Method and device for reducing fouling of a vehicle's surrounding field sensor

Abstract

Title: Method and device for reducing the fouling of a vehicle's surrounding field sensor Method for reducing the fouling of a vehicle's surrounding field sensor comprising: - a first step (100) for determining at least one quantity representing the current driving dynamics of the vehicle, - a second step (200) for determining the environmental conditions relating to the vehicle, - a third step (300) for determining a dynamic condition towards the destination for the vehicle based on at least one quantity representing the current driving dynamics and the current environmental conditions, * the driving dynamics being capable of reducing the fouling of the vehicle's surrounding field sensor by environmental influences, and - a fourth step (400) for adjusting the vehicle's driving dynamics. Figure 1

Description

Title of the invention: Method and device for reducing the fouling of a vehicle's surrounding field sensor FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The present invention relates to a method and a device for reducing fouling of a vehicle's surrounding field sensor. STATE OF THE ART

[0002] According to the state of the art, partially autonomous driving vehicles and driving assistance systems are known, the operation of which is based on the exploitation of signals provided by the vehicle's surrounding field sensors.

[0003] The challenge in the case of such systems is the cleaning of the surrounding field sensors because these are continuously exposed to different environmental conditions during the operation of the vehicle; these conditions can cause the surrounding field sensors to become dirty, which reduces the ability to recognize objects in the vehicle's environment with such systems.

[0004] For this reason, the state of the art provides, for example, surrounding field sensor cleaning devices that use a wiping device or cleaning nozzles dispensing a cleaning liquid or compressed air to clear the sensor surfaces.

[0005] DISCLOSURE AND ADVANTAGES OF THE INVENTION

[0006] The present invention aims to overcome the disadvantages of known methods and devices for cleaning the fouling of a vehicle's surrounding field sensor and for this purpose relates to a method for reducing the fouling of a vehicle's surrounding field sensor comprising: a first step for determining at least one quantity representing the current driving dynamics of the vehicle, a second step for determining the environmental conditions relating to the vehicle, a third step for determining a dynamic condition towards the destination for the vehicle based on at least one quantity representing the current driving dynamics and the current environmental conditions, the driving dynamics making it possible to reduce the fouling of the vehicle's surrounding field sensor by environmental influences and, a fourth step for adjusting the driving dynamics of the vehicle.

[0007] In other words, the invention provides a method for reducing the fouling of a vehicle's surrounding field sensor. The surrounding field sensor is, for example, a camera or a lidar or radar sensor or even an ultrasonic sensor. or another sensor. The vehicle may be a road vehicle such as a passenger vehicle, motorcycle, transporter, truck, coach, bus, rail vehicle or various other vehicles.

[0008] It should be noted, in general, that the term "fouling" generally refers to any solid matter or liquid that could influence the capacity of the ambient field sensors. In addition to dirt particles, insects or the like, raindrops, icing, snow or the like can also be considered as elements of dirt or fouling to the extent that they reduce the capacity of the ambient field sensor.

[0009] In a particularly advantageous manner, the method according to the invention applies to vehicles which, relying on the surrounding field sensor or on several such surrounding field sensors, enable the operation of a driving assistance system or a partially or totally autonomous operation.

[0010] It should be noted that the method according to the invention is applied in the vehicle itself or at least partially outside the vehicle. The application of the method is done, for example, with an operating unit such as an ASIC unit, FPGA, processor, digital signal processor, microcontrollers or others. Preferably, the method according to the invention is applied from a computer program which carries out at least part of the method steps described below and which applies it with the operating unit as described without this being limited to such an operating unit and such a computer program.

[0011] According to a first step of the method of the invention, a quantity representing the current driving dynamics of the vehicle is determined. This is done, for example, from the surrounding field sensor or from several surrounding field sensors of the vehicle or from different sensors such as position sensors or inertial sensors or speed sensors or acceleration sensors or wheel sensors or other sensors which may be vehicle-specific sensors or sensors outside the vehicle.

[0012] In a second step of the method of the invention, the conditions or states of the environment of the vehicle are determined. For this purpose, the above-mentioned ambient field sensors or different sensors specific to the vehicle or external sensors are used. The environmental conditions of the vehicle are obtained, for example, from the above-mentioned ambient field sensors or from rain or light sensors or from weather or traffic information received by the vehicle.

