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).

  • Publication number: 20160141682
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: November 11, 2015
    Publication date: May 19, 2016
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Tomio YAMANAKA, Mitsuhiro NADA, Hiroyuki SUZUKI, Tomohiro OGAWA, Tsuyoshi MARUO
  • Publication number: 20160141680
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: November 6, 2015
    Publication date: May 19, 2016
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Takashi YAMADA, Hiroyuki IMANISHI, Mitsuhiro NADA
  • Publication number: 20160137068
    Abstract: A braking force (BF) control system includes: a first required BF calculator that calculates, based on a position of the brake pedal, a first required friction BF allocated to the friction brake and a first required regenerative BF allocated to regenerative control of the drive motor; a second required BF calculator that calculates, based on a position of the acceleration pedal, a second required friction BF allocated to the friction brake and a second required regenerative BF allocated to the regenerative control; a regenerative total BF calculation/execution portion that calculates a regenerative total BF based on the first and second required regenerative BFs and performs the regenerative control based on the regenerative total BF; and a friction total BF calculation/execution portion that calculates a friction total BF based on the first and second required friction BFs and controls the friction brake based on the friction total BF.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 11, 2015
    Publication date: May 19, 2016
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Mitsuhiro NADA, Kenji UMAYAHARA, Takuya SNAKAGAMI
  • Publication number: 20160141905
    Abstract: A voltage control method for a fuel cell may include: interrupting electrical connection between the fuel cell and a load in a low load state; supplying oxygen to the fuel cell in accordance with a preset condition during the electrical connection is interrupted; detecting an OCV of the fuel cell after oxygen is supplied to the fuel cell in accordance with the preset condition; reducing an amount of oxygen supplied to the fuel cell when the OCV is higher than a target voltage by a first value or larger; increasing the amount of oxygen when the OCV is lower than the target voltage by a second value or larger; and keeping the amount of oxygen when the OCV is lower than a sum of the target voltage and the first value and higher than a value obtained by subtracting the second value from the target voltage.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 5, 2015
    Publication date: May 19, 2016
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Tomio YAMANAKA, Mitsuhiro NADA, Hiroyuki SUZUKI
  • Publication number: 20160141671
    Abstract: An object is to provide a technique that suppresses excessive water drainage from a fuel cell. A water drainage device for fuel cell 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 user to give an instruction of purging out water from inside of the fuel cell 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) a process of invalidating the water drainage command received by the operation unit; and (ii) a process of 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: Application
    Filed: November 10, 2015
    Publication date: May 19, 2016
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Tomohiro OGAWA, Ryosuke OYA, Tomohiko KANEKO, Mitsuhiro NADA, Yoshiaki NAGANUMA
  • Publication number: 20160141684
    Abstract: There is provided a control method of a flow regulating valve of an oxidizing gas in a fuel cell. In a load disconnected state that the fuel cell is electrically disconnected from a load, the control method gradually opens the flow regulating valve that is configured to supply the oxidizing gas to a cathode of the fuel cell by a predetermined valve opening each time from a full-close position or gradually closes the flow regulating valve by a predetermined valve opening each time from a full-open position, so as to gradually change a supply amount of the oxidizing gas introduced to the cathode and cause hydrogen transmitted from an anode to the cathode in the fuel cell to be oxidized.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 13, 2015
    Publication date: May 19, 2016
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Tomio YAMANAKA, Mitsuhiro NADA, Hiroyuki SUZUKI
  • Publication number: 20160141647
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: October 28, 2015
    Publication date: May 19, 2016
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Takashi YAMADA, Hiroyuki IMANISHI, Mitsuhiro NADA
  • Publication number: 20160139614
    Abstract: A valve control apparatus controls a valve for adjusting a pressure of a reaction gas supplied to a fuel cell. The valve control apparatus includes: an estimation portion that estimates a valve effective cross-sectional area of the valve; and an opening adjustment portion that adjusts opening degree of the valve with control amount corrected based on the valve effective cross-sectional area estimated by the estimation portion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 11, 2015
    Publication date: May 19, 2016
