Patents by Inventor Masato Shirao

Masato Shirao 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: 20240140581
    Abstract: A ship launching support system configured to support launching work of a ship of disengaging the ship from a trailer on which the ship is loaded, the ship including an actuator having a function of generating propulsion power of the ship and a function of generating a moment on the ship, and a ship control device configured to actuate the actuator, during the launching work of the ship, the ship control device causing the actuator to generate backward propulsion power of the ship, and executing feedback control of a bow azimuth of the ship on the basis of a deviation between an actual bow azimuth that is a bow azimuth of the ship in actuality and a target bow azimuth.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 10, 2024
    Publication date: May 2, 2024
    Applicant: NHK SPRING Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Masato SHIRAO, Marino SATO, Jun TOKUSHIGE, Takafumi KAMIYA
  • Publication number: 20240132196
    Abstract: A ship including an engine, a jet propulsion device, a ship controller, and a ship position detection unit, in which the jet propulsion device includes a nozzle that ejects a jet stream generated by the driving force output from the engine, and a bucket that changes a direction of the jet stream, the position of the bucket includes at least a forward-side intermediate position between the forward position and the neutral position, the ship controller has a ship fixed point holding mode in which feedback control of the engine and the jet propulsion device is performed based on a deviation between a preset target ship position and the actual ship position, and both control of the position of the bucket including the forward-side intermediate position and control of a rotational speed of the engine are performed in the ship fixed point holding mode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 27, 2023
    Publication date: April 25, 2024
    Inventors: Masato SHIRAO, Takafumi KAMIYA, Jun TOKUSHIGE, Marino SATO
  • Patent number: 11958583
    Abstract: This automatic setting device for automatically setting control devices for a plurality of ship propulsion apparatuses for generating ship propulsion forces is provided with: an input operation setting unit that sets an input operation for a ship; a target behavior acquisition unit that acquires a target behavior of the ship corresponding to the input operation set by the input operation setting unit; a ship information acquisition unit that acquires ship information about the position and/or the bearing of the ship; an actual behavior calculation unit that calculates the actual behavior of the ship on the basis of the ship information acquired by the ship information acquisition unit; and a propulsion force setting unit that sets the magnitudes and the directions of the propulsion forces generated by the respective ship propulsion apparatuses on the basis of the actual behavior of the ship acquired by the actual behavior calculation unit and the target behavior of the ship acquired by the target behavior acq
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2024
    Assignee: NHK SPRING CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Masato Shirao, Marino Akita, Takafumi Oshima
  • Patent number: 11834143
    Abstract: A control device for an outboard motor controls a plurality of outboard motors included in a ship. Each outboard motor includes a propulsion unit and a steering actuator. The ship includes an operation unit that operates the steering actuator and the propulsion unit. The operation unit can be positioned at a first position at which the outboard motors do not generate a propulsion force for the ship, a second position at which the outboard motors generate a propulsion force for moving the ship in a leftward-rightward direction, and a third position at which the outboard motors generate a propulsion force for moving the ship in an oblique direction that forms an acute angle with the leftward-rightward direction. A forward-backward direction component of a propulsion force in the oblique direction which is generated by the outboard motors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2023
    Assignee: NHK SPRING CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Masato Shirao, Marino Akita, Takafumi Oshima
  • Publication number: 20230303233
    Abstract: A marine vessel includes: an actuator having a rudder; a heading detection unit; and a heading control device including a target heading acquisition unit, a heading deviation calculation unit, a PID control unit, and a gain setting unit, the heading deviation calculation unit calculates a heading deviation, which is the difference between a target heading and a actual heading, the PID control unit calculates an instruction value for the actuator through PID control from the heading deviation calculated by the heading deviation calculation unit, the gain setting unit sets at least a derivative gain, and in a case in which the heading deviation calculated by the heading deviation calculation unit is equal to or greater than a first threshold value, the gain setting unit adds a derivative gain addition correction quantity to the current value of the derivative gain.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 30, 2023
    Publication date: September 28, 2023
    Inventors: Masato SHIRAO, Marino AKITA, Takafumi KAMIYA
  • Publication number: 20230294803
    Abstract: A watercraft of an automatic maneuvering system includes an actuator configured to generate a propulsive force and a turning moment, an operation unit, and a watercraft control device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 8, 2021
    Publication date: September 21, 2023
    Inventors: Masato SHIRAO, Marino AKITA, Takafumi OSHIMA
  • Publication number: 20230227135
    Abstract: A watercraft control system includes a watercraft and a communication device. The communication device includes a communication unit configured to transmit information indicating a location of the communication device to the watercraft. The watercraft includes a communication unit configured to receive the information indicating the location of the communication device and a difference calculation unit configured to calculate a difference between the location of the communication device and a location of the watercraft.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 8, 2021
    Publication date: July 20, 2023
    Inventors: Masato SHIRAO, Marino AKITA, Takafumi OSHIMA
  • Publication number: 20230211859
    Abstract: This automatic ship handling system includes a ship and a communication device, the ship includes an actuator that has a function of generating a propulsion force for the ship and a function of generating a turning moment on the ship, an operation unit that receives an input operation for activating the actuator, and a ship control device that activates the actuator on the basis of at least the input operation received by the operation unit, the ship control device has a manual ship handling mode in which the actuator is activated on the basis of the input operation received by the operation unit, and an automatic ship handling mode in which the actuator is activated without a need for the operation unit to receive the input operation, and in the automatic ship handling mode, the ship control device controls a speed of the ship on the basis of a relative distance between the ship and the communication device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 8, 2021
