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Trailer Tag Hitch: An Automatic Reverse Hanging System Using Fiducial Markers

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Cognitive Systems and Information Processing (ICCSIP 2022)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 1787))

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Abstract

Unmanned tractor-trailer vehicles are widely used in factory transportation scenarios. However, the trailer hitching process is still manually operated. The automatic trailer hitching is the precondition of fully unmanned logistics. Existing auto hitching methods directly detect the trailer or coupler features, making them hard to generalize and deploy to various types of trailers and couplers. To address this problem, this paper proposes a trailer hitch system using fiducial markers. The system is divided into two modules: hitch coupler pose estimation and visual servoing. An algorithm based on AprilTag detection is used for hitch coupler pose estimation. The pose messages guide the tractor to reverse to the trailer. An algorithm based on decoupled lateral-longitudinal control is used for visual servoing. The proposed system is experimented on 4 different tractor-trailer vehicles with 254 tests under various conditions. Large scale test condition variations include initial position and orientation, light illumination, indoor/outdoor scenario, and fiducial marker damage. Overall success rate of 95% shows that the proposed system is robust to environment variation and different kinds of trailers.

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Acknowledgement

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (62203301/62173228/61873165).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Automation, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Dongxi Lu & Ming Yang

  2. Key Laboratory of System Control and Information Processing, Ministry of Education of China, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Dongxi Lu & Ming Yang

  3. University of Michigan - Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Wei Yuan

  4. SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co., Ltd., Liuzhou, Guangxi, 545007, China

    Chaochun Lian, Yongchun Yao & Yan Cai

Authors
  1. Dongxi Lu
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  2. Wei Yuan
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  3. Chaochun Lian
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  4. Yongchun Yao
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  5. Yan Cai
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  6. Ming Yang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wei Yuan .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Tsinghua University, Bei**g, China

    Fuchun Sun

  2. University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

    Angelo Cangelosi

  3. Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Jianwei Zhang

  4. Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, China

    Yuanlong Yu

  5. Tsinghua University, Bei**g, China

    Hua** Liu

  6. Tsinghua University, Bei**g, China

    Bin Fang

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Lu, D., Yuan, W., Lian, C., Yao, Y., Cai, Y., Yang, M. (2023). Trailer Tag Hitch: An Automatic Reverse Hanging System Using Fiducial Markers. In: Sun, F., Cangelosi, A., Zhang, J., Yu, Y., Liu, H., Fang, B. (eds) Cognitive Systems and Information Processing. ICCSIP 2022. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1787. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-0617-8_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-0617-8_20

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-99-0616-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-99-0617-8

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