A kingpin assembly includes a housing having a recess located therein, a kingpin having at least a portion located within the recess of the housing, wherein the kingpin is secured within the recess of the housing, and wherein the kingpin includes an axis extending along a length of the kingpin, and a sensor arrangement configured to sense a force exerted on the kingpin in a first direction that is substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis.

Systems for estimating an axle load of a vehicle wherein axle load is estimated in response to an angle between two components of an axle. The angle may change as weight is added to or removed from the axle such that axle load may be determined as a function of the angle.

A sensor device for a towing vehicle coupling or as a component of a towing vehicle coupling, with which a trailer vehicle, in particular a semi-trailer, can be coupled to a towing vehicle wherein the towing vehicle coupling has a coupling element for detachably coupling a coupling counter element, which are/can be secured to the towing vehicle and the trailer vehicle, and in the coupled state forming a joint, where they can rotate relative to one another about at least one joint rotational axis, wherein the sensor device has a follower, which is mounted on a bearing body where it can rotate relative to the coupling element about a follower rotational axis, which can rotate about the follower rotational axis by rotationally following the coupling counter element in a rotation about the at least one joint rotational axis, and which is for detecting a rotation of the coupling counter element relative to the coupling element about the at least one joint rotational axis, and wherein the sensor device has at least one sensor for detecting a respective rotational position of the follower relative to the bearing body in relation to the follower rotational axis. The follower is mounted such that it moves relative to the coupling element for providing or maintaining a follower coupling to the coupling counter element with at least one degree of freedom of movement that is different to the rotatability about the follower rotational axis.

A system for sensing the angular position of a caster wheel includes a sensor mounted on a bearing which supports a shaft aligned with the rotational axis of the caster. A target on the shaft is detected by the sensor which generates signals indicative of the presence or absence of the target. The position of the target is coordinated with the position of the caster wheel such that the signals are indicative of the angular position of the caster wheel. The target may be a groove extending partially around the shaft and a remaining ungrooved portion of the shaft.

Provided is a steering system which includes a hub unit with a steering function and a control device. A steering actuator includes a motor and a linear drive mechanism configured to convert a rotational output from the motor to a linear motion. An angle sensor is configured to sense a rotational angle of the motor and capable of generating two or more angle sensor values. A position sensor is configured to sense a position of the linear drive mechanism which represents an amount of displacement of an output rod and capable of outputting the same in the form of a position sensor value. The control device is configured to compare each of the angle sensor values sensed and generated by the angle sensor against the position sensor value sensed by and output from the position sensor to determine whether any one of the angle sensor values is incorrect.

A fifth wheel coupling system including a fifth wheel coupling and an angle measuring device, wherein the angle measuring device features at least one degree of freedom relative to the fifth wheel connection.

A method and system are described for controlled supplemental steering, by actuating a supplemental steering element, of a trailing implement connectable via a hitch to a pulling source, and wherein the trailing implement includes a pair of parallel wheels, a controller, a position sensing system that generates a hitch position history comprising a stored set of recent positions of the hitch point, and a steering angle actuator. The method carried out by the system includes maintaining a history of positions of the hitch, determining a target steering angle for the supplemental steering element, and actuating the steering angle actuator in accordance with the target steering angle. During the maintaining the history of positions of the hitch, the history of positions of the hitch is updated by performing a rotation operation and a translation operation on a set of coordinates of the history corresponding to previous hitch positions.

An apparatus for measuring the steering angle of a wheel assembly including a suspended wheel mount and at least one suspension arm, the apparatus including a reference bracket, a rotating bracket and an angle sensor, the reference bracket and the rotating bracket each respectively including a measurement end and a mounting end, wherein the measurement ends of the reference and rotating brackets are rotatably coupled about a rotation coupling point such that the brackets can rotate with respect to one another, wherein the mounting end of the rotating bracket is coupled with the suspended wheel mount and the mounting end of the reference bracket is coupled with the suspension arm, and wherein the mounting end of the reference bracket is positioned on a plane defined by a steering axis of the suspended wheel mount and a rotation axis between the suspension arm and the suspended wheel mount.

A system for estimating a hitch angle includes a control module with memory for storing programmatic control logic, a processor for executing the control logic, and one or more input/output (I/O) ports. Wheel speed sensors on a trailer communicate with the processor via the I/O ports. A trailering application defines a portion of the control logic and has at least first, and second control logics. The first control logic estimates the hitch angle from a first term, a second term and physical parameters of the vehicle and trailer. The second control logic provides the estimated hitch angle to one or more of a driver and to on-board control systems of the vehicle and trailer.

In various embodiments, methods, systems, and vehicle apparatuses are provided. A method for estimating a Hitch Articulation Angle (HAA) using Ultra-Sonic Sensors (USSs) while ensuring quality detected echo signal performance using plausibility filtering, generating at least one set of USS data based on detecting a set of echo signals generated by a plurality of USSs configured about a vehicle coupled to a trailer; determining based on a set of USS data using a selected set of geometric equations in a plausibility filtering process for an arbitrary frontal shape of the trailer; and generating at least one comparison based on at least one set of USS data estimations to a kinematic model at low speeds for ensuring that results of the kinematic model to the HAA associated with the determined trailer shape is based on a pair of detected echo signals that are deemed to have a higher signal performance.