Patents by Inventor Naoki Shoji

Naoki Shoji 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).

  • Patent number: 11845500
    Abstract: A steering system includes a control unit. The control unit includes a manual steering angle command value setting unit, a first weighting unit, a reaction combined angle command value calculating unit, a turning combined angle command value calculating unit, a reaction force control unit configured to cause a rotation angle of a reaction motor to conform to a reaction combined angle command value, and a turning angle control unit configured to cause a rotation angle of a turning motor to conform to a turning combined angle command value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 19, 2023
    Assignee: JTEKT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Naoki Shoji, Tomohiro Nakade, Robert Fuchs
  • Patent number: 11820425
    Abstract: A steering angle calculation apparatus includes an electronic control unit configured to calculate a steering angle based on a torque caused by a driver and at least one of vehicle information, surrounding environment information, and driver information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2023
    Assignee: JTEKT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Naoki Shoji, Mitsuko Yoshida
  • Publication number: 20230316181
    Abstract: There is provided a work result information acquisition device or the like capable of acquiring work result information automatically and accurately. The work result information acquisition device includes a tracking part which tracks a movable body, a scanning part which acquires three-dimensional point cloud information on an object, a movable body movement information acquisition part which acquires movable body movement information, which is movement information of the movable body by tracking, by the tracking part and stores the movable body movement information, and a work area information generation part which generates work area information on the object, based on the movable body movement information, and three-dimensional work result information of the work area information is generated by scanning, based on the work area information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 30, 2023
    Publication date: October 5, 2023
    Applicant: TOPCON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kaoru KUMAGAI, Naoki SHOJI, Takeshi SASAKI
  • Patent number: 11745792
    Abstract: A steering device includes a steering member, a steering operation mechanism, a reactive force motor, a steering motor that drives the steering operation mechanism, a steering torque sensor, and an electronic control unit. The electronic control unit sets a manual steering angle command value. The electronic control unit computes a reactive-force-related composite angle command value. The electronic control unit computes a steering-related composite angle command value based on a steering-related automatic steering angle command value and the manual steering angle command value. The electronic control unit causes a rotational angle of the reactive force motor to follow the reactive-force-related composite angle command value. The electronic control unit causes a rotational angle of the steering motor to follow the steering-related composite angle command value. The electronic control unit estimates a first disturbance torque.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 9, 2021
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2023
    Assignee: JTEKT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Naoki Shoji, Tomohiro Nakade, Robert Fuchs
  • Patent number: 11685430
    Abstract: A motor controlling ECU 202 includes an automatic steering controller 42 that sets an automatic steering control amount, an assist controller 41 that sets an assist control amount, an integrated control amount calculating portion 43 that calculates an integrated control amount by adding the automatic steering control amount and the assist control amount, and an actual automatic steering angle calculating portion 46 that calculates, based on at least one of either of a steering torque and the assist control amount, an actual automatic steering angle that is a steering angle due to automatic steering control and included in an actual steering angle. The automatic steering controller 42 uses a target automatic steering angle and the actual automatic steering angle to set the automatic steering control amount.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 25, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 27, 2023
    Assignee: JTEKT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Mitsuko Yoshida, Naoki Shoji, Robert Fuchs
  • Publication number: 20230175844
    Abstract: An inclination sensor that can accurately detect an inclination angle with respect to a horizontal direction while suppressing drift in output values from an acceleration sensor and a data acquisition device including the inclination sensor are described. The inclination sensor includes a gimbal mechanism that is rotatably supported around a first shaft and a second shaft, a first motor that rotates the first shaft, a second motor that rotates the second shaft, a first encoder that detects a rotation angle of the first shaft, a second encoder that detects a rotation angle of the second shaft, an acceleration sensor that is disposed in the gimbal mechanism, and a control unit that arithmetically determines the inclination angle with respect to the horizontal direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 30, 2021
    Publication date: June 8, 2023
    Applicant: TOPCON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Naoki SHOJI, Fumio OTOMO
  • Publication number: 20230015894
    Abstract: The light wave distance meter is disclosed, including: a distance measuring light-emitting unit; a light-receiving signal generating unit; and a control arithmetic unit. A light-receiving signal includes a first intermittent light-receiving signal corresponding to a first distance measuring light, a second intermittent light-receiving signal corresponding to a second distance measuring light, a third intermittent light-receiving signal corresponding to a third distance measuring light, and a fourth intermittent light-receiving signal corresponding to a fourth distance measuring light. The control arithmetic unit executes an error determination control to acquire a shift signal generated by shifting at least a phase of any one of the first to fourth intermittent light-receiving signals by 2?·n??/2 or 2?·n+?/2, and compares the phase of the shift signal and the phase of the intermittent light-receiving signal at least between either the first frequencies or between the second frequencies.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 12, 2022
    Publication date: January 19, 2023
