Patents by Inventor Toru TAMBO

Toru TAMBO 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: 12686450
    Abstract: To reduce complexity of operation when a working vehicle performs automatic steering, the working vehicle includes a vehicle body to be manually steered with a steering wheel or automatically steered to travel forward or rearward, an operator's seat on the vehicle body, a console located forward of the operator's seat or located on one side of the operator's seat, a first manual operator for automatic steering provided in or on the console, and a second manual operator for automatic steering attachable at a location rearward of the operator's seat.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 2023
    Date of Patent: July 21, 2026
    Assignee: KUBOTA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Toru Tambo, Shunsuke Miyashita, Yasuaki Morioka, Kunihiko Nishino, Misako Kikumoto
  • Patent number: 12660731
    Abstract: An agricultural machine includes an image recognition system to detect a row region including at least one of a crop and a ridge on a ground surface of a field, traveling equipment including a wheel responsible for steering, a controller configured or programmed to control the traveling equipment, and a start switch to give a command to start row-following travel where the controller is configured or programmed to control the traveling equipment to travel along the row region as detected by the image recognition system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 6, 2024
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2026
    Assignee: KUBOTA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Shunsuke Miyashita, Toru Tambo, Mitsuaki Nagao
  • Patent number: 12620237
    Abstract: An agricultural machine includes an image recognition system to detect a row region including at least one of a crop or a ridge on a ground surface of a field, traveling equipment including a wheel responsible for steering, and a controller configured or programmed to control the traveling equipment and operate in a row-following travel mode to control the traveling equipment to travel along the row region as detected by the image recognition system. When the image recognition system detects a deletion site of the row region or the field's final end while operating in the row-following travel mode, the controller is configured or programmed to continue travel for a predetermined time or a predetermined distance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2024
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2026
    Assignee: KUBOTA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Shunsuke Miyashita, Toru Tambo, Mitsuaki Nagao
  • Patent number: 12606233
    Abstract: An agricultural field work vehicle includes a steered wheel, a steering mechanism including a steering tool to perform a steering operation to steer the steered wheel, an automatic steering controller configured or programmed to change between a non-controlling state in which the automatic steering is not performed and an automatic control state in which the automatic steering is performed and output at least one target steering parameter, and a steering driver to perform drive control on the steering mechanism based on the at least one target steering parameter when the automatic steering controller is in the automatic control state. The steering tool is configured to change a steering amount thereof in conjunction with the drive control by the steering driver. The automatic steering controller is configured or programmed to suppress the at least one target steering parameter in response to a change from the non-controlling state to the automatic control state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 9, 2024
    Date of Patent: April 21, 2026
    Assignee: KUBOTA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Toru Tambo, Yuki Kubota
  • Patent number: 12588578
    Abstract: A row detection system includes a camera mounted to an agricultural machine to acquire time-series images including at least a portion of a ground surface, and a processor configured or programmed to perform image processing for the time-series images, and to determine, from images among the time-series images that have been acquired at different points in time, a first amount of movement of feature points in an image plane through feature point matching, and through perspective projection of each of the feature points from the image plane onto a reference plane corresponding to the ground surface, determine a second amount of movement of each projection point in the reference plane based on the first amount of movement, and based on the second amount of movement, estimate heights of the feature points from the reference plane to detect a ridge on the ground surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2023
    Date of Patent: March 31, 2026
    Assignee: KUBOTA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Shunsuke Miyashita, Toru Tambo, Mitsuaki Nagao
  • Patent number: 12469169
    Abstract: A crop row detection system includes a camera mounted to an agricultural machine to image a ground surface traveled by the agricultural machine to acquire time-series color images including at least a portion of the ground surface, and a processor configured or programmed to (i) perform image processing for the time-series color images, (ii) generate, from the time-series color images, an enhanced image in which a color of a crop row for detection is enhanced to provide an enhanced image, (iii) generate from the enhanced image a plan view image as viewed from above the ground surface, the plan view image being classified into first pixels having a color index value for the crop row equal to or greater than a threshold and second pixels having the color index value below the threshold, and (iv) determine positions of edge lines of the crop row based on the color index values of the first pixels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2023
    Date of Patent: November 11, 2025
    Assignee: KUBOTA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Shunsuke Miyashita, Toru Tambo, Mitsuaki Nagao
  • Publication number: 20250093887
    Abstract: A route generation system for automated travel of an agricultural machine includes a processor configured or programmed to generate an automated travel route of the agricultural machine. The processor is configured or programmed to acquire, from a vehicle that manually travels along a route that the agricultural machine is scheduled to travel automatically while recording a travel path, data representing the travel path; remove, from the travel path, a path associated with an avoidance action performed to avoid an oncoming vehicle; and generate an automated travel route of the agricultural machine based on the travel path from which the path associated with the avoidance action has been removed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 5, 2024
