Sensor cleaning apparatus,sensor cleaning method, and sensor cleaning program

A sensor cleaning method comprising:

• detecting an object in a vehicle vicinity from information acquired by a sensor that monitors the vehicle vicinity;
• controlling autonomous driving of the vehicle using information on the detected object;
• detecting contamination on the sensor;
• continuing air cleaning in which high-pressure air is sprayed onto the sensor for a predetermined air cleaning time, in response to detecting that water droplets are attached to a sensor surface of the sensor;
• and
• controlling a liquid cleaning actuator to clean the sensor by spraying a cleaning liquid, in response to the contamination on the sensor being detected and capable of being cleaned with the cleaning liquid;
• continuing spraying of the cleaning liquid onto the sensor for a predetermined liquid cleaning time, and
• performing restricting vehicle speed in autonomous driving, or reducing autonomous driving level, or discontinuing autonomous driving, in response to the detecting contamination on the sensor after spraying of the cleaning liquid is continued for the predetermined liquid cleaning time.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a sensor cleaning program for causing a computer to implement:

• detecting an object in a vehicle vicinity from information acquired by a sensor that monitors the vehicle vicinity;
• detecting contamination on the sensor;
• controlling an air cleaning actuator and continuing air cleaning in which high-pressure air is sprayed onto the sensor for a predetermined air cleaning time, in response to detecting contamination on the sensor, in response to detecting that water droplets are attached to a sensor surface of the sensor;
• controlling autonomous driving of the vehicle using the information on the object detected and outputs a command to clean the sensor with a cleaning liquid, in response to detecting contamination on the sensor and determining that cleaning with the cleaning liquid is possible;
• controlling a liquid cleaning actuator to clean the sensor by spraying with the cleaning liquid based on the command, and notifying that the sensor is being cleaned with the cleaning liquid;
• continuing spraying of the cleaning liquid onto the sensor for a predetermined liquid cleaning time, and
• performing restricting vehicle speed in autonomous driving, or reducing autonomous driving level, or discontinuing autonomous driving, in response to the detecting contamination on the sensor after spraying of the cleaning liquid is continued for the predetermined liquid cleaning time.