Patents by Inventor Minoru Akita

Minoru Akita 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: 20240262231
    Abstract: A power supply system includes: a drone including a propeller, a motor for driving the propeller, a power control unit for supplying the motor, a battery storing electric power, a generator for generating the power, an engine for driving the generator, a fuel tank storing fuel to be supplied to the engine, and a power suppling device for supplying the power generated by the generator to a power supply target; a control unit for controlling various operations of the drone; and an operation management unit for controlling the operations of the drone. Upon receipt of a power supply request, the operation management unit flies the drone to the location of the target. After the drone arrives at the target, the control unit causes the generator to generate the power based on a command from the operation management unit to supply the power to the target via the power suppling device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 18, 2024
    Publication date: August 8, 2024
    Applicant: AISAN KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Arashi KOYANAGI, Minoru AKITA, Noriaki TERASAWA, Tomoki MAEDA, Masanobu OHMI, Masanobu KONDO, Hiroyuki SHIMIZU
  • Patent number: 10072619
    Abstract: In an apparatus for heating an intake system for an engine of a vehicle by hot water, the vehicle having an engine compartment placed in a front part, in which a radiator is placed on a front side, and the engine and the intake system are placed behind the radiator. The intake system includes an intake passage and a throttle device. A hot water passage is provided to circulate hot water around the throttle device to heat the throttle device, the hot water having been warmed by cooling the engine. In the hot water passage, a hot water control valve is provided. In the hot water control valve, an expanding-contracting member made of shape-memory alloy is provided to control opening and closing of the hot water control valve in response to the internal temperature of the engine compartment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 17, 2016
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2018
    Assignee: AISAN KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Mamoru Yoshioka, Minoru Akita, Tsutomu Kuniyoshi
  • Patent number: 10041453
    Abstract: In an apparatus for heating an intake system for an engine of a vehicle by hot water, the vehicle having an engine compartment placed in a front part, in which a radiator is placed on a front side, and the engine and the intake system are placed behind the radiator. The intake system includes an intake passage and a throttle device. A hot water passage is provided to circulate hot water around the throttle device to heat the throttle device, the hot water having been warmed by cooling the engine. In the hot water passage, a hot water control valve is provided. In the hot water control valve, an expanding-contracting member made of shape-memory alloy is provided to control opening and closing of the hot water control valve in response to the internal temperature of the engine compartment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 17, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 7, 2018
    Assignee: AISAN KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Mamoru Yoshioka, Minoru Akita, Tsutomu Kuniyoshi
  • Patent number: 10018131
    Abstract: A fuel vapor processing apparatus includes an adsorbent canister, a vapor path connecting the adsorbent canister to a fuel tank, and a flow control valve disposed in the vapor path. The flow control valve is kept closed while a movement distance of a valve body from a predetermined initial position toward a valve opening direction is less than a predetermined distance. A control unit comprising part of the apparatus is configured to set a valve opening speed of the flow control valve to a first speed under a condition where the movement distance of the valve body is less than the predetermined distance, and to set the valve opening speed of the flow control valve to a second speed lower than the first speed under a condition where the movement distance of the valve body is greater than the predetermined distance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2018
    Assignees: AISAN KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA, TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Naoyuki Tagawa, Minoru Akita, Yoshikazu Miyabe, Tatsuhiko Akita, Yuusaku Nishimura, Keita Fukui
  • Patent number: 10018159
    Abstract: A fuel vapor processing apparatus may include a canister capable of adsorbing fuel vapor produced in a fuel tank, a closing valve provided in a vapor passage connecting the canister and the fuel tank, a purge passage connecting the canister and an intake passage of an engine, and a control device. The closing valve may include a movable valve member movable along a linear path and an actuator coupled to the movable valve member. The control device may be coupled to the actuator and may be configured to control the actuator such that the position of the movable valve member along the linear path changes according to a deviation of an actual tank internal pressure of the fuel tank from a target tank internal pressure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2018
    Assignee: AISAN KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Minoru Akita, Yoshikazu Miyabe, Naoyuki Tagawa