    Publication date: March 20, 2025
    Inventors: Keigo KOMARU, Toru TAMBO, Takashi NISHIYAMA, Yoshihiro WATANABE, Takashi ISHIZAKI, Ken SAKUTA, Megumi SUZUKAWA, Wataru MORIMOTO, Kenji ISHIHARA
  • Publication number: 20250081874
    Abstract: An agricultural field work vehicle includes a traveling body including a steered wheel, a steering mechanism capable of steering the steered wheel, and a steering driver capable of driving the steering mechanism to operate; a route setter configured or programmed to set a target route; a first steering controller configured or programmed to change a state to an automatic control state where driving of the steering driver is controlled to travel along the target route and a non-control state where driving of the steering driver is not controlled; and a second steering controller configured or programmed to control driving of the steering driver separately from the first steering controller while maintaining the automatic control state in a case of the first steering controller being in the automatic control state.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 25, 2024
    Publication date: March 13, 2025
    Inventors: Toru TAMBO, Yuki KUBOTA, Susumu TAKEOKA, Daisuke KAWANISHI, Toshiya TSUJI
  • Publication number: 20250033689
    Abstract: An agricultural field work vehicle includes a steered wheel, a steering mechanism including a steering tool to perform a steering operation to steer the steered wheel, an automatic steering controller configured or programmed to change between a non-controlling state in which the automatic steering is not performed and an automatic control state in which the automatic steering is performed and output at least one target steering parameter, and a steering driver to perform drive control on the steering mechanism based on the at least one target steering parameter when the automatic steering controller is in the automatic control state. The steering tool is configured to change a steering amount thereof in conjunction with the drive control by the steering driver. The automatic steering controller is configured or programmed to suppress the at least one target steering parameter in response to a change from the non-controlling state to the automatic control state.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 9, 2024
    Publication date: January 30, 2025
    Inventors: Toru TAMBO, Yuki KUBOTA
  • Publication number: 20250026364
    Abstract: A notification device installed in a work vehicle includes a buzzer to output a sound, a first speaker to output voice guidance, and a notification controller configured or programmed to control the buzzer and the first speaker. The notification controller is configured or programmed to, when executing control over the buzzer and the first speaker, first execute a first control to cause the buzzer to output the sound, and execute a second control to cause the first speaker to output the voice guidance after the buzzer completes outputting the sound.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 9, 2024
    Publication date: January 23, 2025
    Inventors: Toru TAMBO, Yuki KUBOTA
  • Patent number: 12197225
    Abstract: A working vehicle includes a vehicle body to travel either by manual steering with a steering wheel or by automatic steering with the steering wheel, a reference registration controller configured or programmed to register a traveling reference line based on a position of the vehicle body caused to travel by the manual steering, a traveling line setter configured or programmed to set, based on the traveling reference line, scheduled traveling lines for traveling using the automatic steering, and an automatic steering controller to control the automatic steering based on the scheduled traveling lines. The traveling line setter is configured or programmed to change an adjacency width between the scheduled traveling lines adjoining each other among the plurality of scheduled traveling lines.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 14, 2025
    Assignee: KUBOTA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Misako Kikumoto, Kunihiko Nishino, Yasuaki Morioka, Hideaki Ezaki, Shunsuke Miyashita, Toru Tambo
  • Publication number: 20240338948
    Abstract: An agricultural machine includes an image recognition system to detect a row region including at least one of a crop or a ridge on a ground surface of a field, traveling equipment including a wheel responsible for steering, and a controller configured or programmed to control the traveling equipment and operate in a row-following travel mode to control the traveling equipment to travel along the row region as detected by the image recognition system. When the image recognition system detects a deletion site of the row region or the field's final end while operating in the row-following travel mode, the controller is configured or programmed to continue travel for a predetermined time or a predetermined distance.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 17, 2024
    Publication date: October 10, 2024
    Inventors: Shunsuke MIYASHITA, Toru TAMBO, Mitsuaki NAGAO
  • Publication number: 20240337500
    Abstract: A path planning system for an agricultural machine performing self-driving includes a storage to store a map including fields, waiting areas, and a road connecting the fields and waiting areas to each other, and a processor configured or programmed to generate a path on the map for the agricultural machine for each of working days. The processor is configured or programmed to determine, from the waiting areas, a specific waiting area to which the agricultural machine is to move after performing a final task of agricultural work on each working day, based on information representing at least one of a growing state of crop in the fields, a state of progress of agricultural work in the fields, a state of planting in the fields and a state of weather, and generate a path from the field where the final task of agricultural work is to be performed, to the specific waiting area.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 5, 2024
    Publication date: October 10, 2024
    Inventors: Yuki KUBOTA, Toru TAMBO, Itsuki OKUBO, Kazuki OTA
