Visual sensing in electronic truck coupling

This paper presents a novel monocular detection and tracking algorithm of vehicles applied to electronic vehicle-coupling at close distances. For the sake of safety and reliability the vehicle to track is marked with a pattern. Such an application demands for measuring reliably and with high precision the position and orientation of the vehicle to follow relative to the pursuing vehicle. Additional requirements are real time capability with respect to standard PC hardware and robustness against strong vibrations, high illumination dynamics and other effects that an automotive image processing application faces typically.