Patents by Inventor Mitsuhiro Nada
Mitsuhiro Nada 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: 11491893Abstract: Provided is a method for controlling a fuel cell vehicle capable of informing a user outside of the vehicle of the possibility that the fuel stops power generation and external power-feeding stops, whereby problems due to unexpected stopping of power feeding can be avoided. In a method for controlling a fuel cell vehicle 100 including an external power-feeding device 50, when it is determined that a state of a fuel cell exceeds a limiting point where deterioration of the fuel cell 20 or a failure of a driving device to supply fuel to the fuel cell 20 occurs during external power feeding, warning is issued to outside of the vehicle 10 before the fuel cell 20 stops power generation.Type: GrantFiled: June 11, 2020Date of Patent: November 8, 2022Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki KaishaInventors: Yohei Okamoto, Hiroyuki Imanishi, Mitsuhiro Nada, Takashi Yamada
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Patent number: 11325454Abstract: A method of designing a machine on which a drive motor, a fuel cell stack, and a secondary battery are mounted includes: determining a maximum output of the drive motor to be a first output value and an output of the drive motor when a vehicle travels under a cruise condition to be a second output value; determining the number of fuel cell stacks to be mounted to be n; and determining a maximum output of the secondary battery to be a value obtained by subtracting a value obtained by multiplying a maximum output of the fuel cell stack by the n, from the first output value. A value obtained by multiplying the third output value by the n is equal to or larger than the second output value, and a value obtained by multiplying the third output value by (n?1) is less than the second output value.Type: GrantFiled: June 25, 2018Date of Patent: May 10, 2022Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki KaishaInventor: Mitsuhiro Nada
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Patent number: 10811710Abstract: A control unit included in a first fuel cell unit stores a target range set. The target range set includes an SOC control target range, a control target range of temperature of a secondary battery, a control target range for FC temperature, a control target range for temperature of a BDC, a control target range for temperature of a hydrogen pump, and a control target range for temperature of an air compressor. The control unit controls the respective parameters to fall within these target ranges. A control unit included in a second fuel cell unit also stores the target range set. The control unit included in the second fuel cell unit thus similarly controls the respective parameters to fall within the same target ranges, like the control unit included in the first fuel cell unit.Type: GrantFiled: June 26, 2018Date of Patent: October 20, 2020Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki KaishaInventor: Mitsuhiro Nada
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Publication number: 20200298729Abstract: Provided is a method for controlling a fuel cell vehicle capable of informing a user outside of the vehicle of the possibility that the fuel stops power generation and external power-feeding stops, whereby problems due to unexpected stopping of power feeding can be avoided. In a method for controlling a fuel cell vehicle 100 including an external power-feeding device 50, when it is determined that a state of a fuel cell exceeds a limiting point where deterioration of the fuel cell 20 or a failure of a driving device to supply fuel to the fuel cell 20 occurs during external power feeding, warning is issued to outside of the vehicle 10 before the fuel cell 20 stops power generation.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 11, 2020Publication date: September 24, 2020Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHAInventors: Yohei OKAMOTO, Hiroyuki IMANISHI, Mitsuhiro NADA, Takashi YAMADA
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Patent number: 10777827Abstract: A technique that suppresses excessive water drainage from a fuel cell is provided. A water drainage device that drains water from inside of a fuel cell includes: a purge gas supply system; an operation unit; a water drainage controller; and a water content acquirer. The operation unit receives a water drainage command from a water drainage switch configured to control execution of a purge process by the purge gas supply system. When the water content obtained by the water content acquirer is equal to or lower than a predetermined value, the water drainage controller performs either one of: (i) invalidating the received water drainage command; and (ii) changing a processing condition of the purge process to decrease an amount of water drained by the purge process, compared with an amount of water drainage when the obtained water content is higher than the predetermined value.Type: GrantFiled: November 10, 2015Date of Patent: September 15, 2020Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki KaishaInventors: Tomohiro Ogawa, Ryosuke Oya, Tomohiko Kaneko, Mitsuhiro Nada, Yoshiaki Naganuma
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Patent number: 10744903Abstract: Provided is a method for controlling a fuel cell vehicle capable of informing a user outside of the vehicle of the possibility that the fuel cell stops power generation and external power-feeding stops, whereby problems due to unexpected stopping of power feeding can be avoided. In a method for controlling a fuel cell vehicle 100 including an external power-feeding device 50, when it is determined that a state of a fuel cell exceeds a limiting point where deterioration of the fuel cell 20 or a failure of a driving device to supply fuel to the fuel cell 20 occurs during external power feeding, warning is issued to outside of the vehicle 10 before the fuel cell 20 stops power generation.Type: GrantFiled: November 11, 2015Date of Patent: August 18, 2020Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki KaishaInventors: Yohei Okamoto, Hiroyuki Imanishi, Mitsuhiro Nada, Takashi Yamada
