A method for aligning wheels of a vehicle is described herein. In an implementation, a plurality of images of a wheel of the vehicle is captured. The plurality of images comprises a LED image of the wheel, a laser image of the wheel, and a control image of the wheel. The method further comprises identifying, automatically, a rim coupled to the wheel based on the plurality of images. Further, the wheel is aligned based on the identified rim.

A vehicle equipment comprises a scanning system for the contactless measurement of at least one projector arranged at least for the projection onto an object to be measured of a structured light with a pattern, at least one video camera arranged for the acquisition of the image of the object to be measured, and a processing unit for processing the acquired image for the three-dimensional reconstruction of the object to be measured, the projector comprising in turn at least one matrix of emitters integrated into a monolithic substrate.

A method for contactless measurements of a vehicle wheel assembly by acquiring a sequence of images as the vehicle wheel assembly moves within a projected pattern of light. Images of the vehicle wheel assembly are acquired and processed to identify the portions of the images corresponding to the wheel assembly, such as by recognition of the wheel rim edge. The identified portion of each image is cropped and a resulting point cloud of data rotational aligned by an optimization procedure to remove the effect of wheel translation and rotation between each image, as well as to identify a center of rotation and amount of rotation for each image which yields a best-fit result. Superimposing the resulting point clouds produces a generated image with a high density of data points on the optimally fit surfaces of the wheel assembly, which can be used to further refine the axis of rotation determination.

A method for checking the correct positioning of a vehicle on a measuring station for vehicle measurement includes: a) taking images of at least two tires of the vehicle; b) identifying features, in the images taken, which describe at least one area of the respectively recorded tire; c) fitting a mathematical model to the identified features; d) determining the extent of the flattening of each tire from the fitted mathematical model; e) comparing the flattening of the at least two tires.

A non-contact sensor for determining orientation of an object, such as a tire and wheel assembly of a vehicle, includes a projector assembly having a light emitter, a lens assembly and a mask, with the mask including mask apertures and the light emitter configured to project light through the lens assembly and mask apertures and onto the object, and with the mask apertures creating a light pattern of projected light onto the object. The sensor also includes an imager configured to image reflections of the light pattern from the object, and a processor. The projector assembly and imager are angled with respect to one another, and the processor is configured to process imaged reflections of the light pattern to derive the orientation of the object, such as the alignment orientation of the tire and wheel assembly.

A four-wheel aligner including four four-wheel alignment and measuring devices and two four-wheel alignment and calibration devices; one of the two four-wheel alignment and calibration devices is arranged between two of the four four-wheel alignment and measuring devices located at a side of the vehicle to be aligned, another one of the two four-wheel alignment and calibration devices is arranged between another two of the four four-wheel alignment and measuring devices located at another side of the vehicle to be aligned, and the two four-wheel alignment and calibration devices are configured to be oppositely arranged on two sides of the vehicle to be aligned; the four four-wheel alignment and measuring devices are configured to obtain images of the tires and to analyze alignment information of the tires.