Patents by Inventor Toru Kidokoro

Toru Kidokoro 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: 11922432
    Abstract: An information collection server obtains relevant information relating to legislation, regulations, or standards (vehicle emissions control) from an external server group and a local server and provides the obtained relevant information to an information processing server. When the information processing server receives the relevant information from the information collection server, it performs conversion processing on each piece of information included in the relevant information in accordance with each piece of information to convert each piece of information into an index relating to a degree of influence on revision of the emissions control. The information processing server provides each resultant index to a prediction creation server. When the prediction creation server receives each resultant index from the information processing server, it predicts a stage of revision of the emissions control based on each index.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2024
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Taiga Yamada, Toru Kidokoro, Takao Iura, Takashi Shibata
  • Publication number: 20220292523
    Abstract: An information collection server obtains relevant information relating to legislation, regulations, or standards (vehicle emissions control) from an external server group and a local server and provides the obtained relevant information to an information processing server. When the information processing server receives the relevant information from the information collection server, it performs conversion processing on each piece of information included in the relevant information in accordance with each piece of information to convert each piece of information into an index relating to a degree of influence on revision of the emissions control. The information processing server provides each resultant index to a prediction creation server. When the prediction creation server receives each resultant index from the information processing server, it predicts a stage of revision of the emissions control based on each index.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 11, 2022
    Publication date: September 15, 2022
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Taiga YAMADA, Toru KIDOKORO, Takao IURA, Takashi SHIBATA
  • Patent number: 10920704
    Abstract: An abnormality diagnosis system of an air-fuel ratio sensor acquires a blowby gas flow ratio showing a ratio of the flow of blowby gas to the flow of gas to a combustion chamber and an output current of an air-fuel ratio sensor during fuel cut control in which an internal combustion engine stops the feed of fuel to the combustion chamber and at a plurality of points of time of different flows of blowby gas passing through a blowby gas passage and flowing to the downstream side of a throttle valve in the intake passage, calculate an output current of the air-fuel ratio sensor corresponding to a blowby gas flow ratio smaller than the blowby gas flow ratios acquired at the plurality of points of time, based on the acquired blowby gas flow ratio and output current, and judge the air-fuel ratio sensor for abnormality based on the calculated output current.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 9, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 16, 2021
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Hiroshi Miyamoto, Toru Kidokoro, Yasushi Iwazaki, Kenji Suzuki
  • Patent number: 10815853
    Abstract: When an abnormality diagnosis of an SCR catalyst is carried out, diagnostic supply control is carried out in such a manner that the first estimated adsorption amount, which is an amount of adsorption of ammonia in the SCR catalyst at the time when the SCR catalyst is assumed to be in a predetermined abnormal state, becomes equal to or more than a first predetermined adsorption amount, and the second estimated adsorption amount, which is an amount of adsorption of ammonia in the SCR catalyst at the time when the SCR catalyst is assumed to be in a predetermined normal state, becomes smaller than a second predetermined adsorption amount. Then, supply decreasing control to decrease an amount of adsorption of ammonia in the SCR catalyst is carried out, after the end of the execution of the diagnostic supply control.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 27, 2020
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Takeru Shirasawa, Toru Kidokoro, Makoto Ogiso, Kenji Furui
  • Patent number: 10753261
    Abstract: In the abnormality diagnosis device which carries out an abnormality diagnosis of the reducing agent adding device by obtaining a diagnostic parameter which is a parameter correlated with an amount of pressure drop in a reducing agent passage in the case where, from a state in which an addition valve has been closed and in which a voltage to be applied to a pump is controlled to a diagnostic voltage so that the pressure in the reducing agent passage becomes a predetermined pressure, the addition valve is made to open in a state where the voltage to be applied to the pump is maintained at the diagnostic voltage, and by making a comparison between the diagnostic parameter and a predetermined threshold value, the abnormality diagnosis is carried out by using the diagnostic parameter or the predetermined threshold value which is corrected based on the pump discharge capacity of the pump.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2020
