IP Library Granted Patent US 12,397,668
Granted Patent B2
US 12,397,668 · App. 18/188,415 · Granted Aug 26, 2025

Executing an energy transfer directive for an idle transport

Inventor: Norman Lu (Fairview, TX)
Assignee: TOYOTA MOTOR NORTH AMERICA, INC.
B60L53/36B60L53/53G05B19/042G05D1/0212G05B2219/2639G05D1/0287
View Patent ↗
Loading inventors, assignments & file history…
Monitor This Case
Get email alerts when status or documents change.
Order Certified Copies
Most orders are placed with the USPTO same day — all within 24 business hours.
Order via The Patent Place →
Pre-filled with this patent's details
Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,397,668
App. No.
18/188,415
Granted
Aug 26, 2025
Kind
B2
Abstract

An example operation includes one or more of determining, by a transport at a first location, that the transport is not in use, determining, by the transport, a second location to transfer energy stored in the transport, maneuvering, by the transport, to the second location, discharging, by the transport, the stored energy to the second location, and maneuvering, by the transport, to the first location.

Claims (56)

1. A method, comprising:

determining, by a transport at a first location, that the transport will be in an idle state for a period of time;

determining, by the transport, that a battery of the transport has surplus energy that can be discharged based on a current power level of the battery;

obtaining a profile of the transport comprising a do-not disturb geographic area;

determining, to travel to a second location and discharge the surplus energy based on the period of time and the first location of the transport being outside of the do-not disturb geographic area included in the profile;

maneuvering by the transport to the second location; and

discharging the surplus energy to a charging station at the second location.

2. The method of claim 1 , comprising:

identifying the second location based on a number of other transports providing energy to the second location.

3. The method of claim 1 , comprising:

identifying the second location based on at least one of a weather condition and a natural occurrence.

4. The method of claim 1 , comprising:

prompting for either a user confirmation of the maneuvering to the second location or an override of the maneuvering to the second location.

5. The method of claim 1 , comprising:

calculating the period of time that the transport will be in the idle state based on an analysis of historical use of routes and times of use of the transport ending.

6. The method of claim 1 , comprising:

identifying an amount of energy to be transferred from the transport to the second location based on an average amount of energy transferred from a plurality of transports.

7. The method of claim 1 , comprising:

identifying the second location based on a consensus of a plurality of other transports.

8. A transport, comprising:

a processor that, when executing one or more instructions, is configured to:

determine the transport is at a first location and will be in an idle state for a period of time;

determine, by the transport, that a battery of the transport has surplus energy that can be discharged based on a current power level of the battery;

obtain a profile of the transport comprising a do-not disturb geographic area;

determine to travel to a second location and discharge the surplus energy based on the period of time and the first location of the transport being outside of the do-not disturb geographic area included in the profile;

maneuver the transport to the second location; and

discharge the surplus energy to a charging station at the second location.

9. The transport of claim 8 , wherein the processor is configured to:

identify the second location based on a number of other transports to provide energy to the second location.

10. The transport of claim 8 , wherein the processor is configured to:

identify the second location based on at least one of a weather condition and a natural occurrence.

11. The transport of claim 8 , wherein the processor is configured to:

prompt for either a user confirmation of the maneuvering to the second location or an override of the maneuvering to the second location.

12. The transport of claim 8 , wherein the processor is configured to:

calculate the period of time that the transport will be in the idle state based on an analysis of historical use of routes and times of use of the transport.

13. The transport of claim 8 , wherein the processor is configured to:

identify an amount of energy to be transferred from the transport to the second location based on an average amount of energy transferred from a plurality of transports.

