ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 11 -- United States Patent no. 12,545,189, issued on Feb. 10, was assigned to TOYOTA JIDOSHA K.K. (Toyota, Japan).
"Vehicle ramp deployment apparatus" was invented by Chihiro Date (Kariya, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A vehicle ramp deployment apparatus is mounted on a vehicle, for deploying a ramp from a vehicle body and retracting the ramp into the vehicle body. The vehicle ramp deployment apparatus includes an electric motor configured to drive the ramp for a deploying or retracting operation, an ECU configured to execute driving control of the electric motor and to execute stop retaining control of the electric motor to retain a stopped state of the electric ...