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Toru Kidokoro, Makoto Ogiso, Takeru Shirasawa, Kenji Furui, Kazuya Takaoka
  • Patent number: 10746077
    Abstract: An exhaust gas sensor is diagnosed with high accuracy as much as possible while maintaining the function of an exhaust system of an internal combustion engine. In a diagnostic apparatus for an exhaust gas sensor which is applied to an internal combustion engine including an exhaust gas sensor, a fuel supplier, a controller configured to carry out predetermined fuel supply processing and predetermined oxygen concentration processing, and which diagnoses the exhaust gas sensor based on an output value thereof, provision is made for the controller that sets as a diagnostic output value a first output value, which is an output value at the side of the highest oxygen concentration in the output value of the exhaust gas sensor in a measurement period, and performs the diagnosis of the exhaust gas sensor based on the diagnostic output value, when predetermined fuel supply processing is carried out in the measurement period.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 18, 2020
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Koji Hagiwara, Yasushi Iwazaki, Toru Kidokoro, Hirotaka Saito
  • Patent number: 10711678
    Abstract: In the abnormality diagnosis device which carries out an abnormality diagnosis of the reducing agent adding device by obtaining a diagnostic parameter which is a parameter correlated with an amount of pressure drop in a reducing agent passage in the case where, from a state in which an addition valve has been closed and in which a voltage to be applied to a pump is controlled to a diagnostic voltage so that the pressure in the reducing agent passage becomes a predetermined pressure, the addition valve is made to open in a state where the voltage to be applied to the pump is maintained at the diagnostic voltage, and by making a comparison between the diagnostic parameter and a predetermined threshold value, the abnormality diagnosis is carried out by using the diagnostic parameter or the predetermined threshold value which is corrected based on the pump discharge capacity of the pump.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 14, 2020
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Toru Kidokoro, Makoto Ogiso, Takeru Shirasawa, Kenji Furui, Kazuya Takaoka
  • Patent number: 10619547
    Abstract: An object is to prevent a wrong diagnosis from being made in diagnosis of an NOx sensor provided downstream of an SCR catalyst. A diagnosis apparatus is applied to an NOx sensor provided in an exhaust system including an SCR catalyst, a reducing agent supply device, an NOx sensor, an exhaust gas purification device provided upstream of the SCR catalyst, and a controller configured to raise the temperature of the exhaust gas purification device and control supply of reducing agent so as to adjust the ammonia adsorption amount to a specific amount. The controller is further configured to perform diagnosis of the NOx sensor on the basis of the concentration of ammonia slipping out of the SCR catalyst and disallow diagnosis of the NOx sensor since the ammonia adsorption amount is adjusted to the specific amount until a specific time elapses.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 9, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 14, 2020
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Masahiko Masubuchi, Toru Kidokoro, Yasushi Iwazaki, Koji Hagiwara, Hiroshi Miyamoto
  • Patent number: 10519840
    Abstract: An object of the disclosure is to provide a technology that enables abnormality diagnosis of an NOx trap catalyst to make the diagnosis that the NOx trap catalyst is abnormal even if the degree of deterioration of the NOx trap catalyst is relatively small yet. When performing abnormality diagnosis of an NOx trap catalyst, a system according to the disclosure performs a lean temperature raising process, which is the process of raising the temperature of the NOx trap catalyst to or above a predetermined temperature while keeping the air-fuel ratio of the exhaust gas flowing into the NOx trap catalyst at a lean air-fuel ratio. The system diagnoses abnormality of the NOx trap catalyst on the basis of the NOx storage efficiency of the NOx trap catalyst or a parameter correlating with that NOx storage efficiency after the completion of the lean temperature raise process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 18, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2019
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Kazuya Takaoka, Toru Kidokoro
  • Patent number: 10480383
    Abstract: There is provided a technology pertaining to abnormality diagnosis of an NSR catalyst that enables the diagnosis that the NSR catalyst is abnormal to be made even when the degree of deterioration of the NSR catalyst is relatively small yet. An abnormality diagnosis apparatus is applied to an exhaust gas purification apparatus having an NSR catalyst and a fuel addition valve. The abnormality diagnosis apparatus includes a controller configured to perform a specific fuel addition process and diagnose the NSR catalyst. The controller starts the specific fuel addition process when the NSR catalyst is in a specific start condition, and diagnoses the NSR catalyst on the basis of the quantity of NOx flowing out of the NSR catalyst over a specific period in the period from when the specific fuel addition process is started to when the temperature of the NSR catalyst reaches the thermal desorption temperature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2019
