Vehicle Sensor Cleaning via Centralized Plausibility Evaluation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current systems for cleaning environmental sensors on motor vehicles often incorrectly identify the cause of data quality deterioration, leading to unnecessary activation of availability-increasing measures, such as excessive washing water consumption and electrical energy usage.
Innovation Solution
A system that includes a central electronic evaluation unit to compare and determine the most plausible cause of data quality deterioration across multiple sensor electronics, thereby controlling treatment devices more accurately and reducing false triggering of cleaning measures.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Speed
If individual sensor electronics independently determine contamination causes and trigger cleaning measures, then response speed is improved, but false triggering increases and measurement precision deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the contamination cause determination function from individual sensor electronics into a central electronic evaluation system. Multiple sensor electronics units feed their sensor data to this central system, which collectively evaluates all inputs to determine the most plausible contamination cause. This combining approach maintains fast response through centralized control while improving identification accuracy by considering multiple data sources simultaneously, thereby resolving the contradiction between speed and precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The central electronic evaluation system acts as an intermediary between the distributed sensor electronics and the treatment devices. Instead of each sensor electronics unit directly triggering cleaning measures independently, the intermediary central system receives data from all sensors, evaluates contamination causes collectively, and then controls the treatment devices. This intermediary layer enables fast response while preventing false triggering through comprehensive evaluation, thus resolving the precision-speed contradiction.
2Reliability
If frequent cleaning measures are activated to ensure sensor availability, then reliability is improved, but loss of substance (cleaning liquid) and loss of energy increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback by continuously monitoring sensor data quality and only triggering cleaning measures when the central electronic evaluation system determines actual contamination is present. This feedback mechanism prevents unnecessary cleaning operations, reducing cleaning liquid consumption and energy waste while maintaining sensor availability only when truly needed, thus resolving the contradiction between reliability and resource loss.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses the sensors' own operational data to determine when cleaning is needed, rather than relying on predetermined schedules or external triggers. The sensor electronics continuously monitor their own data quality, and when deterioration is detected, this information is fed to the central evaluation system which decides whether cleaning is necessary. This self-service approach ensures cleaning occurs only when actually needed, reducing waste while maintaining reliability.
3Adaptability or versatility
If multiple sensor electronics units operate independently with individual contamination detection, then measurement coverage is improved, but device complexity and false triggering increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the measurement function across multiple independent sensor electronics units, each handling its own sensor data locally. This segmentation maintains comprehensive measurement coverage and adaptability. The central electronic evaluation system then integrates these segmented data streams, evaluating contamination causes collectively based on all inputs. This segmentation approach preserves measurement versatility while the centralized evaluation reduces complexity by providing a unified decision-making point.
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
This approach significantly reduces the occurrence of false triggering of availability-increasing measures, conserving cleaning liquids and electrical energy, and ensuring more precise identification of contamination causes.
Implementation Method 1
a washing water spray nozzle for the environment sensor, with which the sensor surface can be treated with a water jet and thus cleaned
Implementation Method 2
a heating system can be arranged on a sensor surface, in particular in order to remove ice, condensate or the like from the sensor surface by heat treatment of the latter
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
AI summary
The invention relates to a system (5) for cleaning environment sensors (2, 3, 4) of a motor vehicle (1), said sensors differing from each other in respect of the measurement principles used to detect environment information. For each environment sensor (2, 3, 4), the system has at least one treatment device (6) for removing a contamination from the environment sensor (2, 3, 4) and at least one sensor electronics unit (7) connected to the environment sensor (2, 3, 4), wherein each sensor electronics unit (7) is configured to monitor the data quality of sensor data generated by the environment sensor (2, 3, 4) connected to the sensor electronics unit. If the data quality deteriorates, the sensor electronics unit is configured to allocate one particular cause from various possible causes to this deterioration and to generate an information signal containing information about the particular cause of the contamination. To prevent, as far as possible, availability-increasing measures enabling the availability of the environment sensors (2, 3, 4) to be increased from being initiated erroneously, the system (5) has at least one evaluation electronics unit (9) connected to the sensor electronics unit (7), the evaluation electronics unit being configured to examine the plausibility of the causes according to the information signals and to actuate the treatment devices (6) according to the most plausible cause.