In 1608, Dutch eyeglass maker Hans Lipperhey filed the first patent for a working telescope. The patent was denied.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8190360 | Method and apparatus for creating visual effects on grass A method and apparatus for imprinting high resolution images onto fields, such as sports fields and landscapes is disclosed. In one embodiment, precise and consistent lawn and field patterning is accomplished by use in combination of a global positioning system; a p... | 05/29/2012 |
| 8180513 | Autonomous ground vehicle control system for high-speed and safe operation The present disclosure relates to a reference yaw rate generator for an autonomous ground vehicle control system. The reference yaw rate generator is configured to generate a reference yaw rate (rr) based on an actual latitudinal position (Y), a desired l... | 05/15/2012 |
| 8170738 | Performance inspection method for autonomous mobile apparatus, and performance inspection sheet therefor An autonomous mobile apparatus (R) at a reference position (1) is confronted to a subject (T) with a predefined distance. The autonomous mobile apparatus (R) is rotated at the reference position (1) to confront plural directions sequentially. The subje... | 05/01/2012 |
| 8145376 | System for producing an adaptive driving strategy based on emission optimization The system includes a road scenario sensor, a vehicle control unit, and a computer processing unit. The road scenario sensor detects upcoming road scenarios for the system vehicle. The computer processing unit receives an input from the road scenario sensor and dete... | 03/27/2012 |
| 8140209 | Parking assisting device and parking assisting method A parking assisting device is equipped with a imaging device (1), a gaze position determining sections (3, 11), target parking position setting sections (1, 11), and a parking assisting section (2). The imaging device (1) takes ima... | 03/20/2012 |
| 8121749 | System for integrating dynamically observed and static information for route planning in a graph based planner Methods and systems of controlling an autonomous vehicle are provided. A method comprises controlling operations of the vehicle based at least in part on edge costs. An edge is a representation of a path the vehicle can traverse. Edge costs are determined by an esti... | 02/21/2012 |
| 8116928 | Automatic ultrasonic and computer-vision navigation device and method using the same The present invention discloses an automatic ultrasonic and computer-vision navigation device and a method using the same. In the method of the present invention, the user guides an automatic navigation device to learn and plan a navigation path; next, the automatic... | 02/14/2012 |
| 8108092 | Autonomous behaviors for a remote vehicle A method for enhancing operational efficiency of a remote vehicle using a diagnostic behavior. The method comprises inputting and analyzing data received from a plurality of sensors to determine the existence of deviations from normal operation of the remote vehicle... | 01/31/2012 |
| 8108090 | Straddle carrier with automatic steering A straddle carrier for transporting and stacking freight containers, with automatic steering, is made up of two chassis beams having steerable wheels, for traveling over the container stack. At least one laser scanner measures the distance to a container wall from d... | 01/31/2012 |
| 8108091 | Automatic position-based guide toy vehicle apparatus An apparatus uses a guide toy vehicle and has a smart floor environment. The smart floor environment is filled with location tags. Data can be found in a back-end database for location tags of an exhibit unit through a wireless network. The data comprise multimedia ... | 01/31/2012 |
| 8099205 | Machine guidance system A guidance system for a mobile machine is disclosed. The guidance system may have a scanning device configured to generate a signal indicative of a lateral distance from the machine to a roadway marker, a locating device configured to determine a geographical locati... | 01/17/2012 |
| 8090488 | Intelligent powered mobility for infants and special needs children A powered mobility device for advancing cognitive, perceptual and motor abilities of a child lacking natural mobility is disclosed. The device includes a seat sized for the child to be secured therein and a motorized drive assembly coupled to the seat. A local opera... | 01/03/2012 |
| 8078349 | Transitioning a mixed-mode vehicle to autonomous mode Disclosed are methods and devices for transitioning a mixed-mode autonomous vehicle from a human driven mode to an autonomously driven mode. Transitioning may include stopping a vehicle on a predefined landing strip and detecting a reference indicator. Based on the ... | 12/13/2011 |
