Prevention of Snow Accretion on Camera Lenses of Autonomous Vehicles
With the rapid development of artificial intelligence, the autonomous vehicles (AV) have attracted considerable attention in the automotive industry. However, different factors negatively impact the adoption of the AVs, delaying their successful commercialization. Accretion of atmospheric icing, especially wet snow, on AV sensors causes blockage on their lenses, making them prone to lose their sight, in turn, increasing potential chances of accidents. In this study, two different designs are proposed in order to prevent snow accretion on the lenses of AVs via air flow across the lens surface. In both designs, lenses made of plain glass and superhydrophobic coated glass surfaces are tested. While some researchers have shown promise of water repellency on superhydrophobic surfaces, more snow accretion is observed on the superhydrophobic surfaces, when compared to the plain glass lenses. In the experiments, snow is formed using a novel snow gun inside a walk-in cold room connected to a wind tunnel that can reach wind speeds of up to 40 mph. It is observed that the air flow over the lens significantly reduces the accretion of snow on the lens and could maintain the lens clean for up to 20 mph wind velocities. However, at LWC values of approximately 28%, the stickiness of the snowflakes increases, enhancing snow accretion on the lenses and translating to significant loss of sight. The high stickiness of the snowflakes along with high wind speeds leads to increased blockage of the AV lenses.
- Record URL:
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Availability:
- Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/01487191
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Supplemental Notes:
- Abstract reprinted with permission of SAE International.
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Authors:
- Mohammadian, Behrouz
- Sarayloo, Mehdi
- Heil, Jamie
- Sojoudi, Hossein
- Robertson, Michael
- Hong, Haiping
- Tran, Tommy
- Patil, Sunil
- Krishnan, Venkatesh
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Conference:
- WCX SAE World Congress Experience
- Location: Detroit Michigan, United States
- Date: 2020-4-21 to 2020-4-23
- Publication Date: 2020-4-14
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Web
- Features: References;
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Serial:
- SAE Technical Paper
- Publisher: Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE)
- ISSN: 0148-7191
- EISSN: 2688-3627
- Serial URL: http://papers.sae.org/
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Autonomous vehicles; Data quality; Glass; Hydrophobic properties; Icing; In vehicle sensors; Laser radar; Snowfall; Visual texture recognition; Weather conditions
- Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Materials; Vehicles and Equipment;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01741239
- Record Type: Publication
- Source Agency: SAE International
- Report/Paper Numbers: 2020-01-0105
- Files: TRIS, SAE
- Created Date: May 27 2020 9:40AM