Assisted Trailer Parking using a Reverse Camera System and Inverse Kinematics

We introduce a rear-view camera system designed for trailers, comprising multiple cameras, to address the challenges of limited visibility and the awkward maneuverability of a trailer when performing a reverse driving task (e.g., parking). The cameras are placed on the top edge of the trailer looking downwards, while the different camera feeds are transformed and stitched to create a top-down view. The actual steering angle of the vehicle and the hitch angle are measured using IoT hardware. The path of the trailer is determined using inverse kinematics of the vehicle and trailer, and lines are overlaid on the top-down view to provide drivers with dynamic, real-time guiding lines on their smartphone. We describe a practical implementation of our system on one instance of a vehicle and a trailer, and extrapolate the concept to different types of trailers in simulations.