| 8060269 | Swath line creation including slope compensation for an automatic guidance system of a work vehicle An apparatus and method for generating swath lines including compensation for sloping terrain in a field for use in an automatic guidance system of a work machine. The swath lines are created as a function of the position, elevation and/or orientation of the work ve... | 11/15/2011 |
| 8027762 | Driving assist apparatus A driving assist apparatus 1 that performs driving assist on the basis of a traffic rule of a mobile object includes a traffic rule acquisition unit 11, 12, and 13 acquiring a traffic rule which a mobile object is highly likely to observe in an ... | 09/27/2011 |
| 8027761 | Local positioning system for automated lawn mowers An improved local positioning system (10) utilizing two fixed sonic transmitters (16A,16B) and an omni directional audio receptor (20) mounted on an automated lawn mower (12). Distance between each audio transmitter and the mower i... | 09/27/2011 |
| 7991521 | Variable path automated guided vehicle An automated guided vehicle and a method of controlling an automated guided vehicle which are capable of varying the travel path of the automatic guided vehicle in order to reduce wear patterns created in the floor of the material handling facility. The travel path ... | 08/02/2011 |
| 7983808 | Fully automatic straddle carrier with local radio detection and laser steering A fully automatic driverless straddle carrier for transporting and stacking freight containers is equipped with several different sensor systems for the vehicle detection and navigation. Laser scanners are arranged at the vehicle for automatically guiding the vehicl... | 07/19/2011 |
| 7979173 | Autonomous vehicle travel control systems and methods Method and system for enabling semi-autonomous or autonomous vehicle travel includes providing a vehicle travel management system which monitors the location of vehicles in a travel lane and the location of the travel lane, creating dedicated travel lanes for vehicl... | 07/12/2011 |
| 7979174 | Automatic planning and regulation of the speed of autonomous vehicles An autonomous vehicle comprises one or more sensors configured to obtain data regarding conditions which affect movement of the autonomous vehicle; a speed planner coupled to the one or more sensors and configured to calculate a desired speed based, at least in part... | 07/12/2011 |
| 7979175 | Systems and methods for control of an unmanned ground vehicle Systems and methods for interruptible autonomous control of a vehicle. Autonomous control is achieved by using actuators that interact with input devices in the vehicle. The actuators (e.g., linkages) manipulate the input devices (e.g., articulation controls and dri... | 07/12/2011 |
| 7979172 | Autonomous vehicle travel control systems and methods Method and system for enabling semi-autonomous or autonomous vehicle travel includes creating dedicated travel lanes for vehicle travel, determining the location of vehicles in the dedicated travel lanes, and providing instructions to the vehicles in the dedicated t... | 07/12/2011 |
| 7970507 | Method and system for autonomous tracking of a mobile target by an unmanned aerial vehicle This invention provides a system and method for autonomously tracking a moving target from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with a variety of airframe and sensor payload capabilities so that the target remains within the vehicle's sensor field of view regardless of t... | 06/28/2011 |
| 7970506 | System for maintaining communication between teams of vehicles A system maintains communication between a plurality of unmanned vehicles within an environment. The system includes a sensor component and an evaluator. The sensor component senses objects within the environment. The sensor component is located on a first unmanned ... | 06/28/2011 |
| 7966106 | Control device and method for guided travel of unmanned vehicle Leveling operation can be effectively performed at a discharge site without increasing a cost of vehicles, and a running course can be easily generated in a short time and at a low-cost. Based on each of measured position data of a survey line 20 of a dischar... | 06/21/2011 |
| 7957857 | Direction guiding apparatus and direction guiding method The present invention discloses a direction guiding apparatus for indicating a guidance direction to a user. The direction guiding apparatus includes an operation device having an operations part movable on an operation plane, and a control part for transmitting con... | 06/07/2011 |
| 7957858 | Method for determining projected obstacle areas for moving obstacles A method involves calculating a closest point of approach (CPA) between a vehicle and a moving obstacle, determining the CPA is within a pre-determined distance from the vehicle at a point in time along the vehicle path, calculating a projected obstacle area (POA) f... | 06/07/2011 |
