Patents by Inventor On Sadano

On Sadano 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: 7444224
    Abstract: A lane departure prevention apparatus is configured to conduct a course correction in a lane departure avoidance direction when the controller determines that there is a potential for a vehicle to depart from a driving lane. The lane departure prevention apparatus has a driving road detecting section and a lane departure avoidance control section. The driving road detecting section is configured to determine at least one of a road slope direction and a road curvature direction of a driving road upon which a host vehicle is traveling. The lane departure avoidance control section is configured to start lane departure avoidance control based on a driving direction of the host vehicle and at least one of a road slope direction and a road curvature direction detected by the driving road detecting section.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 8, 2004
    Date of Patent: October 28, 2008
    Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: On Sadano, Masahiro Ozaki, Yoshitaka Uemura
  • Patent number: 7424357
    Abstract: A lane departure prevention apparatus is configured for reducing risk of a vehicle while preventing lane departure. The lane departure prevention apparatus basically comprises a lane departure tendency determining section, a running condition determining section and a braking force control section. The lane departure tendency determining section determines a lane departure tendency of the host vehicle from a driving lane. The running condition determining section determines a running condition of the host vehicle. The braking force control section controls a braking force to selectively produce at least one of a yaw moment on the host vehicle in accordance with the lane departure tendency of the host vehicle to avoid departure of the host vehicle from the driving lane, and a deceleration on the host vehicle in accordance with the running condition of the host vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2004
    Date of Patent: September 9, 2008
    Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Masahiro Ozaki, On Sadano, Takashi Sugano, Yoshitaka Uemura
  • Publication number: 20080172153
    Abstract: A lane departure prevention apparatus is configured for improving safety of a vehicle while preventing lane departure. The lane departure prevention apparatus basically comprises a lane departure tendency determining section, a running condition determining section and a braking force control section. The lane departure tendency determining section determines a lane departure tendency of the host vehicle from a driving lane. The running condition determining section determines a running condition of the host vehicle. The braking force control section controls a braking force to selectively produce at least one of a yaw moment on the host vehicle in accordance with the lane departure tendency of the host vehicle to avoid departure of the host vehicle from the driving lane, and a deceleration on the host vehicle in accordance with the running condition of the host vehicle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 6, 2004
    Publication date: July 17, 2008
    Applicant: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Masahiro Ozaki, On Sadano, Takashi Sugano, Yoshitaka Uemura
  • Patent number: 7212901
    Abstract: A lane departure prevention apparatus is configured to conduct a course correction in a lane departure avoidance direction when the controller 8 determines that there is a potential for a vehicle to depart from a driving lane. The controller 8 combines yaw control and deceleration control to conduct departure prevention control to avoid lane departure. The yaw control is not actuated if the opposite direction from the steering direction coincides with the lane departure direction (steps S10 and S11). Preferably, the controller 8 sets the timing of yaw moment and the deceleration of the vehicle on the basis of the acceleration or deceleration of the vehicle, and performs braking control so that these settings are achieved (steps S7 to S9). Preferably, the controller 8 calculates the target yaw moment in the lane departure-avoidance direction on the basis of the running state of the vehicle, and calculates the deceleration amount by taking into account the driver braking operation amount.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 8, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2007
    Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: On Sadano, Yoshitaka Uemura, Masahiro Ozaki
  • Publication number: 20050107939
    Abstract: A lane departure prevention apparatus is configured to conduct a course correction in a lane departure avoidance direction when the controller determines that there is a potential for a vehicle to depart from a driving lane. The lane departure prevention apparatus has a driving road detecting section and a lane departure avoidance control section. The driving road detecting section is configured to determine at least one of a road slope direction and a road curvature direction of a driving road upon which a host vehicle is traveling. The lane departure avoidance control section is configured to start lane departure avoidance control based on a driving direction of the host vehicle and at least one of a road slope direction and a road curvature direction detected by the driving road detecting section.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 8, 2004
    Publication date: May 19, 2005
    Applicant: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: On Sadano, Masahiro Ozaki, Yoshitaka Uemura
  • Publication number: 20050096827
    Abstract: A lane departure prevention apparatus is configured to conduct a course correction in a lane departure avoidance direction when the controller 8 determines that there is a potential for a vehicle to depart from a driving lane. The controller 8 combines yaw control and deceleration control to conduct departure prevention control to avoid lane departure. The yaw control is not actuated if the opposite direction from the steering direction coincides with the lane departure direction (steps S10 and S11). Preferably, the controller 8 sets the timing of yaw moment and the deceleration of the vehicle on the basis of the acceleration or deceleration of the vehicle, and performs braking control so that these settings are achieved (steps S7 to S9). Preferably, the controller 8 calculates the target yaw moment in the lane departure-avoidance direction on the basis of the running state of the vehicle, and calculates the deceleration amount by taking into account the driver braking operation amount.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 8, 2004
