DIGITAL HARDWARE METHOD, SYSTEM AND DEVICE FOR PREVENTING THE INITIAL ONSET OF TRAILER OSCILLATIONS AND CONTROL THEREOF

• US 20180093538A1
• Filed: 11/07/2017
• Published: 04/05/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/07/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Michael Benn Rothschild
• Original Assignee: Michael Benn Rothschild
• Inventors: Rothschild, Michael Benn
• Granted Patent: US 10,384,501 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60D 1/30 for sway control , e.g. stabilising or anti-fishtail devices; Sway alarm means
• CPC Class Codes: B60D 1/62 involving supply lines, electric circuits, or the like
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/305 Indicating devices for towed vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/46 for giving flashing caution signals during drive, other than signalling change of direction, e.g. flashing the headlights or hazard lights
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 2900/30 Lamps commanded by wireless transmissions
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2230/06 Tractor-trailer swaying
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 8/1708 for lorries or tractor-trailer combinations
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/04 including control of propulsion units
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/18 including control of braking systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0052 Filtering, filters
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2420/408 Radar; Laser, e.g. lidar
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2520/105 Longitudinal acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2520/125 Lateral acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/45 External transmission of data to or from the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2710/083 Torque
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2710/18 Braking system
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2710/182 Brake pressure, e.g. of fluid or between pad and disc
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2720/106 Longitudinal acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/02 Control of vehicle driving stability
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/18009 related to particular drive situations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 : specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks

Abstract

A digital autonomous hardware based FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) device and method for preventing the initial onset of trailer oscillations and swaying (“Snaking”) movements and subsequent control thereof. The device being a detection and control method for any wheeled trailer which is detachable from the towing vehicle. The system uses a Kalman Filter to processes digital data from a number of wireless IMUs (Inertial Measurement Units) located on the trailer and towing vehicle and then subsequently digitally controls the application and monitoring of simultaneous braking to the trailer whilst accelerating the towing vehicle in a safe manner in an attempt to quickly alleviate and stop all oscillations and swaying (“Snaking”) movements. The system includes a number of other ancillary safety related features.

