Patents by Inventor Minming Zhao

Minming Zhao 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: 20200285867
    Abstract: Methods and systems for generating and utilizing a road friction estimate (RFE) indicating the expected friction level between a road surface and the tires of a vehicle based on forward looking camera image signal processing. A forward-looking camera image is pre-processed, patch segmented (both laterally and longitudinally, as defined by wheel tracks or the like), transformed into a bird's eye view (BEV) image using perspective transformation, patch quantized, and finally classified. The resulting RFE may be used to provide driver information, automatically control the associated vehicle's motion, and/or inform a cloud-based alert service to enhance driver safety.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 27, 2020
    Publication date: September 10, 2020
    Inventors: Mats JONASSON, Sohini ROY CHOWDHURY, Minming ZHAO, Niklas OHLSSON
  • Patent number: 10706294
    Abstract: Methods and systems for generating and utilizing a road friction estimate (RFE) indicating the expected friction level between a road surface and the tires of a vehicle based on forward looking camera image signal processing. A forward-looking camera image is pre-processed, patch segmented (both laterally and longitudinally, as defined by wheel tracks or the like), transformed into a bird's eye view (BEV) image using perspective transformation, patch quantized, and finally classified. The resulting RFE may be used to provide driver information, automatically control the associated vehicle's motion, and/or inform a cloud-based alert service to enhance driver safety.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 3, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2020
    Assignee: Volvo Car Corporation
    Inventors: Sohini Roy Chowdhury, Minming Zhao, Mats Jonasson, Niklas Ohlsson
  • Publication number: 20200148213
    Abstract: Vehicle alert and control systems and methods taking into account a detected road friction at a following vehicle and a predicted road friction by the following vehicle. The detected road friction between the following vehicle tires and the road surface may be assessed using a variety of methodologies and is used to compute a critical safety distance between the following vehicle and the preceding vehicle and a critical safety speed of the following vehicle. The predicted road friction ahead of the following vehicle may also be assessed using a variety of methodologies (lidar, camera, and cloud-based examples are provided) and is used to compute a warning safety distance between the following vehicle and the preceding vehicle and a warning safety speed of the following vehicle. These functionalities may be applied to vehicle/stationary object warning and response scenarios as well.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 27, 2019
    Publication date: May 14, 2020
    Inventors: Saurabh GAWANDE, Srikar MUPPIRISETTY, Sohini ROY CHOWDHURY, Minming ZHAO
  • Publication number: 20200089974
    Abstract: Parking spot detection methods and systems that detect and pair parking line markers, improving the accuracy and speed of parking spot detection in vehicular driver assist (DA) and autonomous driving (AD) applications. These methods and systems incorporate three major steps: (1) preprocessing—one or more standard camera images are input into the algorithm and a bird's-eye-view (BEV) image is output from the algorithm; (2) deep neural network (DNN) segmentation of the parking line markers—the BEV image is input into the algorithm and a binary image is output from the algorithm (with, e.g., the parking line markers areas displayed in white and the background displayed in black); and (3) binary image processing—the binary image is input into the algorithm and detected and paired parking line markers representing the parking spots are output from the algorithm.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 12, 2019
    Publication date: March 19, 2020
    Inventors: Sihao DING, Minming ZHAO, Ying LI, Andreas WALLIN, Harshavardhan Reddy DASARI, Gambhir BISTA
  • Publication number: 20190389475
    Abstract: A method for estimating a tire property of a vehicle based on tire-to-road friction properties for a fleet of vehicles. The method includes: determining a tire-to-road friction for a plurality of vehicles, belonging to the fleet of vehicles, at a plurality of specified locations; determining a reference tire-to-road friction for the fleet of vehicles at each specified location; in a vehicle, determining a current tire-to-road friction at a first location being one of the specified locations; determining a difference between the current tire-to-road friction and the reference tire-to-road friction of the fleet for the first location; and estimating a tire property of the vehicle based on the determined difference. There is also provided a system configured to perform the described method.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 23, 2019