14. The transport of claim 8 , wherein the processor is configured to:

identify the second location based on a consensus of a plurality of other transports.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising one or more instructions that, when executed by a processor of a transport, cause the processor to perform:

determining that the transport is at a first location and will be in an idle state at the first location for a period of time;

determining, by the transport, that a battery of the transport has surplus energy that can be discharged based on a current power level of the battery;

obtaining a profile of the transport comprising a do-not disturb geographic area;

determining to travel to a second location and discharge the surplus energy based on the period of time and the first location of the transport being outside of the do-not disturb geographic area included in the profile;

maneuvering the transport to the second location; and

discharging the surplus energy to a charging station at the second location.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the one or more instructions further cause the processor to perform:

identifying the second location based on a number of other transports providing energy to the second location.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the one or more instructions further cause the processor to perform:

identifying the second location based on at least one of a weather condition and a natural occurrence.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the one or more instructions further cause the processor to perform:

prompting for either a user confirmation of the maneuvering to the second location or an override of the maneuvering to the second location.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the one or more instructions further cause the processor to perform:

calculating the period of time that the transport will be in the idle state based on an analysis of historical use of routes and times of use of the transport ending.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the one or more instructions further cause the processor to perform:

identifying the second location based on a consensus of a plurality of other transports.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Mar 22, 2023
From: LU, NORMAN
To: TOYOTA MOTOR NORTH AMERICA, INC.
Reel/Frame 063067/0303 →
Continuity (2)
Continuation 16821961 · Mar 17, 2020
Related Publication 20230219439A1 · Jul 13, 2023
References Cited (159)
US 7956570B2 · Lowenthal et al. · 2011 [cited by applicant]
US 8154246B1 · Heitmann · 2012 [cited by applicant]
US 8676636B2 · Genschel et al. · 2014 [cited by applicant]
US 8698642B2 · Taguchi · 2014 [cited by applicant]
US 8796881B2 · Davis · 2014 [cited by applicant]
US 8860362B2 · Kamen et al. · 2014 [cited by applicant]
US 9024571B2 · Uyeki · 2015 [cited by applicant]
US 9026347B2 · Gadh et al. · 2015 [cited by applicant]
US 9302594B2 · Tripathi et al. · 2016 [cited by applicant]
US 9371007B1 · Penilla et al. · 2016 [cited by applicant]
US 9381821B2 · Keeling et al. · 2016 [cited by applicant]
US 9429974B2 · Forbes, Jr. · 2016 [cited by applicant]
US 9493087B2 · Leary · 2016 [cited by applicant]
US 9739844B2 · Widmer et al. · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 9744858B2 · Hall et al. · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 9754300B2 · Kempton et al. · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 9778653B1 · McClintock et al. · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 9873408B2 · Capizzo · 2018 [cited by applicant]
US 9881259B2 · Forbes, Jr. · 2018 [cited by applicant]
US 9931952B2 · Tripathi et al. · 2018 [cited by applicant]
US 9969288B2 · Ikeda et al. · 2018 [cited by applicant]
US 9994118B2 · Williams et al. · 2018 [cited by applicant]