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hirokazu Nishijima, Toru Kidokoro, Kazuya Takaoka
  • Patent number: 10458306
    Abstract: An object is to prevent a wrong diagnosis from being made in an abnormality diagnosis apparatus for an exhaust gas purification system including a filter and a PM sensor. After sensor regeneration is performed, the application of voltage to the PM sensor is started, and thereafter abnormality diagnosis of the PM sensor is performed based on whether or not a signal is output from the PM sensor. Abnormality diagnosis of the filter is performed based on whether or not the output value of the PM sensor reaches a predetermined abnormality criterion value. If the output value of the PM sensor reaches the predetermined abnormality criterion value before a predetermined diagnosis completion time after the abnormality diagnosis of the PM sensor, the filter is diagnosed as abnormal, and the application of voltage to the PM sensor is stopped at that time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2019
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Kazuya Takaoka, Toru Kidokoro
  • Publication number: 20190275465
    Abstract: An abnormality diagnosis system for an exhaust gas purification device performs abnormality diagnosis of an SCR catalyst on the basis of the concentration of ammonia in exhaust gas in the region downstream of the SCR catalyst. The system includes a controller configured to estimate the amount of ammonia adsorbed in the SCR catalyst in an abnormal condition (ammonia adsorption amount in abnormal condition) and the amount of ammonia adsorbed in the SCR catalyst in a normal condition (ammonia adsorption amount in normal condition). When performing abnormality diagnosis of the SCR catalyst, the controller supplies reducing agent so as to make the ammonia adsorption amount in abnormal condition larger than a first predetermined adsorption amount equal to or larger than a slip start adsorption amount in abnormal condition and to make the ammonia adsorption amount in normal condition smaller than a second predetermined adsorption amount equal to or smaller than a slip start adsorption amount in normal condition.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 24, 2017
    Publication date: September 12, 2019
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Takeru SHIRASAWA, Toru KIDOKORO, Makoto OGISO, Kenji FURUI, Kenta HIROOKA
  • Patent number: 10385752
    Abstract: An amount of reducing agent adsorbed on a NOx catalyst when a reducing agent supply device is normal and a corresponding detected value may be estimated. The corresponding detected value may be detected by a NOx sensor, and the detected value may correspond to an amount of reducing agent adsorbed on the NOx catalyst. When the estimated amount of adsorption is larger than or equal to a first amount and is smaller than or equal to a second amount, a diagnosis of the NOx catalyst based on the detected value of the NOx sensor may be prevented. The first amount may be an amount of adsorbed reducing agent corresponding to a minimum value of the corresponding detected value. The second amount may be an amount of adsorbed reducing agent corresponding to the corresponding detected value when the amount of adsorbed reducing agent is zero and larger than the first amount.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 10, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 20, 2019
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Arifumi Matsumoto, Taiga Hagimoto, Kenji Furui, Makoto Ogiso, Toru Kidokoro
  • Patent number: 10365183
    Abstract: The abnormality diagnosis system of an air-fuel ratio sensor comprising an exhaust purification catalyst, an upstream side air-fuel ratio sensor provided at an upstream side of the exhaust purification catalyst, a downstream air-fuel ratio sensor provided at a downstream side of the exhaust purification catalyst, and a diagnosis device diagnosing the downstream air-fuel ratio sensor for abnormality based on outputs of these air-fuel ratio sensors. The diagnosis device judges that the downstream air-fuel ratio sensor suffers from an abnormality if the output air-fuel ratio of the upstream side air-fuel ratio sensor has become a rich air-fuel ratio richer than a stoichiometric air-fuel ratio, and the output air-fuel ratio of the downstream air-fuel ratio sensor air-fuel ratio has changed from an air-fuel ratio richer than a lean judged reference air-fuel ratio to an air-fuel ratio leaner than the lead judged reference air-fuel ratio.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 1, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 30, 2019
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Hiroshi Miyamoto, Yasushi Iwazaki, Keiichiro Aoki, Toru Kidokoro
  • Publication number: 20190195107
    Abstract: When an abnormality diagnosis of an SCR catalyst is carried out, diagnostic supply control is carried out in such a manner that the first estimated adsorption amount, which is an amount of adsorption of ammonia in the SCR catalyst at the time when the SCR catalyst is assumed to be in a predetermined abnormal state, becomes equal to or more than a first predetermined adsorption amount, and the second estimated adsorption amount, which is an amount of adsorption of ammonia in the SCR catalyst at the time when the SCR catalyst is assumed to be in a predetermined normal state, becomes smaller than a second predetermined adsorption amount. Then, supply decreasing control to decrease an amount of adsorption of ammonia in the SCR catalyst is carried out, after the end of the execution of the diagnostic supply control.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 20, 2018