Claims

1. A method for preventing the initial onset and further development of trailer and towing vehicle oscillations, swaying and snaking movements, the trailer and towing vehicle movements being continually monitored by a digital hardware based FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) central controller, which detects the initial onset of oscillations, swaying and snaking movements present in the trailer and towing vehicle by using multiple IMUs, Inertial Measurement Units affixed to the trailer and towing vehicle, and that when the initial onset of oscillations, swaying and snaking movements are detected, the towing vehicle'"'"'s speed is automatically increased whilst simultaneous application of trailer braking is immediately applied to the trailer wheels without application of the towing vehicle'"'"'s brakes.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, characterized in that the oscillations data detected by the inertial measurement units are processed through a Kalman Filter to remove rogue noise and ensure purest data integrity possible.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, characterized in the towing vehicle'"'"'s speed being increased incrementally by 10% of its current speed by the central controller once communications with the vehicle'"'"'s automatic LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) based cruise control or equivalent system has established it is safe to increase the towing vehicle'"'"'s road speed by application of increased power from the petrol or diesel engine, electric motor or other propulsion device of the towing vehicle.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, characterized in the central controller subsequent to increasing the towing vehicle'"'"'s speed simultaneously applies a low duty cycle braking force in the order of approximately 35% equally to the individual left and right wirelessly controlled braking actuators pairs located on the trailer to immediately apply braking force to the trailer without simultaneous application of any braking force to the towing vehicle which is concurrently being accelerated.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, characterized in the central controller subsequent to increasing the towing vehicle'"'"'s speed simultaneously applies a low duty cycle braking force in the order of approximately 35% equally to any number of individual wirelessly controlled braking actuators fitted to the trailer.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, characterized in the central controller subsequent to increasing the towing vehicle'"'"'s speed and simultaneous application of trailer'"'"'s brakes will establish after a short delay of 250 ms to 500 ms (milliseconds) if the oscillations, swaying and snaking movements have subsided or ceased, if the oscillations, swaying and snaking movements have ceased completely the central controller will return to monitoring, however if the oscillations, swaying and snaking movements have remained constant or increased in magnitude the system will increase the previous acceleration and braking parameters incrementally by an amount calculated within the FPGA hardware of the central controller if safe to do so and apply them once again in an attempt to reduce the oscillations, swaying and snaking movements and stop them, once again a short delay of 250 ms to 500 ms (milliseconds) will be given prior to further monitoring and analysis of the oscillations, swaying and snaking movements commencing once again.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, characterized in that the central controller will in a completely autonomous manner apply full braking forces of 100% application to the trailer'"'"'s wirelessly controlled brakes via wireless mesh network connection from the central controller if it is detected that the trailer and towing vehicle have become detached from each other whilst the trailer is being towed, simultaneous application of the trailer'"'"'s and towing vehicle'"'"'s hazard and brake lights will be made immediately upon detection that the trailer and towing vehicle have separated, the separation being detected by the physical wiring connection failing to the trailer and the RSSI (radio signal strength indication) continuing to fall in strength as the distance between the detached trailer and towing vehicle increases.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, characterized in that the central controller will operate in a completely autonomous manner in an attempt to monitor, control and prevent the initial onset and further development of trailer and towing vehicle oscillations, swaying and snaking movements, should the central controller detect the initial onset of trailer and towing vehicle movements the system will attempt to stop them in a safe and controlled manner as quickly and as safely as possible without the intervention of the driver of the towing vehicle.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, characterized in that the central controller will operate in a completely autonomous manner in an attempt to monitor, control and prevent the initial onset and further development of trailer and towing vehicle oscillations, swaying and snaking movements, the system may also be controlled with manual inputs to the paddle controls mounted on the steering wheel of the towing vehicle, the paddle controls will allow the driver of the towing vehicle to apply acceleration to the towing vehicle and braking actions to the trailer wheels if the system'"'"'s central controller detects that it is safe to do so.

10. A method as recited in claim 1, characterized by the central controller using a cellular mobile network either from the towing vehicle'"'"'s wireless internet access point and or a cellular mobile telephone connected wirelessly to the central controller, which will transmit bi-directional data to and receive data from a cloud based geographical database using cellular mobile towers located alongside the road which the towing vehicle and trailer is being driven along, this data which will have been logged by the central controller within the towing vehicle and subsequently stored in a remote cloud based geographical server, which will be used to warn users of the system of possible pending danger from potential oscillations, swaying and snaking hazards based on previous data stored in the remote cloud based geographical database from all users of the system whose data was transmitted in an anonymous manner, geographical locations being logged and matched to the towing vehicle'"'"'s location from the GPS (global positioning system) communications module located within the central controller of the towing vehicle.

11. A digital hardware based device for preventing the initial onset and further development of trailer and towing vehicle oscillations, swaying and snaking movements, comprising:

a wireless mesh network of Bluetooth Low Energy version 5.0 or latest equivalent thereof inertial measurement units and altimeter modules with IP68 rating located on the towing vehicle and trailer in pairs along a lateral axis between the towing vehicle'"'"'s rear wheels and the trailer'"'"'s wheels along a lateral axis on the axle; and

a central controller located within the towing vehicle comprising of a Bluetooth Low Energy version 5.0 or latest equivalent thereof communications module with WiFi, a inertial measurement unit sensor module, a GPS communications module, a FPGA SoC ZYNQ 7000 series with Dual ARM®

Cortex-A9 Processors or similar equivalent FPGA SoC type device and a ARM Cortex M4 Microcontroller with can bus network interface module or similar equivalent microcontroller with similar specifications; and

at least a pair of wireless mesh networked Bluetooth Low Energy version 5.0 or latest equivalent thereof equipped electric brake actuators with WiFi communications, rechargeable battery and charger, each wireless electric brake actuator having its own unique identification number for wireless security.

12. The digital hardware device of claim 11 further comprising:

a pair of paddle switches mounted to the steering wheel of the towing vehicle which are connected to the central controller via the can bus network of the towing vehicle.