An outside viewing device for a vehicle, having a camera that is housed in a casing having a frontal wall through which there passes an imaging window, and an internal partition which is parallel to the frontal wall and through which there passes an opening next to the imaging window. In addition, two peripheral wiper seals, disposed at the periphery of the window and the opening, delimit a guide in which a transparent screen slides, in a sealed manner, between at least two imaging positions, in each of which different surface portions of the screen are positioned next to the imaging window. Finally, a device for moving the screen is designed to slide the latter between its different positions.

The present disclosure relates to vehicle technology, and more particularly, to an unmanned vehicle and its sensor device and cleaning mechanism. The cleaning mechanism includes: a housing, a cleaning element, a driving component transmissively connected to the cleaning element and a control unit installed within a receiving cavity. The housing has a light transmissive element provided on a side surface thereof. The cleaning element is pivotable about one end thereof and mounted to the housing. The cleaning element, when pivoting, frictionally interacts with a surface of the light transmissive element that is away from the receiving cavity to clean the light transmissive element. The control unit is communicatively connected to the driving component for controlling the driving component.

A cleaning unit for a window or a sensor in a motor vehicle includes a reservoir for a cleaning liquid, at least one cleaning nozzle provided in or on a cleaning nozzle unit, a fluid connection between the reservoir and the cleaning nozzle and at least one spray pump provided between the reservoir and the cleaning nozzle. The spray pump is formed by a piston-cylinder unit that has a cylinder axis and is provided in or on the cleaning nozzle unit. The cleaning unit is characterized in that the piston of the piston-cylinder unit is designed as an electromagnetically actuated piston, which can be actuated in a first direction under the action of an electromagnetic force directed along the cylinder axis, which first direction forms a compression direction.

A sensor module for a sensor. The sensor module includes a motor; a housing part including a cover; and a cleaning device. The cleaning device includes a fluid nozzle assembly including a first fluid nozzle, the fluid nozzle assembly being movable along a surface of the cover with the aid of the motor, and being designed to direct a fluid stream onto the surface of the cover.

A device which is designed to detect surroundings and which includes a housing and a sensor situated within the housing. The housing includes a transmitter/receiver window, through which the corresponding sensor signals may be emitted into the surroundings by the sensor, and/or sensor signals from the surroundings may be received. The device includes a cover, the cover being designed to be transparent to the sensor signals, and the cover being designed to cover the transmitter/receiver window against exterior surroundings of the device. The device includes a cleaning unit, which is situated at an outside of the housing and is movable relative to the housing using a drive unit. The cleaning unit is designed to remove contaminants from the cover. The cleaning unit includes at least one first nozzle to spray a cleaning liquid onto the cover, and at least one second nozzle to blow a gas onto the cover.

A sensor pod system includes one or more sensor pods with a plurality of sensors configured to collect data from an environment. A sensor pod may have an effective field of view created by individual sensors with overlapping fields of view. The sensor pod system may include sensors of different types and modalities. Sensor pods of the sensor pod system may be modularly installed on a vehicle, for example, an autonomous vehicle and collect and provide data of the environment during operation of the vehicle.

A sensor pod system includes one or more sensor pods with a plurality of sensors configured to collect data from an environment. A sensor pod may have an effective field of view created by individual sensors with overlapping fields of view. The sensor pod system may include sensors of different types and modalities. Sensor pods of the sensor pod system may be modularly installed on a vehicle, for example, an autonomous vehicle and collect and provide data of the environment during operation of the vehicle.

The imaging apparatus 10 includes the lens 11, the image sensor 12 and the controller 14. A light receiving surface of the image sensor 12 is disposed on a focused position of an object by the lens 11, the object being located at a specific object distance. The controller 14 generates one or more second images from a first image obtained from the image sensor 12, the focus position of the second images being changed to an object distance different from a specific object distance, and determines the presence of foreign matters adhered to the surface on the object side of the lens, on the basis of the focused state of the second image.

A vehicular cleaner system (1) for cleaning a to-be-cleaned object (100), wherein: the vehicular cleaner system (1) is provided with a tank (11) that accommodates a cleaning liquid, a pump (12) that pressure-feeds the cleaning liquid inside the tank (11), a high-pressure-air generation unit (2) that generates high-pressure air, a first ejection port that sprays the cleaning liquid toward a cleaning surface of the to-be-cleaned object (100), a second ejection port that sprays the high-pressure air toward the cleaning surface, and a controller (4) and vehicle ECU (40) that control the spraying of the cleaning liquid and the spraying of the high-pressure air; and the controller (4) and the vehicle ECU (40) perform control so as to initiate the spraying of the high-pressure air from the second ejection port after spraying of the cleaning liquid from the first ejection port has been initiated.

A vehicle sensor system including a memory; and a processor coupled to the memory, the processor configured to receive, from a temperature monitor, temperature of a sensor of a vehicle, and cause a sensor cleaning subsystem to, in response to the temperature of the sensor being less than a threshold temperature: heat a cleaning fluid, the cleaning fluid configure to clean and heat the sensor, and initiate a cleaning cycle and direct the heated cleaning fluid to the sensor to increase the temperature of the sensor.