US 10029577B2 · Widmer et al. · 2018 [cited by applicant]
US 10252631B2 · Ricci · 2019 [cited by applicant]
US 10343537B2 · Widmer et al. · 2019 [cited by applicant]
US 10384775B2 · Krishnamoorthy et al. · 2019 [cited by applicant]
US 10414283B2 · Kudo et al. · 2019 [cited by applicant]
US 10981464B1 · Sun · 2021 [cited by applicant]
US 11108090B2 · Yokoyama et al. · 2021 [cited by applicant]
US 11571983B2 · Lu · 2023 [cited by applicant]
US 11993170B2 · Lu · 2024 [cited by applicant]
US 20070282495A1 · Kempton et al. · 2007 [cited by applicant]
US 20080040223A1 · Bridges et al. · 2008 [cited by applicant]
US 20080040295A1 · Kaplan et al. · 2008 [cited by applicant]
US 20080281663A1 · Hakim et al. · 2008 [cited by applicant]
US 20090085522A1 · Matsumoto · 2009 [cited by applicant]
US 20090222143A1 · Kempton · 2009 [cited by examiner]
US 20090224939A1 · Stocker et al. · 2009 [cited by applicant]
US 20100242906A1 · Konezny · 2010 [cited by examiner]
US 20110221393A1 · Billmaier · 2011 [cited by examiner]
US 20110276448A1 · Perper et al. · 2011 [cited by applicant]
US 20120025764A1 · Lee · 2012 [cited by applicant]
US 20120035778A1 · Kong · 2012 [cited by applicant]
US 20120109798A1 · Shelton et al. · 2012 [cited by applicant]
US 20120169282A1 · Helnerus et al. · 2012 [cited by applicant]
US 20120245750A1 · Paul et al. · 2012 [cited by applicant]
US 20120299373A1 · Yoshida · 2012 [cited by applicant]
US 20120303259A1 · Prosser · 2012 [cited by examiner]
US 20130119920A1 · Hsu et al. · 2013 [cited by applicant]
US 20130166096A1 · Jotanovic · 2013 [cited by applicant]
US 20130218458A1 · Scholl · 2013 [cited by applicant]
US 20130342310A1 · Park et al. · 2013 [cited by applicant]
US 20140167678A1 · Guillou et al. · 2014 [cited by applicant]
US 20150069970A1 · Sarkar et al. · 2015 [cited by applicant]
US 20150286365A1 · Mizukami · 2015 [cited by examiner]
US 20150298565A1 · Iwamura et al. · 2015 [cited by applicant]
US 20150306967A1 · Cohen · 2015 [cited by applicant]
US 20150354974A1 · Takehara et al. · 2015 [cited by applicant]
US 20150360578A1 · Duan · 2015 [cited by examiner]
US 20160075247A1 · Uyeki · 2016 [cited by applicant]
US 20160288653A1 · Tsukamoto · 2016 [cited by applicant]
US 20170259674A1 · Yonehana · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 20170282736A1 · Goei · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 20170282744A1 · Koo · 2017 [cited by examiner]
US 20170355354A1 · Hassounah · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 20170358041A1 · Forbes, Jr. et al. · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 20180111494A1 · Penilla et al. · 2018 [cited by applicant]
US 20180118045A1 · Gruzen et al. · 2018 [cited by applicant]
US 20180143035A1 · Ricci · 2018 [cited by applicant]
US 20180238698A1 · Pedersen · 2018 [cited by applicant]
US 20180345807A1 · Cun · 2018 [cited by applicant]
US 20180345808A1 · Cun · 2018 [cited by applicant]
US 20190009756A1 · Jacobs · 2019 [cited by applicant]
US 20190061546A1 · Miftakhov · 2019 [cited by applicant]
US 20190107406A1 · Cox et al. · 2019 [cited by applicant]
US 20190122561A1 · shimizu et al. · 2019 [cited by applicant]
US 20190202315A1 · Wilding et al. · 2019 [cited by applicant]
US 20190217735A1 · Donnelly et al. · 2019 [cited by applicant]
US 20190275892A1 · Williams et al. · 2019 [cited by applicant]
US 20190280509A1 · Yokoyama et al. · 2019 [cited by applicant]
US 20190285892A1 · Yang · 2019 [cited by applicant]
US 20190308513A1 · Akhavan-Tafti · 2019 [cited by applicant]
US 20190315236A1 · Mere · 2019 [cited by applicant]
US 20190337392A1 · Joshi et al. · 2019 [cited by applicant]
US 20200101850A1 · Harty et al. · 2020 [cited by applicant]
US 20200144838A1 · Penilla et al. · 2020 [cited by applicant]
US 20200175614A1 · Fox et al. · 2020 [cited by applicant]
US 20200218270A1 · Gu et al. · 2020 [cited by applicant]
