JP5454465B2 - Wiper change notification device for vehicle - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicle wiper replacement notification device capable of prompting replacement when the performance of a wiper that wipes a windshield glass of a vehicle is deteriorated.

  A wiper device used to wipe a windshield glass (front glass) of a vehicle includes a wiper arm that can reciprocate, a wiper blade that is detachably attached to the wiper arm, an electric motor that drives the wiper arm, and Includes a link mechanism. The wiper blade is provided with a blade rubber made of an elastic member such as rubber in contact with the glass surface of the windshield glass. This blade rubber is always in contact with the glass surface. The blade rubber wipes the glass surface by turning on the wiper switch and driving the wiper arm in rainy weather. When the blade rubber is deteriorated, the wiping performance is deteriorated, and the wiping unevenness causes a raindrop film to remain on the glass surface.

  For this reason, it is desirable to periodically replace the wiper blade. However, if the blade rubber or the like is deteriorated, the wiper blade is replaced as necessary. Although it is not impossible to continue using the wiper with reduced wiping performance, it is not preferable to use a wiper blade that causes uneven wiping, and the blade rubber may deteriorate during use in rainy weather. By moving forward, the wiping unevenness may be enlarged, resulting in poor visibility.

  Several means have been proposed to facilitate the replacement of wiper blades with poor performance. For example, in the wiper replacement warning device described in Patent Document 1 below, a windshield glass is photographed from the indoor side by an in-vehicle camera, whether or not wiping unevenness has occurred is determined by image processing, and a certain level of wiping unevenness is detected. When it is determined that it has occurred, a warning is issued.

JP 2010-963 A

  Visibility when driving in the rain is influenced by inevitable factors other than the wiper's performance. For example, when there is a lot of rain, even if the wiper speed is increased, the raindrops immediately adhere to the glass surface immediately after wiping and form a water film. Even when the speed of the vehicle is high or the vehicle travels in the rain with a headwind, the amount of raindrops hitting the glass surface increases, resulting in poor visibility.

  The wiper replacement warning device of Patent Document 1 merely determines whether or not wiping unevenness has occurred by image processing. Therefore, an erroneous wiper replacement warning can be issued depending on the degree of rainfall or the vehicle speed. There is sex. For example, when the movement speed of the wiper blade is slow and the rainfall is relatively high, the next raindrop adheres to the glass surface immediately after being wiped off by the wiper and a raindrop water film is formed. Even so, there is a risk that it will be judged that there is a lot of wiping unevenness.

  Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a wiper replacement notification device that can more accurately determine whether or not the wiper performance has deteriorated and prompt the wiper replacement timing.

  The wiper replacement notification device according to the present invention is a vehicle-mounted camera that captures the glass surface of the windshield glass from the interior of the vehicle, and an image of the glass surface that is captured by the vehicle-mounted camera after the wiper blade is wiped. A raindrop water film amount calculating means for calculating the amount of raindrop water film adhering to the glass surface; and an expectation for calculating an expected amount of raindrop water film that is expected to adhere to the glass surface based on a vehicle condition An amount-of-attachment calculation means, and an informing means that operates to notify that it is time to replace the wiper blade, and the informing means exceeds the expected amount of raindrop and the difference between the two It operates when it exceeds a predetermined value.

  In an embodiment of the present invention, the estimated adhesion amount calculation means calculates the estimated adhesion amount based on at least one information of a moving speed of the wiper blade, a relative wind speed with respect to the windshield glass, and a speed of the vehicle. . The predicted adhesion amount calculation means may include a correction means for calculating the predicted adhesion amount by multiplying by a correction coefficient.

  For example, the correction coefficient is set to a smaller value as the moving speed of the wiper blade increases. The correction coefficient may be such that the predicted adhesion amount increases as the speed of the vehicle increases. The correction coefficient may be set to a larger value as the relative wind speed with respect to the windshield glass increases.

  Receiving means for receiving weather information of an area where the vehicle is located, wherein the predicted adhesion amount calculating means is based on at least one information of expected rainfall, wind speed, and wind direction obtained by the receiving means; May be calculated.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to promptly determine the wiper replacement time by more accurately determining whether or not the wiper performance has deteriorated.

