Methods and systems for providing trailer guidance

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12240480-B2
Application number	US-202318338699-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 21, 2023
Priority date	Jun 21, 2023
Publication date	Mar 4, 2025
Grant date	Mar 4, 2025

Abstract

Methods and systems are provided for providing guidance when reversing a vehicle towing a trailer. In one embodiment, a method includes: A method for providing guidance when reversing a vehicle towing a trailer, comprising: receiving, from a camera of the trailer, image data associated with an environment of the vehicle; determining, by a processor, that the camera of the trailer is at least one of partially and fully underwater; in response to the determining, determining, by the processor, at least one of underwater image data and underwater guideline data based on a correction factor associated with the water and the image data; and generating, by the processor, display data based on the at least one of underwater image data and underwater guidelines data.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for providing guidance when reversing a vehicle towing a trailer, comprising:
receiving, from a camera of the trailer, image data associated with an environment of the vehicle, wherein the image data comprises a plurality of pixels and a location of each of the plurality of pixels is defined by x, y, coordinates;
determining, by a processor, a computed travel distance (D travel ) of the camera;
determining, by the processor, an actual travel distance of the camera;
comparing, by the processor, the computed travel distance to the actual travel distance; and
determining, by the processor, that the camera of the trailer is at least one of partially and fully underwater based on the comparison;
in response to the determining,
determining, by the processor, underwater pixels of the plurality of pixels of the image data associated with an underwater portion of the image data;
generating, by the processor, underwater image data comprising a plurality of corrected x, y coordinates for each of the underwater pixels using a first equation and a second equation,
wherein the first equation is:
x distorted =x (1+( k 1,air +k 1,water )* r 2 +( k 2,air +k 2,water )* r 4 +k 3,air *r 6 ),

the second equation is:
y distorted =y (1+( k 1,air +k 1,water )* r 2 +( k 2,air +k 2,water )* r 4 +k 3,air *r 6 ),

wherein:
x distorted and y distorted are the corrected x, y coordinates of each of the underwater pixels,
r 2 =x 2 +y 2 , where the x, y coordinates are undistorted pixel locations in normalized image coordinates,

k 1,air , k 2,air , k 3,air are radial lens distortion coefficients associated with outside air, and
k 1,water , k 2,water are radial distortion coefficients correcting for effects of water;
determining, by the processor, initial guidelines data based on a yaw rate of the vehicle and a hitch angle;
applying a correction factor to the initial guidelines data to generate underwater guidelines data; and
generating, by the processor, display data based on the at least one of the underwater image data and the underwater guidelines data.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining that the camera of the trailer is at least one of partially and fully underwater is based on an evaluation of the image data for at least one of, in at least a portion of the image data, low contrast, blur, inhomogeneous lighting, and color diminishing.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining a position of the camera of the trailer, and wherein the determining that the camera of the trailer is at least one of partially and fully underwater is based on the position of the camera of the trailer.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining the computed travel distance for the camera to be underwater based on a position of the camera of the trailer.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining whether the water is murky, and wherein the generating the display data is based on whether the water is murky.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining whether the water is murky is based on an edge detection method of a defined object.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining whether the water is not murky; and
upon a determination that the water is not murky,
determining at least one underwater feature;
determining a location of the at least one underwater feature; and
storing the at least one underwater feature and the location in a datastore.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising generating display data based on the at least one underwater feature and the location.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the generating the display data comprises overlaying the underwater guidelines data on the underwater image data.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining the computed travel distance (D travel ) of the camera using a third equation, the third equation being:
D travel =a+b,

wherein

a
=

H
2

+

D
i
2

,

and
⁢

b

=

H

tan
⁡
(
α
)

-
1

,

and
wherein H is a height of the camera from ground, and α is an inclination angle of a ramp, and D i is determined using a fourth equation, the fourth equation being:
D i =s i ( R TVC MAP *+CSM i T ),CSM Tr =R CSM TVC r i CSM +t TVC CSM ,

wherein:
s i is a scale factor, determined by a time differential stereo technique based on an assumption camera intrinsic values include correction for underwater refraction,
R TVC MAP is differential rotations between the camera and a trailer body frame determined by calibration, and
CSM i T and CSM Tr are transformations based on a translation and rotation from a center stack module display interface frame to a camera frame of the camera.

11. A system for providing guidance when reversing a vehicle towing a trailer, comprising:
a computer readable medium configured to store parameters associated with the vehicle and the trailer; and
a computer system onboard the vehicle and configured to, by a processor,
receive, from a camera of the trailer, image data associated with an environment of the vehicle, wherein the image data comprises a plurality of pixels and a location of each of the plurality of pixels is defined by x, y, coordinates;
determine a computed travel distance (D travel ) of the camera;
determine an actual travel distance of the camera;
compare the computed travel distance to the actual travel distance; and
determine that the camera of the trailer is at least one of partially and fully underwater based on the comparison;
in response to the determining,
determine underwater pixels of the plurality of pixels of the image data that are associated with an underwater portion of the image data;
generate underwater image data comprising a plurality of corrected x, y coordinates for each of the underwater pixels using a first equation and a second equation,
wherein the first equation is:
x distorted =x (1+( k 1,air +k 1,water )* r 2 +( k 2,air +k 2,water )* r 4 +k 3,air *r 6 ),

the second equation is:
y distorted =y (1+( k 1,air +k 1,water )* r 2 +( k 2,air +k 2,water )* r 4 +k 3,air *r 6 ),

wherein:
x distorted and y distorted are the corrected x, y coordinates of each of the underwater pixels,
r 2 =x 2 +y 2 , where the x, y coordinates are undistorted pixel locations in normalized image coordinates,
k 1,air , k 2,air , k 3,air are radial lens distortion coefficients associated with outside air, and
k 1,water , k 2,water are radial distortion coefficients correctin

Assignees

• Gm Global Tech Operations Llc

Inventors

• Lindenthal Steffen P
• Alarcon Michael D
• Abdel-Rahman Akram M
• Weigert Norman J

Classifications

• G06T2207/30252

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