Patents by Inventor Toru Kojima

Toru Kojima 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: 12663806
    Abstract: This automatic takeoff/landing system for a vertical takeoff/landing aircraft comprises: a relative wind information acquisition unit that acquires the direction of relative wind at a moving object; and a control unit that executes takeoff/landing control to cause the vertical takeoff/landing aircraft to takeoff/land at a landing target point provided on the moving object. The control unit, during takeoff/landing of the vertical takeoff/landing aircraft, executes the takeoff/landing control on the basis of the direction of the relative wind acquired by the relative wind information acquisition unit, in a state in which the aircraft heading of the vertical takeoff/landing aircraft is caused to face the direction of the relative wind.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2022
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2026
    Assignee: MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES, LTD.
    Inventor: Toru Kojima
  • Patent number: 12422858
    Abstract: An aircraft position control system that keeps an aircraft at target coordinates in an inertial space with respect to a target landing point that moves includes an acceleration correction processing unit that, based on acceleration of the aircraft and an attitude of the aircraft, outputs first attitude correction acceleration for correcting the acceleration of the aircraft, a complementary filter that, based on the first attitude correction acceleration and inertial velocity of the aircraft, outputs second attitude correction acceleration in which a drift component included in the first attitude correction acceleration is removed, and a smoothing processing unit that, based on the second attitude correction acceleration and relative coordinates between the aircraft and the target landing point, outputs smoothed relative coordinates obtained by smoothing the relative coordinates.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2022
    Date of Patent: September 23, 2025
    Assignee: MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES, LTD.
    Inventors: Toru Kojima, Satoshi Mori
  • Patent number: 12391402
    Abstract: An aircraft position control system to make a position of an aircraft follow movement of a target landing point due to motion includes a motion quantity estimation processing unit that estimates a motion quantity of the target landing point, based on attitude correction acceleration for correcting attitude of the aircraft and a relative position between the aircraft and the target landing point, and a target information generation unit that outputs a target relative position between the aircraft and the target landing point to be achieved and target relative velocity between the aircraft and the target landing point to be achieved, based on the estimated motion quantity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2022
    Date of Patent: August 19, 2025
    Assignee: MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES, LTD.
    Inventors: Toru Kojima, Satoshi Mori, Katsumi Takagi
  • Patent number: 12372976
    Abstract: An automatic landing system for a vertical take-off and landing aircraft includes: a camera mounted on a vertical take-off and landing aircraft; a relative-position acquisition unit configured to perform image processing on an image captured by the camera, the image including a marker group provided at a target landing point, to acquire a relative position between the vertical take-off and landing aircraft and the target landing point; and a control unit configured to control the vertical take-off and landing aircraft such that the relative position becomes zero, in which the marker group includes a plurality of markers that are arranged side by side and that have different center positions from each other, the markers are larger as arranged farther away from the target landing point, and the relative-position acquisition unit acquires the relative position based on a distance between the marker recognized in the image and the target landing point.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2022
    Date of Patent: July 29, 2025
    Assignee: MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES, LTD.
    Inventors: Satoshi Mori, Toru Kojima, Katsumi Takagi
  • Patent number: 12292744
    Abstract: An aircraft control system includes a target instruction value calculation unit configured to acquire a target instruction value to set an aircraft in a target state, a reference velocity calculation unit configured to input, to a reference model in which a reference velocity corresponding to a reference value of an aircraft velocity is set uniquely as an output value according to an input value, a value based on the target instruction value as the input value. A relative velocity calculation unit is configured to calculate a relative velocity of the aircraft to a target position. An estimated disturbance quantity calculation unit is configured to calculate an estimated disturbance quantity acting on the aircraft, based on a difference between the relative and reference velocities, and a correction target instruction value calculation unit is configured to correct the target instruction value, based on the estimated disturbance quantity calculated at a previous time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2022
    Date of Patent: May 6, 2025
    Assignee: MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES, LTD.
