage as a control reference of an alternator mounted on a vehicle, and controls the alternator based on the set target current value. The alternator controller includes a filter processing unit that performs filter processing of a target power generation torque as a conversion physical amount used until the target current value is set from the target voltage. The filter processing unit performs a filter processing that attenuates or removes a frequency component f of the pitch resonance frequency of the vehicle among the waveforms of the target power generation torque. Thus, it is possible to surely suppress fluctuations of a vehicle behavior attributed to torque fluctuations of an alternator load torque.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 29, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 6, 2013
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Hirotada Otake
  • Patent number: 8442699
    Abstract: An integrated control system includes a main control system controlling a driving system, a main control system controlling a brake system, and a main control system controlling a steering system, an adviser unit generating and providing information to be used at each control system based on environmental information around the vehicle or information related to a driver, an agent unit generating and providing information to be used at each of the main control systems to cause the vehicle to realize a predetermined behavior, and a supporter unit generating and providing information to be used at each of the main control systems based on the current dynamic state of the vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 14, 2013
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hideki Takamatsu, Masanori Hirose, Hiroshi Mizuno, Yoshiyuki Hashimoto, Hirotada Otake
  • Patent number: 8417428
    Abstract: An alternator controlling method includes: performing alternator braking/driving force control such that alternator braking/driving force generated by an alternator mounted in a vehicle and applied to the vehicle is controlled based on a running state of the vehicle; calculating an SOC value based on a charge status of a battery; calculating an SOC correction value based on the alternator braking/driving force Fo; determining an accelerating/decelerating state of the vehicle; setting a target voltage based on the accelerating/decelerating state and the SOC correction value; and performing battery charging control by causing the alternator to generate electrical power based on the target voltage. This enables efficient recovery of energy produced during electrical power generation by the alternator, taking account of the alternator braking/driving force control.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 8, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2013
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Hirotada Otake
  • Publication number: 20110087421
    Abstract: A control device for an internal-combustion engine designed to ensure that required responsiveness is obtained as actual torque responsiveness with respect to a torque demand even when the torque responsiveness with respect to the actuation of a particular actuator is affected by the operating conditions. A response compensating filter is provided at a preceding stage to an air inverse model, and the target torque which has been corrected by the response compensating filter is converted by the air inverse model to obtain a target opening degree of a throttle. A time constant of the response compensating filter is set on the basis of the operating conditions of the internal-combustion engine so that the responsiveness of actual torque with respect to the torque demand reaches a preset standard responsiveness.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 29, 2009
    Publication date: April 14, 2011
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Shinichi Soejima, Ken Koibuchi, Hirotada Otake, Keisuke Kawai
  • Patent number: 7885751
    Abstract: A driving support target braking/driving force is calculated by a driving support electronic controller, and transmitted to a first arbiter of a driving force control electronic controller. A vehicle driver requested target braking/driving force and the driving support target braking/driving force are arbitrated by the first arbiter, whereby a vehicle total target braking/driving force is calculated, and the vehicle total target braking/driving force is distributed to a vehicle target driving force and a vehicle target braking force by a braking/driving force distributor. A final target driving force is calculated by a second arbiter on the basis of the target driving force, and a driver requested braking force and the target braking force are arbitrated by an arbiter of a braking force control electronic controller, whereby a vehicle total target braking force is calculated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 5, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 8, 2011
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Hirotada Otake