# US 12,214,822 B2 · Trailer assist system with enhanced beam length estimation > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 12,214,822 B2 - Document ID: US12214822B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 16/946,542 - Filed: 2020-06-26 - Published: 2020-12-31 - Granted: 2025-02-04 - Earliest claimed: 2019-06-28 - Assignees: Magna Electronics Inc. - Applicants: Magna Electronics Inc. - Inventors: Anam M. Yunus; David A. Gomez; Jinyi Tan; Yi Zhou - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US12214822B2 ## CPC - B62D 15/025: {Active steering aids, e.g. helping the driver by actively influencing the steering system after environment evaluation (B62D1/28 takes precedence)} - B60R 11/04: Mounting of cameras operative during drive; Arrangement of controls thereof relative to the vehicle - B62D 13/06: for backing a normally drawn trailer - B62D 15/0275: {by overlaying a vehicle path based on present steering angle over an image without processing that image} - B62D 15/028: {Guided parking by providing commands to the driver, e.g. acoustically or optically} - B62D: MOTOR VEHICLES; TRAILERS (steering, or guiding on a desired track, of agricultural machines or implements A01B69/00; wheels, castors, axles, increasing wheel adhesion B60B; vehicle tyres, tyre inflation or tyre changing B60C; connections between vehicles of a train or the like B60D; vehicles for use on rail and road, amphibious or convertible vehicles B60F; suspension arrangements B60G; heating, cooling, ventilating or other air treating devices B60H; windows, windscreens, non-fixed roofs, doors or similar devices, protective coverings for vehicles not in use B60J; propulsion plant arrangements, auxiliary drives, transmissions, controls, instrumentation or dashboards B60K; electric equipment or propulsion of electrically-propelled vehicles B60L; power supply for electrically-propelled vehicles B60M; passenger accommodation not otherwise provided for B60N; adaptations for load transportation or to carry special loads or objects B60P; arrangement of signalling or lighting devices, the mounting or supporting thereof or circuits therefor, for vehicles in general B60Q; vehicles, vehicle fittings or vehicle parts not otherwise provided for B60R; servicing, cleaning, repairing, supporting, lifting, or manoeuvring, not otherwise provided for, B60S; brake arrangements, brake control systems or parts thereof B60T; air-cushion vehicles B60V; motor-cycles, accessories therefor B62J, B62K; testing of vehicles G01M) - B60R: VEHICLES, VEHICLE FITTINGS, OR VEHICLE PARTS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR ## Abstract A vehicular trailering assist system for a vehicle includes a camera disposed at a rear portion of a vehicle and having a field of view exterior and at least rearward of the vehicle, the field of view encompassing at least a portion of a trailer hitched to the vehicle. A control includes a processor for processing image data captured by the camera and sensor data captured by a steering wheel angle sensor and a wheel RPM sensor. The control determines a trailer angle of the trailer relative to the vehicle, a steering wheel angle, and a wheel RPM of a wheel of the vehicle. The control estimates a trailer beam length based on at least the determined trailer angle, the determined steering wheel angle, and the determined wheel RPM. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A vehicular trailering assist system, the vehicular trailering assist system comprising: a camera disposed at a rear portion of a vehicle and having a field of view exterior and at least rearward of the vehicle, the vehicle having a hitch configured for hitching a trailer at the vehicle, the hitch being at a location spaced from a rear axle of the vehicle, the field of view of the camera including at least a portion of a trailer hitched to the vehicle at the hitch of the vehicle; a steering wheel angle sensor operable to determine a steering wheel angle of the vehicle; a wheel revolutions per minute (RPM) sensor operable to determine an RPM of a wheel of the vehicle; a control comprising electronic circuitry and associated software; wherein said electronic circuitry of said control comprises at least one data processor for processing image data captured by the camera and sensor data captured by (i) the steering wheel angle sensor and (ii) the wheel RPM sensor; wherein the control, responsive to processing at the control of image data captured by the camera, determines a trailer angle of the trailer relative to the vehicle; wherein the control determines the steering wheel angle of the vehicle via sensor data provided to the control from the steering wheel angle sensor; wherein the control determines the wheel RPM of the wheel of the vehicle via sensor data provided to the control from the RPM sensor; wherein the control estimates a trailer beam length of the trailer based on at least (i) the determined trailer angle relative to the vehicle, (ii) the determined steering wheel angle of the vehicle and (iii) the determined wheel RPM of the wheel of the vehicle; wherein the control determines a relative trailer angle velocity, and wherein the relative trailer angle velocity represents a speed of change of the determined trailer angle relative to the vehicle; and wherein, when the determined relative trailer angle velocity is greater than or equal to a threshold, the control further estimates the trailer beam length of the trailer based on the determined relative trailer angle velocity, and wherein, when the determined relative trailer angle velocity is less than the threshold, the control does not estimate the trailer beam length of the trailer with the determined relative trailer angle velocity. