Ford Global Technolgoies, LLC

University of Michigan

Volvo Car Corporation

Roger Arnold Trombley

Luke Niewiadomski

Thomas Edward Pilutti

Erick Michael Lavoie

John Shutko

Matt Y Rupp

Seyed Armin Raeis Hosseiny

Bo Bao

Douglas Scott Rhode

David Dean Smit

Christopher Scott Nave

Shannon Brooks-Lehnert

Li Xu

Douglas J Rogan

Kenneth Michael Mayer

Arnav Sharma

Chen Zhang

Alex Maurice Miller

Kyle Simmons

Andrew Waldis

Katherine Rouen

Matthew Y Rupp

Donald Jacob Mattern

Taehyun Shim

Martin Fitzpatrick Frey

Shane Elwart

Michael Hafner

Nikhil Nagraj Rao

Bruno Sielly Jales Costa

Clay Cundiff

Benjamin Dion

Rajit Johri

Dale Scott Crombez

Hongtei Eric Tseng

Hai Yu

Eric L Reed

Sudipto Aich

Wilford Trent Yopp

Devinder Singh Kochhar

Peter Francis Worrel

Jeff Allen Greenberg

Nathaniel Abram Rolfes

Lihui Chen

Christopher Attard

Steven Wayne Friedlander

Peter Ling

Manoharprasad K Rao

Kwaku O Prakah-Asante

Mark Anthony Cuddihy

Hamid M Golgiri

John Patrick Joyce

Vidya Nariyambut Murali

George Edmund Walley

Yu Ling

Stephen Varghese Samuel

W Trent Yopp

Kun Deng

Ahsan Qamar

Nate Rolfes

Frederic Christen

Yi Zhang

Fling Finn Tseng

Jialiang Le

Eric Hongtei Tseng

Hsin-Hsiang Yang

Darrel Alan Recker

Anthony Gerald King

Bradley George Hochrein

Gang Song

Hemanth Yadav Aradhyula

Sarra Awad Yako

Louis Tijerina

Andreas Eidehall

James McBride

Dongran Liu

Siyuan Ma

Robert Bell

Wayne Williams

Paul Joseph Szuszman

Jerome Charles Ivan

John Michael Celli

Fangjun Jiang

Robert D Klosek

Mohamed El-sawah

Matthew Joseph Meinhart

Rich Lanoue

Frank Golub

Christoph Kessler

Craig Schmatz

Jonas Jansson

Thomas E Plutti

Don Jacob Mattern

Bradley G Hockrein

Patrick Piastowski

Aleksey Shepelev

Mattias BRÄNNSTRÖM

Jessica Bigas

Tom Pilutti

A vehicle hitching assistance system includes a controller executing an initial alignment process including searching for a trailer within a specified area of image data that is less than a total field of the image data in directions corresponding with both a longitudinal distance between the vehicle and the trailer and a lateral direction perpendicular to the longitudinal distance, presenting an indication to a driver of the vehicle to reposition the vehicle when the trailer is not identified within the specified area, and removing the indication when the trailer is identified within the specified area. The controller further executes an automated backing process upon identifying the trailer within the specified area, including identifying a coupler of the trailer and outputting a steering signal to the vehicle to cause the vehicle to steer to align a hitch ball of the vehicle with the coupler of the trailer during reversing.

Application of auxiliary lighting in automatic hitch operation

A system for assisting in aligning a vehicle for hitching with a trailer includes a vehicle steering system, a detection system outputting a signal including scene data of an area to a rear of the vehicle, and a controller that controls the vehicle steering system to maneuver the vehicle according to an initial alignment maneuver that positions the vehicle relative to the trailer, such that the trailer is within the area to the rear of the vehicle. The controller further receives the scene data and identifies the trailer within the area to the rear of the vehicle, derives a backing path to align a hitch ball mounted on the vehicle to a coupler of the trailer, and controls the vehicle steering system to maneuver the vehicle including reversing along the backing path.

Trailer GPS location storage and recall for hitch assist operation

A vehicle hitching assistance system includes a controller acquiring image data from the vehicle and deriving a vehicle path to align a center of a hitch ball of the vehicle with a centerline of a trailer coupler within the image data. The controller also outputs a video image including a representation of a simplified path from the hitch ball to the coupler and outputs a steering signal to cause the vehicle to steer along the vehicle path.