[0013] In a third step of the method of the invention, the driving dynamics towards the destination of the vehicle are determined based on at least one quantity representing the current driving dynamics and the current conditions. environment that is determined, the driving dynamics towards the destination allowing to reduce the fouling of the surrounding field sensor or of all the surrounding field sensors of the vehicle by the influences of the environment.

[0014] When determining the driving dynamics towards the destination, additional limitations can be taken into account which ensure that the limit values ​​predefined by the driving dynamics towards the destination for the quantities representing the driving dynamics towards the respective destination are not exceeded. Such limitations may correspond, for example, to regulations such as instructions resulting from traffic regulations or the like, which limit, for example, the maximum permitted speed or the minimum interval between the individual traffic participants.

[0015] In a fourth step of the method according to the invention, the driving dynamics towards the destination obtained for the vehicle are adjusted in that, for example, a suitable signal is generated for this and transmitted to suitable components of the vehicle in order to adjust the driving dynamics towards the destination.

[0016] The method according to the invention has the particular advantage of determining and adjusting driving dynamics to the appropriate situation for the vehicle depending on the situation, in particular depending on the driving situation, which reduces the fouling of the surrounding field sensors of the vehicle or, in the ideal case, makes it possible to avoid it at least for a certain period. This allows a saving in the consumption of cleaning liquid or in the energy consumption by the actuator of the cleaning device.

[0017] According to an advantageous development of the invention, the quantity which represents the driving dynamics of the vehicle corresponds to the longitudinal dynamics or the transverse dynamics or a speed or an acceleration or a bend inclination of the vehicle. By way of example, the quantity is the speed of the vehicle, which applies, for example, by adapting the speed according to the determined environmental conditions to reduce the soiling of the surrounding field in that, for example, by reducing the speed in the case of a wet road surface, the interval to the vehicle in front is increased to thereby prevent the fog generated by these vehicles from reaching the surrounding field sensor installed in the frontal area of ​​the vehicle. Furthermore, reducing the speed in such a situation makes it possible to reduce the fog generated by the vehicle itself and which can soil the surrounding field sensor installed at the rear of the vehicle.Furthermore, it can be envisaged that increasing the speed reduces the fouling of the surrounding field sensor in that, for example, the air veins along the body of the vehicle are used and which at high speed, advantageously develop around the surrounding field sensor(s) to pass any dirt from the surrounding field. of the vehicle by its air veins on the surrounding field sensor or even possibly to detach the dirt attached to the surrounding field sensor (for example raindrops) to remove them by the circulating wind.

[0018] Furthermore, the driving dynamics towards the destination can be adjusted automatically or semi-automatically by the vehicle or manually by the driver. The semi-automatic adjustment can consist, for example, in the method according to the invention automatically determining one or more variables representing the driving dynamics towards the destination and in the actual adjustment of the variables only being carried out in response to an action by the driver using, for example, a vehicle interface or a mobile terminal coupled by a computer connection to the vehicle. The manual adjustment can be carried out, for example, in the driver submitting a request via a user interface to manually adjust one or more variables.

[0019] The environmental conditions are, for example, the type of roadway (motorway, national road, street, parking lot, etc.) or the condition of the road surface (the nature or properties of the coating) or a traffic event (for example, a traffic jam) or environmental conditions (for example, rain intensity, wind speed) or the inclination of the roadway (toward the side or in the direction of travel) or the direction of travel or the number of traffic lanes; the environmental conditions can be current conditions relating to the vehicle or future environmental conditions. If these are future environmental conditions, this makes it possible, based on such conditions, to predict the fouling of the surrounding field sensor in order to adjust the driving dynamics directly towards the destination or only at the time when the future environmental conditions apply to the vehicle.

