Patents by Inventor Yukihiro Kawamata

Yukihiro Kawamata 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: 10657805
    Abstract: A vehicle to vehicle communication device including a satellite vehicle signal reception means for suppressing a decrease in relative position accuracy with a small communication amount during a unit time, a communication means, a kinematic acquisition means, a positioning means, a first vehicle information storage means, a second vehicle information storage means configured to record satellite vehicle information and the velocity vector of the second vehicle in each time, a relative position calculation means configured to calculate a relative position from the velocity vector of the first vehicle, the velocity vector of the second vehicle, and the satellite vehicle information, a requested satellite vehicle number generation means configured to generate a requested satellite vehicle number notifying the second vehicle of a satellite vehicle number observed by the first vehicle, and a transmitting satellite vehicle information generation means configured to generate information to be sequentially transmitted
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 24, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2020
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Mikio Bandou, Yukihiro Kawamata, Akira Maeki
  • Publication number: 20190279501
    Abstract: A vehicle to vehicle communication device including a satellite vehicle signal reception means for suppressing a decrease in relative position accuracy with a small communication amount during a unit time, a communication means, a kinematic acquisition means, a positioning means, a first vehicle information storage means, a second vehicle information storage means configured to record satellite vehicle information and the velocity vector of the second vehicle in each time, a relative position calculation means configured to calculate a relative position from the velocity vector of the first vehicle, the velocity vector of the second vehicle, and the satellite vehicle information, a requested satellite vehicle number generation means configured to generate a requested satellite vehicle number notifying the second vehicle of a satellite vehicle number observed by the first vehicle, and a transmitting satellite vehicle information generation means configured to generate information to be sequentially transmitted
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 24, 2017
    Publication date: September 12, 2019
    Inventors: Mikio BANDOU, Yukihiro KAWAMATA, Akira MAEKI
  • Patent number: 10253481
    Abstract: The present invention includes: a map information storage unit 18 storing map data 18A representing a travelable area for a dump truck 7; a work machine information accumulation unit 19 accumulating position data 6A and operational data 6B of a hydraulic excavator 6; an operational range arithmetic processing unit 21 calculating an operational range of the hydraulic excavator 7 on the basis of the position data 6A and the operational data 6B accumulated in the work machine information accumulation unit 19; and a map information update unit 22 verifying the operational range of the hydraulic excavator 6 calculated by the operational range arithmetic processing unit 21 against the map data 18A stored in the map information storage unit 18 in order to correct the boundary 18a of the loading site 1 in the map data 18A and then update the map data 18A.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2019
    Assignee: Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Manabu Katou, Hiroto Morizane, Yukihiro Kawamata
  • Patent number: 10160383
    Abstract: A surroundings monitoring system for a working machine prevents its own vehicle shadow from having an influence on the detection of an object existing around the working machine. The surroundings monitoring system for a working machine includes: a monocular camera picks up an image of the surroundings of the working machine. A characteristic pattern extraction unit extracts characteristic patterns in the picked-up image based on a characteristic amount of the image. A shadow profile extraction unit extracts a profile of a region, which can be regarded as a shadow of the working machine in the image, based on the characteristic amount of the image; and an object detection unit detects an obstacle existing around the working machine based on the remaining characteristic patterns obtained by excluding a shadow profile characteristic patterns positioned on the profile extracted by the shadow profile extraction unit from the characteristic patterns.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2018
    Assignee: Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Chieko Onuma, Ryo Yumiba, Yoshibumi Fukuda, Yukihiro Kawamata, Yoichi Kowatari, Moritaka Oota
  • Patent number: 10017112
    Abstract: When a to-be-monitored image exists in an image lacking from a bird's-eye image for surroundings monitoring though the to-be-monitored image is imaged by a camera for monitoring, the to-be-monitored image is securely displayed on a display. Cameras 6F, 6B, 6L, 6R are provided in a longitudinal direction and in a lateral direction of a dump truck 1, in playing bird's-eye images 10F, 10B, 10L, 10R acquired by converting view points of a through image imaged by each camera, so as to display a to-be-monitored image in a to-be-monitored image undisplayable area, each through image imaged by each camera is aggregated on one screen by an image aggregating unit 21, this aggregated screen is scanned by a to-be-monitored image detector 20 to detect the to-be-monitored image, and the to-be-monitored image is superimposed on a synthetic bird's-eye image 10 displayed on the display 9 and is displayed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 5, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2018
