Trailer Trajectory Overlay for Articulated Vehicle Collision Avoidance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current collision avoidance systems for towing vehicles and trailers do not effectively display the trajectory of the entire vehicle combination, particularly in heavy commercial vehicle combinations, where the trailer's size is significantly larger than the towing vehicle.
Innovation Solution
A method that determines the current steering angle of the towing vehicle and the articulation angle of the trailer, calculates future positions of outer points of their contours, and displays these positions on an image of the surrounding environment to help drivers or self-driving systems recognize potential collisions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If only the towing vehicle's trajectory is displayed, then the system complexity is reduced, but the collision avoidance capability for the entire vehicle combination is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the vehicle combination into multiple components (towing vehicle and trailer) and calculates future positions for each component separately based on their respective steering and articulation angles. This segmentation allows comprehensive collision avoidance coverage while maintaining manageable system complexity through modular calculation approaches.
Solution Approach 2:
The system merges the trajectory displays of the towing vehicle and trailer into a single composite image representation. By combining multiple trajectory calculations and displaying them together on one image, the system achieves comprehensive collision avoidance capability without proportionally increasing system complexity.
2Reliability
If the trailer's trajectory is displayed in addition to the towing vehicle, then the collision avoidance capability is improved, but the information processing load increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary calculations of future positions for both the towing vehicle and trailer based on current steering and articulation angles. By pre-calculating these trajectories before display, the system reduces real-time processing load while maintaining comprehensive collision avoidance capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates simplified graphical representations (copies) of the vehicle trajectories on an image, rather than processing and displaying complex raw sensor data. This copying approach reduces information processing load while preserving the essential collision avoidance information.
3Measurement precision
If future positions of multiple outer points are calculated, then the trajectory accuracy is improved, but the calculation complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system focuses calculations on critical outer points of the vehicle contours that are most relevant for collision detection, rather than uniformly calculating positions for all points. This local quality approach improves trajectory accuracy for collision-prone areas while reducing overall calculation complexity.
Data Source
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Figure 3
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AI summary
The present invention relates to a method for avoiding collisions of a vehicle combination of a towing vehicle (10) and at least one trailer (20) towed by the towing vehicle (10), comprising the steps of: - determining a current steering angle (ϑ) of the towing vehicle (S1), - calculating future positions of at least one outer point (10aa, 20aa) of the contour of the towing vehicle (10) in at least one direction of travel of the towing vehicle (10) based on the current steering angle (ϑ) (S2), - determining a current articulation angle (ϕ) of the at least one trailer (20) (S3), - calculating future positions of at least one outer point (10aa, 20aa) of the contour of the at least one trailer (20) in at least one direction of travel of the at least one trailer (20) based on the current articulation angle (ϕ) and/or the current steering angle (ϑ) (S4), - displaying an image (31, 31') of a surrounding of at least the towing vehicle (10) and/or the at least one trailer (20) in the at least one direction of travel of the towing vehicle (10) and/or the at least one trailer (20) (S5), and - displaying the calculated future positions of the towing vehicle (10) and/or the at least one trailer (20) on the image (31, 31') (S6).