[0020] According to a further advantageous development of the invention, the driving dynamics towards the destination are additionally determined as a function of a position or orientation of the surrounding field sensor or of a device for determining the surrounding field sensor of the vehicle. This prevents soiling of the surrounding field sensor in a particularly targeted manner, which results in a saving of cleaning fluid or energy for cleaning the surrounding field sensor. Alternatively, automatic cleaning of the surrounding field sensor is carried out with a cleaning device of the vehicle (e.g., with a fluid-jet nozzle and / or a compressed air nozzle or a wiping device) if the degree of soiling of the surrounding field sensor exceeds a predefined threshold.Such a combination of clogging prevention according to the invention with automatic cleaning makes it possible to reduce the resource consumption for cleaning to a low level while . ensuring cleaning to ensure the necessary capture capacity of the surrounding field sensor.

[0021] It is further advantageously possible to determine the driving dynamics towards the destination additionally on the basis of information relating to predicted future causes of soiling which are communicated to the vehicle by an external source. Such an external source is, for example, another vehicle which is arriving, for example, on the same road and in the opposite direction and communicates to the vehicle the upstream causes of soiling, prior to the passage of the vehicle. They can preferably be obtained automatically by the other vehicle and, for example, be transmitted via C-2-C communication (vehicle-to-vehicle communication) or via a mobile radio link or another wireless communication link to the vehicle. The external source can be a cloud server or a traffic monitoring system.

[0022] Particularly advantageously, the surrounding field sensor is actually a set of surrounding field sensors which determines the driving dynamics towards the destination additionally depending on an individual priority of soiling reduction for the individual surrounding field sensors.

[0023] For example, the priority of reducing soiling is a predefined priority of a particular surrounding field sensor. For example, surrounding field sensors oriented in the direction of travel will generally have a higher priority than surrounding field sensors oriented in the direction opposite to the direction of travel or oriented transversely or diagonally to the direction of travel because it can be assumed, for example, that surrounding field sensors that are not oriented in the direction of travel become less soiled or are less important for the safety of the vehicle without, moreover, limiting such priority.

[0024] Furthermore, it is possible to consider determining the priority based on an average importance of the various surrounding field sensors of the vehicle according to the current path of the vehicle or in a different manner. Alternatively or additionally, the priority can be obtained from the current surrounding conditions. It is, for example, possible, in the case of motorway traffic, to give priority to the forward-facing sensor while for urban traffic, priority is given to all the environmental sensors or to the laterally oriented environmental sensors to have sufficient safety with respect to pedestrians or cyclists.

[0025] Particularly advantageously, before the first method step, an activation step is carried out in which it is verified that the predefined activation conditions are met. Then, the first method step, the second method step, the third method step and the fourth method step are carried out. only if the activation conditions are met. Such activation conditions are, for example, the absence of a traffic jam (because in a traffic jam there may not be sufficient opportunity to set appropriate driving dynamics towards the destination) or compliance with minimum intervals to other traffic participants or existing driving situations outside of city traffic or outside of parking lots or for necessary weather conditions (e.g. no heavy rain or snowfall) or alternative activation conditions such as, for example, regulations regarding the current traffic situation.

[0026] According to a further advantageous development of the invention, a detour route of the vehicle is determined if a predefined maximum soiling of the surrounding field sensor per unit of time can be maintained along the current route for the vehicle. Such a detour route is set, for example, automatically or after issuing a route plan to the user who manually sets or manually actuates.

[0027] According to a further advantageous feature, the dynamics of driving towards the destination are determined based on the compensation of a quantity relating to the current environmental conditions and the current driving dynamics of the vehicle with a database containing the recording of numerous different driving situations with the associated driving dynamics towards the destination. The adjustment of the database is carried out, for example, during a development phase of the vehicle by the evaluation of test routes during the development phase or with regular use of the vehicle or with multiple resource processes, etc. Alternatively, the dynamics of driving towards the destination are determined with a neural network which has been trained with a large number of different driving states or, if appropriate, regular use of the vehicle.

[0028] The invention also relates to a device for reducing the soiling of a vehicle's surrounding field sensor, this device being designed, for example, with an evaluation unit which determines at least one quantity representing the current driving dynamics of the vehicle to determine the environmental conditions relating to the vehicle, driving dynamics towards the destination for the vehicle based on at least one quantity representing the current driving dynamics and the current environmental conditions, this driving dynamics towards the destination making it possible to reduce the soiling of the vehicle's surrounding field sensor by environmental influences and to adjust the driving dynamics towards the destination applied by the vehicle. Brief description of the drawings

[0029] A method and a device will be described below in more detail with the aid of the attached drawings in which:

[0030] [Fig-1] flowchart of the steps of an example of the method according to the invention, and

[0031] [Fig.2] diagram of an embodiment of a device according to the invention in connection with a vehicle.

