Ford Global Technolgoies, LLC

Yu Ling

Chen Zhang

Luke Niewiadomski

Erick Michael Lavoie

Roger Arnold Trombley

Li Xu

Donald Jacob Mattern

Arnav Sharma

Mark Davison

Theresa Lin

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 method for identifying a trailer connection for a vehicle includes storing a plurality of connection configurations as saved configurations. The connection configurations identify a hitch compatibility of a coupler of a trailer to a hitch assembly. The method further comprises capturing image data depicting the hitch assembly and processing the image data. Based on the processing of the image data, the method further identifies a detected hitch configuration of the hitch assembly as a first hitch configuration of the saved configurations.

System and method for trailer height adjustment

A vehicle hitch assistance system includes a controller acquiring data from an external portable electronic device including position and orientation data of a trailer, including a coupler thereof, and deriving a vehicle path to align a hitch ball of the vehicle with the coupler using the position and orientation data of at least one of the trailer and the coupler.

Trailer position, heading angle, and level measurement with smart device

A vehicle system comprises a hitch ball mounted on a vehicle and a controller configured to identify a coupler position of a trailer. The controller is further configured to control motion of the vehicle aligning the hitch ball with the coupler position and monitor a height of the coupler relative to the hitch ball. In response to the coupler height being less than a height of the hitch ball, the controller is configured to stop the motion of the vehicle.

A hitch assist system is provided herein that includes an imager for capturing one or more images of a trailer having a coupler. The hitch assist system may also include a user-input device for inputting specifications of a hitch ball. A controller within the hitch assist system may be used for estimating a hitch ball height based on the inputted specifications and estimating a trailer height based on a height and projective geometry of the imager.

Hitch assist system

A vehicle system comprises a hitch assembly mounted on a vehicle, a display, and a controller. The controller is configured to access a saved configuration for the hitch assembly and display the saved configuration on the display. The controller is further configured to receive a selection of the saved configuration and program a characteristic of the hitch assembly based on the selection.

A hitch assist system is provided herein. The hitch assist system includes a sensing system configured to detect a hitch assembly and a coupler. A controller is configured to generate commands for maneuvering a vehicle along a first path or a second path. A user input device includes a display, the display configured to illustrate the first and second paths.

A hitch assist system is provided herein. The hitch assist system includes an imager for capturing one or more images of a hitch assembly and a trailer coupler. The imager is operably coupled with a movable panel. The hitch assembly includes a ball mount and a hitch ball. A controller is configured to generate an image that includes the hitch assembly, identify the hitch assembly within the image, estimate a ball mount length based on a predefined reference length and/or estimate a hitch ball height.

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Canton, MI, United States of America

Yu Ling