Patents by Inventor Yohei Okamoto

Yohei Okamoto 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: 11681431
    Abstract: Aspects of the subject technology relate to a technique automatically adapting a vehicle HMI to a user preference. The HMI includes a touchscreen displaying selectable icons associated with functions. Every time the HMI detects a selection of a first icon by a user among the icons, the HMI sends to the server, first information on a first function associated with the first icon, when the first icon is selected, and where the HMI is located when the first icon is selected. The server analyzes the first information to recognize a pattern of behavior taken by the user in selecting the first icon, generating a first user preference. The HMI updates an arrangement of the icons on the touchscreen based on the first user preference. The first user preference includes parameters that includes a certain day of a week, a certain time of that day, and a location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 20, 2023
    Assignee: SUBARU CORPORATION
    Inventor: Yohei Okamoto
  • Publication number: 20230178774
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for monitoring and controlling pump speeds to maintain a balanced pressure drop between each of the multiple fuel cell systems or circuits. In systems where a single radiator is used to maintain desired temperatures of multiple fuel cells, back flow can nevertheless be avoided. Control maps may be used to meet minimum pump speeds as a function of a flow splitting valve position and target flow rate (to prevent or avoid fluid back flow through a fuel cell stack). Control maps may also be used to determine a minimum pump speed as a function of three-way valve position (to prevent fluid back flow across a radiator path).
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 8, 2021
    Publication date: June 8, 2023
    Inventors: Luke A. Rippelmeyer, Yohei Okamoto, Daniel Charles Folick, Jared Farnsworth
  • Publication number: 20230062004
    Abstract: Aspects of the subject technology relate to a technique automatically adapting a vehicle HMI to a user preference. The HMI includes a touchscreen displaying selectable icons associated with functions. Every time the HMI detects a selection of a first icon by a user among the icons, the HMI sends to the server, first information on a first function associated with the first icon, when the first icon is selected, and where the HMI is located when the first icon is selected. The server analyzes the first information to recognize a pattern of behavior taken by the user in selecting the first icon, generating a first user preference. The HMI updates an arrangement of the icons on the touchscreen based on the first user preference. The first user preference includes parameters that includes a certain day of a week, a certain time of that day, and a location.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 26, 2021
    Publication date: March 2, 2023
    Inventor: Yohei OKAMOTO
  • Patent number: 11491893
    Abstract: Provided is a method for controlling a fuel cell vehicle capable of informing a user outside of the vehicle of the possibility that the fuel stops power generation and external power-feeding stops, whereby problems due to unexpected stopping of power feeding can be avoided. In a method for controlling a fuel cell vehicle 100 including an external power-feeding device 50, when it is determined that a state of a fuel cell exceeds a limiting point where deterioration of the fuel cell 20 or a failure of a driving device to supply fuel to the fuel cell 20 occurs during external power feeding, warning is issued to outside of the vehicle 10 before the fuel cell 20 stops power generation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2022
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yohei Okamoto, Hiroyuki Imanishi, Mitsuhiro Nada, Takashi Yamada
  • Patent number: 11302938
    Abstract: A fuel cell system includes: a fuel cell stack; a first cooling medium circuit through which a cooling medium for cooling the fuel cell stack flows; an ion exchanger that removes ions in the cooling medium; a second cooling medium circuit in which the average ion concentration of the cooling medium is lower than that of the cooling medium in the first cooling medium circuit; a switching valve that switches between a flow state and a low flow state; a pump configured to cause the cooling medium in the second cooling medium circuit to flow into the first cooling medium circuit; and a control unit that, when a stop period of the fuel cell system is longer than a reference period, drives the pump with the switching valve switched to the flow state after the instruction to start the fuel cell system is input.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 14, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2022
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Keita Yamaue, Yohei Okamoto, Hiroyuki Imanishi
  • Patent number: 11133515
    Abstract: A fuel cell system has a battery, a gas supply portion, a temperature acquisition portion configured to acquire a presumed temperature that is presumed to reach during the operation stop of the fuel cell; and a scavenging controlling portion. When it is determined that the presumed temperature is a predetermined temperature or more at the time of the operation stop of the fuel cell, the scavenging controlling portion performs the stop-time scavenging operation with a first scavenging ability; and when it is determined that the presumed temperature is less than the predetermined temperature, the scavenging controlling portion performs the stop-time scavenging operation with a second scavenging ability higher than the first scavenging ability.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 10, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 28, 2021
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Tomohiro Ogawa, Hiroyuki Imanishi, Yohei Okamoto
  • Patent number: 11050072