  • Patent number: 10012179
    Abstract: An evaporated fuel treatment device includes a canister, an evaporated fuel outflow detecting means, a pressure sensor, a pressure change detecting means, and a pressure sensor failure determining means. The canister adsorbs evaporated fuel from a fuel tank, and purges the adsorbed fuel to an engine. The evaporated fuel outflow detecting means undergoes a change in a signal as the evaporated fuel flows out of the fuel tank. The pressure sensor detects an inner pressure of the fuel tank. The pressure change detecting means detects whether or not the pressure is in a static state. When the evaporated fuel outflow detecting means detects that evaporated fuel has flowed out of the fuel tank and when the pressure change detecting means detects that the pressure is in a static state, the pressure sensor failure determining means determines that the pressure sensor is out of order.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 14, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2018
    Assignee: AISAN KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Yoshikazu Miyabe, Minoru Akita, Naoyuki Tagawa
  • Patent number: 10006386
    Abstract: A fuel vapor processing apparatus includes a vapor path connecting an adsorbent canister to a tank, where a valve is disposed in the vapor path and comprises a body and a seat, and a control unit configured to detect a movement distance of the body from the seat as a valve movement distance at a valve opening start position. This position results when a change in inner pressure of the tank after starting movement of the body toward a valve opening direction becomes greater in magnitude than a predetermined amount, wherein the control unit stores the valve movement distance in the valve opening direction as a learning value, and also stores one of two predetermined restriction values as the learning value instead of the valve movement distance when the valve movement distance is not within a range between a previously stored learning value and one of the restriction values.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 18, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 26, 2018
    Assignees: AISAN KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA, TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Naoyuki Tagawa, Minoru Akita, Yoshikazu Miyabe, Tatsuhiko Akita, Yuusaku Nishimura, Keita Fukui
  • Patent number: 9863378
    Abstract: An engine, an intake passage to introduce intake air to the engine, an exhaust passage to discharge exhaust air from the engine, and a high-temperature duct connected to the intake passage to introduce high-temperature air around the exhaust passage into the engine are provided in an engine compartment. The intake passage includes an intake-air inlet port to introduce outside air as low-temperature air. A passage switching valve provided between the intake passage and the high-temperature duct switches passages of the high-temperature air from the high-temperature duct and the low-temperature air from the intake air inlet port so as to selectively flow the air downstream of the intake passage. A valve control unit controls switching according to the temperature inside the compartment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 9, 2018
    Assignee: AISAN KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Mamoru Yoshioka, Minoru Akita, Tsutomu Kuniyoshi
  • Patent number: 9835121
    Abstract: A fuel-supply system has a fuel pump, a pressure controller, a signal output device and a power switch. The pressure controller adjusts the observed fuel pressure of the fuel and may electronically communicate with a motor driving the fuel pump to regulate the supply of fuel from a fuel tank of the fuel-supply system to an engine. In detail, the pressure controller performs feedback control of a voltage applied to the motor such that the pressure of a fuel pumped from the fuel pump approaches to have a first target and/or ideal fuel pressure value. Further, the signal output device outputs the first target fuel pressure value to the pressure controller. Activation of the power switch supplies power, from a power source, to the pressure controller, the motor and the signal output device. Further, the pressure controller may perform feedback control based on a second target fuel pressure value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 16, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2017
    Assignee: AISAN KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Naoyuki Tagawa, Minoru Akita
  • Patent number: 9828927
    Abstract: A vaporized fuel treating device having a canister that is configured to adsorb vaporized fuel in a fuel tank and to feed the adsorbed vaporized fuel to an engine may include a pressure sensor that is configured to periodically detect an inner pressure of the fuel tank, and a pressure sensor failure determination device that is configured to determine that the pressure sensor has failed when a change of the inner pressure detected by the pressure sensor in a unit of time is not less than a predetermined pressure value that is greater than a maximum value of possible pressure changes within the fuel tank.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 8, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2017
    Assignee: AISAN KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Minoru Akita, Yoshikazu Miyabe, Naoyuki Tagawa
  • Patent number: 9816450
