Vehicle-Trailer Remote Control With Position-Adaptive Interface
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Solution Overview
Problem
Operating a vehicle with a trailer in tow is challenging, especially for unskilled drivers, due to counterintuitive steering wheel inputs and perspective changes that make it difficult to control the trailer's path effectively during reversing and remote control situations.
Innovation Solution
A mobile device with a user interface that adjusts the orientation and perspective of a vehicle graphic and path graphic based on the user's position around the vehicle and trailer, aligning control inputs with the vehicle's orientation to provide an intuitive control method for forward and reverse movements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a traditional steering wheel control interface is used for remote control, then the control system is simple, but the control becomes counterintuitive when perspective changes at different positions around the vehicle and trailer
Solution Approach 1:
The control interface dynamically adapts to the user's position around the vehicle and trailer. The system detects the user's location and automatically adjusts the orientation and perspective of the vehicle graphic and control inputs to match, making the control intuitive regardless of where the user stands. This dynamic adaptation resolves the contradiction by making the interface context-aware rather than static.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes multiple parameters of the display interface simultaneously - the orientation angle of the vehicle graphic, the perspective view, and the alignment of control inputs - based on the detected user position. These parameter changes ensure that control inputs always align with the vehicle's actual orientation in space, maintaining intuitiveness while adapting to different viewing positions.
2Ease of operation
If the user stands behind the vehicle for control, then the control input direction matches the trailer movement direction, but the user cannot see the front of the vehicle and trailer
Solution Approach 1:
The system provides multiple dimensional views of the vehicle and trailer - a top-down plan view showing the complete path and position, and a perspective view showing the front-facing direction. By switching between these dimensions, the user gains both spatial awareness of the complete configuration and contextual understanding of the forward direction, resolving the information loss when standing behind the vehicle.
Solution Approach 2:
The mobile device display acts as an intermediary that synthesizes multiple perspectives simultaneously. It combines the top-down view showing overall position with directional indicators showing front orientation, creating a composite representation that provides complete spatial information regardless of the user's physical position around the vehicle.
3Loss of information
If the user stands in front of the vehicle for control, then the user can see the path ahead, but the control input becomes counterintuitive
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically rotates and reorients the vehicle graphic and control inputs based on the detected user position. When the user stands in front of the vehicle, the interface automatically adjusts so that the control inputs align with the vehicle's orientation, making them intuitive again. This dynamic reconfiguration resolves the contradiction by adapting the control paradigm to match the user's viewing position.
4Device complexity
If manual reversing control is used, then the control system is simple, but the steering wheel input direction is counterintuitive to the resulting trailer direction
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates a virtual copy of the vehicle and trailer configuration on the mobile device display, showing a top-down view that accurately represents the physical arrangement. This visual copy allows the user to see exactly how the steering input will affect the trailer path before executing the maneuver, making the counterintuitive reversing behavior transparent and controllable without adding mechanical complexity to the actual vehicle system.
Data Source
AI summary
The disclosure describes systems and methods including a mobile device for remotely controlling the movement of a vehicle and trailer. The mobile device provides an intuitive interface for controlling the movement of the vehicle and trailer by changing the orientation of a vehicle graphic (e.g., of the vehicle and trailer) according to a position of the mobile device around a periphery of the vehicle and trailer. This allows the user to walk around the vehicle and trailer to determine a best position from which to control the vehicle and trailer depending on a given situation without losing the intuitiveness of the user interface.