Vehicle wheel alignment methods and systems

1. A wheel alignment system comprising:

a pair of first and second passive heads, each comprising a target, for mounting in association with a first pair of wheels disposed on first and second sides, respectively, of a vehicle that is to be measured by operation of the wheel alignment system;

an active reference pod comprising a reference image sensor fixedly attached to a reference target, for mounting to a stationary reference at a location on the first side of the vehicle such that the reference image sensor produces image data including a perspective representation of a passive reference pod mounted to the stationary reference and comprising at least one target disposed on the second side of the vehicle;

a pair of first and second active heads, each comprising an image sensor, for mounting in association with the first and second sides of the vehicle, respectively, the image sensor of the first active head producing image data including a perspective representation of the targets of the first passive head mounted in association with a first wheel of the first pair of wheels and of the active reference pod mounted to the stationary reference, and the image sensor of the second active head producing image data including a perspective representation of the targets of the second passive head mounted in association with a second wheel of the first pair of wheels and of the passive reference pod mounted to the stationary reference; and

a computer for processing image data from the image sensors relating to the observations of the targets to compute at least one alignment measurement of the vehicle based on a spatial relationship between the active reference pod, mounted to the stationary reference, and the passive reference pod, mounted to the stationary reference, determined according to the image data produced by the reference image sensor.

2. The wheel alignment system of claim 1 , wherein the computer computes the spatial relationship between the active reference pod and the passive reference pod based on the image data produced by the reference image sensor and including the perspective representation of the passive reference pod, and based on a known spatial relationship between the reference image sensor and the reference target of the active reference pod.

3. The wheel alignment system of claim 1 , wherein the passive reference pod comprises first and second targets, the reference image sensor produces image data including a perspective representation of the first target of the passive reference pod, and the image sensor of the second active head produces image data including a perspective representation of the second target of the passive reference pod.

4. The wheel alignment system of claim 3 , wherein the first and second targets of the passive reference pod have a known spatial relationship to each other, and the computer computes the spatial relationship between the active reference pod and the passive reference pod according to the image data produced by the image sensors and the known spatial relationship between the first and second targets of the passive reference pod.

5. The wheel alignment system of claim 1 , wherein the stationary reference having the active and passive reference pods mounted thereto is a ground, a rack, or a lift.

6. The wheel alignment system of claim 1 , wherein the first and second active heads are for mounting to a stationary reference.

7. The wheel alignment system of claim 1 , wherein the first and second active heads are for mounting to the vehicle that is to be measured by operation of the wheel alignment system.

8. The wheel alignment system of claim 7 , wherein the first and second active heads are for mounting in association with a second pair of wheels disposed on the first and second sides of the vehicle.

9. A method for measuring an alignment of a vehicle comprising:

attaching a pair of first and second passive heads, each comprising a target, in association with a first pair of wheels disposed on first and second sides, respectively, of the vehicle that is to be measured;

providing an active reference pod, comprising a reference image sensor fixedly attached to a reference target, mounted to a stationary reference at a location on the first side of the vehicle;

capturing, using the reference image sensor of the active reference pod provided on the first side of the vehicle, image data including a perspective representation of a passive reference pod mounted to the stationary reference and comprising at least one target disposed on the second side of the vehicle;

capturing, using an image sensor of a first active head mounted in association with the first side of the vehicle, image data including a perspective representation of the targets of the first passive head mounted in association with a first wheel of the first pair of wheels and of the active reference pod mounted to the stationary reference;

capturing, using an image sensor of a second active head mounted in association with the second side of the vehicle, image data including a perspective representation of the targets of the second passive head mounted in association with a second wheel of the first pair of wheels and of the passive reference pod mounted to the stationary reference; and

processing the image data from the image sensors relating to the observations of the targets to compute at least one alignment measurement of the vehicle based on a spatial relationship between the active reference pod, mounted to the stationary reference, and the passive reference pod, mounted to the stationary reference, determined according to the image data produced by the reference image sensor.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the processing comprises computing the spatial relationship between the active reference pod and the passive reference pod based on the image data produced by the reference image sensor and including the perspective representation of the passive reference pod, and based on a known spatial relationship between the reference image sensor and the reference target of the active reference pod.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the passive reference pod comprises first and second targets,

the capturing, using the reference image sensor, image data comprises capturing image data including a perspective representation of the first target of the passive reference pod, and

the capturing, using the image sensor of the second active head, image data comprises capturing image data including a perspective representation of the second target of the passive reference pod.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the first and second targets of the passive reference pod have a known spatial relationship to each other, and the processing the image data comprises computing the spatial relationship between the active reference pod and the passive reference pod according to the image data produced by the image sensors and the known spatial relationship between the first and second targets of the passive reference pod.

13. The method of claim 9 , further comprising mounting the active and passive reference pods to the stationary reference prior to capturing image data using the reference image sensor and the image sensors of the first and second active heads, wherein the stationary reference is a ground, a rack, or a lift.

14. The method of claim 9 , further comprising mounting the first and second active heads to a stationary reference prior to capturing image data using the image sensors of the first and second active heads.

15. The method of claim 9 , further comprising mounting the first and second active heads in association with the vehicle that is to be measured by operation of the wheel alignment system prior to capturing image data using the images sensors of the first and second active heads.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the mounting comprises mounting the first and second active heads in association with a second pair of wheels disposed on the first and second sides of the vehicle.