Image registration applied to estimation of the coupling angle between tractor vehicles and semi-trailers +
Abstract
Accurate estimation of the coupling angle between a tractor and a semitrailer is crucial for the control of autonomous and semi-autonomous articulated vehicles. In freight transport scenarios, it is particularly important to estimate this angle without instrumenting the semitrailer. Existing methods in the literature often suffer from limitations such as dependence on trailer geometry, the need for recalibration at each coupling, sensitivity to weather conditions, or proprietary constraints. This paper proposes an image registration-based method for coupling angle estimation that addresses these issues and can be extended to support trailer approach maneuvers.
References
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L. Caup, J. Salmen, I. Muharemovic, and S. Houben, “Video-based trailer detection and articulation estimation,” in 2013 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV), 2013, pp. 1179–1184.
C. Fuchs, F. Neuhaus, and D. Paulus, “Advanced 3-d trailer pose estimation for articulated vehicles,” in 2015 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV), 2015, pp. 211–216.
O. Ljungqvist, D. Axehill, H. Pettersson, and J. Löfberg, “Estimation-aware model predictive path-following control for a general 2-trailer with a car-like tractor,” 2020. [Online]. Available: [link]
O. Ljungqvist, N. Evestedt, D. Axehill, M. Cirillo, and H. Pettersson, “A path planning and path-following control framework for a general 2-trailer with a car-like tractor,” Journal of Field Robotics, vol. 36, no. 8, p. 1345–1377, Oct. 2019. [Online]. DOI: 10.1002/rob.21908
P. Nyberg, “Stabilization, sensor fusion and path following for autonomous reversing of a full-scale truck and trailer system,” Master’s thesis, Linköping University, 2016.
K. Olutomilayo and D. R. Fuhrmann, “Estimation of trailer-vehicle articulation angle using 2d point-cloud data,” in 2019 IEEE Radar Conference (RadarConf), 2019, pp. 1–6.
D. Cebon and C. De Saxe, “Method and system of articulation angle measurement,” WIPO Patent WO 2019/202317 A1, Oct. 2019.
G. Klein and D. Murray, “Parallel tracking and mapping for small ar workspaces,” in 2007 6th IEEE and ACM International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality, 2007, pp. 225–234.
A. Habibnejad Korayem, A. Khajepour, and B. Fidan, “A review on vehicle-trailer state and parameter estimation,” IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, vol. 23, no. 7, pp. 5993–6010, 2022.
M. Kumar, A. Haas, P. Strauss, S. Kraus, Taş, and C. Stiller, “Conception and experimental validation of a model predictive control (mpc) for lateral control of a truck-trailer,” in 2022 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV), 2022, pp. 1550–1557.
G. Xu, M. Chen, X. He, Y. Liu, J. Wu, and P. Diao, “Research on state-parameter estimation of unmanned tractor—a hybrid method of dekf and arbfnn,” Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, vol. 127, p. 107402, 2024. [Online]. Available: [link]
M. A. Fischler and R. C. Bolles, “Random sample consensus: a paradigm for model fitting with applications to image analysis and automated cartography,” Commun. ACM, vol. 24, no. 6, p. 381–395, Jun. 1981. [Online]. DOI: 10.1145/358669.358692
D. Arnström, “State estimation for truck and trailer systems using deep learning,” Master’s thesis, Linköping University, 2018.
C.-Z. Sun, B. Zhang, J.-K. Wang, and C.-S. Zhang, “A review of visual slam based on unmanned systems,” in 2nd International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Education (ICAIE), 2021, pp. 226–234.
D. Xie, W. Zhu, F. Rong, X. Xia, and H. Shang, “Registration of point clouds: A survey,” in 2021 International Conference on Networking Systems of AI (INSAI), 2021, pp. 136–142.
Y. Zhang, S. Sun, J. Shang, and M. Yang, “Research on three-dimensional point cloud registration algorithm,” in 7th International Conf. Signal and Image Processing (ICSIP), 2022, pp. 645–649.
B. Reddy and B. Chatterji, “An fft-based technique for translation, rotation, and scale-invariant image registration,” IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, vol. 5, no. 8, pp. 1266–1271, 1996.
C. Kuglin and D. Hines, “The phase correlation image aligment method,” in IEEE Intl. Conf. Cybernetics and Society., 1975.
D. Persson and H. Deragården, “Method and system for determining an articulation angle of a vehicle combination,” Patent US 2023/0194699 A1, June 2023.
J. Traa and P. Smaragdis, “A wrapped kalman filter for azimuthal speaker tracking,” IEEE Signal Processing Letters, vol. 20, no. 12, pp. 1257–1260, 2013.
Published
2025-09-30
How to Cite
MUSSOI, Bruno; ZOTTIS, Jonatas Lemuel Bispo; PASTRE, Guilherme Garbossa; MOLON, Maicon; DALLALBA, Gabriela Machado; COSTA, Guilherme Holsbach.
Image registration applied to estimation of the coupling angle between tractor vehicles and semi-trailers +. In: WORKSHOP OF WORKS IN PROGRESS - CONFERENCE ON GRAPHICS, PATTERNS AND IMAGES (SIBGRAPI), 38. , 2025, Salvador/BA.
Anais [...].
Porto Alegre: Sociedade Brasileira de Computação,
2025
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p. 61-66.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5753/sibgrapi.est.2025.38273.
