Rain sensor of vehicle, and method of controlling the same

• US 10,196,044 B2
• Filed: 12/20/2016
• Issued: 02/05/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hyundai AutoEver Corp. (Hyundai Mobis Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hyundai Autron Co., Ltd. (Hyundai Mobis Co., Ltd.), Hyundai Motor Company (Hyundai Motor Group), Kia Motors Corporation (Kia Corp.)
• Inventors: Park, Jong Min, Kong, Nak Kyoung, Lim, Keun Sig, Lee, Ki Hong, Kim, Illsoo, Yu, Byung Seob, Kim, KyungTaek, Hong, WonBok, Kim, Taewang
• Primary Examiner(s): Marc, McDieunel
• Application Number:
  US15/385,624
• Publication Number:
  US 20180105139A1
• Time in Patent Office: 777 Days
• Field of Search: 701 36
• CPC Class Codes: B60S 1/0818 including control systems responsive to external conditions, e.g. by detection of moisture, dirt or the like
• CPC Class Codes: B60S 1/0833 Optical rain sensor
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/88 Lidar systems specially adapted for specific applications

Abstract

A rain sensor of a vehicle and a control method thereof are provided to solve a problem that a measurement result of rainfall varies according to a glass specification of a windshield even under the same rainfall condition by tuning sensitivity of the rain sensor in accordance with the glass specification of the windshield. For this, a method of determining the glass specification of the rain sensor includes determining the glass specification of the windshield from a light-receiving signal obtained by receiving light reflected by the windshield of the vehicle, and eliminating a deviation between light-receiving signals by glass specification, which is caused by a difference in the glass specification, by applying parameter tuning according to a glass specification to the light-receiving signal.

Claims

1. A method of determining a glass specification of a rain sensor comprising:

determining, by the rain sensor, a glass specification of a windshield from a light-receiving signal obtained by receiving light reflected by the windshield of a vehicle; and

eliminating a deviation between light-receiving signals by glass specification, which is caused by a difference in glass specification, by applying parameter tuning according to the glass specification to the light-receiving signal.

2. The method of determining a glass specification of a rain sensor according to claim 1, wherein the glass specification of the windshield is determined through a frequency analysis of the light-receiving signal.

3. The method of determining a glass specification of a rain sensor according to claim 1, wherein the parameter tuning according to the glass specification includes at least one of offset removal, phase inversion, sensitivity correction, and amplitude correction of the light-receiving signal.

4. The method of determining a glass specification of a rain sensor according to claim 3, wherein, when the glass specification of the windshield matches up with a pre-determined glass specification, the deviation is eliminated by applying parameter tuning corresponding to the pre-determined glass specification.

5. The method of determining a glass specification of a rain sensor according to claim 4, wherein,

when the glass specification of the windshield does not match up with the pre-determined glass specification, sensitivity of the rain sensor is raised and a detection voltage of the rain sensor is measured, and

when the detection voltage of the rain sensor is not within a normal range, an error signal indicating that the rain sensor does not normally operate is generated.

6. The method of determining a glass specification of a rain sensor according to claim 5, wherein, when the detection voltage of the rain sensor is measured, the sensitivity of the rain sensor is adjusted to the maximum.

7. A method of measuring rainfall of a rain sensor comprising:

determining, by the rain sensor, a glass specification of a windshield from a light-receiving signal obtained by receiving light reflected by the windshield of a vehicle;

eliminating a deviation between light-receiving signals by glass specification, which is caused by a difference in glass specification, by applying parameter tuning according to the glass specification to the light-receiving signal; and

estimating rainfall on a surface of the windshield from a magnitude of the light-receiving signal from which the deviation is eliminated.

8. The method of measuring rainfall of a rain sensor according to claim 7, wherein the glass specification of the windshield is determined through a frequency analysis of the light-receiving signal.

9. The method of measuring rainfall of a rain sensor according to claim 7, wherein the parameter tuning according to the glass specification includes at least one of offset removal, phase inversion, sensitivity correction, and amplitude correction of the light-receiving signal.

10. The method of measuring rainfall of a rain sensor according to claim 8, wherein, when the glass specification of the windshield matches up with a pre-determined glass specification through the frequency analysis of the light-receiving signal, the deviation is eliminated by applying parameter tuning corresponding to the pre-determined glass specification.

11. The method of measuring rainfall of a rain sensor according to claim 10, wherein,

when the glass specification of the windshield does not match up with the pre-determined glass specification, sensitivity of the rain sensor is raised and a detection voltage of the rain sensor is measured;

and

when the detection voltage of the rain sensor is not within a normal range, an error signal indicating that the rain sensor does not normally operate is generated.

12. The method of measuring rainfall of a rain sensor according to claim 11, wherein, when the detection voltage of the rain sensor is detected, the sensitivity of the rain sensor is adjusted to the maximum.

13. A method of controlling a wiper of a vehicle comprising:

generating a rain sensor control signal for activating a rain sensor when a wiper operating means of the vehicle is set to an ‘

AUTO’

mode;

determining, by the rain sensor, a glass specification of a windshield from a light-receiving signal obtained by receiving light reflected by the windshield of the vehicle in response to the rain sensor control signal;

eliminating a deviation between light-receiving signals by glass specification, which is caused by a difference in glass specification, by applying parameter tuning according to the glass specification to the light-receiving signal;

estimating rainfall on a surface of the windshield from a magnitude of the light-receiving signal from which the deviation is eliminated; and

generating a wiper control signal for controlling a speed of the wiper to correspond to the estimated rainfall.

14. A vehicle comprising:

a rain sensor which determines a glass specification of a windshield from a light-receiving signal obtained by receiving light reflected by the windshield of the vehicle, eliminates a deviation between light-receiving signals by glass specification, which is caused by a difference in glass specification, by applying parameter tuning according to the glass specification to the light-receiving signal, and estimates rainfall on a surface of the windshield from a magnitude of the light-receiving signal from which the deviation is eliminated; and

a control unit which generates a wiper control signal for controlling a speed of a wiper to correspond to the estimated rainfall.

15. The vehicle according to claim 14, wherein the rain sensor determines the glass specification of the windshield through a frequency analysis of the light-receiving signal.

16. The vehicle according to claim 14, wherein the rain sensor performs at least one of offset removal, phase inversion, sensitivity correction, and amplitude correction of the light-receiving signal when the parameter tuning according to the glass specification is performed.

17. The vehicle according to claim 16, wherein, when the glass specification of the windshield matches up with a pre-determined glass specification, the rain sensor eliminates the deviation by applying parameter tuning corresponding to the pre-determined glass specification.

18. The vehicle according to claim 17, wherein,

when the glass specification of the windshield does not match up with the pre-determined glass specification, the rain sensor raises sensitivity of the rain sensor and measures a detection voltage of the rain sensor, and

when the detection voltage of the rain sensor is not within a normal range, the rain sensor generates an error signal indicating that the rain sensor does not normally operate.

19. The vehicle according to claim 18, wherein, when the detection voltage of the rain sensor is measured, the sensitivity of the rain sensor is adjusted to the maximum.

20. A rain sensor comprising:

a light-emitting unit which emits light to a windshield of a vehicle; and

a light-receiving unit which receives light reflected by the windshield and generates a light-receiving signal,

wherein a glass specification of the windshield is determined from the light-receiving signal and a deviation between light-receiving signals by glass specification, which is caused by a difference in glass specification, is eliminated by applying parameter tuning according to the glass specification to the light-receiving signal.