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US 11,059,457 B1Granted
Capacitance-based foreign object debris sensor
AssigneeWaymo LLC
InventorsFelix Jose Alvarez Rivera, Ralph Hamilton Shepard
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The disclosure relates to detecting and clearing debris from a sensor window. For instance, a system may include the sensor window and one or more processors. The sensor window may include a transparent thin film conductor. The one or more processors may be configured to identify a change in capacitance using the transparent thin film conductor, detect debris on the sensor window using the change in capacitance, and activate a cleaning system in order to clear the detected debris from the sensor window.
Claims19
A system for detecting and clearing debris from a sensor window, the system including:
- the sensor window including a transparent thin film conductor;
- and
- one or more processors configured to:
- identify a change in capacitance using the transparent thin film conductor,
- detect debris on the sensor window using the change in capacitance,
- activate a cleaning system in order to clear the detected debris from the sensor window,
- receive sensor data from a sensor including the sensor window, the sensor being configured to detect objects in an external environment of a vehicle and generate sensor data, and
- discard a portion of the sensor data based on the detected debris.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.