Vehicular camera with lens/cover cleaning feature

A vehicular camera module comprising:

• a camera disposed in a housing;
• a transparent cover at the housing, the camera viewing through the transparent cover;
• a fluid spraying device that, with the vehicular camera module mounted at an exterior portion of a vehicle, outputs fluid onto the transparent cover;
• a wiper element that movably engages the transparent cover to clean the transparent cover;
• wherein the wiper element is moved relative to the transparent cover via operation of a hydraulic actuator, and wherein the wiper element pivots back and forth about a pivot axis;
• wherein a drive element of the hydraulic actuator comprises a turbine that rotates when pressurized fluid is supplied to the hydraulic actuator, and wherein the wiper element is pivotally mounted at a crank mechanism rotatably driven by rotation of the turbine;
• wherein, with the vehicular camera module mounted at the exterior portion of the vehicle, the camera views through the transparent cover and captures image data of a scene exterior of the vehicle;
• wherein, with the vehicular camera module mounted at the exterior portion of the vehicle, the pressurized fluid supplied to the hydraulic actuator imparts movement of the drive element to pivot the wiper element so as to move the wiper element back and forth across the transparent cover to clean the transparent cover of the vehicular camera module;
• and
• wherein, as the pressurized fluid is supplied to the hydraulic actuator and as the drive element of the hydraulic actuator moves to pivot the wiper element back and forth about the pivot axis, the fluid spraying device outputs at least a portion of the pressurized fluid supplied to the hydraulic actuator onto the transparent cover.

A vehicular camera module comprising:

• a camera disposed in a housing;
• a transparent cover at the housing, the camera viewing through the transparent cover;
• a wiper element that movably engages the transparent cover to clean the transparent cover;
• wherein the wiper element is moved relative to the transparent cover via operation of a hydraulic actuator, and wherein the wiper element pivots back and forth about a pivot axis;
• wherein, with the vehicular camera module mounted at an exterior portion of a vehicle, the camera views through the transparent cover and captures image data of a scene exterior of the vehicle;
• wherein, with the vehicular camera module mounted at the exterior portion of the vehicle, pressurized fluid supplied to the hydraulic actuator imparts movement of a drive element of the hydraulic actuator to move the wiper element at the transparent cover to clean the transparent cover of the vehicular camera module;
• a fluid spraying device that, with the vehicular camera module mounted at the exterior portion of the vehicle, outputs fluid onto the transparent cover;
• wherein, as the pressurized fluid is supplied to the hydraulic actuator and as the drive element of the hydraulic actuator moves to pivot the wiper element back and forth about the pivot axis, the fluid spraying device outputs at least a portion of the pressurized fluid supplied to the hydraulic actuator onto the transparent cover;
• wherein the pressurized fluid supplied to the hydraulic actuator and the pressurized fluid provided to the fluid spraying device are from the same pressurized fluid source;
• and
• wherein a portion of the pressurized fluid supplied to the hydraulic actuator is recycled back to a fluid reservoir for further use in powering the hydraulic actuator or use by the fluid spraying device.