Eliminating Blind Spots for Assisted Driving

Drivers of heavy goods vehicles are not able to survey the whole surrounding area of their vehicle due to large blind spot regions. This paper shows how catadioptric cameras - a combination of cameras and mirrors - can be used to survey the surrounding area of vehicles. Four such cameras were mounted on a truck-trailer combination, and the images are combined such that obstacles are visible in an image presented to the driver. This image is a bird´s eye view of the vehicle. Additionally, corridors indicating the path of motion of the vehicle are overlaid to the resulting image. To compute those corridors, a mathematical description of the path of motion is derived. Such a system does not only support the driver during maneuvering tasks but also increases safety of driving large vehicles.