    Assignee: Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yoichi Kowatari, Yukihiro Kawamata, Yoshihiro Inanobe, Moritaka Oota
  • Patent number: 9990543
    Abstract: The vehicle exterior moving object detection system includes a surrounding-area image input section for capturing images in areas surrounding its own vehicle and delivering the captured images as surrounding-area images, a combined image constructing section for constructing a combined image including a result output from the detection of a moving object by combining the surrounding-area images, and an output section for presenting the combined image to the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 5, 2018
    Assignee: Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yoshibumi Fukuda, Chieko Onuma, Moritaka Oota, Yukihiro Kawamata, Yoichi Kowatari
  • Publication number: 20180053406
    Abstract: An on-board terminal device includes a volatile storage unit, a non-volatile storage unit, a map data storage unit that stores map data indicative of a target route, an error calculation unit that calculates an amount of positional offset of own mining machine from the target route on a basis of the map data and own mining machine position information, a departure determination unit which determines that the own mining machine has departed from the target route, and a data storage destination control unit that, if the departure determination unit determines to have departed, extracts log data out of the log data stored in the volatile storage unit, archives and stores the extracted log data in the non-volatile storage unit, and also stores log data, which would be outputted after the time point of the departure, in the non-volatile storage unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 8, 2015
    Publication date: February 22, 2018
    Inventors: Yukihiro KAWAMATA, Tomoyuki HAMADA, Manabu KATOU, Hiroto MORIZANE
  • Patent number: 9829893
    Abstract: An operation management system for dump trucks includes a storage device 130, 170 in which map data indicative of a road map for dump trucks are stored, a plurality of dump trucks 200 configured to travel based on the map data, and a control device 100, 150 configured to permit, upon updating of part 510 of the map data, updating of the part of the map data when, although the part of the map data is included in any of a plurality of mining fields 400, 330, 460, no dump truck exists in any of the plurality of mining fields.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 16, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2017
    Assignee: Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yukihiro Kawamata, Hiroto Morizane, Tomoyuki Hamada, Hidefumi Ishimoto
  • Publication number: 20170286763
    Abstract: The vehicle exterior moving object detection system includes a surrounding-area image input section for capturing images in areas surrounding its own vehicle and delivering the captured images as surrounding-area images, a combined image constructing section for constructing a combined image including a result output from the detection of a moving object by combining the surrounding-area images, and an output section for presenting the combined image to the user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 7, 2015
    Publication date: October 5, 2017
    Inventors: Yoshibumi FUKUDA, Chieko ONUMA, Moritaka OOTA, Yukihiro KAWAMATA, Yoichi KOWATARI
  • Publication number: 20170282794
    Abstract: When a to-be-monitored image exists in an image lacking from a bird's-eye image for surroundings monitoring though the to-be-monitored image is imaged by a camera for monitoring, the to-be-monitored image is securely displayed on a display. Cameras 6F, 6B, 6L, 6R are provided in a longitudinal direction and in a lateral direction of a dump truck 1, in playing bird's-eye images 10F, 10B, 10L, 10R acquired by converting view points of a through image imaged by each camera, so as to display a to-be-monitored image in a to-be-monitored image undisplayable area, each through image imaged by each camera is aggregated on one screen by an image aggregating unit 21, this aggregated screen is scanned by a to-be-monitored image detector 20 to detect the to-be-monitored image, and the to-be-monitored image is superimposed on a synthetic bird's-eye image 10 displayed on the display 9 and is displayed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 5, 2016
    Publication date: October 5, 2017
    Inventors: Yoichi KOWATARI, Yukihiro KAWAMATA, Yoshihiro INANOBE, Moritaka OOTA
  • Publication number: 20170285655
