Patent ID: 11884261
Assignee: MAGNA ELECTRONICS INC.
Field: Transport (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B | IPC B

Claim 13:
14. A vehicular trailer sway management system, the vehicular trailer sway management system comprising:
at least one rearward-sensing radar sensor disposed at a vehicle equipped with the vehicular trailer sway management system and sensing at least rearward of the equipped vehicle;
wherein the at least one rearward-sensing radar sensor comprises an antenna array having multiple transmitting antennas and multiple receiving antennas, wherein the transmitting antennas transmit radar signals and the receiving antennas receive radar signals, and wherein the at least one rearward-sensing radar sensor is operable to capture radar data;
an electronic control unit (ECU) comprising a processor for processing radar data captured by the at least one rearward-sensing radar sensor;
wherein radar data captured by the at least one rearward-sensing radar sensor is provided to the ECU;
wherein, with a trailer hitched to the equipped vehicle, the vehicular trailer sway management system, via processing at the ECU of the provided captured radar data, determines oblique angles of the trailer relative to a longitudinal axis of the equipped vehicle;
wherein, as the equipped vehicle tows the trailer, and responsive to monitoring of determined oblique angles of the trailer relative to the longitudinal axis of the equipped vehicle, the vehicular trailer sway management system determines at least one selected from the group consisting of (i) frequency of movement of the trailer relative to the equipped vehicle and (ii) amplitude of movement of the trailer relative to the equipped vehicle;
wherein the vehicular trailer sway management system determines sway of the trailer relative to the equipped vehicle based at least in part on the determined at least one selected from the group consisting of (i) frequency of movement of the trailer relative to the equipped vehicle and (ii) amplitude of movement of the trailer relative to the equipped vehicle;
wherein, responsive to the determined sway of the trailer relative to the equipped vehicle, the vehicular trailer sway management system at least in part controls operation of the equipped vehicle to manage sway of the trailer relative to the equipped vehicle; and
wherein the vehicular trailer sway management system at least in part controls operation of the equipped vehicle to manage sway of the trailer relative to the equipped vehicle by controlling at least one selected from the group consisting of (i) steering of the equipped vehicle, (ii) braking of the equipped vehicle and (iii) acceleration of the equipped vehicle.