Apparatus for detecting contamination of distance measuring sensor, operating method thereof, and vehicle including same

A method of operating an apparatus mounted in a vehicle for detecting contamination, the method comprising:

• providing a distance measuring sensor configured to detect an object around the vehicle, the distance measuring sensor configured to communicate with a communication module;
• outputting, by the distance measuring sensor, a point cloud through the communication module;
• receiving, by a processor, the point cloud output from the distance measuring sensor through the communication module;
• extracting, by the processor, a near-field point cloud for detecting the contamination with respect to the distance measuring sensor from the point cloud;
• determining, by the processor, feature vectors for the near-field point cloud;
• and
• outputting, by the processor, a contamination detection result by inputting the feature vectors into a sensor contamination detection neural network model.

A vehicle, comprising:

• a distance measuring sensor configured to detect an object around the vehicle;
• and
• an apparatus configured to detect contamination of the distance measuring sensor, the apparatus comprising:
• a communication module;
• the distance measuring sensor configured to output a point cloud through the communication module;
• and
• a processor configured to:
• receive the point cloud output from the distance measuring sensor,
• extract a near-field point cloud for detecting the contamination with respect to the distance measuring sensor from the point cloud,
• determine feature vectors for the near-field point cloud, and
• output a contamination detection result by inputting the feature vectors into a sensor contamination detection neural network model.