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Patent number: 10680257Abstract: The present invention is to prevent the temperature of an electric heater from being higher than or equal to a temperature at which control to reduce power consumption is started to prevent an abrupt decrease in the power consumption of the electric heater in order to secure a power consuming destination of a fuel cell. A fuel cell system 10 includes: a fuel cell 20 that receives the supply of reactant gas to generate power; a fuel cell cooling system 30 for circulating a coolant through the fuel cell 20 to cool the fuel cell 20; an electric heater 40 operated to consume power of the fuel cell 20 and driven to decrease power consumption abruptly at a temperature lower than a decomposition temperature of the coolant; and a heater cooling system 50 for circulating the coolant around the electric heater 40 to cool the electric heater 40.Type: GrantFiled: October 28, 2015Date of Patent: June 9, 2020Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki KaishaInventors: Takashi Yamada, Hiroyuki Imanishi, Mitsuhiro Nada
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Patent number: 10556580Abstract: Signals including noise at a constant interval are processed by receiving a signal as a result of detection by a sensor and sampling the received signal at an interval shorter than the interval of the noise; extracting a plurality of the sampled signals at an interval that is half of the interval of the noise; calculating an arithmetic mean value on a group of the extracted signals; and outputting a new signal being generated with the arithmetic mean value.Type: GrantFiled: June 26, 2018Date of Patent: February 11, 2020Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki KaishaInventor: Mitsuhiro Nada
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Patent number: 10553885Abstract: An object is to maintain the voltage of a fuel cell at a desired voltage level and suppress a voltage variation, even in the case of a low load request. A power supply system including a fuel cell causes at least part of a required electric power to be supplied from the fuel cell in an ordinary load state. In a low load state, the power supply system supplies an amount of oxygen that is required to make the voltage of the fuel cell equal to a predetermined target voltage and that is less than an amount of oxygen supplied to the fuel cell in the ordinary load state, to the fuel cell. In a first low load state, the power supply system sets the target voltage to a first target voltage and supplies oxygen to the fuel cell.Type: GrantFiled: November 11, 2015Date of Patent: February 4, 2020Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki KaishaInventors: Tomio Yamanaka, Mitsuhiro Nada, Hiroyuki Suzuki, Tomohiro Ogawa, Tsuyoshi Maruo
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Patent number: 10518654Abstract: When a stepping amount of an accelerator pedal is 0%, torque Ta is generated with the rotating speed being zero. When retreat is occurred in the slope start, the rotating speed is reduced. When the rotating speed is reduced, the torque is increased. Thus, the retreating force finally matches the propulsion force. As a result, the retreat becomes uniform motion. The decision of torque in such a manner does not require a value of a vehicle weight.Type: GrantFiled: June 25, 2018Date of Patent: December 31, 2019Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki KaishaInventor: Mitsuhiro Nada
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Patent number: 10522853Abstract: A fuel cell system comprises: a fuel cell; a cooling system circuit including a cooling liquid supply path configured to supply a cooling liquid to the fuel cell, a radiator configured to cool down the cooling liquid, a radiator fan, and a cooling liquid pump provided in the cooling liquid supply path to feed the cooling liquid to the fuel cell; a controller; and a speedometer configured to obtain a speed of the fuel cell vehicle, wherein the controller is capable of performing a first cooling control that sets an upper limit value of driving amount of the radiator fan according to the speed of the fuel cell vehicle and regulates a flow rate of the cooling liquid pump or the driving amount of the radiator fan under the upper limit value of the driving amount of the radiator, so as to cool down the fuel cell.Type: GrantFiled: October 26, 2015Date of Patent: December 31, 2019Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki KaishaInventors: Takashi Yamada, Mitsuhiro Nada, Tsuyoshi Maruo
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Patent number: 10498286Abstract: When the rotation speed is zero, the current value is specified to monotonically increase with an increase in depression amount of an accelerator pedal in a range of a depression amount from 0% to a predetermined amount P2. The current value is fixed to a limit value Ith irrespective of the depression amount in a range of the depression amount from the predetermined amount P2 to 100%.Type: GrantFiled: June 25, 2018Date of Patent: December 3, 2019Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki KaishaInventor: Mitsuhiro Nada
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Patent number: 10427685Abstract: A vehicle capable of regenerative braking includes a motor that is configured to be driven with electric power. The vehicle selectively sets a drive mode of the vehicle in an accelerator-off state between an ordinary mode and a deceleration enhanced mode that decelerates the vehicle with higher deceleration force than deceleration force in the ordinary mode. The vehicle performs regenerative control of the motor in the ordinary mode or performs deceleration control of generating the deceleration force in the deceleration enhanced mode, in order to decelerate the vehicle in the set drive mode. When an accelerator stroke based on a driver's depression of an accelerator becomes higher than a cancellation threshold in the drive mode set to the deceleration enhanced mode, the cancellation threshold being determined in advance corresponding to the accelerator stroke being greater than zero, the vehicle changes the drive mode from the deceleration enhanced mode to the ordinary mode.Type: GrantFiled: June 1, 2017Date of Patent: October 1, 2019Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki KaishaInventors: Kenji Umayahara, Mitsuhiro Nada, Takuya Nakagami
