Abstract: Automated jackstand systems and methods deploy a jackstand to support a front end of a trailer parked at an automated loading dock. The jackstand prevents collapse of the trailer's landing gear and prevents upending of the trailer during loading and unloading. Advantageously, by deploying the jackstand automatically, presence of personnel in the yard where tractors and trailers are moving is not required.

Abstract: This provides locations for mounting controllers and processing components that effectively employ the roof within a frame covered by a cowling so as to avoid exposure to weather and the environment. The roof is also employed to provide a sensor bar that extends across the vehicle width for a distance that does not interfere with normal vehicle function or generate potential overhangs, which can inadvertently engage objects or vehicles. The bar is sufficient in size and shape so as to allow mounting of a plurality of types of sensors on its top surface and/or recessed within front or rear edges. Such sensors can include visual light cameras for machine vison processes and/or LIDAR of various types and cooperage areas/fields of view—some of which can be recessed within a hollow region of the bar. Additional sensors can be mounted on the truck cab and/or chassis, including visual-light cameras and radars.

Abstract: Systems and methods determine an angle of an articulated trailer relative to a tractor that the trailer is hitched to. An optical encoder is positioned beneath a fifth-wheel of a tractor to couples with a kingpin of the trailer when the trailer is hitched to the tractor. The optical coupler has a rotating shaft that may include pins that physically interact with the kingpin and/or may include a magnet that magnetically attaches to the kingpin. A clearance and cleaning block may be positioned on the spring plate to interact with a bottom surface of a kingpin of the trailer during hitching of the trailer to the tractor. A LIDAR attached to the tractor may detect a front end of the trailer to determine the trailer angle relative to the tractor.

Abstract: Automated jackstand systems and methods deploy a jackstand to support a front end of a trailer parked at an automated loading dock. The jackstand prevents collapse of the trailer's landing gear and prevents upending of the trailer during loading and unloading. Advantageously, by deploying the jackstand automatically, presence of personnel in the yard where tractors and trailers are moving is not required.

Abstract: Systems and methods determine an angle of an articulated trailer relative to a tractor that the trailer is hitched to. An optical encoder is positioned beneath a fifth-wheel of a tractor to couples with a kingpin of the trailer when the trailer is hitched to the tractor. The optical coupler has a rotating shaft that may include pins that physically interact with the kingpin and/or may include a magnet that magnetically attaches to the kingpin. A clearance and cleaning block may be positioned on the spring plate to interact with a bottom surface of a kingpin of the trailer during hitching of the trailer to the tractor. A LIDAR attached to the tractor may detect a front end of the trailer to determine the trailer angle relative to the tractor.

Abstract: Automated jackstand systems and methods deploy a jackstand to support a front end of a trailer parked at an automated loading dock. The jackstand prevents collapse of the trailer's landing gear and prevents upending of the trailer during loading and unloading. Advantageously, by deploying the jackstand automatically, presence of personnel in the yard where tractors and trailers are moving is not required.

Abstract: A splash block having a trough and a diffuser arrangement for use in controlling water dispensed from a downspout of a home or building. The diffuser arrangement including a plurality of diffusing elements that displace a high flow of water produced from a heavy downpour in a random dispensing pattern to prevent erosion of the surrounding ground material. The diffuser arrangement also defining low-flow pathways that accommodate a low flow of water through the trough.