Automated lens cleaning for a camera assembly based on image recognition in a washing machine appliance

A washing machine appliance comprising:

• a wash tub positioned within a cabinet;
• a wash basket rotatably mounted within the wash tub and defining a wash chamber configured for receiving a load of clothes;
• a water dispenser mounted within the cabinet for selectively providing a flow of water into the wash tub through a water outlet;
• a camera assembly mounted within the cabinet in view of the wash chamber, the camera assembly being positioned such that a lens of the camera assembly is positioned adjacent the water outlet;
• and
• a controller operably coupled to the camera assembly and the water dispenser, the controller being configured to:
• obtain one or more images of the wash chamber using the camera assembly;
• analyze the one or more images using an image processing algorithm or a machine learning image recognition process to determine an image quality;
• determine that the image quality has dropped below a quality threshold by comparing the image quality of the one or more images to the quality threshold, the quality threshold being predetermined and stored in the controller;
• and
• operate the water dispenser to perform a lens cleaning operation in response to determining that the image quality has dropped below the quality threshold.