Guided vehicle positioning for inductive charging with the assistance of a vehicle camera

A vehicle, comprising:

• a secondary coil for picking up electric power from a vehicle-external primary coil;
• at least one camera configured to capture surroundings of the vehicle;
• a control unit for the vehicle, wherein the control unit is configured to:
• receive image data from the at least one camera of the vehicle;
• access reference data comprising information about at least one predefined reference object in the captured surroundings of the vehicle, the information at least determinative of a presence of the at least one predefined reference object and/or a position of the at least one predefined reference object relative to the primary coil;
• detect the presence of the at least one predefined reference object in the received image data based on the accessed reference data;
• ascertain the position of the secondary coil relative to the primary coil based on the detected presence of the at least one predefined reference object, and
• generate a graphical representation of the secondary coil with respect to the primary coil based on the ascertained position of the secondary coil relative to the primary coil;
• a memory unit configured to store the reference data;
• and
• a display configured to display the graphical representation.

A method for assisting in positioning a secondary coil of a vehicle relative to a vehicle-external primary coil, the method comprising the acts of:

• receiving image data from at least one vehicle camera configured to capture surroundings of the vehicle;
• receiving reference data comprising information about at least one predefined reference object in the captured surroundings of the vehicle, the information at least determinative of a presence of the at least one predefined reference object and/or a position of the at least one predefined reference object relative to the primary coil;
• detecting the at least one predefined reference object in the received image data based on the received reference data;
• ascertaining a position of the secondary coil relative to the primary coil based on the detected at least one reference object;
• and
• generating a graphical representation of the secondary coil with respect to the primary coil based on the ascertained position of the secondary coil relative to the primary coil.