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Hiroyuki SUZUKI, Tomio YAMANAKA, Yoshiaki NAGANUMA, Mitsuhiro NADA
  • Publication number: 20160137194
    Abstract: An object is to allow for the move of a vehicle even in the event of an abnormality in a lid sensor. A control method of a vehicle with a fuel cell mounted thereon comprises: (a) if a signal of a lid sensor that is configured to detect opening and closing of a lid door for a gas filler port of the vehicle indicates that the lid door is open, then prohibiting move of the vehicle; and (b) if it is judged that the lid sensor has a defect or if a predetermined special operation is performed, then eliminating prohibition of the move of the vehicle despite that the signal of the lid sensor indicates that the lid door is open.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 11, 2015
    Publication date: May 19, 2016
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Shigeto KAJIWARA, Mitsuhiro NADA
  • Publication number: 20160137066
    Abstract: A vehicle includes: a fuel cell that receives supply of fuel gas and generates electric power; a motor that is driven by the generated electric power of the fuel cell; an electric power consuming auxiliary machine; a mechanical brake; a secondary cell, and a deceleration control unit. The deceleration control unit limits the regenerative braking force to be obtained by the regenerative control, to an upper limit regenerative braking force corresponding to the maximum consumed electric power that the electric power consuming auxiliary machine is capable of consuming such that regenerative electric power associated with regenerative braking is consumed by the electric power consuming auxiliary machine, and when the electric power consuming auxiliary machine is incapable of consuming the regenerative electric power to the maximum consumed electric power, the residual regenerative electric power is consumed by charge of the secondary cell.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 13, 2015
    Publication date: May 19, 2016
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Mitsuhiro NADA, Kenji UMAYAHARA, Takuya NAKAGAMI
  • Publication number: 20160141691
    Abstract: A fuel cell system includes: a fuel cell; a coolant path connected to the fuel cell and allowing a coolant that cools the fuel cell to flow therethrough; a temperature detection unit configured to detect a temperature of the coolant in the coolant path; a temperature correction unit configured to calculate a temperature correction value by correcting the temperature of the coolant detected by the temperature detection unit; and a lower limit voltage control unit configured to control a lower limit voltage of the fuel cell based on the temperature correction value, wherein the temperature correction unit calculates the temperature correction value based on a following equation: T filt = T filt ? _ ? old + T - T filt ? _ ? old ? where Tfilt represents the temperature correction value, Tfilt_old represents a last temperature correction value, T represents the temperature of the coolant, and ? represents a coefficient, and the coefficient when the temperature of the coolant is less than a
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 10, 2015
    Publication date: May 19, 2016
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Yohei OKAMOTO, Yutaka TANO, Mitsuhiro NADA, Tomohiko KANEKO
  • Publication number: 20160137100
    Abstract: A vehicle driven by an electric motor, includes: an accelerator operation amount detection unit that detects an accelerator operation amount; a speed detection unit that detects a vehicle speed; and a control unit configured to calculate a required torque of the electric motor on a basis of the accelerator operation amount and the vehicle speed, calculate a torque increase rate, which is a required rate at which an effective torque for driving the electric motor is increased, on a basis of the required torque, and control the electric motor on a basis of the calculated torque increase rate. The control unit is configured to control the electric motor to operate at a predetermined torque increase rate until the effective torque reaches a predetermined threshold torque, and to reduce the torque increase rate below the predetermined torque increase rate after the effective torque reaches the predetermined threshold torque.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 13, 2015
    Publication date: May 19, 2016
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Yusuke NISHIDA, Kenji UMAYAHARA, Mitsuhiro NADA
  • Publication number: 20160132035
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: October 26, 2015
    Publication date: May 12, 2016
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Yutaka TANO, Mitsuhiro Nada, Tomohiko Kaneko, Yohei Okamoto
  • Publication number: 20160129809
    Abstract: A vehicle comprises a fuel cell that is configured to receive supply of a fuel gas and generate electric power and a motor that is configured to be driven with the electric power generated by the fuel cell. 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 vehicle changes the drive mode from the deceleration enhanced mode to the ordinary mode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 9, 2015
    Publication date: May 12, 2016
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Kenji UMAYAHARA, Mitsuhiro NADA, Takuya NAKAGAMI