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The vehicular trailering assist system of claim 1, wherein the control estimates the trailer beam length of the trailer based in part on a hitch location of the hitch relative to the rear axle of the vehicle. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The vehicular trailering assist system of claim 1, wherein the control, based on the steering wheel angle, determines a wheel angle of a front wheel of the vehicle. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The vehicular trailering assist system of claim 1, wherein the control, based on the RPM of the wheel of the vehicle, determines a speed of the vehicle. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The vehicular trailering assist system of claim 1, wherein the control determines the relative trailer angle velocity based on vehicle-trailer kinematics. ### Claim 6 (depends on 5) The vehicular trailering assist system of claim 5, wherein the control, responsive to the determined relative trailer angle velocity being non-zero, estimates an unsteady state trailer beam length of the trailer. ### Claim 7 (depends on 5) The vehicular trailering assist system of claim 5, wherein the control, responsive to the determined relative trailer angle velocity being zero, estimates a steady state trailer beam length of the trailer. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The vehicular trailering assist system of claim 1, wherein the control, responsive to estimating the trailer beam length of the trailer, verifies the trailer beam length passes at least one convergence check. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The vehicular trailering assist system of claim 1, wherein the control, responsive to estimating the trailer beam length of the trailer, correlates the trailer beam length to the specific trailer hitched to the vehicle and stores the trailer beam length and correlation in non-volatile memory. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) The vehicular trailering assist system of claim 1, wherein the control, responsive to estimating the trailer beam length of the trailer, determines an average trailer beam length using a moving average filter. ### Claim 11 (depends on 10) The vehicular trailering assist system of claim 10, wherein the moving average filter has an infinite sliding window. ### Claim 12 (depends on 1) The vehicular trailering assist system of claim 1, comprising a gyroscope and an accelerometer, wherein the control, responsive to processing sensor data captured by the gyroscope and the accelerometer, determines a vehicle yaw rate. ### Claim 13 (depends on 1) The vehicular trailering assist system of claim 1, wherein the control determines a yaw rate of the vehicle based at least in part on processing of sensor data captured by the steering wheel angle sensor and the RPM sensor. ### Claim 14 (depends on 1) The vehicular trailering assist system of claim 1, wherein the estimated trailer beam length of the trailer is bounded between a minimum estimated trailer beam length and a maximum estimated trailer beam length. ### Claim 15 A vehicular trailering assist system, the vehicular trailering assist system comprising: a camera disposed at a rear portion of a vehicle and having a field of view exterior and at least rearward of the vehicle, the vehicle having a hitch configured for hitching a trailer at the vehicle, the hitch being at a location spaced from a rear axle of the vehicle, the field of view of the camera including at least a portion of a trailer hitched to the vehicle at the hitch of the vehicle; a steering wheel angle sensor operable to determine a steering wheel angle of the vehicle; a wheel revolutions per minute (RPM) sensor operable to determine an RPM of a wheel of the vehicle; a control comprising electronic circuitry and associated software; wherein said electronic circuitry of said control comprises at least one data processor for processing image data captured by the camera and sensor data captured by (i) the steering wheel angle sensor and (ii) the wheel RPM sensor; wherein the control, responsive to processing at the control of image data captured by the camera, determines a trailer angle of the trailer relative to the vehicle; wherein the control determines the steering wheel angle of the vehicle via sensor data provided to the control from the steering wheel angle sensor; wherein the control determines the wheel RPM