Systems and methods for autonomously backing a vehicle to a dock

A vehicle configured to autonomously back to a target object, 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 target object;
• determine a distance to the target object, an angle of an axis of the target object, and an angle of an axis of the vehicle, wherein the ECM is configured to:
• detect, within an image, a left edge of the target object and a right edge of the target object in an edge map generated from the image;
• determine a first distance from the vehicle to the left edge and a second distance from the vehicle to the right edge by cross-referencing locations in the edge map against information in a 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;
• and
• determine the angle of the axis of the target object and the angle of the axis of the vehicle based on the first distance and the second distance;
• and
• determine a path to the target object;
• 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 target object.

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 target object, the actions comprising:

• determining, by the ECU, the target object;
• determining, by the ECU, a distance to the target object, an angle of an axis of the target object, and an angle of an axis of the vehicle, wherein determining the angle and the distance to the target object includes:
• detecting within an image, by the ECU, a left edge of the target object and a right edge of the target object 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 by cross-referencing locations in the edge map against information in 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;
• and
• determining, by the ECU, the angle of the axis of the target object 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 target object;
• 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 target object.