    Applicant: TOPCON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Masae MATSUMOTO, Naoki SHOJI, Jun ABE
  • Publication number: 20220317149
    Abstract: An inner frame is rotatably supported by the outer frame via a first shaft, the inertia detecting unit is rotatably supported by the inner frame via a second shaft orthogonal to the first shaft, a first encoder for detecting a rotation angle between the outer frame and the inner frame, a second encoder for detecting a rotation angle between the inner frame and the inertia detecting unit, and rotation powers are provided on the respective shafts. And the arithmetic processing module is configured to drive the respective rotation powers to make the inertia detecting unit to perform a reversal operation of 180° or one rotation at least once based on outputs from the respective encoders regarding the first shaft and the second shaft and to detect a tilt and a rotation based on detection signals output from the inertia detecting unit before and after the reversal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 25, 2022
    Publication date: October 6, 2022
    Inventors: Fumio Ohtomo, Satoshi Yanobe, Kaoru Kumagai, Naoki Shoji
  • Publication number: 20220307646
    Abstract: The inclination sensor includes a gimbal mechanism rotatably supported around a first shaft and a second shaft, a first motor, a second motor, an acceleration sensor disposed in the gimbal mechanism with an origin point of coordinate axes being coincident with a point of intersection of a shaft center of the first shaft and a shaft center of the second shaft, and a control unit that simultaneously rotates the first shaft and the second shaft to continuously rotate the acceleration sensor around the first shaft and the second shaft and applies frequency analysis to the output values from the acceleration sensor to arithmetically determine the inclination angle with respect to the horizontal direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 19, 2022
    Publication date: September 29, 2022
    Applicant: Topcon Corporation
    Inventors: Fumitoshi KASAHARA, Fumio OHTOMO, Naoki SHOJI, Masae MATSUMOTO, Jun ABE
  • Patent number: 11383759
    Abstract: A manual steering command value generation unit generates a manual steering command value, using a steering torque. A summed angle command value calculation unit calculates a summed angle command value, by adding the manual steering command value to an automatic steering command value. A control unit performs angle control of an electric motor, based on the summed angle command value. The control unit includes a basic torque command value calculation unit that calculates a basic torque command value, a disturbance torque estimation unit that estimates a disturbance torque other than a motor torque of the electric motor applied to an object driven by the electric motor, and a disturbance torque compensation unit that corrects the basic torque command value, based on the disturbance torque. The manual steering command value generation unit uses an estimated torque calculated based on the disturbance torque, when generating the manual steering command value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2022
    Assignee: JTEKT CORPORATION
    Inventor: Naoki Shoji
  • Patent number: 11383760
    Abstract: A steering system includes: a steering member; a steering operation mechanism; a reaction force motor; a steering motor; a steering torque sensor; a command value setting circuit; a reaction force command value calculation circuit configured to calculate a reaction force command value; a steering operation command value calculation circuit configured to calculate a steering operation command value based on a steering operation steering angle command value and a manual steering angle command value; a reaction force control circuit configured to cause a rotation angle of the reaction force motor to follow the reaction force command value; and a steered angle control circuit configured to cause a rotation angle of the steering motor to follow the steering operation command value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 10, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2022
    Assignee: JTEKT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tomohiro Nakade, Yuta Sakai, Robert Fuchs, Naoki Shoji
  • Patent number: 11353586
    Abstract: A light wave distance meter according to the present invention includes: a light-emitting element that emits a distance measurement light; a light-receiving element that outputs a light-receiving signal; a frequency conversion unit that includes a bandpass filter; an arithmetic control unit that computes a distance value to a measurement object; a signal generator that generates a signal having a predetermined frequency; a waveform conversion unit that generates a waveform conversion signal; pulse generators that generate pulse signals by pulsating the signal having a predetermined frequency so as to have a waveform profile of a signal constituted of desired frequency components on the basis of the signal output from the signal generator and the waveform conversion signal output from the waveform conversion unit; and a drive unit that emits the distance measurement light based on the pulse signals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 25, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2022
    Assignee: Topcon Corporation
    Inventor: Naoki Shoji
  • Patent number: 11299197
    Abstract: A steering system includes an electric motor, a detector, and a controller of a vehicle. The controller is configured to control the electric motor by switching an autonomous steering mode, a manual steering mode, and a cooperative steering mode. The controller is configured to control the electric motor in the cooperative steering mode unconditionally or when a predetermined condition is satisfied in a case where a situation to switch a steering mode to the manual steering mode during control in the autonomous steering mode is predicted and a manual steering request is transmitted at a time point that is prior, by a first predetermined time, to occurrence of the situation, or is transmitted when the vehicle arrives at a point that is located a first predetermined distance before a point where the situation is to occur.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2022
    Assignee: JTEKT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Naoki Shoji, Robert Fuchs, Mitsuko Yoshida
  • Patent number: 11267506
