Vehicle auto-motion control system

A coupling alignment system for moving a vehicle into a coupling position with respect to an implement to be attached to the vehicle, the coupling alignment system comprising an electronic control unit configured to

• receive a first image from a camera positioned on the vehicle,
• search the first image for a visual target within a defined region of interest for the camera, the defined region of interest including a field of view that is larger than the visual target in the first image and smaller than an entire area of the first image, the visual target being mounted to the implement,
• generate vehicle movement command signals based at least in part on the location of the visual target in the first image, wherein the vehicle movement command signals cause the vehicle to move relative to the visual target when received by one or more vehicle actuators,
• update the defined region of interest for the camera based on a detected location of the visual target in the first image and based on a size of the field of view of the defined region of interest used for the first image such that a size of a field of view of the updated defined region of interest increases as the vehicle is moved closer to the visual target,
• receive a second image from the camera after the vehicle has moved relative to the visual target, and
• search the second image for the visual target only within the updated defined region of interest for the camera.

An automatic control system for moving a vehicle with respect to an implement to be attached to the vehicle, the vehicle having propulsion and steering controls which respond to electronic input signals and the implement including a visual target mounted to the implement, the automatic control system comprising:

• a camera mounted on the vehicle, the camera generating images;
• and
• a motion control unit which receives the images from the camera, the motion control unit configured to
• process said images,
• generate vehicle movement command signals as a function of vehicle posture information determined based at least in part on the images, and
• communicate the command signals to the propulsion and steering controls, wherein, in response to receiving the command signals, the propulsion and steering controls move the vehicle to a coupling position so that the implement can be coupled to the vehicle,
• wherein the motion control unit is configured to process said images by applying a perception engine that
• determines a region of interest in an image generated by the camera and searches for the visual target within the region of interest;
• when the visual target is found in the image, determines the vehicle posture information based on a location of the visual target in the image and updates the region of interest, wherein the updated region of interest is larger than the visual target in the image and smaller than an entire image from the camera;
• and
• after the visual target is found, continues to process subsequent images from the camera by searching for the visual target only within a region of interest updated based on a location of the visual target in a previous image, and determining vehicle posture information based on a detected location of the visual target in each image,
• wherein a field of view of the region of interest relative to the entire image from the camera is determined based on the field of view of the region of interest for the previous image and increases as the motion control unit causes the vehicle to move closer to the coupling position,
• wherein the perception engine updates the region of interest by determining a field of view for the updated region of interest based on the field of view for the region of interest used for the previous image, wherein
• Xmin_new=Xmin_old−dX;
• Xmax_new=Xmax_old+dX;
• Ymin_new=Ymin_old−dY;
• Ymax_new=Xmax_old+dY;
• dX=c *(Xmax—old −Xmin—old);
• dY=c *(Ymax—old −Ymin—old);
• wherein Xmax_old and Xmin_old define the field of view on an X-axis for the region of interest used for the previous image,
• wherein Ymax_old and Ymin_old define the field of view on a Y-axis for the region of interest used for the previous image,
• wherein Xmax_new and Xmin_new define the field of view on an X-axis for the updated region of interest,
• wherein Ymax_new and Ymin_new define the field of view on a Y-axis for the updated region of interest, and
• wherein c is a calibration constant.