[0032] DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

[0033] [Fig.l] shows a flowchart presenting the steps of an exemplary method of the invention applied to reduce the fouling of an ambient field sensor of a vehicle such as a passenger vehicle. The ambient field sensor is here, for example, a lidar sensor.

[0034] The method executed from a computer program applied by an operating unit in the form of a CPU starts at the start node S and provides, first of all, an activation step 90 consisting of checking whether the predefined activation conditions for the execution of the following steps 100, 200, 300 and 400 are fulfilled. The activation conditions provide, in this example, that the vehicle is outside a locality and that, if applicable, the precipitation does not exceed a predefined level.

[0035] In the case of fulfilled activation conditions, in step 100 at least one quantity representing the current driving dynamics of the vehicle is determined, this quantity here representing the speed of the vehicle.

[0036] If not all activation conditions are met, the method according to the invention ends with the end point E. In a new execution of the method, it is possible to restart directly afterwards or with a predefined time delay. Alternatively or additionally, it is also possible to restart the method based on an event (for example, when the vehicle leaves the location or the like).

[0037] In step 200, the environmental conditions that concern the vehicle are then determined and that, for example, include road traffic, a condition of the road surface and a traffic event.

[0038] In step 300, a driving dynamics towards the destination is then determined for the vehicle 200 based on at least one quantity representing the current driving dynamics and the current environmental conditions, the driving dynamics towards the destination making it possible to reduce the fouling of the surrounding field sensor of the vehicle by environmental influences.

[0039] The driving dynamics towards the destination is based on the matching of the current environmental conditions and the current driving dynamics of the vehicle with a database containing a number of driving situations. different with associated driving dynamics towards the destination. In addition, when determining the driving dynamics towards the destination, the requirements of road traffic regulations are taken into account, which, where applicable, must limit the ranges of magnitude used by the driving dynamics towards the destination.

[0040] In step 400, the driving dynamics towards the destination determined for the vehicle are adjusted to avoid, as far as possible, fouling of the surrounding field sensor while the vehicle is still being driven. For this purpose, the operating unit that applies the method is connected by a computer connection to an autonomous driving system of the vehicle so that the operating unit can transmit the driving dynamics towards the destination, thus obtained, to this system. The autonomous driving system adjusts the driving dynamics towards the destination in connection with the control of the appropriate actuators of the vehicle (in this case it is the engine of the vehicle allowing the desired target speed to be driven).

[0041] [Fig.2] is a diagram of an embodiment of a device 50 according to the invention in connection with a vehicle 20.

[0042] The device 50 according to the invention, for reducing the fouling of an ambient field sensor 10 of the vehicle 20 is, here, in the form of an ASIC circuit which is connected by a computer link with the ambient field sensor 10; with a cleaning device 30 equipped with a cleaning nozzle for the ambient field sensor 10 and with a driving assistance system 60 of the vehicle 20.

[0043] From this configuration, the device makes it possible to determine at least one quantity representing the current driving dynamics of the vehicle 20, the environmental conditions relating to the vehicle 20, a driving dynamics towards the destination of the vehicle 20 based on this quantity representing the current driving dynamics of the vehicle and the current environmental conditions, the driving dynamics towards the destination making it possible to reduce the soiling of the surrounding field sensor 10 of the vehicle 20 by environmental influences and to adjust the driving dynamics towards the destination for the vehicle 20 by appropriate control of the driving assistance system 60.

[0044] The device 50 makes it possible to determine the environmental conditions of the vehicle 20 from the surrounding field sensor 10, from other sensors (not shown) of the vehicle 20 and from a wireless communication link 80 made with the antenna 70 of the vehicle 20 between the vehicle 20 and an external server 40. The wireless communication link 80 makes it possible to transmit, in particular, the environmental conditions on the route upstream of the vehicle 20 so that the device 50 can predict the driving dynamics towards the future destination suitable for the vehicle 20.