    Abstract: The present invention provides a technique capable of satisfying both the restoration of an output voltage of a fuel cell and an improvement of electric power responsiveness in a fuel cell system in a situation in which its operation status is restored to a normal operation from an operation having low power generation efficiency. A controller updates a lower limit voltage threshold in accordance with the restoration of an FC voltage until the operation status is restored to a normal operation from an operation having low power generation efficiency, such as an intermittent operation and a warmup operation (step S1). The controller increases an FC current in accordance with the updated lower limit voltage threshold (steps S2 and S3) to thereby satisfy both the requirements of the restoration of the output voltage of the fuel cell stack and the improvement of the electric power responsiveness.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 13, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 29, 2021
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Tomohiko Kaneko, Yoshiaki Naganuma, Yutaka Tano, Yohei Okamoto
  • Publication number: 20210020966
    Abstract: A fuel cell system includes: a fuel cell stack; a first cooling medium circuit through which a cooling medium for cooling the fuel cell stack flows; an ion exchanger that removes ions in the cooling medium; a second cooling medium circuit in which the average ion concentration of the cooling medium is lower than that of the cooling medium in the first cooling medium circuit; a switching valve that switches between a flow state and a low flow state; a pump configured to cause the cooling medium in the second cooling medium circuit to flow into the first cooling medium circuit; and a control unit that, when a stop period of the fuel cell system is longer than a reference period, drives the pump with the switching valve switched to the flow state after the instruction to start the fuel cell system is input.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 14, 2020
    Publication date: January 21, 2021
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Keita YAMAUE, Yohei OKAMOTO, Hiroyuki IMANISHI
  • Patent number: 10807472
    Abstract: A vehicular display device includes: a display board for displaying a scale; a liquid crystal display panel including an image display surface for displaying an image, and having an overlapping region in which the image display surface overlaps the display board further rearward than the display board; a light source for illuminating the liquid crystal display panel; and a first light guide body for receiving light from the light source via the liquid crystal display panel and emitting the light. The first light guide body includes: a light receiving part disposed between the overlapping region of the image display surface and the display board, for receiving the light from the light source via the liquid crystal display panel; and a light-emitting part exposed outwardly from the display board as viewed by a viewer, for emitting light from the first light guide body that is received by the light-receiving part.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 20, 2020
    Assignees: NIPPON SEIKI CO., LTD., SUBARU CORPORATION
    Inventors: Takanori Shimizu, Kazufumi Suzuki, Ryouta Fujiwara, Yuka Hayakawa, Ryousuke Kakimaru, Shouma Nakata, Yohei Okamoto, Yuichi Nozaki
  • Publication number: 20200298729
    Abstract: Provided is a method for controlling a fuel cell vehicle capable of informing a user outside of the vehicle of the possibility that the fuel stops power generation and external power-feeding stops, whereby problems due to unexpected stopping of power feeding can be avoided. In a method for controlling a fuel cell vehicle 100 including an external power-feeding device 50, when it is determined that a state of a fuel cell exceeds a limiting point where deterioration of the fuel cell 20 or a failure of a driving device to supply fuel to the fuel cell 20 occurs during external power feeding, warning is issued to outside of the vehicle 10 before the fuel cell 20 stops power generation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 11, 2020
    Publication date: September 24, 2020
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Yohei OKAMOTO, Hiroyuki IMANISHI, Mitsuhiro NADA, Takashi YAMADA
  • Patent number: 10744903
    Abstract: Provided is a method for controlling a fuel cell vehicle capable of informing a user outside of the vehicle of the possibility that the fuel cell stops power generation and external power-feeding stops, whereby problems due to unexpected stopping of power feeding can be avoided. In a method for controlling a fuel cell vehicle 100 including an external power-feeding device 50, when it is determined that a state of a fuel cell exceeds a limiting point where deterioration of the fuel cell 20 or a failure of a driving device to supply fuel to the fuel cell 20 occurs during external power feeding, warning is issued to outside of the vehicle 10 before the fuel cell 20 stops power generation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 11, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 18, 2020
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yohei Okamoto, Hiroyuki Imanishi, Mitsuhiro Nada, Takashi Yamada
  • Publication number: 20200215916
    Abstract: A vehicular display device includes: a display board (25) for displaying a scale; a liquid crystal display panel (53a) including an image display surface (53c) for displaying an image, and having an overlapping region (53d) in which the image display surface (53c) overlaps the display board (25) further rearward than the display board (25); a light source for illuminating the liquid crystal display panel (53a); and a first light guide body (23) for receiving light from the light source via the liquid crystal display panel (53a) and emitting the light.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 21, 2018
    Publication date: July 9, 2020
    Inventors: Takanori Shimizu, Kazufumi Suzuki, Ryouta Fujiwara, Yuka Hayakawa, Ryousuke Kakimaru, Shouma Nakata, Yohei Okamoto, Yuichi Nozaki
  • Patent number: 10633500
    Abstract: A manufacturing method of a tow prepreg, comprising: an impregnation process of impregnating a reinforcement fiber with an anhydrous epoxy resin to obtain a tow prepreg; and a process of irradiating a specific surface of the tow prepreg with laser beam to cure the epoxy resin on the specific surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 28, 2020
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Yohei Okamoto
  • Patent number: 10359754
