When a power failure does not occur, power supply to a first terminal of a wiper motor is performed by a first battery, and power supply to a second terminal of the wiper motor is performed by a second battery. When a power failure occurs in one of the first battery or the second battery, power supply to the wiper motor is performed by the other battery that is not in power failure.

A lidar sensor may include: a transmitter configured to transmit laser; a receiver configured to receive reflected laser; a mirror rotating unit configured to rotate a mirror in a designated direction, the mirror serving to reflect the transmitted or received laser; a cleaning device driving unit configured to drive a cleaning device to remove foreign matters adhering to the cover of the lidar sensor; a signal processing unit configured to determine when or where the lidar sensor is covered and calculate a distance to an object; and a control unit configured to control the transmitter not to transmit a laser signal or control a rotational velocity or rotation time of the mirror at a point of time that the lidar sensor is covered by the cleaning device, and control detection or utilization of the received signal when the distance to the object is calculated.

A cleaning unit for cleaning foreign matter from a cover, in particular a cover of a transmitter/receiver window of an environment sensor, including at least one movable wiper blade, which is arranged so as to wipe off foreign matter such as water or dirt on the cover by movement along the cover. For this purpose, the wiper blade touches the cover for example with one or multiple rubber lips. The wiper blade is positioned in an inclined manner with respect to a direction of movement of the wiper blade and is thus movable in such a way that a force exerted by the moved wiper blade on the foreign matter has a component in the direction of the force of gravity. Also described is a related device for sensing the environment as well as a method for cleaning a cover.

A defogging structure of a windowpane of a movable body in which an information acquisition device configured to acquire information from an exterior of the movable body by at least one of emitting light or receiving light can be arranged in an interior of the movable body, the defogging structure including: a windowpane having an information acquisition area through which at least one of light emitted by the information acquisition device or light to be received by the information acquisition device passes; a defogging sheet including a resin film and a defogger, the defogging sheet being adhered to the information acquisition area of the windowpane; and a transparent resin adhesive layer that allows the resin film of the defogging sheet to be adhered to the windowpane, wherein a resin constituting the transparent resin adhesive layer has a Tg of −20° C. to −50° C., and a shear storage modulus of 0.5×10.sup.5 Pa to 2.0×10.sup.5 Pa.

The invention relates to a method for detecting the rotary angle positions (α, β) of rotating parts of a wiper motor, the wiper motor having a brushless electric motor as a first part which comprises a rotor rotating about a first axis of rotation and which drives a gear wheel as a second part which rotates about a second axis of rotation and which comprises a driven shaft, and the rotary angle positions (α, β) of the two rotating parts being detected by means of two sensor devices each having a signal generating element and a sensor element for detecting a changing physical parameter of the signal generating element.

The invention relates to a method for detecting the rotary angle positions (α, β) of rotating parts of a wiper motor, the wiper motor having a brushless electric motor as a first part which comprises a rotor rotating about a first axis of rotation and which drives a gear wheel as a second part which rotates about a second axis of rotation and which comprises a driven shaft, and the rotary angle positions (α, β) of the two rotating parts being detected by means of two sensor devices each having a signal generating element and a sensor element for detecting a changing physical parameter of the signal generating element.

A wiper control device that properly detects restriction of a wiper blade according to a travel distance of the wiper blade. When a state in which a rotation speed of an output shaft calculated from a rotation angle of the output shaft detected by a rotation angle sensor is equal to or slower than a speed threshold defined according to a travel distance of the wiper blade and in which a current detected by a current detector is equal to or larger than a current threshold continues for a predetermined determination period, a microcomputer stops a wiper motor or reverses a direction of a wiping action of the wiper blade.

A wiper control device that properly detects restriction of a wiper blade according to a travel distance of the wiper blade. When a state in which a rotation speed of an output shaft calculated from a rotation angle of the output shaft detected by a rotation angle sensor is equal to or slower than a speed threshold defined according to a travel distance of the wiper blade and in which a current detected by a current detector is equal to or larger than a current threshold continues for a predetermined determination period, a microcomputer stops a wiper motor or reverses a direction of a wiping action of the wiper blade.

Disclosed is a vehicle wiper control device which includes: wiper blades that can be disposed on a surface to be wiped and that perform a reciprocating wiping motion between a lower reversal position and an upper reversal position which are set on the surface to be wiped; an electric motor that reciprocates the wiper blades on the surface to be wiped; a drive portion that drives the electric motor; and a load calculation portion that calculates a load on the electric motor while the wiper blades wipe from the upper reversal position to the lower reversal position. If the calculated load value exceeds a predetermined threshold, the drive portion performs wiper stop processing for stopping the wiper blades at the lower reversal position or at a storage position which is set below the lower reversal position.

Disclosed is a vehicle wiper control device which includes: wiper blades that can be disposed on a surface to be wiped and that perform a reciprocating wiping motion between a lower reversal position and an upper reversal position which are set on the surface to be wiped; an electric motor that reciprocates the wiper blades on the surface to be wiped; a drive portion that drives the electric motor; and a load calculation portion that calculates a load on the electric motor while the wiper blades wipe from the upper reversal position to the lower reversal position. If the calculated load value exceeds a predetermined threshold, the drive portion performs wiper stop processing for stopping the wiper blades at the lower reversal position or at a storage position which is set below the lower reversal position.