The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 16, 2021
Filed:
Feb. 20, 2019
Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc., Plano, TX (US);
Umesh N. Gandhi, Farmington Hills, MI (US);
Taewoo Nam, Ann Arbor, MI (US);
Yuyang Song, Ann Arbor, MI (US);
Ryohei Tsuruta, Ann Arbor, MI (US);
Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc., Plano, TX (US);
Abstract
Systems, methods, and other implementations described herein relate to a manner of detecting kinking or other bending on a bendable structure. In one implementation, a bendable structure is configured to kink at different locations. First and second sensors surface-mounted antiparallel along the bendable structure have bending responses that increase with increasing amounts of bending, and that are increasingly sensitive along their lengths. The bending responses from first and second sensors are received at a first time and a second time subsequent to the first time. The formation of a kink is identified in response to identifying that the bending responses are indicative of unkinked bending at the first time and indicative of kinked bending at the second time. In response to identifying the formation of the kink, the location of the kink is identified based on the bending responses at the first time.