Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc.

Subaru Corporation

Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Abal Inc.

Tsuyoshi Nomura

Ercan Mehmet Dede

Masaaki Kobayashi

Noriaki Saito

Yuyang Song

Yuqing Zhou

Takeru Shoji

Masato Tanaka

Chihiro Suzuki

Keiko Sonoda

Danil V Prokhorov

Feng Zhou

Taehwa Lee

Danny J Lohan

Hiroshi Ukegawa

Yoshimasa Takahashi

Yoshikatsu Kanemaru

Shota Suzuki

Yoshiya Okoyama

A fuel cell that includes an air fuel cell bipolar plate and a hydrogen fuel cell bipolar plate respectively having a Turing-pattern microstructure configuration. The spatial arrangement of the air fuel cell bipolar plate and the hydrogen fuel cell bipolar plate is such that the air layer of the air fuel cell bipolar plate and the hydrogen layer of the hydrogen fuel cell bipolar plate are opposed to each other to define a microstructure configuration for a coolant layer.

Fuel cell having bipolar plates with multi-layered dehomogenized turing-pattern microstructure configuration

A method of designing an inflatable structure includes generating a finite element mesh defining a plurality of elements for an inflatable shape-morphing structure, calculating a topology optimization analysis for the inflatable shape-morphing structure having a final shape in an inflated state, wherein the topology optimization analysis determines a plurality of tensors for the plurality of elements of the finite element mesh, converting the plurality of tensors for the plurality of elements into a plurality of diffusion coefficients for the plurality of elements, and generating a space-filling Turing pattern for the inflatable shape-morphing structure as a function of the plurality of diffusion coefficients, wherein the space-filling Turing pattern defines a simulated textured surface for the inflatable shape-morphing structure.

Methods of designing inflatable shape-morphing structures with textured patterns

One or more methods of designing microchannel fluid flow networks in a fuel cell bipolar plate includes executing one or more programs on one or more computing devices having one or more processors to optimize the spatially varying orientations of homogenized anisotropic porous media by iteratively executing a gradient-based algorithm that incorporates objective functions of reaction uniformity and flow resistance, and then generate, in response to the homogenized anisotropic porous media optimization, one or more microchannel fluid flow networks by dehomogenizing the optimized anisotropic porous media.

Inverse design of fuel cell bipolar plate flow fields through anisotropic porous media optimization

A shroud for an air moving device includes a shroud body configured to at least partially surround one or more blades. The shroud body defines an annular cavity and an annular opening. The annular opening faces the one or more blades. The shroud also includes a Helmholtz resonator defined by the annular cavity and the annular opening. The Helmholtz resonator is configured to reflect sound generated by the one or more blades out of the shroud body.

Shroud for an air moving device

A virtual space experience system capable of preventing unintentional contact between players without inhibiting a sense of immersion is provided. A virtual space image determination unitof a VR system S causes an image of a virtual space to be perceived by a second player to include an image in which a first avatar corresponding to a first player moves so as to generate a gap in a correspondence relationship between coordinates of the first player and coordinates of the first avatar when a trigger event is recognized, and causes the image of the virtual space to be perceived by the second player to include an image of a second avatar corresponding to the second player and a third avatar corresponding to the first player after the recognition. An avatar coordinate determination unitdetermines coordinates of the third avatar based on the coordinates of the first player.

Virtual space experience system

An inflatable structure includes an inflatable membrane with an outer surface, and a skin with a textured space-filling Turing pattern disposed on the outer surface of the inflatable membrane. A variable stiffness filament is coupled to the inflatable structure and the variable stiffness filament has a first stiffness at a first temperature and a second stiffness different than the first stiffness at a second temperature different than the first temperature. An electrical energy source is included and in electrical communication with the variable stiffness filament, and the electrical energy source is configured to apply Joule heating to and increase a temperature of the variable stiffness filament from the first temperature to the second temperature such variable stiffness actively controls a stiffness of the inflatable structure.

Fabric-based inflatable structures with textured pattern designs and variable stiffness

An occupant protection device including a seat belt including a shoulder belt and a lap belt, a locking tongue that is detachably joined to a buckle, that allows the seat belt to pass therethrough, and that is capable of switching between an unlock state in which the seat belt is allowed to move with the locking tongue being between the shoulder belt and the lap belt and a lock state in which movement thereof is restricted, a shoulder-belt puller that is capable of pulling the shoulder belt to apply a tensile force thereto, a side-collision detector that detects a side collision or a precursor thereof, and a control unit that changes a state of the locking tongue into the lock state and causes the shoulder-belt puller to pull the shoulder belt when the side-collision detector detects the side collision that occurs opposite an occupant or the precursor thereof.

Occupant protection device

An occupant protection device including a seat belt that includes a shoulder belt and a lap belt, a locking tongue that is capable of switching between an unlock state and a lock state, a shoulder-belt puller that is capable of pulling the shoulder belt, a lap-belt puller that is capable of pulling the lap belt, a side-collision detector that detects a side collision or a precursor thereof, and a control unit that changes a state of the locking tongue into the lock state and a state of the lap-belt puller into a first pulling state in which the lap-belt puller pulls the lap belt and that subsequently changes a state of the shoulder-belt puller into a second pulling state in which the shoulder-belt puller pulls the shoulder belt when the side-collision detector detects the side collision that occurs opposite an occupant or the precursor thereof.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Tsuyoshi Nomura