    Inventors: Toru Kojima, Satoshi Mori
  • Patent number: 12246866
    Abstract: A drone port is portable to be disposed on a landing surface for a drone and includes a covering section configured to cover the landing surface and provided with markers of different sizes. The covering section includes a restraining section configured to restrain the drone on the covering section. The restraining section includes a first hook-and-loop fastener disposed on the covering section. The first hook-and-loop fastener is configured to join with a second hook-and-loop fastener configured to be disposed on the drone.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 20, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 11, 2025
    Assignee: MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES, LTD.
    Inventors: Toru Kojima, Satoshi Mori, Shinya Kunii, Shinichi Maki, Katsumi Takagi, Tetsuya Nagasawa
  • Publication number: 20250068179
    Abstract: This automatic takeoff/landing system for a vertical takeoff/landing aircraft comprises: a relative wind information acquisition unit that acquires the direction of relative wind at a moving object; and a control unit that executes takeoff/landing control to cause the vertical takeoff/landing aircraft to takeoff/land at a landing target point provided on the moving object. The control unit, during takeoff/landing of the vertical takeoff/landing aircraft, executes the takeoff/landing control on the basis of the direction of the relative wind acquired by the relative wind information acquisition unit, in a state in which the aircraft heading of the vertical takeoff/landing aircraft is caused to face the direction of the relative wind.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 31, 2022
    Publication date: February 27, 2025
    Inventor: Toru Kojima
  • Patent number: 12181892
    Abstract: An aircraft position control system includes a processor configured to calculate a feedback manipulated variable of an aircraft by feedback control so that the aircraft heads toward a target landing point, based on at least a relative position and a relative velocity. The processor is further configured to set an addition value, by referring to a switching line preliminarily provided in a manner passing through an origin of a coordinate plane having orthogonal axes representing the relative position and the relative velocity and separating an acceleration region in which the relative velocity is to be increased and a deceleration region in which the relative velocity is to be decreased. The addition value tends to increase the relative velocity when a coordinate point of a current relative position and a current relative velocity is located in the acceleration region to calculate a manipulated variable of the aircraft.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 1, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2024
    Assignee: MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES, LTD.
    Inventor: Toru Kojima
  • Patent number: 11951521
    Abstract: After an annular plate is blanked from a metal flat plate in a blanking step, an inner peripheral portion of the annular plate is deformed upward in a burring step. As a result, a hat-shaped intermediate product having an upstanding tubular portion and an annular plate portion is formed. After that, an outer peripheral portion of the annular plate portion is folded step by step toward an inner peripheral side of the annular plate portion. As a result, a folded portion composed of a first folded portion and a second folded portion is formed, whereby a connection portion having a second flange portion is formed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2024
    Assignee: AISIN TAKAOKA CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Toru Kojima
  • Publication number: 20240017859
    Abstract: A portable drone port that is portable and disposed on a landing surface for a drone includes a covering section configured to cover the landing surface and provided with markers of different sizes. The covering section includes a restraining section configured to restrain, on the covering section, the drone that lands on the covering section. The restraining section is hook-and-loop fasteners including a hook-and-loop fastener on one side disposed on the covering section and a hook-and-loop fastener on the other side disposed on the drone and configured to join to the hook-and-loop fastener on the one side.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 20, 2022
    Publication date: January 18, 2024
    Inventors: Toru KOJIMA, Satoshi MORI, Shinya KUNII, Shinichi MAKI, Katsumi TAKAGI, Tetsuya NAGASAWA
  • Publication number: 20240012433
    Abstract: An aircraft position control system that keeps an aircraft at target coordinates in an inertial space with respect to a target landing point that moves includes an acceleration correction processing unit that, based on acceleration of the aircraft and an attitude of the aircraft, outputs first attitude correction acceleration for correcting the acceleration of the aircraft, a complementary filter that, based on the first attitude correction acceleration and inertial velocity of the aircraft, outputs second attitude correction acceleration in which a drift component included in the first attitude correction acceleration is removed, and a smoothing processing unit that, based on the second attitude correction acceleration and relative coordinates between the aircraft and the target landing point, outputs smoothed relative coordinates obtained by smoothing the relative coordinates.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 13, 2022