    Publication date: May 5, 2005
    Applicant: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: On Sadano, Yoshitaka Uemura, Masahiro Ozaki
  • Patent number: 6853884
    Abstract: A lane-keep control system for a host-vehicle is arranged to execute a lane-keep control for moving the host-vehicle in a traveling lane, to determine whether there is an approaching-vehicle behind the host-vehicle, to increase an intervention threshold when there is the approaching vehicle behind the host-vehicle, and to suspend the lane-keep control when a steering control indicative value due to driver intervention is greater than the intervention threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2002
    Date of Patent: February 8, 2005
    Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: On Sadano
  • Patent number: 6778890
    Abstract: A method for lane-keeping control of a lane-keeping support system provides a current command indicative of steering torque assist needed to steer a vehicle in following a target line between lane markings on a roadway during driving in lane-keeping control (LKC) mode. A map has two sets of limit data against a range of values of lateral acceleration to which the vehicle is subject, between which sets of limit data there is a range of values of the command during various phases of steering the vehicle to turn in the LKC mode. In order to compensate for undesired effect caused by any deviation of the range of values of the current command due to the presence of continuous disturbance, the two sets of limit data are corrected. To determine driver steering intervention, the instantaneous value of the current command is compared to two limit values established out of the corrected two sets of limit data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2002
    Date of Patent: August 17, 2004
    Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Masayasu Shimakage, Hiroshi Kawazoe, On Sadano, Shigeki Satou
  • Patent number: 6580987
    Abstract: A driver assistance system (10) assists the driver in controlling the direction of a moving vehicle along a contrived centerline between lane markings by regulating a steering bias applied to a steering system of the vehicle. An electric motor (22) coupled to the steering mechanism provides a torque input to the steering in response to an estimate of electric current provided by an observer. The observer has a friction term matrix element (a55), which is correlated with friction in the steering mechanism. A controller (24) is provided, which establishes a desired or ideal frequency function of lateral displacement data (102), samples lateral displacement to provide a real frequency function of lateral displacement data (104), compares the real frequency function with the ideal frequency function (106), and updates or leaves unaltered the friction term (a55) based on the result of comparison.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 25, 2001
    Date of Patent: June 17, 2003
    Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: On Sadano, Hiroshi Kawazoe, Masayasu Shimakage
  • Publication number: 20030078712
    Abstract: A method for lane-keeping control of a lane-keeping support system provides a current command indicative of steering torque assist needed to steer a vehicle in following a target line between lane markings on a roadway during driving in lane-keeping control (LKC) mode. A map has two sets of limit data against a range of values of lateral acceleration to which the vehicle is subject, between which sets of limit data there is a range of values of the command during various phases of steering the vehicle to turn in the LKC mode. In order to compensate for undesired effect caused by any deviation of the range of values of the current command due to the presence of continuous disturbance, the two sets of limit data are corrected. To determine driver steering intervention, the instantaneous value of the current command is compared to two limit values established out of the corrected two sets of limit data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 13, 2002
    Publication date: April 24, 2003
    Inventors: Masayasu Shimakage, Hiroshi Kawazoe, On Sadano, Shigeki Satou
  • Patent number: 6542800
    Abstract: In accordance with a vehicle running condition along a lane and an actual steering angle, a control unit determine a target steering angle to follow the lane, and controls an actual steering torque with an actuator to a target steering torque to achieve the target steering angle. The control unit limits the target steering torque by setting a target torque limit determined in dependence on whether the control steering direction is a steer direction away from a straight ahead neutral position or a return direction toward the straight ahead neutral position, to take account of a self aligning torque.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 8, 2001
    Date of Patent: April 1, 2003
    Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Kawazoe, On Sadano, Masayasu Shimakage
  • Publication number: 20030014162
    Abstract: A lane-keep control system for a host-vehicle is arranged to execute a lane-keep control for moving the host-vehicle in a traveling lane, to determine whether there is an approaching-vehicle behind the host-vehicle, to increase an intervention threshold when there is the approaching vehicle behind the host-vehicle, and to suspend the lane-keep control when a steering control indicative value due to driver intervention is greater than the intervention threshold.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 19, 2002
    Publication date: January 16, 2003
    Applicant: NISSAN MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventor: On Sadano
  • Patent number: 6493619
    Abstract: In lane keeping assistance system and method for an automotive vehicle, a control current (Iout) to be outputted to a motor during an automatic steering mode is detected, a filter is provided for the detected control current to pass only signal components of the detected control current whose frequencies are lower than a predetermined cut-off frequency value (fstr, fstr_low, fstr_mid, fstr_hi) to derive a filtered control current (Iout_lpf), a determination of whether a manual steering intervention to the automatic steering occurs is made according to a magnitude of the filtered control current, and the control current outputted to the motor is reduced toward zero when the manual steering intervention is determined to occur according to a result of determination that the magnitude of the filtered control current (Iout_lpf) is in excess of a predetermined threshold current value (Iout_lpf_th).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 16, 2001
