Remote Trailer Maneuvering via Mobile AR Guidance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Operating a vehicle with a trailer is challenging, especially for unskilled drivers, as existing trailer backup assist systems lack intuitive features for autonomous vehicle control and environmental sensing to facilitate safe trailer maneuvering.
Innovation Solution
A Remote Trailer Maneuvering system using a mobile device app that processes photos to identify obstacles, calculates distances, and provides augmented reality guidance for trailer positioning, integrating with autonomous vehicle controllers to automate trailer maneuvering operations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If trailer backup assist systems use automated steering controllers, then trailer maneuvering becomes easier, but the system lacks intuitive features for autonomous vehicle control and environmental sensing
Solution Approach 1:
The system integrates multiple functions into a single trailer backup assist system: automated steering control, environmental sensing via mobile device cameras, obstacle detection, distance calculation, and autonomous vehicle controller integration. This multi-functional approach resolves the contradiction by making the system both easy to operate and highly adaptable to autonomous control features.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses a mobile device as an intermediary between the driver and the trailer backup system. The mobile device captures environmental data through its camera, processes images to identify obstacles and calculate distances, and communicates this information to the automated steering controller, enabling intuitive autonomous control features without requiring complex onboard sensors.
2Reliability
If the system integrates environmental sensing and obstacle detection, then safety is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The mobile device serves as an intermediary that performs environmental sensing and obstacle detection using its existing camera and processing capabilities. This approach improves safety by adding sensing functionality without significantly increasing the complexity of the core trailer backup system, as the mobile device handles the complex image processing and obstacle identification tasks.
Solution Approach 2:
The system leverages the mobile device's existing sensors and processing power to perform environmental sensing and obstacle detection. By using the mobile device's self-contained capabilities rather than adding dedicated sensing hardware to the vehicle, the system improves safety while minimizing the increase in overall system complexity.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the system uses mobile device cameras for environmental assessment, then sensing capability is improved, but measurement precision may be reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The system replaces traditional mechanical or dedicated sensor-based measurement systems with mobile device camera-based optical measurement. The camera captures images of the environment, and software algorithms process these images to calculate distances and identify boundaries. This substitution provides versatile environmental sensing capability while accepting that measurement precision may be lower than dedicated sensing hardware.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the measurement parameters from direct sensor readings to image-based calculations. By processing camera images to extract distance and boundary information, the system achieves versatile environmental sensing adaptability, while the measurement precision is determined by the camera's resolution and the accuracy of the image processing algorithms.
Data Source
AI summary
A Remote Trailer Maneuvering (RTM) system includes a mobile device app that identifies and processes environmental information from a photo, to identify obstacles such as walls, surrounding objects, etc. When the RTM system detects a boat, a trailer, and a boat ramp, it calculates a travel distance to drive the trailer into the water for unloading the boat. The RTM system identifies obstructions, outputs information and warnings, and prompts for information and user control feedback. Once the photo is processed, the RTM system sends control instructions to an RTM controller onboard the vehicle. The vehicle may send a responsive message to the mobile device indicating that the RTM system is ready to proceed with the maneuvering function. The RTM controller maneuvers the trailer, using an autonomous vehicle controller, to the target position using the control instructions.