    Publication date: December 26, 2019
    Inventors: Mats JONASSON, Niklas OHLSSON, Srikar MUPPIRISETTY, Sohini Roy CHOWDHURY, Minming ZHAO
  • Publication number: 20190376811
    Abstract: A system and method for utilizing aggregated weather data (AWD) for deriving road surface condition (RSC) estimates. This system and method supplements road friction estimates (RFEs) made at the vehicle level with AWD in the cloud to form the RSC estimates, which are then transmitted to the vehicles such that more accurate RFEs can be made locally, and so on. Conventional RFE physics-based models are replaced with enhanced RFE trained machine learning (ML) models accordingly. Global RSC estimates are derived for each geographical region using weather and location constraints. Thus, improved autonomous driving and driver assist functions may be implemented, better driver warnings may be provided, and safer road trips may be planned in advance based on a thorough analysis of the drivable conditions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 12, 2018
    Publication date: December 12, 2019
    Inventors: Sohini ROY CHOWDHURY, Srikar MUPPIRISETTY, Niklas OHLSSON, Minming ZHAO, Mats JONASSON
  • Publication number: 20190376428
    Abstract: An apparatus includes a stored reductant determination circuit structured to determine an amount of stored reductant in a component of an exhaust aftertreatment system, and a fuel mode economy circuit structured to control an amount of reductant added to the exhaust aftertreatment system during an engine idle mode of operation based on the amount of stored reductant.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 26, 2019
    Publication date: December 12, 2019
    Applicant: Cummins Inc.
    Inventors: Minming Zhao, Josh Si Shao, Sriram Madhavan, Matthew John Zanker
  • Publication number: 20190340445
    Abstract: Methods and systems for generating and utilizing a road friction estimate (RFE) indicating the expected friction level between a road surface and the tires of a vehicle based on forward looking camera image signal processing. A forward-looking camera image is pre-processed, patch segmented (both laterally and longitudinally, as defined by wheel tracks or the like), transformed into a bird's eye view (BEV) image using perspective transformation, patch quantized, and finally classified. The resulting RFE may be used to provide driver information, automatically control the associated vehicle's motion, and/or inform a cloud-based alert service to enhance driver safety.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 3, 2018
    Publication date: November 7, 2019
    Inventors: Sohini ROY CHOWDHURY, Minming ZHAO, Mats JONASSON, Niklas OHLSSON
  • Patent number: 10392990
    Abstract: An apparatus includes a stored reductant determination circuit structured to determine an amount of stored reductant in a component of an exhaust aftertreatment system, and a fuel mode economy circuit structured to control an amount of reductant added to the exhaust aftertreatment system during an engine idle mode of operation based on the amount of stored reductant.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 14, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 27, 2019
    Assignee: Cummins Inc.
    Inventors: Minming Zhao, Josh Si Shao, Sriram Madhavan, Matthew John Zanker
  • Publication number: 20180363606
    Abstract: An engine mounted fuel manifold configured to inhibit gelling of fuel is provided, comprising: a housing comprising an internal chamber configured to receive drain fuel from a pump, an accumulator and a fuel injector, and a recirculation passage in fluid communication with the internal chamber to receive the drain fuel; a tank fuel port configured to receive fuel from a fuel tank; an output port configured to output fuel to a filter; a fuel supply passage in communication with the tank fuel port and the output port; and a thermal recirculation valve in fluid communication with the recirculation passage and the fuel supply passage, the valve responding to temperatures of fuel received by the tank fuel port being below a predetermined value by mixing drain fuel from the recirculation passage with fuel in the fuel supply passage, thereby causing mixed fuel to be supplied to the filter.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 14, 2017
    Publication date: December 20, 2018
    Inventors: Ashwin Balaji, Josh Si Shao, Minming Zhao
  • Publication number: 20180106179
    Abstract: An apparatus includes a stored reductant determination circuit structured to determine an amount of stored reductant in a component of an exhaust aftertreatment system, and a fuel mode economy circuit structured to control an amount of reductant added to the exhaust aftertreatment system during an engine idle mode of operation based on the amount of stored reductant.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 14, 2016
    Publication date: April 19, 2018
    Applicant: Cummins Inc.
    Inventors: Minming Zhao, Josh Si Shao, Sriram Madhavan, Matthew John Zanker