Patents by Inventor Joshua Philip Switkes
Joshua Philip Switkes 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: 10921822Abstract: Controllers, control architectures, systems and methods are described for controlling a host vehicle's participation in a platoon. Described vehicle platooning control systems may include a platoon controller and a vehicle interface controller. The platoon controller is configured to determine torque and braking requests for at least partially automatically controlling the host vehicle to platoon with a platoon partner. The vehicle interface controller manages communications between the platoon controller and one or more host vehicle control units. The vehicle interface controller may also include a safety monitor including one or more safety monitoring algorithms In some embodiments, the vehicle interface controller is at least ASIL-C compliant, whereas the platoon controller and an optional gateway processor may be QM rated under ISO 26262. The platoon controller may be configured as a listener capable of receiving but not transmitting messages on the host vehicle's control related communication bus(es).Type: GrantFiled: January 2, 2018Date of Patent: February 16, 2021Inventors: Todd Christopher Klaus, Colleen Kelly Twitty, Stephen Michael Erlien, John Connelly Kegelman, Charles A. Price, Austin Bennett Schuh, Brian Jeremy Silverman, Joshua Philip Switkes
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Patent number: 10234871Abstract: Controllers, control architectures, systems and methods are described for controlling a host vehicle's participation in a platoon. In some embodiments, a vehicle control system includes a vehicle controller configured to determine vehicle control commands for at least partially automatically controlling the host vehicle based at least in part on sensor information. The vehicle control commands are arranged to be directly or indirectly utilized by one or more host vehicle control units resident on the host vehicle. The vehicle control system also includes one or more safety monitoring algorithms that, during at least partially automated driving, verify that selected vehicle control commands received from the vehicle controller meet selected safety criteria. At least some of the safety algorithms utilize sensor data in the verification of the commands received from the vehicle controller. The sensor data used by the safety algorithms may come from the host vehicle and/or a second vehicle.Type: GrantFiled: January 2, 2018Date of Patent: March 19, 2019Assignee: Peloton Technology, Inc.Inventors: Todd Christopher Klaus, Colleen Kelly Twitty, Stephen Michael Erlien, John Connelly Kegelman, Charles A. Price, Austin Bennett Schuh, Joshua Philip Switkes
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Patent number: 10216195Abstract: Various applications for use of mass estimations of a vehicle, including to control operation of the vehicle, sharing the mass estimation with other vehicles and/or a Network Operations Center (NOC), organizing vehicles operating in a platoon and/or partially controlling the operation of one or more vehicles operating in a platoon based on the relative mass estimations between the platooning vehicles. When vehicles are operating in a platoon, the relative mass between a lead and a following vehicle may be used to scale torque and/or brake commands generated by the lead vehicle and sent to the following vehicle.Type: GrantFiled: May 24, 2018Date of Patent: February 26, 2019Assignee: Peloton Technology, Inc.Inventors: Joshua Philip Switkes, Stephen M. Erlien, Austin B. Schuh
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Patent number: 10152064Abstract: Various applications for use of mass estimations of a vehicle, including to control operation of the vehicle, sharing the mass estimation with other vehicles and/or a Network Operations Center (NOC), organizing vehicles operating in a platoon and/or partially controlling the operation of one or more vehicles operating in a platoon based on the relative mass estimations between the platooning vehicles. When vehicles are operating in a platoon, the relative mass between a lead and a following vehicle may be used to scale torque and/or brake commands generated by the lead vehicle and sent to the following vehicle.Type: GrantFiled: February 28, 2018Date of Patent: December 11, 2018Assignee: Peloton Technology, Inc.Inventors: Joshua Philip Switkes, Stephen M. Erlien, Austin B. Schuh
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Publication number: 20180267559Abstract: Various applications for use of mass estimations of a vehicle, including to control operation of the vehicle, sharing the mass estimation with other vehicles and/or a Network Operations Center (NOC), organizing vehicles operating in a platoon and/or partially controlling the operation of one or more vehicles operating in a platoon based on the relative mass estimations between the platooning vehicles. When vehicles are operating in a platoon, the relative mass between a lead and a following vehicle may be used to scale torque and/or brake commands generated by the lead vehicle and sent to the following vehicle.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 24, 2018Publication date: September 20, 2018Inventors: Joshua Philip SWITKES, Stephen M. ERLIEN, Austin B. SCHUH
