System and methods for autonomously backing a vehicle to a trailer

A vehicle configured to autonomously back to a trailer, the vehicle comprising:

• a braking control module for electronically controlling a brake system;
• a steering control module for electronically controlling a steering system;
• a torque request module for electronically causing the vehicle to produce a requested amount of torque;
• and
• an electronic control module (ECM) configured to:
• determine a trailer to target in an image captured by a sensor positioned on the vehicle;
• determine a distance to the trailer, an angle of an axis of the trailer, and an angle of an axis of the vehicle including:
• detecting a left edge of a front surface of the trailer and a right edge of the front surface of the trailer in an edge map generated from the image;
• determining a first distance from the vehicle to the left edge and a second distance from the vehicle to the right edge in a depth map generated from the image by cross-referencing locations in the edge map against information from the depth map, wherein cross-referencing locations in the edge map against information from the depth map includes identifying depth discontinuities in the depth map and verifying that locations of the depth discontinuities in the depth map correspond to locations of the left edge and the right edge detected on the edge map to confirm presence of one or more of the left edge or the right edge as detected from the edge map;
• determining the angle of the axis of the trailer and the angle of the axis of the vehicle based on the first distance and the second distance;
• determine a path to the trailer based on the distance to the trailer, the angle of the axis of the trailer, and the angle of the axis of the vehicle;
• and
• transmit one or more commands to the braking control module, the steering control module, and the torque request module to autonomously control the vehicle to back along the determined path to the trailer.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by an electronic control unit (ECU) of a vehicle, cause the vehicle to perform actions for autonomously backing to a trailer, the actions comprising:

• determining, by the ECU, a trailer to target in an image captured by a sensor positioned on the vehicle;
• determining, by the ECU, a distance to the trailer, an angle of an axis of the trailer, and an angle of an axis of the vehicle including:
• detecting, by the ECU, a left edge of a front surface of the trailer and a right edge of the front surface of the trailer in an edge map generated from the image;
• determining, by the ECU, a first distance from the vehicle to the left edge and a second distance from the vehicle to the right edge in a depth map generated from the image by cross-referencing locations in the edge map against information from the depth map, wherein cross-referencing locations in the edge map against information from the depth map includes identifying depth discontinuities in the depth map to and verifying that locations of the depth discontinuities in the depth map correspond to locations of the left edge and the right edge detected on the edge map confirm presence of one or more of the left edge or the right edge as detected from the edge map;
• determining, by the ECU, the angle of the axis of the trailer and the angle of the axis of the vehicle based on the first distance and the second distance;
• determining, by the ECU, a path to the trailer based on the distance to the trailer, the angle of the axis of the trailer, and the angle of the axis of the vehicle;
• and
• transmitting, by the ECU, one or more commands to components of the vehicle to autonomously control the vehicle to back along the determined path to the trailer.