US 20200226305A1 · Trivelpiece et al. · 2020 [cited by applicant]
US 20200262305A1 · Chakraborty · 2020 [cited by examiner]
US 20200276910A1 · Harty et al. · 2020 [cited by applicant]
US 20200282859A1 · Shin · 2020 [cited by applicant]
US 20200353839A1 · Tarchinski et al. · 2020 [cited by applicant]
US 20210074094A1 · Schumacher · 2021 [cited by applicant]
US 20210199467A1 · Bellifemine et al. · 2021 [cited by applicant]
US 20210213846A1 · Sun et al. · 2021 [cited by applicant]
US 20210213848A1 · Sun · 2021 [cited by applicant]
US 20210256472A1 · Javidan et al. · 2021 [cited by applicant]
US 20210291671A1 · Lu · 2021 [cited by applicant]
US 20210291691A1 · Lu · 2021 [cited by applicant]
US 20210331603A1 · Brombach et al. · 2021 [cited by applicant]
AU 2012100463A4 · 2012 [cited by applicant]
CN 101678774A · 2010 [cited by applicant]
CN 102891505A · 2013 [cited by applicant]
CN 103855767A · 2014 [cited by examiner]
CN 101938146B · 2014 [cited by applicant]
CN 104520133A · 2015 [cited by applicant]
CN 103010040B · 2015 [cited by applicant]
CN 104701931A · 2015 [cited by applicant]
CN 104753164A · 2015 [cited by applicant]
CN 105356459A · 2016 [cited by applicant]
CN 103915869B · 2016 [cited by applicant]
CN 103562001B · 2016 [cited by applicant]
CN 102947124B · 2017 [cited by applicant]
CN 108054773A · 2018 [cited by applicant]
CN 109177765A · 2019 [cited by applicant]
CN 109334482A · 2019 [cited by applicant]
CN 109398149A · 2019 [cited by applicant]
CN 107176041B · 2019 [cited by applicant]
DE 202012105091U1 · 2013 [cited by applicant]
DE 202010018487U1 · 2017 [cited by applicant]
JP 2007020397A · 2007 [cited by applicant]
JP 2009118652A · 2009 [cited by applicant]
JP 2011197932A · 2011 [cited by applicant]
JP 4893653B2 · 2012 [cited by applicant]
JP 2012120295A · 2012 [cited by applicant]
JP 2013104683A · 2013 [cited by applicant]
JP 2014056589A · 2014 [cited by applicant]
JP 6117868B2 · 2017 [cited by applicant]
JP 2017096497A · 2017 [cited by applicant]
JP 6190948B2 · 2017 [cited by applicant]
JP 2018117517A · 2018 [cited by applicant]
JP 6399928B2 · 2018 [cited by applicant]
JP 2019075134A · 2019 [cited by applicant]
JP 2019083528A · 2019 [cited by applicant]
KR 101033880B1 · 2011 [cited by applicant]
KR 20120062089A · 2012 [cited by applicant]
KR 20140078623A · 2014 [cited by applicant]
KR 20140109568A · 2014 [cited by applicant]
KR 20150079613A · 2015 [cited by applicant]
KR 20180091976A · 2018 [cited by applicant]
NO 2013061410A1 · 2013 [cited by applicant]
TW 201722025A · 2017 [cited by applicant]
WO 2010060720A2 · 2010 [cited by applicant]
WO 2011039284A2 · 2011 [cited by applicant]
WO 2011102857A1 · 2011 [cited by applicant]
WO 2012098660A1 · 2012 [cited by applicant]
WO 2013108246A2 · 2013 [cited by applicant]
WO 2017094431A1 · 2017 [cited by applicant]
WO 2018196803A1 · 2018 [cited by applicant]
English Translation of CN-103855767-A (Year: 2023). [cited by examiner]
EP Office Action dated Apr. 5, 2022, issued in EP Application No. 2163080.1. [cited by applicant]
EP Search Report issued in the related EP International Application No. EP21163080, mailed on Jul. 30, 2021. [cited by applicant]
Notice of Reasons for Rejection issued in the JP Patent Application No. 2021-042261, mailed on Aug. 23, 2022. [cited by applicant]
Notification of the First Office Action issued in the CN Application No. 202110279683.9, mailed on Apr. 15, 2023. [cited by applicant]
Non Final Office Action issued in the Parent U.S. Appl. No. 16/821,961, mailed on Jul. 8, 2022. [cited by applicant]
Final Office Action issued in the Parent U.S. Appl. No. 16/821,961, mailed on Sep. 28, 2022. [cited by applicant]
Notice of Allowance issued in the Parent U.S. Appl. No. 16/821,961, mailed on Nov. 23, 2022. [cited by applicant]
Final Office Action issued in CN Application No. 202110279683.9, mailed on Feb. 20, 2024. [cited by applicant]