A system is operable for controlling a force applied on a trailer being towed by a vehicle is described to a desired force Fd. The trailer has brakes and an optional motor for providing a propelling force to the trailer. A force sensor senses fore-aft forces between the vehicle and trailer at all times while the trailer is being towed. A controller receives signals from the force sensor and is operatively connected to the trailer brakes and the motor. The system controls the force between a towing vehicle and a trailer to the desired force Fd, by any one of: (a) operating the brakes to apply a braking force to the trailer; (b) activating the motor to apply a propelling force to the trailer; and (c) operating the brakes and activating the motor to apply both a braking and a propelling force to the trailer.

A method for controlling a vehicle combination includes receiving a request that a desired force imparted on the vehicle combination should be provided by the set of motion support devices of a unique dedicated unit of the vehicle combination, the unique dedicated unit being either the tractor or the trailer. Upon determining that the desired force imparted on the vehicle combination can be provided by the set of motion support devices of the unique dedicated unit whilst fulfilling each safety requirement in a predetermined set of safety requirements of the vehicle combination, the predetermined set of safety requirements includes at least one safety requirement, operating the set of motion support devices of the unique dedicated unit only so as to provide the desired force, otherwise operating one or more of the tractor motion support devices as well as one or more of the trailer motion support devices in order to provide the desired force imparted on the vehicle combination.

Embodiments are presented herein for trailer sway detection and mitigation using a camera mirror system. In one embodiment, a vehicle controller is provided comprising: one or more processors; a non-transitory computer-readable medium; and program instructions stored on the non-transitory computer-readable medium. When executed by the one or more processors, the program instructions cause the one or more processors to: monitor images captured by at least one image capture device to detect sway of a trailer being towed by a tractor; and in response to detecting sway of the trailer, cause a braking system to apply a brake to attempt to reduce to the sway of the trailer.

The present disclosure relates to a method for determining a tractor longitudinal force threshold

[00001]$\left(F_{L_{\mathrm{TR}}}^{\mathrm{ret},\mathrm{threshold}}\right)$

for a tractor longitudinal retardation force

[00002]$\left(F_{L_{\mathrm{TR}}}^{\mathrm{ret}}\right)$

that can be imparted on a tractor of a vehicle combination including the tractor and a trailer for retarding the vehicle combination. The trailer has a trailer longitudinal extension in a trailer longitudinal direction (L.sub.TL), a trailer lateral extension in a trailer lateral direction (T.sub.TL) and a trailer vertical extension in a trailer vertical direction (V.sub.TL), and the tractor has a tractor longitudinal extension in a tractor longitudinal direction (L.sub.TR), a tractor lateral extension in a tractor lateral direction (T.sub.TR) and a tractor vertical extension in a tractor vertical direction (V.sub.TR ), wherein the tractor longitudinal retardation force

[00003]$\left(F_{L_{\mathrm{TR}}}^{\mathrm{ret}}\right)$

extends in a direction parallel to a tractor longitudinal direction (T.sub.TR).

A method detects a yaw instability in a vehicle combination. The vehicle combination has a tractor unit and at least one trailing unit. The method includes determining a current value of a longitudinal slip of at least one wheel of at least one unit of the vehicle combination, comparing the current value of the longitudinal slip to a threshold, and, if the current value is beyond the threshold, determining that an upcoming or ongoing yaw instability is present in the vehicle combination.

Embodiments are presented for trailer sway detection and braking distribution using a camera mirror system. In one embodiment, a vehicle controller is provided comprising: one or more processors; a non-transitory computer-readable medium; and program instructions stored on the non-transitory computer-readable medium. The program instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: monitor images captured by at least one image capture device to detect sway of a plurality of trailers being towed by a tractor; estimate a relative weight of each of the plurality of trailers based on the detected sway; determine braking force to apply to each of the plurality of trailers based on the estimated relative weight of each of the plurality of trailers; and send an electronic signal to a braking system of each of the plurality of trailers to apply the determined braking force to each of the plurality of trailers.

A system for probing properties of a trailer towed by a towing vehicle in a heavy-duty vehicle combination. The system comprises at least one torque generating component for inducing movements of the trailer relative to a yaw axis of the trailer; a control unit configured to, during driving of the vehicle combination, activate the torque generating component and apply a pre-determined control action to the torque generating component so as to excite oscillations of the trailer; and at least one detection unit configured to detect the resulting oscillations of the trailer, wherein the control unit is configured to, based on the detected resulting oscillations, determine one or more properties of the trailer. The invention also relates to a probing method.

A method is for actuating a vehicle brake system of a vehicle with a towing vehicle and a trailer that can be coupled. The towing vehicle has a trailer interface via which interface signals can be transmitted between the towing vehicle and the coupled trailer. The method includes: reading a sensor signal from a vehicle sensor, determination and provision of a monitoring result by evaluating the sensor signal, wherein the monitoring result indicates whether or not at least one trailer is coupled, wherein the sensor signal and/or the monitoring result is/are determined independently of the interface signals acting on the trailer interface and/or transmitted via the trailer interface in the case of a coupled trailer; selecting a braking strategy depending on the monitoring result and/or the sensor signal, and actuating the vehicle brake system of the vehicle depending on the selected braking strategy when there is a braking demand.

A method for laterally stabilizing an agricultural vehicle combination comprises determining, by a control unit, an actual value of a yaw rate variable characterizing a yaw rate of the agricultural tractor by a sensor array assigned to the agricultural tractor and comparing the actual value of the yaw rate variable with a target value specified for the yaw rate variable for identifying an oversteer or understeer tendency of the agricultural tractor. The control unit, upon identification of an oversteer tendency of the agricultural tractor arising in trailer operation, concludes that this is a forced articulation angle increase caused by thrust, or upon identification of an understeer tendency of the agricultural tractor arising in trailer operation, concludes that this is a retarded articulation angle reduction caused by thrust, and at least partially compensates for this by driver-independent intervention in wheel braking devices of the trailer.