1 is a side view of a part of a vehicle including a wiper replacement notification device according to an embodiment of the present invention. The front view which looked at the windshield glass of the vehicle shown by FIG. 1 from the vehicle interior side. The front view of a wiper blade. The flowchart which shows an example of operation | movement of a wiper exchange alerting | reporting apparatus. The figure which shows the relationship between a wiper speed and a correction coefficient. The figure which shows the relationship between rainfall and a correction coefficient. The figure which shows the relationship between the relative wind speed of a vehicle, and a correction coefficient. The figure which shows the relationship between the relative angle of the wind direction with respect to a vehicle advancing direction, and a correction coefficient. The figure which shows the relationship between vehicle speed and a correction coefficient. The figure which shows the relationship between a wind speed and a correction coefficient.

A wiper replacement notification apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 1 is a side view illustrating a front portion of a vehicle (automobile) 10 with a front door omitted. The vehicle 10 has a wiper device 20 for removing the glass surface outside the windshield glass 12 and an in-vehicle camera 21. The in-vehicle camera 21 is disposed, for example, in the upper part of the front seat 22 and images the front of the vehicle 10 through the windshield glass 12 from the inside of the passenger compartment 11, and performs image processing according to the purpose of the image capturing, or in a memory. It is designed to memorize. The in-vehicle camera 21 may be disposed on the dashboard 25.

  The in-vehicle camera 21 has a focal position set for long-distance shooting in order to monitor the front of the windshield glass 12 at all times. In addition, this in-vehicle camera 21 sets the focal position for short-distance photography in order to photograph raindrops, water films, etc. adhering to the windshield glass 12 in step S3 (shown in FIG. 4) of the wiper replacement notification method described later. It can be changed.

  FIG. 2 is a front view of the windshield glass 12 as seen from the inside of the passenger compartment 11, and schematically shows a raindrop water film W adhering to the windshield glass 12. The wiper device 20 includes wiper arms 32 and 33 that can reciprocate in the directions indicated by arrows R1 and R2 around shafts 30 and 31, and wiper blades 35 that are detachably attached to the tips of the wiper arms 32 and 33, A motor 36 for driving the wiper arms 32 and 33 and a link mechanism 37 for transmitting the rotation of the motor 36 to the wiper arms 32 and 33 are provided.

  The motor 36 can change the rotation speed so that the moving speed of the wiper blade 35 can be switched to at least two types by a wiper switch 39 disposed in the vicinity of the steering wheel 38. For example, when the amount of rain is high, the movement speed of the wiper blade 35 is increased, and when the amount of rain is low, the movement speed of the wiper blade 35 is decreased.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the wiper blade 35 includes a plate-like backing member 40 having elasticity and a blade rubber 41 provided on the backing member 40. Since the blade rubber 41 is in contact with the outer glass surface of the windshield glass 12, the blade rubber 41 is exchanged in order to maintain the wiping performance. In general, “wiper replacement” means replacing the wiper blade 35, but only the blade rubber 41 may be replaced in some cases.

  The vehicle 10 includes a controller 50 that functions as a control calculation means, a raindrop sensor 51 that outputs a signal corresponding to the amount of rainfall with respect to the vehicle 10, and an indicator (notification) such as an indicator lamp disposed on an instrument panel or the like in the cab. Means) 52 and the like. The in-vehicle camera 21, the controller 50, the raindrop sensor 51, the notification device 52, and the like constitute a wiper replacement notification device 70. As optional equipment, a wind speed sensor 60 for detecting the relative wind speed with respect to the windshield glass 12 and a receiver (receiving means) 61 capable of receiving weather information may be provided. Moreover, the vehicle-mounted navigation apparatus which is not shown in figure may be mounted, and the received weather information may be displayed on the screen of this vehicle-mounted navigation apparatus.

  The image of the glass surface taken by the in-vehicle camera 21 is subjected to image processing based on the light refraction state or the image contour state. The raindrop water film amount calculating means included in the controller 50 is a raindrop water film amount adhering per unit area of a part of the wiper wiped area (for example, areas A and B surrounded by a two-dot chain line in FIG. 2). (Ratio of the area of the raindrop water film W) is calculated.

