Drive-By-Wire Tractor-Trailer Backing for Dock Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Backing up and aligning tractor trailers to a loading dock is a complex task due to restricted visibility and tight spaces, often resulting in accidents that can harm pedestrians, damage vehicles, and incur significant costs for shippers and receivers.
Innovation Solution
A driver aid and autonomous system that uses drive-by-wire technology to control steering, acceleration, and braking, combined with sensors like LADAR and stereo cameras to map the area, plan an obstacle-free trajectory, and provide visual and auditory feedback to guide the driver into position.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the driver manually backs up and aligns the tractor trailer to the loading dock, then the driver has full control over the vehicle, but the complexity of the task and risk of accidents increase due to restricted visibility and tight spaces
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an autonomous driving system as an intermediary between the driver and the vehicle controls. This system includes sensors (cameras, LIDAR, ultrasonic sensors), processors, and actuators that mediate the complex task of backing and alignment, reducing the driver's direct control burden while maintaining safety through multiple layers of automated monitoring and control
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces manual mechanical control with automated electronic control systems. The autonomous driving system uses electronic sensors, processors, and actuators to substitute the driver's manual steering, acceleration, and braking actions, transforming a mechanically-intensive manual task into an electronically-automated process that reduces human error and improves safety
2Reliability
If the driver manually performs the backing and alignment task, then the driver can respond to unexpected situations, but the task becomes error-prone due to restricted visibility and tight spaces
Solution Approach 1:
The autonomous driving system performs the backing and alignment task autonomously without requiring the driver to manually steer or monitor complex maneuvers. The system self-manages sensor data collection, trajectory calculation, and vehicle control, freeing the driver from the difficult task while ensuring accurate and consistent alignment with the loading dock
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements multiple feedback loops including sensor feedback (cameras, LIDAR, ultrasonic sensors) that continuously monitor the vehicle's position and surroundings, and control feedback that adjusts steering, acceleration, and braking in real-time. This feedback mechanism ensures accurate alignment while simplifying the driver's role to monitoring and override if necessary
3Reliability
If an autonomous system is implemented to control the drive-by-wire system, then the risk of accidents is reduced, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The autonomous driving system is segmented into distinct functional modules: perception modules (sensors), decision modules (processors running path-planning algorithms), and execution modules (actuators controlling steering, acceleration, braking). This segmentation allows each module to be optimized independently and facilitates easier integration and maintenance while achieving high safety standards
4Reliability
If the system provides full autonomous control, then the risk of accidents is minimized, but the driver loses control of the vehicle
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements dynamic control authority where the driver and autonomous system can exchange control based on situational needs. The driver can override the autonomous system when necessary, and the system can take control when safety requires it. This dynamic adjustment of control authority maintains both safety and driver agency
Data Source
AI summary
Backing up and aligning tractor trailers to a loading dock is one of the most complicated tasks performed by a truck driver. The present invention provides aids, and/or autonomy, to the driver in both conditions: the warehouse, and the less structured origin/destination. The invention is designed to aid the driver with facilities to simplify the parking and loading dock alignment process. The invention controls the drive-by-wire system in the truck, controlling the steering, gearbox, acceleration, and break, to automatically back up the truck into the desired location. This is possible if the truck is equipped with a drive-by-wire kit. The invention controls one or more control signals to the drive-by-wire system while the driver controls the others. In the present invention, a system is developed that is designed to autonomously or semi-autonomously guide a driver to a dock or parking location which is comprised of a sensor or sensors that collect a map of the dock or desired parking area, a user interface that allows the operator to select a doc k, or a feature in the map and determine the final pose of the tractor and trailer, a planner that creates a kinematically correct and obstacle free trajectory from the current location to the desired location and a set of user aids, including a ground guide avatar or avatars that provide the distance to the dock, speed and turning direction, or other guidance.