Other

Mi-jack Products, Inc.

Suzhou Eavision Robotic Technologies Co., Ltd.

Hua-chuang Automobile Information Technical Center Co., Ltd.

Containertrac, Inc.

Eavision Corporation

Jihua Huang

Han-Shue Tan

Gregory Keith Warf

Fanping Bu

Ke-Ren Chuang

SweKuang Tan

Hongjun Song

A distance from an aerial vehicle to a terrain feature located forward and lower with respect to the aerial vehicle is measured. An orientation of the aerial vehicle with respect to a reference orientation is detected. At least the measured distance and the orientation of the aerial vehicle is utilized to determine a relative vertical difference between a vertical location of the aerial vehicle and a vertical location of the terrain feature. The determined relative vertical difference is utilized to automatically adjust a flight altitude of the aerial vehicle.

Detecting and following terrain height autonomously along a flight path

A specification of an expected border of a bounded area is received. One or more images of at least a portion of the bounded area that is at least a threshold distance away from the expected border are received to generate a model of the bounded area. A current location position of the aerial vehicle is used to determine that the aerial vehicle is within the threshold distance away from the expected border. In response, an updated expected border is determined using the generated model of the bounded area and a border image of at least a portion of the expected border captured by an image sensor.

Real-time learning and detection of a border in a flight path

A distance from an aerial vehicle to a terrain feature located forward and lower with respect to the aerial vehicle is measured. A current orientation of the aerial vehicle with respect to a reference orientation is detected. At least the measured distance and the current orientation is utilized to determine a relative vertical difference between a vertical location of the aerial vehicle and a vertical location of the terrain feature. The determined vertical difference is utilized to automatically adjust a flight altitude of the aerial vehicle.

A method for steering control of a vehicle having an actuator which turns steered wheels of the vehicle. The steering control method includes obtaining a location of a target point at a look-ahead distance away from the vehicle based on a maneuver the vehicle is performing, predicting a forward location of the vehicle at the look-ahead distance away from the vehicle, determining a distance between the location of the target point and the forward location, computing a normalized error by dividing the distance with the look-ahead distance, and determining a steering control command based on an integration of the normalized error. The actuator then turns the steered wheels of the vehicle according to the steering control command so as to steer the vehicle to perform various maneuvers.

System and method for vehicle steering control

A system is provided to associate containers with handling equipment (HE) in a container storage facility. In the system an operation detector, such as a twistlock sensor that indicates when a container is picked up or dropped off, is installed on a first HE which is a piece of container handling equipment (CHE) that can lift the container. An event detector, such as a vibration sensor or distance measuring radar, is further installed on a second HE that is a tractor with an attached chassis for receiving and transporting a container. The event detector indicates when a container-operation-related event, such as a container pick up or drop off, occurred on the tractor chassis. The two detectors (operation and event) are used by a processor to associate the container with either the CHE or the tractor. The operation and event detectors can further be used in conjunction with position sensors such as a GPS sensor to accurately determine the position of the tractor and the CHE in a container yard. When the position sensors degrade in performance, an additional motion detector such as a speed sensor can be used to determine the tractor's distance from the CHE to locate an appropriate tractor involved in the operation.

System for associating inventory with handling equipment in shipping container yard inventory transactions

A method is provided for calibrating past position estimates from a positioning system that provides real-time position estimates of a mobile object. The method first stores the real-time position estimates, which as time goes by become past position estimates and naturally form a first past trajectory depicting the past movement of the mobile object. Subsequently, a calibrated past trajectory is determined, which includes calibrated past position estimates that correspond to the same time instances as the past positions in the first past trajectory. When real-time positions have low qualities, this method calibrates them at a later time by using (higher-quality) real-time positions both before and after them. Errors in the past positions are then corrected based on the calibrated past trajectory. When used with event detectors that indicate inventory transactions, this method can correct position errors associated with inventory events so as to improve the performance of inventory tracking.

Automatic correction of past position errors for location and inventory tracking

A method automatically detects errors in a container inventory database associated with a container inventory tracking system of a container storage facility. A processor in the inventory tracking system performs a method that: obtains a first data record, identifies an event (e.g., pickup, drop-off, or movement) associated with the first record, provides a list of error types based on the identified event, and determines whether a data error has occurred through a checking process. In each of the checking steps, the processor selects an error type from the list of error types, determines a search criterion based on the selected error type and the first data record, queries the database using the search criterion, compares query results with the first data record to detect data conflicts between them, and upon the detection of the data conflicts, reports that a data error of the selected error type has been detected.

Automatic error detection for inventory tracking and management systems used at a shipping container yard

A method is provided for automatically locating a container in a stowage location of a container ship for loading and unloading of the container ship in container terminals. The method includes the following steps: obtaining the position information of the container ship from container ship positioning units, obtaining the position information of the container from container positioning units when the container is in its stowage location, and determining the stowage location of the container in the container ship by first computing a relative position of the container in the container ship based on both the position information of the container ship and the position information of the container and then correlating the relative position with a stowage plan of the container ship.

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Richmond, CA, United States of America

Jihua Huang