Ford Global Technolgoies, LLC

Ali Mustafa

Amey Y Karnik

Vijay K Nagasamy

Gurjeet Singh

Saeid Nooshabadi

Cameron Husted

Yongbo Qian

Haitham Alanssari

Yashwanth Reddy Gatla

Manan Sanjay Patel

Systems and methods for estimation of vehicle hitchball location are disclosed. A plurality of image frames may be received from a rear-facing camera of a vehicle. The rear-facing camera may be directed at a front of a trailer that is coupled to the vehicle at a hitchball. An approximate lateral location of the hitchball coupled to the vehicle may be determined by obtaining a plurality of cropped images along a hitch drawbar coupled to the vehicle by stepping along the vertical direction, and performing a stepwise lateral scan, centered at the hitch drawbar.

Systems and methods for a step and scan detection network for hitchball location estimation

A towing assist system for a vehicle includes a marker positioned on a trailer. An imaging device is in connection with the vehicle and configured to capture image data demonstrating a rearward-directed field of view. A controller processes the image data depicting the characteristic marker and detects the characteristic marker in the image data. The controller further identifies a coupler position or coupler height of a coupling interface of the trailer in response to a position of the marker in at least one frame of the image data.

Trailer height and hitch ball calculation

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Dearborn, MI, United States of America

Ali Mustafa