    Abstract: An electric power steering system includes a second shaft coupled to a first shaft via a torsion bar, a basic driver torque estimation unit (extended state observer) configured to estimate a basic driver torque by using a disturbance observer based on a torsion bar torque and a rotation angle of the second shaft, a gravity torque calculation unit configured to calculate, by using a rotation angle of a steering wheel, a gravity torque applied to the first shaft by gravity acting on the center of gravity of the steering wheel, and a driver torque estimation unit configured to estimate a driver torque by using the basic driver torque estimated by the basic driver torque estimation unit and the gravity torque calculated by the gravity torque calculation unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 11, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2022
    Assignee: JTEKT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Maxime Moreillon, Tsutomu Tamura, Robert Fuchs, Naoki Shoji
  • Patent number: 11269074
    Abstract: An electro-optical distance measurement method includes: a light emitting step of switchably outputting a first distance measuring light and a second distance measuring light; a photodetection step of receiving a first reflected distance measuring light and a second reflected distance measuring light; an arithmetic step of frequency-converting a photodetection signal to generate a first difference frequency signal and a second difference frequency signal; and a determining step of determining whether identification information indicating a host device is included in the photodetection signal, wherein the light emitting step involves driving a light emitting element so that the identification information is included in a light emission signal, and the arithmetic step involves calculating the distance value when it is determined in the determining step that the identification information is included in the photodetection signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2022
    Assignee: TOPCON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Naoki Shoji, Masae Matsumoto
  • Publication number: 20220063713
    Abstract: A steering system includes a control unit. The control unit includes a manual steering angle command value setting unit, a first weighting unit, a reaction combined angle command value calculating unit, a turning combined angle command value calculating unit, a reaction force control unit configured to cause a rotation angle of a reaction motor to conform to a reaction combined angle command value, and a turning angle control unit configured to cause a rotation angle of a turning motor to conform to a turning combined angle command value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 26, 2021
    Publication date: March 3, 2022
    Applicant: JTEKT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Naoki SHOJI, Tomohiro NAKADE, Robert FUCHS
  • Publication number: 20220017143
    Abstract: A steering device includes a steering member, a steering operation mechanism, a reactive force motor, a steering motor that drives the steering operation mechanism, a steering torque sensor, and an electronic control unit. The electronic control unit sets a manual steering angle command value. The electronic control unit computes a reactive-force-related composite angle command value. The electronic control unit computes a steering-related composite angle command value based on a steering-related automatic steering angle command value and the manual steering angle command value. The electronic control unit causes a rotational angle of the reactive force motor to follow the reactive-force-related composite angle command value. The electronic control unit causes a rotational angle of the steering motor to follow the steering-related composite angle command value. The electronic control unit estimates a first disturbance torque.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 9, 2021
    Publication date: January 20, 2022
    Applicant: JTEKT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Naoki SHOJI, Tomohiro NAKADE, Robert FUCHS
  • Patent number: 11180187
    Abstract: A manual steering command value generation unit generates a manual steering command value using steering torque. An integrated angle command value computation unit computes an integrated angle command value by adding the manual steering command value to an automatic steering command value. A control unit performs angle control on an electric motor on the basis of the integrated angle command value. The control unit includes: a basic torque command value computation unit that computes a basic torque command value on the basis of the integrated angle command value; a disturbance torque estimation unit that estimates disturbance torque other than motor torque that is generated by the electric motor and acts on an object to be driven by the electric motor; and a disturbance torque compensation unit that corrects the basic torque command value in accordance with the disturbance torque.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 23, 2021
    Assignee: JTEKT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Naoki Shoji, Robert Fuchs, Tsutomu Tamura, Mitsuko Yoshida
  • Patent number: 11105903
    Abstract: An electronic distance meter comprises a distance measuring light projecting module, a photodetector, a photodetection circuit, and a control arithmetic module, wherein the distance measuring light projecting module has a light emitter, the light emitter emits a distance measuring light, the photodetector receives a reflected distance measuring light from an object to be measured and produces photodetection signals, the photodetection circuit generates an intermediate frequency signal based on the photodetection signals, and the control arithmetic module controls the photodetection circuit and calculates a distance to the object to be measured based on each of the photodetection signals, and wherein the control arithmetic module coincides a frequency orthogonal to a frequency which a sampling signal has with a frequency of a feedback signal on a curve, which is acquired by performing a DFT processing on the sampling signal acquired by sampling the intermediate frequency signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 31, 2021
    Assignee: TOPCON Corporation
    Inventors: Naoki Shoji, Masae Matsumoto
  • Patent number: 11105926
    Abstract: A phase difference frequency generating method comprising: cutting out a reference signal, which is a continuous signal with a predetermined frequency, in a predetermined time and at a predetermined time interval by a signal for intermitting and creating a first intermittent signal, shifting the signal for intermitting by a time corresponding to ?/a (a=natural number) of a fundamental frequency of the reference signal, cutting out the reference signal in the predetermined time and at the predetermined time interval by the signal for intermitting as shifted and creating a second intermittent signal, and carrying out a restoration processing for restoring the second intermittent signal by a time as shifted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 31, 2021
    Assignee: TOPCON Corporation
    Inventors: Masaho Kikuchi, Naoki Shoji, Masae Matsumoto