Vehicle trailer angle detection system and method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9971943-B2
Application number	US-201615370223-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 6, 2016
Priority date	Mar 21, 2007
Publication date	May 15, 2018
Grant date	May 15, 2018

Abstract

A vehicle 1 towing a trailer 4 is fitted with three video cameras 5, 6, 7 fitted to the rear of the vehicle and on each door mirror. A view from any camera can be presented to the driver on a display 11 . A predicted trailer path, calculated in a computing unit 10 , is also presented to the driver on the display 11 as guide lines overlaid on the camera view. The computing unit 10 is also configured to calculate a hitch angle by tracking the position of a trailer-mounted marker in the camera view.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for determining a hitch angle of a trailer attached to a vehicle, comprising:
a camera operable to capture images rearward of the vehicle;
an image processor processing the captured images and locating a position of a marker on the trailer; and
a computer determining the hitch angle between the vehicle and the trailer based on the position of the located marker.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the camera is located on the vehicle.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the marker comprises at least one of a mark, a sticker attached to the trailer and an edge of the trailer.

4. The system of claim 1 further comprising a display for displaying a trailer view visible to a driver of the vehicle.

5. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a steering angle sensor for sensing a vehicle steering angle, wherein the computer further calculates a predicted path of a trailer from the hitch angle and the vehicle steering angle.

6. The system of claim 1 further comprising the step of displaying the marker on a display for a driver confirmation that the selected marker is rigidly connected to the trailer.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the computer compares the hitch angle to a stored value and, if the hitch angle is within a predetermined range of the stored value, wherein the trailer is likely to jack-knife, generating a warning signal to the driver indicative of an imminent jack-knife event.

8. A method of determining a hitch angle of a trailer towed by a vehicle, comprising:
obtaining an image of a trailer towed by the vehicle with a camera;
tracking a position of a marker associated with the trailer in the image with an image processor; and
determining with a computer the hitch angle between the vehicle and trailer based on the position of the marker.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the camera is located on the vehicle.

10. The method of claim 8 further comprising the steps of:
measuring a steering angle of the vehicle; and
calculating with the computing unit a predicted path of the trailer from the hitch angle and steering angle.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising the step of displaying the predicted trailer path on a display as an overlay track on the image.

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein the marker comprises at least one of a mark, a sticker attached to the trailer and an edge of the trailer.

13. The method of claim 8 further comprising the step of displaying a trailer view visible to a driver of the vehicle.

14. The method of claim 8 further comprising the step of displaying the marker on a display for a driver confirmation that the selected marker is rigidly connected to the trailer.

15. The method of claim 8 further comprising the steps of comparing the hitch angle to a stored value and, if the hitch angle is within a predetermined range of the stored value, wherein the trailer is likely to jack-knife, generating a warning signal to the driver indicative of an imminent jack-knife event.

16. A method of predicting a path of a trailer attached to a vehicle, comprising:
measuring a vehicle steering angle;
obtaining an image of the trailer with a video camera;
tracking a position of a marker associated with the trailer in the image using an image processor;
determining a hitch angle between the vehicle and trailer based on the position of the marker using a computer; and
calculating a predicted path of the trailer from the hitch angle and vehicle steering angle using the computer.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the camera is located on the vehicle.

18. The method of claim 16 further comprising the step of displaying the predicted trailer path on a display.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising the step of displaying the predicted trailer path on a display as an overlay track on the image.

20. The method of claim 16 , wherein the marker comprises at least one of a mark, a sticker attached to the trailer and an edge of the trailer.

Assignees

• Ford Global Tech Llc

Inventors

• Greenwood Jeremy John
• Nicholls Stephen
• Crawford Andrew Stephen Bell

Classifications

• H04N23/54

  Mounting of pick-up tubes, electronic image sensors, deviation or focusing coils · CPC title

• G08G1/168

  Driving aids for parking, e.g. acoustic or visual feedback on parking space · CPC title

• B60R1/003

  for viewing trailer hitches · CPC title

• B60R2300/301

  combining image information with other obstacle sensor information, e.g. using RADAR/LIDAR/SONAR sensors for estimating risk of collision · CPC title

• G06K9/00791 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic