A control unit and a method for determining the number of trailers in a tractor-trailer combination based on power consumption

Abstract

A control unit for determining the number of trailers towed by a tractor unit in a tractor-trailer arrangement, wherein each trailer in the tractor-trailer arrangement comprises reference electrical loads that are controlled by the control unit and powered by a power supply in the tractor unit, and where the control unit is configured to activate one or more reference electrical loads in each trailer, whereby the activated reference electrical loads in each trailer has a known expected power consumption, contributing to a total expected power consumption that scales proportionally with the number of trailers. The control unit further configured to obtain power consumption data pertaining to the one or more reference electrical loads, and determine the number of trailers by analyzing the obtained power consumption data against the known expected power consumption of a single trailer.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.