  • Publication number: 20240315159
    Abstract: An agricultural machine includes an image recognition system to detect a row region including at least one of a crop and a ridge on a ground surface of a field, traveling equipment including a wheel responsible for steering, a controller configured or programmed to control the traveling equipment, and a start switch to give a command to start row-following travel where the controller is configured or programmed to control the traveling equipment to travel along the row region as detected by the image recognition system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 6, 2024
    Publication date: September 26, 2024
    Inventors: Shunsuke MIYASHITA, Toru TAMBO, Mitsuaki NAGAO
  • Publication number: 20240315158
    Abstract: An agricultural machine includes an image recognition system to detect, from an acquired image, a row region including at least one of a crop and a ridge on a ground surface of a field, a positioning system to acquire a position of the agricultural machine, traveling equipment including a wheel responsible for steering, and a controller configured or programmed to perform either one of automatic path travel in which the traveling equipment is caused to travel along a target path based on the position of the agricultural machine acquired by the positioning system, or row-following travel in which the traveling equipment is caused to travel along a row region that is detected by the image recognition system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 7, 2024
    Publication date: September 26, 2024
    Inventors: Shunsuke MIYASHITA, Toru TAMBO, Mitsuaki NAGAO
  • Patent number: 12096709
    Abstract: A working vehicle includes a vehicle body capable of traveling either by either manual steering with a steering wheel or by automatic steering with the steering wheel, a reference registration controller configured or programmed to register a traveling reference line based on a position of the vehicle body caused to travel by the manual steering, an automatic steering controller configured or programmed to perform control by the automatic steering on a set scheduled traveling line based on the traveling reference line, a display to display information about the automatic steering when forward traveling by the automatic steering is to be performed, and a notifier to issue a notification of the information about the automatic steering aside from the information displayed on the display when rearward traveling by the automatic steering is to be performed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2021
    Date of Patent: September 24, 2024
    Assignee: KUBOTA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Misako Kikumoto, Kunihiko Nishino, Yasuaki Morioka, Hideaki Ezaki, Shunsuke Miyashita, Toru Tambo
  • Patent number: 12077103
    Abstract: A riding management machine includes a traveling vehicle including a vehicle body, an operator's seat provided on the vehicle body, and a hood provided in front of the operator's seat, a working device attached to the traveling vehicle, a position detector to detect a position of the vehicle body based on a signal from a positioning satellite, and a support body to support the position detector above the hood. The support body includes a pair of struts on opposite sides of the vehicle body in a vehicle-width direction, a connector to connect tops of the pair of struts to each other, and reinforcements to connect the respective struts to the vehicle body.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2021
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2024
    Assignee: KUBOTA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Misako Kikumoto, Kunihiko Nishino, Yasuaki Morioka, Hideaki Ezaki, Shunsuke Miyashita, Toru Tambo
  • Publication number: 20240202966
    Abstract: A crop row detection system includes a camera mounted to an agricultural machine to image a ground surface traveled by the agricultural machine to acquire time-series color images including at least a portion of the ground surface, and a processor configured or programmed to (i) perform image processing for the time-series color images, (ii) generate, from the time-series color images, an enhanced image in which a color of a crop row for detection is enhanced to provide an enhanced image, (iii) generate from the enhanced image a plan view image as viewed from above the ground surface, the plan view image being classified into first pixels having a color index value for the crop row equal to or greater than a threshold and second pixels having the color index value below the threshold, and (iv) determine positions of edge lines of the crop row based on the color index values of the first pixels.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 21, 2023
    Publication date: June 20, 2024
    Inventors: Shunsuke MIYASHITA, Toru TAMBO, Mitsuaki NAGAO
  • Publication number: 20240196781
    Abstract: A row detection system includes a camera mounted to an agricultural machine to acquire time-series images including at least a portion of a ground surface, and a processor configured or programmed to perform image processing for the time-series images, and to determine, from images among the time-series images that have been acquired at different points in time, a first amount of movement of feature points in an image plane through feature point matching, and through perspective projection of each of the feature points from the image plane onto a reference plane corresponding to the ground surface, determine a second amount of movement of each projection point in the reference plane based on the first amount of movement, and based on the second amount of movement, estimate heights of the feature points from the reference plane to detect a ridge on the ground surface.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 21, 2023
    Publication date: June 20, 2024
    Inventors: Shunsuke MIYASHITA, Toru TAMBO, Mitsuaki NAGAO
  • Publication number: 20240188475
    Abstract: An agricultural assistance system includes a controller configured or programmed to control an operation of one or more agricultural machines. In response to receiving from a terminal apparatus a signal requesting assistance in agricultural work for a field, the controller is configured or programmed to cause the one or more agricultural machines to move to the field to assist in the agricultural work for the field.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 29, 2024
    Publication date: June 13, 2024
    Inventors: Yuki KUBOTA, Toru TAMBO, Itsuki OKUBO, Kazuki OTA