Hitch assistance system with interface presenting simplified path image

A system for assisting in aligning a vehicle for hitching with a trailer includes a controller that identifies at least one of the trailer or a coupling feature of the trailer within image data and determines that the at least one of the trailer or the coupling feature is outside of a target position area relative to the vehicle and outputs an instruction for movement of the vehicle determined to position the one of the trailer or the coupling feature within the target position area in response to identifying at least one indication of a user difficulty in positioning the one of the trailer or the coupling feature within the target position area.

Trailer hitching assistance system including trailer type identification and adaptive interface

Portion of a display screen with transitional graphical user interface

A hitching assistance system for a vehicle includes a steering system including a vehicle steering wheel and a controller executing an automated hitching maneuver including controlling the steering system to back the vehicle toward a trailer, monitoring the hitching assistance system for an interruption event affecting execution of the automated hitching maneuver, detecting the interruption event and identifying the interruption event as one of a standard interruption event or an exception interruption event, upon identifying the standard interruption event, causing the steering wheel to move to a centered position and ceasing control of the steering system, and upon identifying the exception interruption event, ceasing control of the steering system without causing the steering wheel to move to the centered position.

Assisted hitching system with handoff process for interrupted operation

Display screen with graphical user interface

A system for assisting in aligning a vehicle for hitching with a trailer includes a first camera and a second camera and outputting image data to the rear of the vehicle and a controller identifying at least one of the trailer or a coupling feature of the trailer within the image data and assigning a trailer type to the trailer identified within the image data, the trailer type including a first trailer type and a second trailer type. The controller further causes a portion of the image data to be presented on a display within the vehicle, the portion of the image data corresponding with the first camera in response to the trailer being assigned the first trailer type and corresponding with the second camera in response to the trailer being assigned the second trailer type.

A vehicle has a trailer backup steering input apparatus, a trailer backup assist control module coupled to the a trailer backup steering input apparatus, and an electric power assist steering system coupled to the trailer backup assist control module. The trailer backup steering input apparatus is configured for outputting a trailer path curvature signal approximating a desired curvature for a path of travel of a trailer towably coupled to the vehicle. The trailer backup assist control module is configured for determining vehicle steering information as a function of the trailer path curvature signal. The electric power assist steering system is configured for controlling steering of steered wheels of the vehicle as a function of the vehicle steering information.

Trailer backup assist curvature control

A system for assisting in aligning a vehicle for hitching with a trailer includes an imaging system, a vehicle control system including at least one vehicle sensor, and a controller. The controller controls the vehicle using the vehicle control system to move the vehicle into an aligned position, where a hitch ball on the vehicle is aligned with the coupler, including monitoring a signal from the vehicle sensor and tracking a position of the coupler relative to the hitch ball in image data. When the signal indicates an unintended stopped vehicle state, the controller determines a distance from the hitch ball to the coupler. If the distance is above a predetermined threshold, the controller controls the vehicle control system to cause the vehicle to move. If the distance is below the predetermined threshold, the controller indicates the unintended stopped vehicle state to a driver of the vehicle.

Unintended standstill response in an assisted hitching operation

A system for assisting in aligning a vehicle for hitching with a trailer includes a vehicle steering system, a wireless communication module, a detection system outputting a signal including scene data of an area to a rear of the vehicle, and a controller. The controller receives, via the wireless communication module, an automated hitching initiation command from an external wireless device, receives the scene data and identifying the trailer within the area to the rear of the vehicle, derives a backing path to align a hitch ball mounted on the vehicle to a coupler of the trailer, and controls the vehicle steering system to maneuver the vehicle including reversing along the backing path.

System and method for remote automated vehicle alignment with a trailer for hitching

Display screen or portion thereof with transitional graphical user interface

A system for assisting in aligning a vehicle for hitching with a trailer includes a steering system that adjusts a vehicle steering angle, a braking system that adjusts a vehicle speed, an imaging system that receives image data of a drawbar assembly being receivable in a hitch receiver, and a controller. The controller is configured to detect an edge of the drawbar assembly from the image data, target an endpoint at a fixed offset from the edge and a stationary point on the vehicle, and maneuver, via the steering and braking systems, the vehicle along a path to align the endpoint with the trailer.

Fixed offset method for hitch detection in hitch assist operation

Growing community of inventors

Ann Arbor, MI, United States of America

Roger Arnold Trombley