    Publication date: January 11, 2024
    Inventors: Toru KOJIMA, Satoshi MORI
  • Publication number: 20230418310
    Abstract: An automatic landing system for a vertical take-off and landing aircraft includes: a camera mounted on a vertical take-off and landing aircraft; a relative-position acquisition unit configured to perform image processing on an image captured by the camera, the image including a marker group provided at a target landing point, to acquire a relative position between the vertical take-off and landing aircraft and the target landing point; and a control unit configured to control the vertical take-off and landing aircraft such that the relative position becomes zero, in which the marker group includes a plurality of markers that are arranged side by side and that have different center positions from each other, the markers are larger as arranged farther away from the target landing point, and the relative-position acquisition unit acquires the relative position based on a distance between the marker recognized in the image and the target landing point.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 13, 2022
    Publication date: December 28, 2023
    Inventors: Satoshi MORI, Toru KOJIMA, Katsumi TAKAGI
  • Publication number: 20230406536
    Abstract: An aircraft position control system to make a position of an aircraft follow movement of a target landing point due to motion includes a motion quantity estimation processing unit that estimates a motion quantity of the target landing point, based on attitude correction acceleration for correcting attitude of the aircraft and a relative position between the aircraft and the target landing point, and a target information generation unit that outputs a target relative position between the aircraft and the target landing point to be achieved and target relative velocity between the aircraft and the target landing point to be achieved, based on the estimated motion quantity.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 13, 2022
    Publication date: December 21, 2023
    Inventors: Toru KOJIMA, Satoshi MORI, Katsumi TAKAGI
  • Publication number: 20230409050
    Abstract: An aircraft control system includes a target instruction value calculation unit acquires a target instruction value to set an aircraft in a target state, a reference velocity calculation unit inputs, to a reference model in which reference velocity corresponding to a reference value of aircraft velocity is set uniquely as an output value according to an input value, a value based on the target instruction value as the input value. A relative velocity calculation unit calculates relative velocity of the aircraft to a target position, the relative velocity being used in control of the aircraft. An estimated disturbance quantity calculation unit calculates an estimated disturbance quantity acting on the aircraft, based on a difference between the relative velocity and the reference velocity, and a correction target instruction value calculation unit corrects the target instruction value, based on the estimated disturbance quantity calculated at a previous timing.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 13, 2022
    Publication date: December 21, 2023
    Inventors: Toru KOJIMA, Satoshi MORI
  • Publication number: 20230027342
    Abstract: An automatic landing system includes an imaging device mounted on a vertical take-off and landing aircraft; a relative-position acquisition unit that performs image processing on an image of a marker at a target landing point, and that acquires a relative position between the aircraft and the target landing point; a relative-altitude acquisition unit for acquiring a relative altitude between the aircraft and the target landing point; and a control unit for controlling the aircraft in a plurality of control modes so that the relative position becomes zero. The control modes include a hovering mode in which the relative altitude of the aircraft is lowered to a predetermined relative altitude when the relative position is within a first threshold value. A transition to a landing mode occurs upon satisfying predetermined conditions including the relative position being within a predetermined threshold value less than the first threshold value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 1, 2020
    Publication date: January 26, 2023
    Inventors: Toru KOJIMA, Masahiro HASHIMOTO
  • Publication number: 20220382298