    Abstract: The present invention includes: a map information storage unit 18 storing map data 18A representing a travelable area for a dump truck 7; a work machine information accumulation unit 19 accumulating position data 6A and operational data 6B of a hydraulic excavator 6; an operational range arithmetic processing unit 21 calculating an operational range of the hydraulic excavator 7 on the basis of the position data 6A and the operational data 6B accumulated in the work machine information accumulation unit 19; and a map information update unit 22 verifying the operational range of the hydraulic excavator 6 calculated by the operational range arithmetic processing unit 21 against the map data 18A stored in the map information storage unit 18 in order to correct the boundary 18a of the loading site 1 in the map data 18A and then update the map data 18A.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 28, 2015
    Publication date: October 5, 2017
    Applicant: Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Manabu KATOU, Hiroto MORIZANE, Yukihiro KAWAMATA
  • Publication number: 20170018070
    Abstract: A surroundings monitoring system for a working machine prevents its own vehicle shadow from having an influence on the detection of an object existing around the working machine. The surroundings monitoring system for a working machine includes: a monocular camera picks up an image of the surroundings of the working machine. A characteristic pattern extraction unit extracts characteristic patterns in the picked-up image based on a characteristic amount of the image. A shadow profile extraction unit extracts a profile of a region, which can be regarded as a shadow of the working machine in the image, based on the characteristic amount of the image; and an object detection unit detects an obstacle existing around the working machine based on the remaining characteristic patterns obtained by excluding a shadow profile characteristic patterns positioned on the profile extracted by the shadow profile extraction unit from the characteristic patterns.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 4, 2015
    Publication date: January 19, 2017
    Inventors: Chieko ONUMA, Ryo YUMIBA, Yoshibumi FUKUDA, Yukihiro KAWAMATA, Yoichi KOWATARI, Moritaka OOTA
  • Patent number: 9463741
    Abstract: A vehicle peripheral obstacle notification system, used on a construction machine, detects a moving obstacle, gives composite display of the detected moving obstacle, and notifies a user thereof, the moving obstacle being at a location not appearing in a composite bird's-eye view obtained by onboard cameras acquiring images of the surroundings of the vehicle including an image immediately under the vehicle body. The system has a composite image formation part that extracts composite image formation areas from the surrounding images to compose a composite bird's-eye image. A moving obstacle is detected using the surrounding images and it is decided whether the detected position of the moving obstacle is inside or outside the composite image formation areas. If the detected position is determined to be outside the composite image formation areas, information about the detected position is extracted and an image thereof is output for superimposition onto the composite bird's-eye image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2016
    Assignee: Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yoshibumi Fukuda, Chieko Onuma, Hidefumi Ishimoto, Moritaka Oota, Yukihiro Kawamata
  • Patent number: 9418557
    Abstract: A fleet operation management system for a vehicle traveling on a predetermined travel route comprises: a storage unit (128, 142) which stores travel route information including the position, height and surface resistance of the vehicle's travel route; a speed prediction unit (102) which predicts future change in the speed of the vehicle coasting on the travel route based on the current position, the current speed, and the travel route information; and an operation timing calculation unit (104) which judges which of acceleration, deceleration and coasting should be performed at the current position based on the change in the coasting speed so that the vehicle speed after the lapse of a predetermined time will be within a predetermined range. This configuration makes it possible to properly judge which of the acceleration, the deceleration and the coasting should be performed on the vehicle's travel route from the viewpoint of fuel-efficient operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2016
    Assignee: Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yukihiro Kawamata, Mikio Bando, Hiroshi Ogura, Katsuaki Tanaka
  • Publication number: 20160231750
    Abstract: An operation management system for dump trucks includes a storage device 130, 170 in which map data indicative of a road map for dump trucks are stored, a plurality of dump trucks 200 configured to travel based on the map data, and a control device 100, 150 configured to permit, upon updating of part 510 of the map data, updating of the part of the map data when, although the part of the map data is included in any of a plurality of mining fields 400, 330, 460, no dump truck exists in any of the plurality of mining fields.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 16, 2014
    Publication date: August 11, 2016
    Inventors: Yukihiro KAWAMATA, Hiroto MORIZANE, Tomoyuki HAMADA, Hidefumi ISHIMOTO
  • Patent number: 9304004
