US 9347554

Here is a concise summary of US Patent 9347554:

US Patent 9347554: Hydrostatic Drive System

• Title: Hydrostatic drive system
• Assignee: Caterpillar Inc.
• Inventors: Rustin G. Metzger, Carl Moberg, Corwin E. Storer, Paul A. Dvorak
• Filing Date: 2013-03-14
• Issue Date: 2016-05-24
• Abstract: A hydrostatic drive system for a machine is disclosed, comprising a pump, a hydraulic motor configured to receive pressurized fluid from the pump, and a controller. The controller is operably connected to the pump and the hydraulic motor. It is configured to receive an input signal indicating current and desired machine speeds. Based on this input, the controller outputs motor and pump displacement command signals to adjust the hydraulic motor's and pump's displacements, respectively. The goal is to maintain constant machine speed, constant acceleration, or constant deceleration during these adjustments.

Plain-Language Overview of Independent Claims:

• Independent Claim 1: This claim describes a hydrostatic drive system for a machine that includes a pump, a hydraulic motor, and a controller. The controller receives input about the current and desired machine speeds. When the machine needs to accelerate (desired speed is greater than current speed), the controller first reduces the displacement of the hydraulic motor's swash plate (upshifting) and simultaneously reduces the pump's swash plate displacement to keep the machine speed constant during this motor adjustment. After the motor's displacement is decreased, the controller then increases the pump's swash plate displacement to smoothly accelerate the machine to the desired speed.

• Independent Claim 7: This claim describes a machine that incorporates the hydrostatic drive system of Claim 1. This machine includes ground-engaging members, a power source, a pump driven by the power source, a hydraulic motor receiving fluid from the pump, and a controller. Similar to Claim 1, the controller receives current and desired machine speeds and, during an acceleration mode (desired speed > current speed), it decreases the motor's swash plate displacement and concurrently decreases the pump's swash plate displacement to maintain constant machine speed during the motor's adjustment. Subsequently, the controller increases the pump's swash plate displacement to achieve the desired machine speed with constant acceleration.

CAFC 2026 Dockets Search:
A search for US Patent 9347554 within the CAFC 2026 dockets did not yield any results as of April 26, 2026. Therefore, there is no public record of litigation concerning this specific patent in the CAFC dockets for the year 2026 at this time.Here is a concise summary of US Patent 9347554:

US Patent 9347554: Hydrostatic Drive System

• Title: Hydrostatic drive system
• Assignee: Caterpillar Inc.
• Inventors: Rustin G. Metzger, Carl Moberg, Corwin E. Storer, Paul A. Dvorak
• Filing Date: 2013-03-14
• Issue Date: 2016-05-24
• Abstract: A hydrostatic drive system for a machine is disclosed. The system includes a pump, a hydraulic motor configured to receive pressurized fluid from the pump, and a controller operably connected to both. The controller receives an input signal indicating the current and desired machine speeds. It then outputs command signals to adjust the displacements of the hydraulic motor and the pump. This adjustment is performed to maintain either a constant machine speed, constant acceleration, or constant deceleration during the displacement changes of the pump and motor.

Plain-Language Overview of Independent Claims:

• Independent Claim 1: This claim describes a hydrostatic drive system for a machine. It includes a pump, a hydraulic motor, and a controller. When the controller detects a need to accelerate (meaning the desired machine speed is greater than the current machine speed), it performs a specific sequence:

  1. It sends a command to decrease the displacement of the hydraulic motor's swash plate (effectively "upshifting" the motor) to a setting appropriate for the desired speed.
  2. Simultaneously, it commands the pump's swash plate displacement to decrease, ensuring that the machine maintains its current speed while the motor's displacement is being adjusted.
  3. Once the motor's displacement has been decreased, the controller then commands the pump's swash plate displacement to increase, causing the machine to accelerate smoothly to the desired speed at a constant acceleration.

• Independent Claim 7: This claim describes a complete machine that incorporates the hydrostatic drive system detailed in Claim 1. The machine includes ground-engaging members (like wheels or tracks), a power source (e.g., an engine), a pump driven by the power source, a hydraulic motor that receives pressurized fluid from the pump, and a controller. The controller in this machine operates identically to the one described in Claim 1: during an acceleration mode (when desired speed is higher than current speed), it orchestrates the decrease in motor displacement while temporarily decreasing pump displacement to maintain current speed, and then increases pump displacement to achieve constant acceleration to the desired speed.

CAFC 2026 Dockets Search:
A search for US Patent 9347554 in the CAFC 2026 dockets did not yield any results as of April 26, 2026. This indicates no public record of litigation involving this specific patent in the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit for the current year.