    Abstract: An aircraft position control system includes a feedback control unit configured to calculate a feedback manipulated variable of an aircraft by feedback control so that the aircraft heads toward a target landing point, based on at least the relative position and the relative velocity; a multi-value control unit configured to set, by referring to a switching line preliminarily provided in a manner passing through an origin of a coordinate plane whose orthogonal axes represent the relative position and the relative velocity and separating an acceleration region in which the relative velocity is to be increased and a deceleration region in which the relative velocity is to be decreased, an addition value that tends to increase the relative velocity when a coordinate point of the current relative position and the current relative velocity is located in the acceleration region to calculate a manipulated variable of the aircraft
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 1, 2020
    Publication date: December 1, 2022
    Inventor: Toru KOJIMA
  • Publication number: 20210346931
    Abstract: After an annular plate is blanked from a metal flat plate in a blanking step, an inner peripheral portion of the annular plate is deformed upward in a burring step. As a result, a hat-shaped intermediate product having an upstanding tubular portion and an annular plate portion is formed. After that, an outer peripheral portion of the annular plate portion is folded step by step toward an inner peripheral side of the annular plate portion. As a result, a folded portion composed of a first folded portion and a second folded portion is formed, whereby a connection portion having a second flange portion is formed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 13, 2019
    Publication date: November 11, 2021
    Applicant: AISIN TAKAOKA CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Toru KOJIMA
  • Patent number: 9123938
    Abstract: The purpose of the present invention is to provide a nonaqueous-electrolyte battery that exhibits high charge/discharge performance, i.e. high input/output performance, over a long period of time. This nonaqueous-electrolyte battery, in which a nonaqueous electrolyte and a group of electricity-generation elements that each have a positive electrode, a negative electrode, and a separator that isolates said positive electrode and negative electrode are sealed inside a battery case, is characterized in that the negative electrodes contain graphite having an edge/surface ratio (fe), as defined by the following equation, of 0.03-0.1. fe=(2B/La+T/d002)/(2B/d100+T/d002). In this equation, B represents the mean grain diameter of the graphite, T represents the grain thickness, La represents the a-axis crystallite size, d002 represents the spacing between (002) planes, and d100 represents the spacing between (100) planes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 1, 2015
    Assignee: Hitachi Automotive Systems, Ltd.
    Inventors: Hideki Sasaki, Toru Kojima
  • Publication number: 20130224570
    Abstract: The purpose of the present invention is to provide a nonaqueous-electrolyte battery that exhibits high charge/discharge performance, i.e. high input/output performance, over a long period of time. This nonaqueous-electrolyte battery, in which a nonaqueous electrolyte and a group of electricity-generation elements that each have a positive electrode, a negative electrode, and a separator that isolates said positive electrode and negative electrode are sealed inside a battery case, is characterized in that the negative electrodes contain graphite having an edge/surface ratio (fe), as defined by the following equation, of 0.03-0.1. fe=(2B/La+T/d002)/(2B/d100+T/d002). In this equation, B represents the mean grain diameter of the graphite, T represents the grain thickness, La represents the a-axis crystallite size, d002 represents the spacing between (002) planes, and d100 represents the spacing between (100) planes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 26, 2010
    Publication date: August 29, 2013
    Applicant: HITACHI VEHICLE ENERGY, LTD.
    Inventors: Hideki Sasaki, Toru Kojima
  • Patent number: 8367243
    Abstract: In a lithium secondary battery, the electrode assembly includes a positive electrode and a negative electrode which are assembled together with a separator interposing between said both electrodes. Each of the electrodes includes an active material mixture layer portion and an active material mixture layer free-portion which are arranged on a surface of said metal foil. A relationship of B1<B2 is satisfied, and a value of (A1+A2)/(B2?B1) is set equal to or less than 4. Where B1 (mm) is a width of the active material mixture layer portion of the positive electrode; B2 (mm) is a width of the active material mixture layer portion of the negative electrode; and each of A1 (mm) in the positive electrode and A2 (mm) in the negative electrode is a deviation between a straight line linking both corners of the active material mixture layer-free portion in the length direction of the metal foil and an edge of the active material mixture layer-free portion at a middle point in the length direction of the metal foil.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 22, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2013
    Assignee: Hitachi Vehicle Energy, Ltd.
    Inventors: Takenori Ishizu, Toru Kojima