Collision avoidance method including determining height of an object fixed to a vehicle

摘要

A method and system of avoiding a collision between an object attached to a rear of a vehicle and an object behind the vehicle during reverse maneuvering of the vehicle includes determining with an electronic control unit of the vehicle an adjusted top height of a first object attached to a rear of the vehicle. The electronic control unit then determines whether the adjusted top height is lower than a clearance height of a second object behind the vehicle and unattached to the vehicle. Upon determining that the adjusted top height of the first object is not lower than the clearance height of the second object, the electronic control unit determines that the first object would collide with the second object if the vehicle is reverse maneuvered too close to the second object and upon determining that the collision would occur alerting a user of the vehicle.

主权项

1. A method of determining a height of an attached object attached to a rear of a vehicle and avoiding a collision between the attached object and an unattached object which is behind and unattached to the rear of the vehicle during reverse maneuvering of the vehicle on a ground surface, comprising:
determining with an electronic control unit of the vehicle and a rear facing vision system of the vehicle an adjusted top height (Hb adjusted) of the attached object wherein the determination of the adjusted top height (Hb adjusted) of the attached object includes:
determining with the electronic control unit an angle β which is an angle between a reference plane lying on the ground surface and a line of sight of a camera of the rear facing vision system that is tangent to the attached object by an equation β=arctan (Hc/De) where Hc is a height of the camera above the reference plane and De is a lateral distance between a perpendicular plane which extends through the camera and a point where the line of sight intersects the reference plane and determining the lateral distance De based on distances lines of the rear facing vision system wherein each distance line is indicative of a different distance from the rear of the vehicle;determining with the electronic control unit the unadjusted top height (Hb) of the attached object by an equation Hb=Tan β(De−Db) where Db is a lateral distance from the rear of the vehicle to a vertical plane extending through the attached object and intersecting a top most point of the attached object;determining with the electronic control unit an adjusted top height (Hb adjusted) of the attached object by adding a correction factor (He) to the unadjusted top height (Hb); determining with the electronic control unit whether the adjusted top height (Hb adjusted) of the attached object is lower than a clearance height of the unattached object wherein the clearance height of the unattached object is a distance between a bottom of the unattached object and the ground surface; upon determining with the electronic control unit that the adjusted top height (Hb adjusted) of the attached object is not lower than the clearance height of the unattached object, determining with the electronic control unit whether the attached object would collide with the unattached object when the vehicle is reverse maneuvered too close to the unattached object; and in response to the determining with the electronic control unit that the adjusted to height (Hb adjusted) of the attached object is not lower than the clearance height of the unattached object and upon determining that the collision would occur, alerting a user of the vehicle by having the electronic control unit display on a display an alert indicating that the collision would occur.