MENU

Ford anti-bug system keeps autonomous sensors clean

Ford anti-bug system keeps autonomous sensors clean

Technology News |
By Rich Pell



Insects, says the company, pose a significant challenge to self-driving vehicles, as the build-up of dead bugs on sensors can seriously interfere with the sensors’ ability to deliver reliable data to the vehicles.

“Over the last few years, Ford has been conducting some serious research into making sure our self-driving vehicles can always see the world around them, no matter what may try to get in the way,” says Venky Krishnan, Autonomous Vehicle Systems Core Supervisor, Ford Motor Company. “We’ve sprayed dirt and dust onto our self-driving vehicle sensors. We’ve showered LiDAR sensors with water to simulate rainfall. We created our own synthetic bird droppings and smeared it on camera lenses.”

The company’s research included consulting with zoologist Mark Hostetler, author of “That Gunk on Your Car,” for additional insight into the various insects that regularly make contact with vehicles, as well as building a makeshift “bug launcher” that allows researchers to shoot insects at vehicle sensors at high speeds. Ultimately, says Krishnan, the research sparked the question, “Wouldn’t it be a lot easier if we just kept our self-driving sensors from getting hit with bugs in the first place?”

To do that, say the researchers, they looked at how to take maximum advantage of the structure that houses the cameras, LiDAR, and radar sensors that sits on top of the company’s self-driving vehicles. As a result, the researchers redesigned the structure, called the “tiara,” to do more than just house cameras.

“It’s actually the first line of defense for our sensors,” says Krishnan.

As the car is driving, say the researchers, the redesigned tiara funnels air out through different slots near the camera lens, which creates an “air curtain” that actually deflects bugs away from the sensor itself.

“So any time bugs are making a bee-line for a camera lens, the air flowing out of the tiara pushes it aside so it doesn’t make contact with the lens,” says Krishnan. “It’s like changing the course of an asteroid on a crash-course with Earth.”

This method, say the researchers, proved “remarkably” successful. With bugs, for example, their tests showed that the air curtain successfully diverted the vast majority of them away from the self-driving sensors.

While this helped reduce the main problem, say the researchers, insects could still break past the air curtain in some situations, so they needed a way to successfully clean the sensors when necessary. So the researchers developed a cleaning system that features next-generation nozzles next to each camera lens that can spray washer fluid as needed to clean the sensors.

The system uses advanced software algorithms that helps the self-driving vehicles determine when a sensor is dirty, and then specifically target dirty camera lenses, efficiently cleaning each one individually without wasting washer fluid on already-clean sensors. After a sensor(s) has been sprayed down, the tiara releases air through a slot which quickly dries the face of the lens.

The researchers tested the effectiveness of the system by driving one of their test vehicles through the Huron-Manistee National Forests in western Michigan too see how the cleaning system reacted to swarms of bugs. The system has also been equipped on the third generation of their self-driving test vehicles, which are now hitting the streets in Detroit, Pittsburgh, Miami-Dade County and Washington, D.C.

“As fun as some of this development may sound,” says Krishnan, “these are not features that would simply be nice to have when self-driving vehicles are ready to be deployed; they are critical functions that vehicles must be able to carry out on their own in order for safe deployment to be possible. Just as we must equip self-driving vehicles with the brains to process what’s happening in their environment, we must also equip them with the tools to deal with that environment — no matter what kind of gunk it decides to throw at them.”

Ford

Related articles:
Ford’s Argo AI acquires LiDAR maker
Ford to invest $1B in AI startup
Autonomous cars can see in the dark
Ford commits to ‘talking’ and ‘listening’ vehicles in 2022

If you enjoyed this article, you will like the following ones: don't miss them by subscribing to :    eeNews on Google News

Share:

Linked Articles
10s