    Publication date: July 6, 2023
    Inventors: Masato SHIRAO, Marino AKITA, Takafumi OSHIMA
  • Publication number: 20220396345
    Abstract: An automatic watercraft maneuvering system includes a watercraft and a communication device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 6, 2022
    Publication date: December 15, 2022
    Inventors: Masato SHIRAO, Marino AKITA, Takafumi KAMIYA, Yukitaka OKAMOTO, Takuya MURAYAMA
  • Publication number: 20220306262
    Abstract: This automatic setting device for automatically setting control devices for a plurality of ship propulsion apparatuses for generating ship propulsion forces is provided with: an input operation setting unit that sets an input operation for a ship; a target behavior acquisition unit that acquires a target behavior of the ship corresponding to the input operation set by the input operation setting unit; a ship information acquisition unit that acquires ship information about the position and/or the bearing of the ship; an actual behavior calculation unit that calculates the actual behavior of the ship on the basis of the ship information acquired by the ship information acquisition unit; and a propulsion force setting unit that sets the magnitudes and the directions of the propulsion forces generated by the respective ship propulsion apparatuses on the basis of the actual behavior of the ship acquired by the actual behavior calculation unit and the target behavior of the ship acquired by the target behavior acq
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 5, 2020
    Publication date: September 29, 2022
    Inventors: Masato SHIRAO, Marino AKITA, Takafumi OSHIMA
  • Publication number: 20220306263
    Abstract: A ship propulsion device controller controls a plurality of ship propulsion devices disposed on a rear portion of a hull of a ship. The ship includes an operation unit configured to operate the ship propulsion devices. The operation unit is able to be positioned at a first position where the ship propulsion devices do not generate propulsion forces for the ship and a second position where the ship propulsion devices generate propulsion forces for moving the ship in a right direction, a right-forward direction, or a right-backward direction or a third position where the ship propulsion devices generate a propulsion force for moving the ship in a left direction, a left-forward direction, or a left-backward direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 5, 2020
    Publication date: September 29, 2022
    Inventors: Masato SHIRAO, Marino AKITA, Takafumi OSHIMA
  • Publication number: 20220081085
    Abstract: A control device for an outboard motor controls a plurality of outboard motors included in a ship. Each outboard motor includes a propulsion unit and a steering actuator. The ship includes an operation unit that operates the steering actuator and the propulsion unit. The operation unit can be positioned at a first position at which the outboard motors do not generate a propulsion force for the ship, a second position at which the outboard motors generate a propulsion force for moving the ship in a leftward-rightward direction, and a third position at which the outboard motors generate a propulsion force for moving the ship in an oblique direction that forms an acute angle with the leftward-rightward direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 14, 2020
    Publication date: March 17, 2022
    Inventors: Masato SHIRAO, Marino AKITA, Takafumi OSHIMA
  • Publication number: 20220063785
    Abstract: This outboard motor control device controls a plurality of outboard motors disposed on a rear portion of a hull of a boat. Each of the outboard motors includes a propulsion unit and a steering actuator. A boat includes an operation unit configured to operate the steering actuator and the propulsion unit. The operation unit is able to be positioned at a first position where the outboard motors do not generate a propulsion force of the boat and a second position where the outboard motors generate a propulsion force for moving the boat in a left-right direction. When the operation unit is moved from the first position to the second position and maintained at the second position, the outboard motors generate a first propulsion force during a first period from a first timing when the operation unit is moved to the second position to a second timing and subsequently generate a second propulsion force greater than the first propulsion force during a second period after the second timing.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 14, 2020
    Publication date: March 3, 2022
    Inventors: Masato SHIRAO, Marino AKITA, Takafumi OSHIMA
  • Patent number: 9446690
    Abstract: A power seat operation device is configured in such a manner that, when a dial member is rotated and operated, a movable mechanism which is to be operated is selected from among movable mechanisms. When a switch member is rotated and operated, the selected movable mechanism is actuated. The switch member is rotated and operated about a rotation axis extending in the widthwise direction of the seat. Thus the direction of operation of the switch member can be aligned with or nearly aligned with both the direction of the actual movement of a seat back when a recliner mechanism is actuated and the direction of the actual movement of an ottoman when an ottoman mechanism is actuated. Also, in a state in which a seat slide mechanism is selected, the direction of the operation of the switch member is aligned with the front-rear direction of the seat.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 21, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 20, 2016
    Assignee: NHK SPRING CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Ryohei Shigematsu, Shinji Iino, Souichi Nakayama, Masato Shirao, Takeshi Nakamura, Masahiro Oda, Kenichi Katsube
  • Publication number: 20150321587
    Abstract: A power seat operation device is configured in such a manner that, when a dial member is rotated and operated, a movable mechanism which is to be operated is selected from among movable mechanisms. When a switch member is rotated and operated, the selected movable mechanism is actuated. The switch member is rotated and operated about a rotation axis extending in the widthwise direction of the seat. Thus the direction of operation of the switch member can be aligned with or nearly aligned with both the direction of the actual movement of a seat back when a recliner mechanism is actuated and the direction of the actual movement of an ottoman when an ottoman mechanism is actuated. Also, in a state in which a seat slide mechanism is selected, the direction of the operation of the switch member is aligned with the front-rear direction of the seat.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 21, 2013
    Publication date: November 12, 2015
    Inventors: Ryohei Shigematsu, Shinji Iino, Souichi Nakayama, Masato Shirao, Takeshi Nakamura, Masahiro Oda, Kenichi Katsube