    Publication date: June 27, 2019
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Takeru SHIRASAWA, Toru KIDOKORO, Makoto OGISO, Kenji FURUI
  • Publication number: 20190186327
    Abstract: In the abnormality diagnosis device which carries out an abnormality diagnosis of the reducing agent adding device by obtaining a diagnostic parameter which is a parameter correlated with an amount of pressure drop in a reducing agent passage in the case where, from a state in which an addition valve has been closed and in which a voltage to be applied to a pump is controlled to a diagnostic voltage so that the pressure in the reducing agent passage becomes a predetermined pressure, the addition valve is made to open in a state where the voltage to be applied to the pump is maintained at the diagnostic voltage, and by making a comparison between the diagnostic parameter and a predetermined threshold value, the abnormality diagnosis is carried out by using the diagnostic parameter or the predetermined threshold value which is corrected based on the pump discharge capacity of the pump.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 13, 2018
    Publication date: June 20, 2019
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Toru KIDOKORO, Makoto OGISO, Takeru SHIRASAWA, Kenji FURUI, Kazuya TAKAOKA
  • Patent number: 10323596
    Abstract: An oil dilution rate calculation system of an internal combustion engine acquires a blowby gas flow ratio showing the ratio of the flow of blowby gas to the flow of gas to the combustion chamber and an output current of the air-fuel ratio sensor during fuel cut control in which the internal combustion engine stops the feed of fuel to the combustion chamber and at a plurality of points of time of different flows of blowby gas passing through the blowby gas passage and flowing to the downstream side of the throttle valve in the intake passage, and calculate an oil dilution rate based on the acquired blowby gas flow ratio and output current.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 18, 2019
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hiroshi Miyamoto, Toru Kidokoro, Yasushi Iwazaki, Kenji Suzuki
  • Patent number: 10316779
    Abstract: An abnormality diagnosis system of an air-fuel ratio sensor is provided with an exhaust purification catalyst, an upstream side air-fuel ratio sensor which is provided at an upstream side of the exhaust purification catalyst, a downstream side air-fuel ratio sensor which is provided at a downstream side of the exhaust purification catalyst, and a diagnosis device which uses the outputs of these air-fuel ratio sensors as the basis to diagnose abnormality of the downstream side air-fuel ratio sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 11, 2019
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Hiroshi Miyamoto, Toru Kidokoro, Yasushi Iwazaki, Kenji Suzuki
  • Patent number: 10302002
    Abstract: The present invention provides a deterioration diagnosis apparatus for an exhaust gas purification apparatus, including a first sensor that measures the oxygen concentration of the exhaust gas flowing into the exhaust gas purification apparatus, a second sensor that measures the oxygen concentration of the exhaust gas flowing out of the exhaust gas purification apparatus, and diagnosing means for diagnosing deterioration of the exhaust gas purification apparatus on the basis of a difference that appears between a measurement value of the first sensor and a measurement value of the second sensor when the air-fuel ratio of the exhaust gas flowing into the exhaust pas purification apparatus is switched from a lean air-fuel ratio to a rich air-fuel ratio, wherein, when the air-fuel ratio of the exhaust gas is switched from a lean air-fuel ratio to a rich air-fuel ratio, a water-gas shift reaction is generated upstream of the first sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2015
    Date of Patent: May 28, 2019
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Koji Hagiwara, Toru Kidokoro, Yasushi Iwazaki, Taisuke Yoshida
  • Patent number: 10288592
    Abstract: A function diagnostic system for a filter of an internal combustion engine may be provided. The function diagnostic system may include a PM sensor and an electronic control unit. The electronic control unit may be configured to: calculate a NOx conversion rate in the filter; determine whether a NOx converting function of the filter is normal; execute a sensor regeneration process for removing the PM deposited between an electrodes of the PM sensor; continuously monitor an output value of the PM sensor after a predetermined PM deposition restart time, after execution of the sensor regeneration process is finished; and determine that there is an abnormality in a PM trapping function of the filter, when the output vale of the PM sensor, which has been continuously monitored, is reduced when the electronic control unit determines that the NOx converting function of the filter is in a normal status.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 8, 2015
    Date of Patent: May 14, 2019
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Kazuya Takaoka, Toru Kidokoro