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2002
    Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Kawazoe, Masayasu Shimakage, On Sadano, Shigeki Sato
  • Patent number: 6489887
    Abstract: A system for assisting a lane-keep traveling of a vehicle is comprised of a camera for detecting a view ahead of the vehicle, a vehicle behavior detector including a vehicle speed sensor and a yaw rate sensor, and a controller. The controller is arranged to estimate a road shape on the basis of lane markers detected by the camera, to detect a target yaw rate necessary to return the vehicle at a center of the lane markers, and to determine that there is a possibility that the vehicle deviates from the lane when a difference between the target yaw rate and an actual yaw rate detected by the yaw rate sensor becomes greater than a threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 6, 2001
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2002
    Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shigeki Satoh, Hiroshi Mouri, Masayasu Shimakage, Hiroshi Kawazoe, On Sadano
  • Publication number: 20020169531
    Abstract: In lane keeping assistance system and method for an automotive vehicle, a control current (Iout) to be outputted to a motor during an automatic steering mode is detected, a filter is provided for the detected control current to pass only signal components of the detected control current whose frequencies are lower than a predetermined cut-off frequency value (fstr, fstr_low, fstr_mid, fstr_hi) to derive a filtered control current (Iout_lpf), a determination of whether a manual steering intervention to the automatic steering occurs is made according to a magnitude of the filtered control current, and the control current outputted to the motor is reduced toward zero when the manual steering intervention is determined to occur according to a result of determination that the magnitude of the filtered control current (Iout_lpf) is in excess of a predetermined threshold current value (Iout_lpf_th).
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 16, 2001
    Publication date: November 14, 2002
    Applicant: NISSAN MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Kawazoe, Masayasu Shimakage, On Sadano, Shigeki Sato
  • Patent number: 6463369
    Abstract: In accordance with a vehicle running condition along a lane and an actual steering angle, a control unit determine a target steering angle to follow the lane, and controls an actual steering torque with an actuator to a target steering torque to achieve the target steering angle. The control unit limits the target steering torque by setting a target torque limit determined in accordance with a sensed longitudinal acceleration of the vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2001
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2002
    Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: On Sadano, Hiroshi Kawazoe, Masayasu Shimakage
  • Publication number: 20020041229
    Abstract: A system for assisting a lane-keep traveling of a vehicle is comprised of a camera for detecting a view ahead of the vehicle, a vehicle behavior detector including a vehicle speed sensor and a yaw rate sensor, and a controller. The controller is arranged to estimate a road shape on the basis of lane markers detected by the camera, to detect a target yaw rate necessary to return the vehicle at a center of the lane markers, and to determine that there is a possibility that the vehicle deviates from the lane when a difference between the target yaw rate and an actual yaw rate detected by the yaw rate sensor becomes greater than a threshold.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 6, 2001
    Publication date: April 11, 2002
    Applicant: NISSAN MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Shigeki Satoh, Hiroshi Mouri, Masayasu Shimakage, Hiroshi Kawazoe, On Sadano
  • Publication number: 20020040265
    Abstract: A driver assistance system (10) assists the driver in controlling the direction of a moving vehicle along a contrived centerline between lane markings by regulating a steering bias applied to a steering system of the vehicle. An electric motor (22) coupled to the steering mechanism provides a torque input to the steering in response to an estimate of electric current provided by an observer. The observer has a friction term matrix element (a55), which is correlated with friction in the steering mechanism. A controller (24) is provided, which establishes a desired or ideal frequency function of lateral displacement data (102), samples lateral displacement to provide a real frequency function of lateral displacement data (104), compares the real frequency function with the ideal frequency function (106), and updates or leaves unaltered the friction term (a55) based on the result of comparison.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 25, 2001
    Publication date: April 4, 2002
    Applicant: NISSAN MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: On Sadano, Hiroshi Kawazoe, Masayasu Shimakage
  • Publication number: 20020013647
    Abstract: In accordance with a vehicle running condition along a lane and an actual steering angle, a control unit determine a target steering angle to follow the lane, and controls an actual steering torque with an actuator to a target steering torque to achieve the target steering angle. The control unit limits the target steering torque by setting a target torque limit determined in dependence on whether the control steering direction is a steer direction away from a straight ahead neutral position or a return direction toward the straight ahead neutral position, to take account of a self aligning torque.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 8, 2001
    Publication date: January 31, 2002
    Applicant: NISSAN MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Kawazoe, On Sadano, Masayasu Shimakage
  • Publication number: 20020007236
    Abstract: In accordance with a vehicle running condition along a lane and an actual steering angle, a control unit determine a target steering angle to follow the lane, and controls an actual steering torque with an actuator to a target steering torque to achieve the target steering angle. The control unit limits the target steering torque by setting a target torque limit determined in accordance with a sensed longitudinal acceleration of the vehicle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 7, 2001
    Publication date: January 17, 2002
    Applicant: NISSAN MOTOR CO., LTD
    Inventors: On Sadano, Hiroshi Kawazoe, Masayasu Shimakage