Hitch angle warning system and method

• Main Author: Lavoie Erick Michael
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 13.12.2016
• Subjects: CALCULATING; COMPUTING; CONJOINT CONTROL OF VEHICLE SUB-UNITS OF DIFFERENT TYPE ORDIFFERENT FUNCTION; CONTROL SYSTEMS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR HYBRID VEHICLES; COUNTING; ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING; LAND VEHICLES FOR TRAVELLING OTHERWISE THAN ON RAILS; MOTOR VEHICLES; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICS; ROAD VEHICLE DRIVE CONTROL SYSTEMS FOR PURPOSES NOT RELATED TOTHE CONTROL OF A PARTICULAR SUB-UNIT; TRAILERS; TRANSPORTING; VEHICLE CONNECTIONS; VEHICLES IN GENERAL; VEHICLES, VEHICLE FITTINGS, OR VEHICLE PARTS, NOT OTHERWISEPROVIDED FOR

A hitch angle warning system includes a camera-based hitch angle sensor that senses a hitch angle between a vehicle and a trailer. The hitch angle warning system also includes a controller that estimates an amount of time for the hitch angle to reach a threshold angle based on a rate of change of the hitch angle. The threshold angle may be set to a maximum hitch angle controllable by the vehicle based on a length of the trailer. The controller thereby generates a warning signal when the amount of time is less than a threshold time, which is configured to be greater or equal to than a response time of a driver of the vehicle to make a corrective action. The warning signal may be deactivated when the amount of time is greater than a second time that is greater than the threshold time.