Gesture control from a remote position for reversing a vehicle and a vehicle-trailer system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10112647-B2
Application number	US-201615201684-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 5, 2016
Priority date	Aug 11, 2015
Publication date	Oct 30, 2018
Grant date	Oct 30, 2018

Abstract

A backing system for a vehicle comprises a camera for recording a video image of a user performing a gesture and an electronic control unit for the backing system, wherein the electronic control device includes instructions for: determining that the vehicle is backing up; interpreting a gesture with the electronic control unit to determine the meaning of the gesture; calculating a steering angle based upon the meaning of the gesture; and sending a request to a steering system to provide the steering angle.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A backing system for a vehicle, the backing system comprising:
a camera for recording a video image of a user performing a gesture, the camera mounted to the vehicle or to a trailer in communication with the vehicle;
a microphone mounted to the vehicle or to the trailer in a position to capture a rear, or side rear position of the user, the microphone for capturing a voice command; and
an electronic control unit for the backing system, the electronic control unit in communication with the camera and the microphone, the electronic control unit includes instructions for:
determining that the vehicle is backing up;
interpreting the gesture with the electronic control unit to determine a meaning of the gesture;
calculating a first steering angle based upon the meaning of the gesture;
sending a first request to a steering system to provide the first steering angle;
calculating a second steering angle directly based upon the voice command; and
sending a second request to the steering system to provide the second steering angle.

2. The backing system of claim 1 , wherein the trailer has a front with a trailer tongue and the vehicle has a rear with a trailer hitch, the trailer tongue being connected to the trailer hitch allowing a horizontal swivel movement of the trailer around the hitch, the system further comprising a sensor for sensing a current hitch angle, which represents a relative angle between the vehicle and the trailer.

3. The backing system of claim 2 , wherein the electronic control unit further includes instructions for:
determining the current hitch angle, based upon information from the sensor;
calculating a requested hitch angle with the electronic control unit, wherein the requested hitch angle is based upon the meaning of the gesture; and
calculating the first and second steering angles based upon the requested hitch angle, wherein the first and second steerings angle allows movement of the vehicle or a vehicle-trailer unit including the vehicle and a trailer in a reverse direction to obtain the requested hitch angle.

4. The backing system of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle has a driver-operable back-up assistance switch activating an automatic back-up, and wherein the electronic control unit has instructions for detecting that the switch has been set to activate the backing system.

5. A method of maneuvering a vehicle-trailer unit in reverse travel with a backing system, a trailer of the vehicle-trailer unit has a front with a trailer tongue and the vehicle has a rear with a trailer hitch, the trailer tongue being connected to the trailer hitch allowing a horizontal swivel movement of the trailer around the hitch, the method comprising:
determining that the vehicle-trailer unit is backing up with an electronic control unit for the backing system;
determining a current hitch angle with the electronic control unit, the current hitch angle representing a relative angle between the vehicle and the trailer;
recording a gesture with a camera for the vehicle;
capturing voice command with a microphone mounted to the vehicle or to the trailer, the microphone positioned to capture a rear, or side rear position of a user;
interpreting the gesture with the electronic control unit to determine a meaning of the gesture;
calculating a first requested hitch angle with the electronic control unit, the first requested hitch angle is based upon the meaning of the gesture;
calculating a second requested hitch angle with the electronic control unit, the second requested hitch angle is directly based upon the voice command;
calculating, at the electronic control unit, a first steering angle based upon the first requested hitch angle and a second steering angle based upon the second requested hitch angle, wherein the first and second steering angles allow movement of the vehicle-trailer unit in a reverse direction to obtain the first and second requested hitch angles;
sending a first request to a steering system to provide the first steering angle; and
sending a second request to the steering system to provide the second steering angle.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising calculating additional steering angles to provide additional requested hitch angles while the vehicle-trailer unit is moving in the reverse direction, and sending the additional requests to the steering system.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein when the requested hitch angle is obtained the backing system continues to request the steering angle required to move the vehicle-trailer unit at the requested hitch angle.

8. The method of claim 5 , wherein the backing system incrementally changes the current hitch angle when the request is to move in one of a left and right direction.

9. The method of claim 5 , wherein the vehicle has a driver-operable back-up assistance switch activating an automatic back-up, the method including the step of detecting that the switch has been set to activate the method.

10. A method of maneuvering a vehicle in a reverse travel direction with a backing system, the method comprising:
determining that the vehicle is backing up with an electronic control unit for the backing system;
recording a gesture with a camera for the vehicle, the camera mounted to the vehicle or to a trailer in communication with the vehicle;
capturing voice command with a microphone mounted to the vehicle or to a trailer in communication with the vehicle, the microphone positioned to capture a rear, or side rear position of a user;
interpreting the gesture with the electronic control unit to determine a meaning of the gesture;
calculating, at the electronic control unit, a first steering angle based upon the meaning of the gesture and a second steering angle directly based on the voice command, wherein the first and second steering angles allow movement of the vehicle in the reverse travel direction;
sending a first request to a steering system to provide the first steering angle; and
sending a second request to the steering system to provide the second steering angle.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the vehicle has a driver-operable back-up assistance switch activating an automatic back-up, the method including the step of detecting that the switch has been set to activate the method.

Assignees

• Continental automotive systems inc

Inventors

• Muharemovic Ibro
• Herzog Brandon
• Sun Hao

Classifications

• B60D1/36

  for facilitating connection, e.g. hitch catchers · CPC title

• B62D13/06 Primary

  for backing a normally drawn trailer · CPC title

• G06K9/00355

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F3/017

  Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures (interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883) · CPC title

• G10L2015/223

  Execution procedure of a spoken command · CPC title