    Abstract: An update information providing server for providing data of an updated portion in map data composed of plural kinds of the data includes: a map data storage unit configured to store incremental update data of a difference between the data at a predefined time and newest data, and a data size of the incremental update data; an update request receiving unit configured to receive from a user terminal a map data update request including a capacity of a recording medium, and priority information for specifying a data kind of the data to be preferentially updated; an update order information making unit configured to make update order information; an update information transmission unit configured to extract the incremental update data from the storage unit, to make update information including the extracted incremental update data and the update order information, and to transmit the made update information to the user terminal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 21, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 5, 2016
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Clarion Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yukihiro Kawamata, Yukio Miyazaki, Takayuki Uchida
  • Publication number: 20160019792
    Abstract: A fleet operation management system for a vehicle traveling on a predetermined travel route comprises: a storage unit (128, 142) which stores travel route information including the position, height and surface resistance of the vehicle's travel route; a speed prediction unit (102) which predicts future change in the speed of the vehicle coasting on the travel route based on the current position, the current speed, and the travel route information; and an operation timing calculation unit (104) which judges which of acceleration, deceleration and coasting should be performed at the current position based on the change in the coasting speed so that the vehicle speed after the lapse of a predetermined time will be within a predetermined range. This configuration makes it possible to properly judge which of the acceleration, the deceleration and the coasting should be performed on the vehicle's travel route from the viewpoint of fuel-efficient operation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 19, 2013
    Publication date: January 21, 2016
    Inventors: Yukihiro KAWAMATA, Mikio BANDO, Hiroshi OGURA, Katsuaki TANAKA
  • Publication number: 20150307024
    Abstract: A vehicle peripheral obstacle notification system, used on a construction machine, detects a moving obstacle, gives composite display of the detected moving obstacle, and notifies a user thereof, the moving obstacle being at a location not appearing in a composite bird's-eye view obtained by onboard cameras acquiring images of the surroundings of the vehicle including an image immediately under the vehicle body. The system has a composite image formation part that extracts composite image formation areas from the surrounding images to compose a composite bird's-eye image. A moving obstacle is detected using the surrounding images and it is decided whether the detected position of the moving obstacle is inside or outside the composite image formation areas. If the detected position is determined to be outside the composite image formation areas, information about the detected position is extracted and an image thereof is output for superimposition onto the composite bird's-eye image.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 19, 2015
    Publication date: October 29, 2015
    Inventors: Yoshibumi FUKUDA, Chieko ONUMA, Hidefumi ISHIMOTO, Moritaka OOTA, Yukihiro KAWAMATA
  • Patent number: 9097541
    Abstract: A driving support device includes a maximum measurement range determination unit adapted to calculate a distance to a plurality of points on a surface of an object present at surroundings of a vehicle. A distance sensor such as a laser range finder or a stereo camera that measures a distance is used in order to estimate bias of an acceleration sensor with high accuracy upon correction of the bias by use of the distance sensor such as the stereo camera or the LRF in a GPS non-receiving section. A sensor parameter estimation unit is adapted to estimate a parameter of the acceleration sensor based on a behavior of an own vehicle obtained from a vehicle translation and rotation angle calculation means adapted to count backwards the vehicle behavior based on distance variation and also based on a measurement value of the acceleration sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2015
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Mikio Bando, Yukihiro Kawamata, Toshiyuki Aoki
  • Publication number: 20150112537
    Abstract: Provided is a navigation system for autonomous dump trucks capable of preventing a dump truck from autonomously traveling on a carrying passage differing from the actual carrying passage even when the carrying passages for the dump truck have been altered. The navigation system is based on map data created by digitizing a map of roads on which the dump truck can travel. A control unit executes switching control between an autonomous mode to be selected when the autonomous traveling of the dump truck should be performed and a maneuver mode to be selected when the dump truck should travel according to an operator, based on version information of the map data used by the dump truck for the autonomous traveling and version information of master map data created by digitizing a map of the latest roads on which the dump truck can travel, managed by a control center.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 21, 2014
    Publication date: April 23, 2015
    Inventors: Yukihiro KAWAMATA, Hiroto MORIZANE, Tomoyuki HAMADA, Hidefumi ISHIMOTO