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US 10,479,152 B2Granted
Compensation for trailer coupler height in automatic hitch operation
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorsLuke Niewiadomski, Chen Zhang, Joseph F. Stanek, George Edmund Walley, III
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A vehicle hitch assistance system includes a controller acquiring position data of a coupler of a trailer and deriving a vehicle path to align a hitch ball of the vehicle with the coupler including compensating for a determined change in the position of the coupler in a driving direction related to a difference between a vertical position of the coupler in the position data and a height of the hitch ball.
Claims19
A vehicle hitch assistance system, comprising:
- a brake system;
- and
- a controller:
- acquiring position data for a coupler of a trailer;
- deriving a vehicle path to align a hitch ball of the vehicle with the coupler including an end of the vehicle path compensating for a determined change in the position of the coupler in a driving direction based on the position data related to a vertical position of the coupler by relating the change in position of the coupler in a vertical direction to the change in a position of the coupler in the driving direction as a matter of rotation about an axis;
- and
- controlling the brake system to stop the vehicle at the end of the path.
4 more elements
A vehicle, comprising:
- a brake system;
- a hitch ball mounted on an exterior of the vehicle;
- and
- a controller:
- acquiring position data of a coupler of a trailer;
- deriving a vehicle path to align the hitch ball with the coupler including an end of the vehicle path compensating for a determined change in a position of the coupler in a driving direction based on the position data related to a vertical position of the coupler by relating the change in the position of the coupler in a vertical direction to a change in the position of the coupler in the driving direction as a matter of rotation about an axis;
- and
- controlling the brake system to stop the vehicle at the end of the path.
5 more elements
A method for assisting a vehicle in hitching with a trailer, comprising:
- acquiring position data for a coupler of the trailer;
- deriving a vehicle path to align a hitch ball of the vehicle with the coupler including an end of the vehicle path compensating for a change in a position of the coupler in a driving direction based on the change in position of the coupler in a vertical direction to the change in the position of the coupler in the driving direction as a matter of rotation of the coupler about an axis;
- and
- controlling a brake system of the vehicle to stop the vehicle at the end of the path.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.