  • Publication number: 20160129807
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: November 11, 2015
    Publication date: May 12, 2016
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Yohei OKAMOTO, Hiroyuki Imanishi, Mitsuhiro Nada, Takashi Yamada
  • Publication number: 20160107630
    Abstract: A shock detection system with a vehicle at rest includes a parking mechanism for locking rotation of a drive shaft which rotates a wheel of the vehicle, a revolution sensor for detecting a revolution speed of the drive shaft, and a shock detector for detecting a shock to the vehicle based on a magnitude and a frequency of variation in detection values of the revolution speed of the drive shaft detected by the revolution sensor in a state where the rotation of the drive shaft is locked by the parking mechanism.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 14, 2015
    Publication date: April 21, 2016
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Ryosuke OYA, Mitsuhiro NADA
  • Publication number: 20160053702
    Abstract: In a diesel engine, an inside of a cylinder is divided into intra-cavity and extra-cavity regions. Ideal heat release rate waveform models, each formed of an isosceles triangle in which each oblique line gradient is a reaction rate, an area is a reaction amount and a base length is a reaction period with a reaction start temperature as a base point, are generated respectively for a vaporization reaction, low-temperature oxidation reaction, thermal decomposition reaction and high-temperature oxidation reaction of injected fuel for each region. An ideal heat release rate waveform of the reaction modes is generated by smoothing the ideal heat release rate waveform models through filtering and combining the ideal heat release rate waveforms, and is compared with an actual heat release rate waveform obtained from a detected in-cylinder pressure. A reaction mode having a deviation larger than or equal to a predetermined amount is diagnosed as being abnormal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 13, 2014
    Publication date: February 25, 2016
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Mitsuhiro NADA
  • Patent number: 8936007
    Abstract: In a compression self-igniting internal combustion engine, a fuel injection by an auxiliary injection ends before a gas temperature inside a cylinder reaches a temperature at which a fuel starts a low-temperature oxidation reaction. Specifically, an in-cylinder gas temperature (750K) is used as a reference, and the auxiliary injection is carried out before the in-cylinder gas temperature reaches 750K, so as to separate the low-temperature oxidation reaction and a high-temperature oxidation reaction from one another. This control makes a premixed combustion slow before a compression top dead center is reached, and ensures control of the premixed combustion in a temperature controlled manner in accordance with the transition of the in-cylinder gas temperature. This ensures unambiguous determination of the injection time of the auxiliary injection based on the in-cylinder temperature, and facilitates the attempt to simplify the fuel injection control.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 20, 2015
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Mitsuhiro Nada
  • Patent number: 8904995
    Abstract: A series of combustion forms including initial low-temperature combustion, premixed combustion, and diffusive combustion are performed when an engine operates under a low load and a medium load. The initial low-temperature combustion is carried out by performing a small-amount injection while performing an operation for lowering the encounter rate between oxygen and a fuel spray in a cylinder, and thereby the heat generation rate is kept low and the amount of NOx generated is suppressed. The premixed combustion is carried out as fuel receives heat in the initial low-temperature combustion, and the amount of smoke generated is suppressed. The diffusive combustion is accomplished as fuel travels through the combustion field of the premixed combustion, and by controlling the fuel injection timing thereof, it is possible to suitably control the timing at which the heat generation rate reaches its maximum in the aforementioned series of combustion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 9, 2014
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Mitsuhiro Nada
  • Patent number: 8596242
    Abstract: A fuel injection control apparatus of an internal combustion engine of the present invention performs control for a common rail diesel engine so that at a timing when a piston reaches compression top dead center, the rate of heat production due to the combustion of fuel injected in pre-injection is substantially maximal, and furthermore so that the combustion of fuel injected in main injection is started in the vicinity of this timing. As a result, the combustion of fuel injected in main injection is started by fully utilizing the heat production amount due to the pre-injection. Also, this avoids the production of reverse torque, as well as ensures maximizing the amount of torque produced by the combustion of fuel injected in main injection.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2013
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Mitsuhiro Nada