| 7937196 | Lane boundary detector A lane boundary detector includes an edge point extracting unit that extracts a plurality of edge points of a lane sign from the input image, and an edge line extracting unit that extracts a plurality of edge lines of the lane sign from the edge points to formulate ... | 05/03/2011 |
| 7885738 | Method, medium, and apparatus for self-propelled mobile unit with obstacle avoidance during wall-following algorithm A method, medium, and apparatus of a self-propelled mobile unit with obstacle avoidance during wall-following. In the self-propelled mobile unit, a carrying unit may move the mobile unit by using a transmitted power, and a sensor unit can detect an obstacle and a wa... | 02/08/2011 |
| 7873447 | Position estimation apparatus, position estimation method and program recording medium The present invention provides a position estimation apparatus capable of determining whether an estimated value deviates from an actual value and trying a process to correct the estimated value if the estimated value is determined to be incorrect. The position esti... | 01/18/2011 |
| 7865277 | Obstacle avoidance system and method A method includes the steps of receiving a present route for a vehicle based on a present vehicle location and a vehicle destination, receiving obstacle information from a sensor of a sensor array, the received obstacle information including information about at lea... | 01/04/2011 |
| 7853372 | System, apparatus, and method of preventing collision of remote-controlled mobile robot A system, apparatus, and method of preventing a collision of a remote-controlled mobile robot are disclosed. The system includes a mobile robot transmitting image data taken by a camera mounted on the mobile robot and moving in accordance with received control data,... | 12/14/2010 |
| 7853373 | System for steering a traction drum driven mobile object A turf device driven by a traction drum. The traction unit is connected to the tool by an articulable joint which allows the traction unit to rotate horizontally (yaw) and vertically (pitch), as well as roll side-to-side in relation to the tool. The articulation all... | 12/14/2010 |
| 7853371 | Article transport apparatus and article transport method An article transport apparatus is provided with a path that is arranged along a plurality of article transferring locations and that has a first end and a second end, a plurality of article transporting vehicles that run along the path, and a controller that control... | 12/14/2010 |
| 7831344 | Vehicle driving force control device In a throttle valve control device, an engine required output setting section sets an engine required output corresponding to an accelerator opening degree by means of selecting a characteristic which is varied depending on a road surface friction coefficient or by ... | 11/09/2010 |
| 7831345 | Method of driving plurality of mine vehicles in mine, and transport system A method of driving mine vehicles in a mine, and a transport system. A plurality of mine vehicles is arranged in succession and driven in convoy between working areas. A master vehicle in the convoy is driven manually, and slave vehicles follow the master, provided ... | 11/09/2010 |
| 7765038 | Mission planning system for vehicles with varying levels of autonomy A system in accordance with the present invention tasks a team of autonomous unmanned vehicles. The system includes a first team member and a second team member. The first team member has a first level of autonomy. The second team member has a second level of autono... | 07/27/2010 |
| 7734385 | Traveling control method, medium, and apparatus for autonomous navigation A traveling control method, medium, and apparatus for autonomous navigation. The traveling control method of controlling an autonomous navigation machine, having at least on the right and left sides thereof at least first and second receivers that receive a radio si... | 06/08/2010 |
| 7734386 | System for intelligently controlling a team of vehicles A system collaboratively and autonomously plans and controls a team of vehicles having subsystems within an environment. The system includes a mission management component, a communication component, a payload controller component, and an automatic target recognitio... | 06/08/2010 |
| 7734387 | Motion planner for unmanned ground vehicles traversing at high speeds in partially known environments A motion planner for unmanned ground vehicles capable of traversing at high speeds to reach remote locations in partially known environments. The motion planner comprises a global path planner and a local path planner in communication with the global path planner. T... | 06/08/2010 |