  The amount of raindrop water film thus calculated is stored in the memory of the controller 50. In addition, a signal related to the moving speed (wiper speed) of the wiper blade 35, a rain amount signal detected by the raindrop sensor 51, and the like are input to the controller 50. When the wind speed sensor 60 and the receiver 61 are provided, information on the relative wind speed detected by the wind speed sensor 60 and weather information (rainfall, wind speed, wind direction, etc.) received by the receiver 61 are sent to the controller 50. Entered.

  Based on these pieces of information, the estimated adhesion amount calculation means included in the controller 50 calculates the amount of raindrop water film that is expected to adhere to the glass surface of the windshield glass 12, and obtains the estimated adhesion amount. Further, the controller 50 compares the estimated adhesion amount with the raindrop water film amount obtained based on the image of the in-vehicle camera 21, and the raindrop water film amount exceeds the expected adhesion amount and the difference between the two is a predetermined value ( A computer program that determines that the wiper blade 35 is defective when the threshold value) is exceeded is incorporated.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a wiper replacement notification method by the wiper replacement notification device 70 of the present embodiment. Hereinafter, an example of the wiper replacement notification method will be described with reference to FIG.

  In the vehicle 10, the wiper switch 39 is turned on when it is raining or the like. In step S1 of FIG. 4, it is determined whether the wiper switch 39 is on or off. If it is determined in step S1 that the wiper switch 39 is on, the process proceeds to step S2.

  In step S2, it is determined whether or not the wiper is immediately after the wipe operation. Here, the glass surface immediately after the wiper wipe operation means, for example, the wiped glass surface when the wiper arms 32 and 33 are reciprocated once and returned to the initial position, but as shown in FIG. , 33 may be the glass surface immediately before the direction is switched after rising. In short, it means the glass surface immediately after the wiping operation by the wiper blade 35 is performed. If it is determined in step S2 that it is immediately after the paying operation, the process proceeds to step S3.

  In step S <b> 3, the in-vehicle camera 21 images the glass surface of the windshield glass 12. At this time, the in-vehicle camera 21 is switched to a focus for short-distance shooting, and raindrops, a water film, and the like attached to the outer glass surface of the windshield glass 12 are photographed. Except when photographing the glass surface, the in-vehicle camera 21 is a focal point for long-distance photographing and photographs the front of the windshield glass 12.

  In step S4, the amount of raindrop film per unit area of the glass surface is calculated by performing image processing on the image of the glass surface immediately after the wiping operation photographed in step S3, and the process proceeds to step S5.

  In step S5, at least one of the moving speed of the wiper blade 35 (wiper speed), the amount of rainfall with respect to the vehicle 10, the relative wind speed with respect to the windshield glass 12, the speed of the vehicle 10, the expected amount of rainfall obtained by weather information, the wind speed, and the wind direction. Based on the information, an expected adhesion amount of the raindrop water film adhering to the windshield glass 12 is obtained.

  For example, when the movement speed of the wiper blade 35 is slow, the next raindrop adheres to the glass surface while the wiper blade 35 reciprocates once, so the amount of raindrop attachment increases. On the contrary, when the moving speed of the wiper blade 35 increases, the amount of raindrops adhering to the glass surface decreases while the wiper blade 35 reciprocates once. For this reason, in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5, a correction coefficient that reduces the estimated adhesion amount as the wiper speed increases is used as the correction means. More specifically, a correction unit included in the controller 50 multiplies this correction coefficient to correct the expected adhesion amount.

  Further, as the amount of rainfall on the vehicle 10 increases, the amount of raindrops that adheres to the glass surface during one reciprocation of the wiper blade 35 increases. For this reason, in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 6, a correction coefficient that increases the estimated adhesion amount as the rainfall increases is used as the correction means. As described above, in the present embodiment, by correcting the estimated amount of raindrop water film based on the wiper speed and the amount of rain, it is possible to perform an accurate determination as compared with the case where the glass surface is left unwiped only by image processing. Can be performed.