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Publication number: 20180186381Abstract: Various applications for use of mass estimations of a vehicle, including to control operation of the vehicle, sharing the mass estimation with other vehicles and/or a Network Operations Center (NOC), organizing vehicles operating in a platoon and/or partially controlling the operation of one or more vehicles operating in a platoon based on the relative mass estimations between the platooning vehicles. When vehicles are operating in a platoon, the relative mass between a lead and a following vehicle may be used to scale torque and/or brake commands generated by the lead vehicle and sent to the following vehicle.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 28, 2018Publication date: July 5, 2018Inventors: Stephen M. ERLIEN, Joshua Philip SWITKES, Austin B. SCHUH
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Publication number: 20180188744Abstract: Various applications for use of mass estimations of a vehicle, including to control operation of the vehicle, sharing the mass estimation with other vehicles and/or a Network Operations Center (NOC), organizing vehicles operating in a platoon and/or partially controlling the operation of one or more vehicles operating in a platoon based on the relative mass estimations between the platooning vehicles. When vehicles are operating in a platoon, the relative mass between a lead and a following vehicle may be used to scale torque and/or brake commands generated by the lead vehicle and sent to the following vehicle.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 28, 2018Publication date: July 5, 2018Inventors: Joshua Philip SWITKES, Stephen M. ERLIEN, Austin B. SCHUH
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Publication number: 20180144640Abstract: Controllers, control architectures, systems and methods are described for controlling a host vehicle's participation in a platoon. Described vehicle platooning control systems may include a platoon controller and a gateway processor. The platoon controller is configured to determine torque and braking requests for at least partially automatically controlling the host vehicle to platoon with a platoon partner. The gateway processor coordinates communications between a host vehicle and the platoon partner and optionally a network operations center. A dedicated communications link may optionally directly connect the platoon controller to the gateway processor, with no other devices being coupled to the dedicated communications link. In some embodiments, the gateway processor is not coupled to any of the host vehicle's control related communication bus(es). In some embodiments, the gateway processor includes a message logger and the platoon controller does not have any logging capabilities.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 2, 2018Publication date: May 24, 2018Inventors: Charles A. PRICE, Stephen Michael ERLIEN, John Connelly KEGELMAN, Todd Christopher KLAUS, Austin Bennett SCHUH, Brian Jeremy SILVERMAN, Joshua Philip SWITKES, Colleen Kelly TWITTY
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Publication number: 20180143651Abstract: Controllers, control architectures, systems and methods are described for controlling a host vehicle's participation in a platoon. In some embodiments, a vehicle control system includes a vehicle controller configured to determine vehicle control commands for at least partially automatically controlling the host vehicle based at least in part on sensor information. The vehicle control commands are arranged to be directly or indirectly utilized by one or more host vehicle control units resident on the host vehicle. The vehicle control system also includes one or more safety monitoring algorithms that, during at least partially automated driving, verify that selected vehicle control commands received from the vehicle controller meet selected safety criteria. At least some of the safety algorithms utilize sensor data in the verification of the commands received from the vehicle controller. The sensor data used by the safety algorithms may come from the host vehicle and/or a second vehicle.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 2, 2018Publication date: May 24, 2018Inventors: Todd Christopher KLAUS, Colleen Kelly TWITTY, Stephen Michael ERLIEN, John Connelly KEGELMAN, Charles A. PRICE, Austin Bennett SCHUH, Joshua Philip SWITKES
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Publication number: 20180143650Abstract: Controllers, control architectures, systems and methods are described for controlling a host vehicle's participation in a platoon. Described vehicle platooning control systems may include a platoon controller and a vehicle interface controller. The platoon controller is configured to determine torque and braking requests for at least partially automatically controlling the host vehicle to platoon with a platoon partner. The vehicle interface controller manages communications between the platoon controller and one or more host vehicle control units. The vehicle interface controller may also include a safety monitor including one or more safety monitoring algorithms In some embodiments, the vehicle interface controller is at least ASIL-C compliant, whereas the platoon controller and an optional gateway processor may be QM rated under ISO 26262. The platoon controller may be configured as a listener capable of receiving but not transmitting messages on the host vehicle's control related communication bus(es).Type: ApplicationFiled: January 2, 2018Publication date: May 24, 2018Inventors: Todd Christopher Klaus, Colleen Kelly Twitty, Stephen Michael Erlien, John Connelly Kegelman, Charles A. Price, Austin Bennett Schuh, Brian Jeremy Silverman, Joshua Philip Switkes