of the wheel of the vehicle via sensor data provided to the control from the RPM sensor; wherein the control, based on the determined steering wheel angle, determines a wheel angle of a front wheel of the vehicle; wherein the control estimates a trailer beam length of the trailer based on at least (i) the determined trailer angle relative to the vehicle, (ii) the determined wheel angle of the front wheel of the vehicle, (iii) the determined wheel RPM of the wheel of the vehicle and (iv) a hitch location of the hitch relative to the rear axle of the vehicle; wherein the control determines a relative trailer angle velocity, and wherein the relative trailer angle velocity represents a speed of change of the determined trailer angle relative to the vehicle; and wherein, when the determined relative trailer angle velocity is greater than or equal to a threshold, the control further estimates the trailer beam length of the trailer based on the determined relative trailer angle velocity, and wherein, when the determined relative trailer angle velocity is less than the threshold, the control estimates the trailer beam length of the trailer without the determined relative trailer angle velocity. ### Claim 16 (depends on 15) The vehicular trailering assist system of claim 15, wherein the control, responsive to estimating the trailer beam length of the trailer, verifies the trailer beam length passes at least one convergence check. ### Claim 17 (depends on 15) The vehicular trailering assist system of claim 15, wherein the control, responsive to estimating the trailer beam length of the trailer, correlates the trailer beam length to the specific trailer hitched to the vehicle and stores the trailer beam length and correlation in non-volatile memory. ### Claim 18 (depends on 15) The vehicular trailering assist system of claim 15, wherein the control, responsive to estimating the trailer beam length of the trailer, determines an average trailer beam length using a moving average filter. ### Claim 19 (depends on 18) The vehicular trailering assist system of claim 18, wherein the moving average filter has an infinite sliding window. ### Claim 20 A vehicular trailering assist system, the vehicular trailering assist system comprising: a camera disposed at a rear portion of a vehicle and having a field of view exterior and at least rearward of the vehicle, the vehicle having a hitch configured for hitching a trailer at the vehicle, the hitch being at a location spaced from a rear axle of the vehicle, the field of view of the camera including at least a portion of a trailer hitched to the vehicle at the hitch of the vehicle; a steering wheel angle sensor operable to determine a steering wheel angle of the vehicle; a wheel revolutions per minute (RPM) sensor operable to determine an RPM of a wheel of the vehicle; a control comprising electronic circuitry and associated software; wherein said electronic circuitry of said control comprises at least one data processor for processing image data captured by the camera and sensor data captured by (i) the steering wheel angle sensor and (ii) the wheel RPM sensor; wherein the control, responsive to processing at the control of image data captured by the camera, determines a trailer angle of the trailer relative to the vehicle; wherein the control determines the steering wheel angle of the vehicle via sensor data provided to the control from the steering wheel angle sensor; wherein the control determines the wheel RPM of the wheel of the vehicle via sensor data provided to the control from the RPM sensor; wherein the control determines a relative trailer angle velocity, and wherein the relative trailer angle velocity represents a speed of change of the determined trailer angle relative to the vehicle; wherein the control, responsive to the determined relative trailer angle velocity being non-zero, estimates an unsteady state trailer beam length of the trailer based on at least (i) the determined trailer angle relative to the vehicle, (ii) the determined steering wheel angle of the vehicle, (iii) the determined wheel RPM of the wheel of the vehicle and (iv) the determined relative trailer angle velocity; and wherein the control, responsive to the determined relative trailer angle velocity being zero, estimates a steady state trailer beam length of the trailer without the determined relative trailer angle velocity and based on at least (i) the determined trailer angle relative to the vehicle, (ii) the determined steering wheel angle of the vehicle and the determined wheel RPM of the wheel of the vehicle. ### Claim 21 (depends on 20) The vehicular trailering assist system of claim 20, comprising a gyroscope and an accelerometer, wherein the control, responsive to processing sensor data captured by the gyroscope and the accelerometer, determines a vehicle yaw rate. ### Claim 22 (depends on 20) The vehicular trailering assist system of claim 20, wherein the control determines a yaw rate of the vehicle based at least in part on processing of sensor data captured by the steering wheel angle sensor and the RPM sensor.