[0045] The device 50 further makes it possible to determine the degree of fouling of the surrounding field sensor 20 and to activate, if necessary, the cleaning device 30 if the degree of fouling exceeds a predefined threshold to ensure the continued operation of the surrounding field sensor 10.

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[0055] NOMENCLATURE OF THE MAIN ELEMENTS S, E, 90-400 Method steps 10 Surrounding field sensor 20 Vehicle 30 Cleaning device 40 Server 50 Device for reducing fouling of the surrounding field sensor 60 Driving assistance system 70 Antenna 90 Wireless communication link

Claims

Claims

1. Method for reducing the soiling of an ambient field sensor (10) of a vehicle (20) comprising: - a first step (100) for determining at least one quantity representing the current driving dynamics of the vehicle (20), - a second step (200) for determining the environmental conditions relating to the vehicle (20), - a third step (300) for determining a driving dynamics towards the destination for the vehicle (20) based on at least one quantity representing the current driving dynamics and the current environmental conditions, - the driving dynamics being capable of reducing the soiling of the ambient field sensor (10) of the vehicle (20) by environmental influences, and - a fourth step (400) for adjusting the driving dynamics of the vehicle (20).

2. Method according to claim 1, according to which the quantity representing the driving dynamics of the vehicle (20) is: - longitudinal dynamics, or - transverse dynamics, or - speed, or - acceleration, or - curve inclination.

3. Method according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the driving dynamics towards the destination are adjusted automatically or semi-automatically or manually by the driver of the vehicle (20).

4. A method according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the environmental conditions are: - the type of roadway, or - the condition of the roadway surface, or - a traffic event, or - environmental conditions, e.g. rain intensity, wind speed, or - road gradient, or - driving direction, or - number of existing or future traffic lanes.

5. Method according to one of the preceding claims, wherein - the driving dynamics towards the destination are additionally determined as a function of a position and / or an orientation of the surrounding field sensor (10) and / or a cleaning device (30) of the surrounding field sensor (10) of the vehicle (20), and / or - in addition, an automatic cleaning of the surrounding field sensor (10) is carried out with the cleaning device (30) of the vehicle (20) if the degree of soiling of the surrounding field sensor (10) exceeds a predefined threshold.

6. Method according to one of the preceding claims, according to which the driving dynamics towards the destination is further determined on the basis of information concerning the predicted causes of future soiling and which is communicated by an external source (40) to the vehicle (20).

7. Method according to one of the preceding claims, wherein - the surrounding field sensor (10) consists of a set of surrounding field sensors (10), and - the driving dynamics towards the destination are additionally determined depending on an individual priority, a reduction in soiling for the individual surrounding field sensors (10).

8. A method according to claim 7, wherein the priority of the fouling reduction is a predefined priority for the respective surrounding field sensors (10) and / or a priority determined depending on the current environmental conditions.

9. Method according to one of the preceding claims, according to which an activation step (90) is carried out before the first step (100), in which it is checked whether predefined activation conditions are met, and - the first step (100), the second step (200), the third step (300) and the fourth step (400) are only applied if the activation conditions are met.

10. Method according to one of the preceding claims, according to which a deviation path of the vehicle (20) is determined if a predefined maximum soiling of the surrounding field sensor (10) cannot be maintained for the vehicle (20) per unit of time along the current path.

11. Method according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the driving dynamics towards the destination are obtained on the basis of: - a compensation of the current environmental conditions and the quantity representing the current driving dynamics of the vehicle (20) obtained from a database which contains the recording of many different driving situations with driving dynamics towards the respectively associated destination, or - a neural network is determined which has been trained with a large number of different driving situations.

12. Device (50) for reducing the soiling of an ambient field sensor (10) of a vehicle (20), the device (50) being designed to - determine at least one quantity representing the current driving dynamics of the vehicle (20), - determine the environmental conditions relating to the vehicle (20), - determine a driving dynamics towards the destination for the vehicle (20) based on at least one quantity representing the current driving dynamics and the current environmental conditions, - the driving dynamics towards the destination being suitable for reducing the soiling of the ambient field sensor (10) of the vehicle (20) by environmental influences, and - adjust the driving dynamics towards the vehicle destination (20).

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