Patent ID: 11861878
Assignee: MAGNA ELECTRONICS INC.
Field: Audio-visual technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G  B  H | IPC B  G  H

Claim 11:
12. A vehicular trailering assist system for a vehicle, the vehicular trailering assist system comprising:
a camera disposed at a rear portion of a vehicle equipped with the vehicular trailering assist system, the camera viewing at least rearward of the vehicle, wherein, with a trailer hitched to the vehicle via a pivoting joint hitch connection of the trailer to the vehicle, the camera views at least a portion of the trailer hitched to the vehicle;
wherein the camera captures frames of image data that include image data representative of at least a portion of the trailer hitched to the vehicle;
an electronic control unit (ECU) comprising electronic circuitry and associated software;
wherein the electronic circuitry comprises an image processor operable to process frames of image data captured by the camera as the vehicle and trailer travel along a road;
wherein the ECU, responsive to processing of frames of image data captured by the camera during a calibration maneuver by the vehicle, determines an initial trailer template of the trailer hitched to the vehicle;
wherein the ECU, during a first portion of a turning portion of the calibration maneuver, and at least in part via processing of frames of image data captured by the camera during the turning portion of the calibration maneuver, stores a subset of the frames of image data captured by the camera, wherein each stored frame of image data of the stored subset includes the trailer at a different trailer angle relative to a longitudinal axis of the vehicle;
wherein the ECU crops each stored frame of image data to encompass only a region of interest, wherein the region of interest comprises a location of a hitch ball of the vehicle,
wherein the ECU matches the region of interest of each cropped frame of image data to the determined initial trailer template;
wherein the ECU determines image data edges for each stored frame of image data image data;
wherein the ECU, responsive to determining image data edges for each stored frame of image data, matches each determined image data edge to the determined initial trailer template;
wherein the ECU, responsive to matching each determined image data edge to the determined initial trailer template, determines the location of the hitch ball of the vehicle; and
wherein the ECU, after performing the first portion of the turning portion of the calibration maneuver and during a second portion of the turning portion of the calibration maneuver, determines a collision angle of the trailer, and wherein the collision angle represents a trailer angle of the trailer relative to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle where the trailer collides with the vehicle; and
wherein, during the second portion of the turning portion of the calibration maneuver, the trailer angle of the trailer relative to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle remains constant.