Vehicle alignment and sensor calibration system

A system for aligning a target to a vehicle for calibration of a sensor equipped on the vehicle, said system comprising:

• a vehicle lift;
• a plurality of non-contact wheel alignment sensors mounted to said vehicle lift and configured for use in determining the orientation of tire and wheel assemblies of a vehicle positioned on said vehicle lift;
• a target adjustment frame including a base frame, a target mount moveably mounted on said base frame with said target mount configured to support a target, said target adjustment frame further including a plurality of actuators configured to selectively move said target mount relative to said base frame, wherein said base frame is longitudinally moveable relative to said lift upon at least one rail with said base frame being in a known orientation;
• a computer system, said computer system configured to selectively actuate said actuators to position said target relative to a vehicle positioned in front of said target adjustment frame, with said target mount being moveable by said actuators about a plurality of axes;
• wherein said computer system is configured to determine the orientation of the vehicle relative to said target adjustment frame based on the orientation of the tire and wheel assemblies of the vehicle and to actuate said actuators responsive to the determination of the orientation of the vehicle relative to said target adjustment frame to position said target relative to a sensor of the vehicle whereby the sensor is able to be calibrated using the target.

A method of aligning a target to a vehicle for calibration of a sensor equipped on the vehicle, said method comprising:

• determining the orientation of tire and wheel assemblies of the vehicle using non-contact wheel alignment sensors;
• determining the orientation of the vehicle using the non-contact wheel alignment sensors;
• and
• positioning a target held by a target adjustment frame relative to the vehicle based on the determined orientation of the vehicle;
• wherein the target adjustment frame includes a base frame, a target mount moveably mounted on said base frame with said target mount configured to support the target, said target adjustment frame further including a plurality of actuators configured to selectively move said target mount about a plurality of axes relative to said base frame, and wherein said base frame is in a known orientation to said non-contact wheel alignment sensors, and wherein said actuators are selectively actuated to position the target held by the target adjustment frame.