Demand for cleaning the surface of the automotive sensors has been recently amplified with the introduction of autonomous driving technology. Good quality information through the sensors is the origin of rapid and accurate recognition of the vital objects even with machine learning algorithm. Automotive sensors, mostly implemented on the surface of vehicles through a protective glass plate, are constantly exposed to various contaminants. In other words, the performance of the autonomous driving technology can also be highly subjected to the cleaning technology over the glass plate.
The next generation cleaning solution of automotive sensors should be capable of cleaning the general weather contaminants (such as rain, snow, fog, and ice) as well as the environmental ones (such as dirt, salt, road grime, bird droppings and bugs) in short amount of time to operate the autonomous driving vehicle.
Conventional cleaning systems, including wiper blade, pressurised air, and high-pressure water-jets, have been tried to clean the surface of automotive sensors but most of them had their own limits on the certain type of contaminants, despite of the excessive consumption of water, as well as electric power possibly with unwanted defects on window.
As an advanced alternative cleaning technology, ultrasonic surface cleaning could be a very good solution to overcome most of the drawbacks above. Significant saving in water and electric energy could be achieved with better cleaning performance by using ultrasound cleaning technology. It is also expected to reduce the system-level cost by removing the existing wiper, high-pressure pump as well as heat element used for the purpose of de-icing and de-fogging.
