Patents by Inventor Naotsugu Shimizu

Naotsugu Shimizu 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: 20200031341
    Abstract: An other lane monitoring device of the present disclosure includes an other vehicle acquisition section, a path acquisition section, a lane estimation section, and a position estimation section. The other vehicle acquisition section is configured to acquire other vehicle position information that indicates the current position of an other vehicle near the own vehicle. The path acquisition section is configured to acquire an own vehicle travel path that indicates a path along which the own vehicle has traveled. The lane estimation section is configured to use the own vehicle travel path as a basis for estimating an other lane area that is a lane where the other lane is present, the other lane being different from an own lane where the own vehicle is present. The position estimation section is configured to estimate a future position of the other vehicle indicated by the other vehicle position information, assuming that the other vehicle moves along the own vehicle travel path or in the other lane area.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 27, 2017
    Publication date: January 30, 2020
    Inventors: Takayuki KITAMURA, Naotsugu SHIMIZU, Koichiro SUZUKI
  • Publication number: 20190375418
    Abstract: An odometry acquiring unit acquires odometry information including a yaw rate applied to a vehicle and a steering angle of the vehicle. An estimate calculating unit calculates an estimate of a turning radius based on the steering angle and the yaw rate acquired by the odometry acquiring unit. A change rate calculating unit calculates a yaw change rate representing a degree of change in the yaw rate acquired by the odometry acquiring unit. A contribution adjusting unit makes an adjustment of decreasing a contribution of the yaw rate and increasing a contribution of the steering angle, to calculation of an estimate performed by the estimate calculating unit, as the yaw change rate increases.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 17, 2017
    Publication date: December 12, 2019
    Inventor: Naotsugu SHIMIZU
  • Patent number: 10490081
    Abstract: In an apparatus for monitoring an adjacent lane to a lane in which an own vehicle that is a vehicle carrying the apparatus is traveling, a travel trajectory calculation unit calculates a travel trajectory of the own vehicle based on odometry information of the own vehicle. An adjacent lane estimation unit estimates an adjacent-lane region based on the travel trajectory of the own vehicle. An other-vehicle determination unit determines whether or not a target (the other vehicle) is present in the adjacent lane based on a position of the target detected by an other-vehicle detector and the estimated adjacent-lane region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Naotsugu Shimizu, Koichiro Suzuki
  • Publication number: 20190346534
    Abstract: A prevention section generates a prevention signal by performing an interference removal process of preventing an influence of radio wave interference with respect to a non-prevention signal acquired by an acquisition section from a radar sensor for each processing cycle. An analysis section performs a frequency analysis process by using the prevention signal when an operation mode is an interference mode and by using the non-prevention signal when the operation mode is a normal mode. A determination section determines, based on an analysis result obtained by the analysis section, whether radio wave interference is present. When the operation mode is the normal mode and the interference is determined to be present, a switching section switches the operation mode to the interference mode, maintains the interference mode during a certain number of processing cycles, and then switches the operation mode to the normal mode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 29, 2019
    Publication date: November 14, 2019
    Inventor: Naotsugu SHIMIZU
  • Publication number: 20180118202
    Abstract: A vehicle control apparatus acquires a relative position of an object to an own vehicle, the object being located ahead of the own vehicle in a traveling direction. The vehicle control apparatus acquires yaw rate information including at least one value of a yaw rate and a yaw rate differential value of the own vehicle. The vehicle control apparatus acquires steering information including at least one value of a steering angle and a steering angle speed of the own vehicle. The vehicle control apparatus activates, on a basis of the relative position, a safety unit for avoiding a collision with the object. In the case where an absolute value of the yaw rate information is greater than a first threshold and an absolute value of the steering information is greater than a second threshold, the vehicle control apparatus causes the safety unit to be less likely to be activated.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 29, 2016
    Publication date: May 3, 2018
    Inventors: Naotsugu Shimizu, Toru Takahashi, Jun Tsuchida, Masayuki Shimizu
  • Publication number: 20170345312
    Abstract: In an apparatus for monitoring an adjacent lane to a lane in which an own vehicle that is a vehicle carrying the apparatus is traveling, a travel trajectory calculation unit calculates a travel trajectory of the own vehicle based on odometry information of the own vehicle. An adjacent lane estimation unit estimates an adjacent-lane region based on the travel trajectory of the own vehicle. An other-vehicle determination unit determines whether or not a target (the other vehicle) is present in the adjacent lane based on a position of the target detected by an other-vehicle detector and the estimated adjacent-lane region.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 29, 2015
    Publication date: November 30, 2017
    Inventors: Naotsugu Shimizu, Koichiro Suzuki