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Patent number: 10359754Abstract: A fuel cell system in which power generation is performed by a fuel cell, comprising: a power generation controller that performs: first control in which at least one of power control for preventing generated power from exceeding an upper limit value, voltage control for preventing generated voltage from falling below a lower limit value and current control for preventing generated current from exceeding an upper limit value is performed and second control in which the generated voltage is prevented from exceeding an upper limit value; and a priority instructor that instructs the power generation controller to prioritize the first control over the second control when the first control and the second control collide with each other.Type: GrantFiled: October 26, 2015Date of Patent: July 23, 2019Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki KaishaInventors: Yutaka Tano, Mitsuhiro Nada, Tomohiko Kaneko, Yohei Okamoto
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Patent number: 10312535Abstract: There is provided a fuel cell system. The fuel cell system includes a gas pump that is configured to have a rotating body and circulate an exhaust gas discharged from a fuel cell and is provided in a circulation passage configured to connect a discharge passage of the exhaust gas with a fuel gas supply passage. When temperature of the fuel cell is higher than a reference temperature that is a temperature that allows water to be introduced in a supercooled state into the gas pump, the fuel cell system controls the rotation speed of the rotating body of the gas pump to a first rotation speed corresponding to a power generation demand for the fuel cell. When the temperature of the fuel cell is not higher than the reference temperature, the fuel cell system controls the rotation speed of the rotating body of the gas pump to a second rotation speed that is lower than the first rotation speed.Type: GrantFiled: August 25, 2016Date of Patent: June 4, 2019Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki KaishaInventors: Tomio Yamanaka, Mitsuhiro Nada, Yoshiaki Naganuma, Masashi Toida
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Patent number: 10283791Abstract: A fuel cell system includes a control unit configured to perform air-conditioning-system preparation control, wherein, under the air-conditioning-system preparation control, when an air conditioning system is not requested to heat air, it is determined whether or not a coolant within a coolant circulation passage is capable of being supplied to an air conditioning circuit, when the coolant within the coolant circulation passage is not capable of being supplied to the air conditioning circuit, the heater is operated to maintain a first predetermined temperature or higher of the coolant within the air conditioning circuit, and when the coolant within the coolant circulation passage is capable of being supplied to the air conditioning circuit, the air-conditioning water pump is operated to draw the coolant from the coolant circulation passage into the air conditioning circuit and to maintain the first predetermined temperature or higher of the coolant within the air conditioning circuit.Type: GrantFiled: November 6, 2015Date of Patent: May 7, 2019Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki KaishaInventors: Takashi Yamada, Hiroyuki Imanishi, Mitsuhiro Nada
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Publication number: 20190001840Abstract: When a stepping amount of an accelerator pedal is 0%, torque Ta is generated with the rotating speed being zero. When retreat is occurred in the slope start, the rotating speed is reduced. When the rotating speed is reduced, the torque is increased. Thus, the retreating force finally matches the propulsion force. As a result, the retreat becomes uniform motion. The decision of torque in such a manner does not require a value of a vehicle weight.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 25, 2018Publication date: January 3, 2019Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KAUSHIKI KAISHAInventor: Mitsuhiro Nada
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Publication number: 20190005183Abstract: A method of designing a machine on which a drive motor, a fuel cell stack, and a secondary battery are mounted includes: determining a maximum output of the drive motor to be a first output value and an output of the drive motor when a vehicle travels under a cruise condition to be a second output value; determining the number of fuel cell stacks to be mounted to be n; and determining a maximum output of the secondary battery to be a value obtained by subtracting a value obtained by multiplying a maximum output of the fuel cell stack by the n, from the first output value. A value obtained by multiplying the third output value by the n is equal to or larger than the second output value, and a value obtained by multiplying the third output value by (n?1) is less than the second output value.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 25, 2018Publication date: January 3, 2019Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHAInventor: Mitsuhiro Nada
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Publication number: 20190006689Abstract: A control unit included in a first fuel cell unit stores a target range set. The target range set includes an SOC control target range, a control target range of temperature of a secondary battery, a control target range for FC temperature, a control target range for temperature of a BDC, a control target range for temperature of a hydrogen pump, and a control target range for temperature of an air compressor. The control unit controls the respective parameters to fall within these target ranges. A control unit included in a second fuel cell unit also stores the target range set. The control unit included in the second fuel cell unit thus similarly controls the respective parameters to fall within the same target ranges, like the control unit included in the first fuel cell unit.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 26, 2018Publication date: January 3, 2019Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHAInventor: Mitsuhiro NADA
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Publication number: 20190001953Abstract: Signals including noise at a constant interval are processed by receiving a signal as a result of detection by a sensor and sampling the received signal at an interval shorter than the interval of the noise; extracting a plurality of the sampled signals at an interval that is half of the interval of the noise; calculating an arithmetic mean value on a group of the extracted signals; and outputting a new signal being generated with the arithmetic mean value.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 26, 2018Publication date: January 3, 2019Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHAInventor: Mitsuhiro NADA