Vehicle Sensor Housing With Integrated Spray Cleaning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Vehicles, particularly commercial vehicles, face challenges in maintaining the cleanliness of sensors exposed to environmental conditions, leading to potential functional deterioration due to debris and liquid deposition, which is exacerbated by the increasing demand for advanced sensor systems like RADAR and LiDAR for automated driving assistance.
Innovation Solution
A scalable sensor housing with integrated cleaning capabilities, featuring a sensor adapter and placeholder for a washer-body, allowing for various sensor types and configurations, along with a connector means for easy installation and cleaning, utilizing a mixture of water-liquid and air for effective cleaning.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If sensors are exposed to the ambient environment for monitoring purposes, then the sensor monitoring capability is improved, but the sensor surface becomes contaminated with debris and liquid deposition
Solution Approach 1:
The housing is segmented into a sensor-receiving portion and a cleaning-device-receiving portion, allowing the sensor to be exposed to the environment for monitoring while the cleaning device remains protected until activation. This segmentation enables the sensor to fulfill its monitoring function while providing a mechanism to address contamination separately.
Solution Approach 2:
The cleaning device is pre-positioned within the housing with its cleaning surface adjacent to the sensor, ready to clean the sensor surface on demand. This preliminary positioning ensures that the cleaning function is immediately available when contamination occurs, maintaining sensor functionality without requiring complex external mechanisms.
2Reliability
If cleaning devices are integrated with sensor housings, then sensor cleaning capability is improved, but the housing periphery becomes bulk and unshaped
Solution Approach 1:
The cleaning device is nested within the housing structure, with the cleaning device receiving portion integrated into the housing walls. This nesting approach allows the cleaning device to be housed compactly without protruding significantly, maintaining a relatively streamlined external shape while providing integrated cleaning functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The housing serves multiple functions: it protects the sensor, positions the cleaning device, and provides structural support. By making the housing multi-functional, the design avoids adding separate external structures for cleaning, thereby maintaining a cleaner overall shape while integrating necessary cleaning capabilities.
3Measurement precision
If multiple sensors of different kinds are installed for automated driving assistance, then the sensor monitoring coverage is improved, but the complexity of keeping all sensor surfaces clean increases
Solution Approach 1:
The cleaning device is designed with a universal cleaning surface that can clean multiple different sensor types (camera, LiDAR, RADAR) through a single mechanism. This universal approach reduces the complexity that would arise from having separate cleaning systems for each sensor type, while still maintaining comprehensive cleaning coverage for all sensors.
Solution Approach 2:
Multiple cleaning functions are merged into a single cleaning device structure, where one cleaning surface can service multiple sensors. This merging reduces the overall complexity of the cleaning system compared to having individual cleaning mechanisms for each sensor, while maintaining the ability to clean diverse sensor types.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution ensures continuous sensor availability and functionality by maintaining a clean sensor surface, supporting multiple sensor types and configurations, and integrating cleaning systems for effective debris removal.
Implementation Method 1
utilizing a mixture of water-liquid and air for effective cleaning
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3~4
AI summary
The invention relates to a sensor housing (1000) for being assembled to a vehicle (V), in particular a commercial vehicle (CV), and a connector means (500) is integrated with the housing, wherein the sensor housing (1000) is further adapted to house at least one sensor (100, 200, 300, 400) to be connected to the connector means (500) and for monitoring environmental conditions of the vehicle (V), wherein a sensor adapter (10) is resided in the housing to hold the at least one sensor (100, 200, 300, 400). According to the invention, it is provided that the adapter (10) has a number of one or more assembly-fittings to hold the at least one sensor (100, 200, 300, 400) each in a monitoring position, and - a placeholder (40) is integrated with the housing to hold a washer-body of a cleaning-device in position as to afford cleaning of the at least one sensor.