    Abstract: A fuel vapor processing apparatus includes a canister housing an adsorbent material that adsorbs fuel vapor from a tank, and a valve in a passage connecting the canister and tank. When a stroke amount is within a range, the valve is closed to close the tank and a valve opening start position is learned. In the learning, the stroke amount is varied in the opening direction by repeatedly changing in the opening direction by a first stroke and maintaining for a first time period, and subsequently changing in a closing direction by a second stroke and maintaining for a second time period. The valve opening start position is determined based on the stroke amount in the second time period when the tank pressure is reduced by the predetermined value or more or in a preceding process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 3, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 14, 2017
    Assignee: AISAN KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Minoru Akita, Yoshikazu Miyabe, Naoyuki Tagawa, Junya Kimoto
  • Patent number: 9749947
    Abstract: A wireless communication apparatus reducing power consumption of a large circuit size switch unit, includes a demultiplexing unit that separates an input multiplexed signal into plural signals for each input port, a prestage rearrangement unit that rearranges the plural signals input from the demultiplexing unit and outputs plural prestage rearranged signals for each input port, a switch unit that inputs the plural prestage rearranged signals output from the prestage rearrangement unit provided for each input port as plural signals before switching and applies switching processes to the plural signals before the switching to be output as plural switched signals for each output port, a poststage rearrangement unit that inputs and rearranges the plural switched signals output from the switch unit for each output port and outputs plural poststage rearranged signals for each output port, and a multiplexing unit that multiplexes the plural poststage rearranged signals for each output port.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2017
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
    Inventors: Minoru Akita, Akinori Fujimura
  • Patent number: 9726120
    Abstract: A vaporized fuel processing apparatus has a canister capable of adsorbing vaporized fuel generated in a fuel tank, a vapor path connecting the canister to the fuel tank, a closing valve provided in the vapor path, a purge path connecting the canister to an intake path of an engine, a pressure sensor for detecting the inner pressure of the fuel tank, and an electric control unit controlling the vaporized fuel processing apparatus. When the inner pressure of the fuel tank is in excess of the measurement range of the pressure sensor, the learning of the valve opening start position is prohibited, and pre-learning depressurization control is performed through change of the stroke amount of the closing valve in the valve opening direction until the inner pressure of the fuel tank is within the measurement range of the pressure sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2017
    Assignee: AISAN KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Naoyuki Tagawa, Minoru Akita, Yoshikazu Miyabe
  • Patent number: 9689324
    Abstract: A vaporized fuel processing apparatus has a closing valve provided in a vapor path connecting an adsorbent canister to the fuel tank, a pressure sensor configured to detect the inner pressure of the fuel tank, and an electric control unit configured to determine whether the amount of increase in the inner pressure of the fuel tank is within an acceptable range or not, to learn a valve opening start position of the closing valve when the inner pressure of the fuel tank is reduced by an amount not less than a predetermined value, and to stop or prohibit the learning of the valve opening start position of the closing valve when the amount of increase in the inner pressure of the fuel tank is not within the acceptable range during or before the learning of the valve opening start position of the closing valve.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 27, 2017
    Assignee: AISAN KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Minoru Akita, Yoshikazu Miyabe, Naoyuki Tagawa
  • Publication number: 20170167413
    Abstract: A fuel vapor processing apparatus includes an adsorbent canister, a vapor path connecting the adsorbent canister to a fuel tank, and a flow control valve disposed in the vapor path. The flow control valve is kept closed while a movement distance of a valve body from a predetermined initial position toward a valve opening direction is less than a predetermined distance. A control unit comprising part of the apparatus is configured to set a valve opening speed of the flow control valve to a first speed under a condition where the movement distance of the valve body is less than the predetermined distance, and to set the valve opening speed of the flow control valve to a second speed lower than the first speed under a condition where the movement distance of the valve body is greater than the predetermined distance.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 15, 2016
    Publication date: June 15, 2017
    Applicants: AISAN KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA, TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Naoyuki TAGAWA, Minoru AKITA, Yoshikazu MIYABE, Tatsuhiko AKITA, Yuusaku NISHIMURA, Keita FUKUI
  • Patent number: 9677485