    Abstract: A fuel cell system in which power generation is performed by a fuel cell, comprising: a power generation controller that performs: first control in which at least one of power control for preventing generated power from exceeding an upper limit value, voltage control for preventing generated voltage from falling below a lower limit value and current control for preventing generated current from exceeding an upper limit value is performed and second control in which the generated voltage is prevented from exceeding an upper limit value; and a priority instructor that instructs the power generation controller to prioritize the first control over the second control when the first control and the second control collide with each other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yutaka Tano, Mitsuhiro Nada, Tomohiko Kaneko, Yohei Okamoto
  • Publication number: 20190214037
    Abstract: A recommendation device includes: a providing unit configured to provide recommendation information to a plurality of occupants in a vehicle; a sound collection device configured to collect a voice indicating a reaction of each occupant of the plurality of occupants to the recommendation information; a determination unit configured to determine whether the reaction of each occupant of the plurality of occupants to the recommendation information is a positive reaction or a negative reaction, based on the voice indicating the reaction of the occupant to the recommendation information; and an evaluation unit configured to evaluate an overall reaction of the plurality of occupants to the recommendation information, based on the reaction of each occupant of the plurality of occupants.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 18, 2018
    Publication date: July 11, 2019
    Applicants: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha, DENSO TEN Limited
    Inventors: Takashige Hori, Yohei Okamoto, Masanobu Washio, Tatsuya Kuwamoto
  • Patent number: 10224558
    Abstract: The present invention enables the determination of an operating point of a fuel cell so as to prioritize the fulfillment of an amount of required power generation while avoiding various limitations, such as a current limit, in a fuel cell system that warms up the fuel cell by a low efficiency operation. A controller 70 multiplies a voltage command value Vcom obtained in step S3 by a current command value Icom obtained in step S1, then, this is divided by a final voltage command value Vfcom obtained in step S4, thereby obtaining a final current command value Ifcom to determine an operating point (Ifcom, Vfcom) during a warm-up operation (step S5), and then the process ends.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2019
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Tomohiko Kaneko, Yoshiaki Naganuma, Yutaka Tano, Yohei Okamoto
  • Patent number: 10218008
    Abstract: A fuel cell system includes: a fuel cell; a coolant circulation passage; a radiator; a water pump; a flow dividing valve; a fan; and a controller that, when a first prescribed period elapses in a state where a temperature of a coolant is equal to or more than a first prescribed temperature and an opening degree of the flow dividing valve makes the flow rate of the coolant flowing into the radiator equal to or more than a prescribed flow rate, gives a priority to the rise in a driving voltage of the fan over the increase in a flow rate by the water pump, and when a second prescribed period elapses in a state where the temperature of the coolant is equal to or more than a second prescribed temperature after the driving voltage of the fan is raised, increases the flow rate by the water pump.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 26, 2019
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Takashi Yamada, Hiroyuki Imanishi, Yohei Okamoto
  • Patent number: 10158136
    Abstract: A fuel cell system comprising: a power generation controller that controls a value subject to control, which is a value exhibiting a power generating state by a fuel cell and is a value that is affected by alternating current applied to the fuel cell, to approach a target value; a dead zone setter that sets a dead zone with the target value as a reference; and, a stopper that stops the control by the power generation controller when the value subject to control is contained in the dead zone.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 18, 2018
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yohei Okamoto, Yutaka Tano, Mitsuhiro Nada, Tomohiko Kaneko
  • Patent number: 10135082
    Abstract: A fuel cell system includes: a fuel cell outputting a current; a supply unit supplying oxidant gas; a flow-amount measurement unit measuring a flow amount of the oxidant gas; and a controller that feed-back controls the supply unit such that a measured flow-amount value converges toward a target flow-amount value, wherein the controller determines an acceptable current value in accordance with the measured flow-amount value, restricts the current to the acceptable current value or less, controls the current in accordance with a requested current value of the fuel cell; and performs a changing-suppression processing, when a condition continues for a predetermined period, the condition including that a changing width of the requested current value is equal to or less than a first value and a difference between the requested current value and the acceptable current value is equal to or less than a second value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 4, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2018
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Tomohiko Kaneko, Yoshiaki Naganuma, Yutaka Tano, Yohei Okamoto
  • Patent number: 10014539
    Abstract: When an actual output value is less than an output command value, a current command value is increased. When the actual output value is equal to or greater than the output command value, whether the actual output value is within a range of a dead band is determined. When the actual output value is outside the range of the dead band, the current command value is decreased. When the actual output value is within the range of the dead band, the current command value is maintained.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 20, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2018
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yohei Okamoto, Hiroyuki Imanishi, Hiroyuki Suzuki, Takashi Yamada