Trailer Camera Guidance for Reverse Maneuvering and Jackknife Alerts
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicle vision systems fail to provide effective guidance for maneuvering vehicles with trailers, particularly in reversing scenarios, as they lack comprehensive and dynamic instructions to avoid collisions and jackknife conditions.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle vision system utilizing multiple cameras to capture and process image data, providing a bird's-eye view and iconistic representations to guide the driver in maneuvering the vehicle and trailer along a selected path, with alerts for potential collisions and jackknife conditions, and offering haptic feedback for steering and speed adjustments.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If existing vehicle vision systems are used, then basic imaging functionality is provided, but effective guidance for maneuvering vehicles with trailers is not provided
Solution Approach 1:
The system introduces an intermediary guidance system that processes camera images and generates iconistic representations with path guidance overlays. This intermediary layer translates raw visual data into actionable maneuvering instructions, providing the missing dynamic path guidance information without replacing the existing vision system.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates simplified iconistic copies of the vehicle and trailer representations overlaid on the camera images. These iconistic representations provide intuitive visual cues for maneuvering guidance, allowing drivers to understand complex spatial relationships through simplified graphical symbols rather than raw pixel data.
2Reliability
If comprehensive trailer maneuvering guidance is provided, then collision avoidance and jackknife prevention are achieved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system achieves multiple functions (collision avoidance, jackknife prevention, path guidance) through a unified processing architecture that analyzes camera images and generates comprehensive guidance information. By making the system multi-functional, it provides reliable safety features without proportionally increasing complexity, as the same processing core handles multiple safety concerns.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors trailer position and angle through image analysis, providing real-time feedback via iconistic representations and path guidance overlays. This feedback loop enables dynamic adjustment of maneuvering guidance, improving reliability by adapting to changing conditions while maintaining manageable complexity through iterative correction rather than complex predictive modeling.
3Productivity
If real-time image processing is performed, then dynamic path guidance is provided, but processing time and computational resources increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts only the essential information needed for maneuvering guidance from the full camera images, such as trailer position, angle, and key spatial relationships. By extracting only the necessary data elements rather than processing complete high-resolution images, it provides real-time dynamic guidance while minimizing computational overhead and processing time.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs partial processing by focusing computational resources on critical maneuvering parameters rather than analyzing all image details. This selective processing approach provides sufficient guidance information for safe maneuvering without the excessive processing time that would result from comprehensive image analysis, achieving adequate productivity with acceptable time constraints.
Data Source
AI summary
A vehicular trailer guidance system includes an electronic control unit (ECU), a rear backup camera and a trailer camera disposed at a rear portion of a trailer hitched to the vehicle. A display screen is disposed in the vehicle and viewable by a driver of the vehicle. With the trailer hitched to the vehicle, the display screen is operable to display video images derived from image data captured by the trailer camera. At least in part via processing at the ECU of image data captured by the trailer camera, an instruction that aids maneuvering the vehicle in reverse with the trailer hitched thereto during a reversing maneuver of the vehicle and trailer is generated. During the reversing maneuver of the vehicle and trailer, the display screen displays an alert when angling of the trailer relative to the vehicle approaches a jackknife condition.