    Abstract: An EGR apparatus includes an EGR passage to allow part of exhaust gas discharged from a combustion chamber to flow in an intake passage and recirculate back to the combustion chamber and an EGR valve to regulate EGR gas in the EGR passage. The EGR valve includes a valve seat, a valve element, and a step motor. An ECU calculates a target correction value corresponding to an operating condition of an engine, cuts off energization to the step motor in order to hold the EGR valve at a predetermined opening degree during operation thereof, and then restarts energization to the step motor, calculates an energization cutoff correction value corresponding to an elapsed time from energization cutoff, and corrects the target correction value by the calculated energization cutoff correction value in order to control the EGR valve to the target opening degree.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2017
    Assignee: AISAN KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Minoru Akita, Mamoru Yoshioka
  • Publication number: 20170159616
    Abstract: An evaporated fuel treatment device includes a canister, an evaporated fuel outflow detecting means, a pressure sensor, a pressure change detecting means, and a pressure sensor failure determining means. The canister adsorbs evaporated fuel from a fuel tank, and purges the adsorbed fuel to an engine. The evaporated fuel outflow detecting means undergoes a change in a signal as the evaporated fuel flows out of the fuel tank. The pressure sensor detects an inner pressure of the fuel tank. The pressure change detecting means detects whether or not the pressure is in a static state. When the evaporated fuel outflow detecting means detects that evaporated fuel has flowed out of the fuel tank and when the pressure change detecting means detects that the pressure is in a static state, the pressure sensor failure determining means determines that the pressure sensor is out of order.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 14, 2015
    Publication date: June 8, 2017
    Applicant: AISAN KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Yoshikazu MIYABE, Minoru AKITA, Naoyuki TAGAWA
  • Publication number: 20170145932
    Abstract: A fuel vapor processing apparatus includes a vapor path connecting an adsorbent canister to a tank, where a valve is disposed in the vapor path and comprises a body and a seat, and a control unit configured to detect a movement distance of the body from the seat as a valve movement distance at a valve opening start position. This position results when a change in inner pressure of the tank after starting movement of the body toward a valve opening direction becomes greater in magnitude than a predetermined amount, wherein the control unit stores the valve movement distance in the valve opening direction as a learning value, and also stores one of two predetermined restriction values as the learning value instead of the valve movement distance when the valve movement distance is not within a range between a previously stored learning value and one of the restriction values.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 18, 2016
    Publication date: May 25, 2017
    Applicants: AISAN KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA, TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Naoyuki TAGAWA, Minoru AKITA, Yoshikazu MIYABE, Tatsuhiko AKITA, Yuusaku NISHIMURA, Keita FUKUI
  • Patent number: 9638142
    Abstract: A vaporized fuel processing apparatus has a fuel tank, a canister configured to adsorb vaporized fuel, a vapor path connecting the canister to the fuel tank, a closing valve provided in the vapor path, a pressure sensor measuring inner pressure of the fuel tank, and an electric control unit connected with the closing valve and the pressure sensor. The electric control unit is configured to close or open the closing valve in order to initialize the closing valve or open the closing valve in order to release the vaporized fuel from the fuel tank. Further, the electric control unit is configured to detect failure of the closing valve depending on change in the inner pressure of the fuel tank within a predetermined time from when the closing valve is opened or is closed for initialization of the closing valve or release of the vaporized fuel from the fuel tank.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 13, 2015
    Date of Patent: May 2, 2017
    Assignee: AISAN KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Naoyuki Tagawa, Minoru Akita, Yoshikazu Miyabe
  • Patent number: 9556841
    Abstract: A fuel supply system may include a fuel pump configured to supply fuel from a fuel tank to a target, a motor for driving the fuel pump, and a controller coupled to the motor. The controller may determine a duty ratio of a control signal through a feedback control and to output the control signal to the motor, so that a fuel pressure of the fuel supplied from the fuel tank approaches a target fuel pressure. The controller may estimate the duty ratio based on the target fuel pressure and information regarding a fuel pressure of the fuel supplied from the fuel tank, and may guard an upper limit of the duty ratio by an upper limit guard value. The upper limit guard value may be determined based on a rotational speed of the motor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 14, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2017
    Assignee: AISAN KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Naoyuki Tagawa, Minoru Akita