  When the relative wind speed (velocity of air hitting the windshield glass 12) detected by the wind speed sensor 60 is large, the amount of raindrops adhering to the glass surface increases while the wiper blade 35 makes one reciprocation. For this reason, as shown in FIG. 7, a correction coefficient that increases the estimated adhesion amount as the relative wind speed increases may be used as the correction means.

  Even if the weather information of the area where the vehicle 10 is traveling is received by the receiver 61 and the rain amount and wind speed based on the weather information are input to the controller 50, the expected amount of raindrop water film is corrected. Good. For example, when rain and wind blow from the front in the traveling direction of the vehicle 10, the amount of raindrops adhering to the glass surface increases as compared to the case where wind and rain blow from an oblique direction. The traveling direction of the vehicle 10 can be obtained by a direction sensor such as an electronic compass mounted on the vehicle 10. FIG. 8 shows the relationship between the relative angle of the wind direction with respect to the traveling direction of the vehicle 10 and the correction coefficient. FIG. 9 shows the relationship between the vehicle speed and the correction coefficient. FIG. 10 shows the relationship between the wind speed and the correction coefficient. Based on these pieces of information, the estimated amount of raindrop water film adhering to the windshield glass 12 is obtained.

  In step S6 shown in FIG. 4, the amount of raindrop water film obtained in step S4 is compared with the expected adhesion amount obtained in step S5. If it is determined that the amount of raindrop water film exceeds the expected adhesion amount and the difference between the raindrop water film amount and the expected adhesion amount is greater than or equal to a predetermined value, the process proceeds to step S7. In step S <b> 7, a display or warning sound that prompts the user to replace the wiper is output to a notification device 52 such as a wiper warning lamp provided on the instrument panel (instrument panel) of the vehicle 10. This notification device 52 functions as notification means that operates to notify that it is time to replace the wiper blade.

  For this reason, an occupant or the like of the vehicle 10 can know that the performance of the wiper has deteriorated. Therefore, by replacing the wiper blade 35 or the blade rubber 41, the use of the wiper blade 35 having the reduced performance is prevented. And can maintain good visibility during rainy weather.

  As described above, the wiper replacement notification method according to the present embodiment includes the following steps.

(1) determining whether the wiper switch is on or off (step S1);
(2) Taking a picture of the glass surface after the wiping operation by the wiper with the in-vehicle camera (steps S2, S3),
(3) The raindrop water film amount occupying the glass surface is calculated by the raindrop water film amount calculating means by processing the image taken by the in-vehicle camera (step S4),
(4) calculating an expected adhesion amount of the raindrop water film based on a vehicle condition such as a moving speed of the wiper blade, a relative wind speed with respect to the windshield glass, and a vehicle speed (step S5);
(5) Comparing the amount of raindrop water film and the expected adhesion amount (step S6),
(6) In the state where the amount of raindrop water film exceeds the expected adhesion amount and the difference between the two is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, notification for prompting replacement of the wiper is made (step S7).

  According to this embodiment, not only the wiping unevenness of the glass surface is detected, but also the estimated amount of raindrop water film on the glass surface, which is a criterion for wiping unevenness, according to the running condition of the vehicle or weather conditions, etc. Therefore, the possibility of erroneously determining the wiper replacement time when the performance has deteriorated is suppressed, and the wiper replacement time can be notified more accurately.

  In carrying out the present invention, various aspects such as a wiper device, a vehicle-mounted camera, a controller, a notification device, and a specific shape, structure, arrangement, etc. of each component constituting the wiper replacement notification device are implemented. Needless to say, you can.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Vehicle 12 ... Windshield glass 20 ... Wiper apparatus 21 ... Car-mounted camera 35 ... Wiper blade 50 ... Controller

Claims (7)

In a wiper replacement notification device for notifying the replacement time of a vehicle wiper blade,
An in-vehicle camera that is provided in the vehicle interior of the vehicle and photographs the glass surface of the windshield glass from the vehicle interior;
A raindrop water film amount calculating means for calculating the amount of raindrop water film attached to the glass surface by processing an image of the glass surface taken by the in-vehicle camera after the wiper blade performs a wiping operation;
An expected adhesion amount calculation means for calculating an expected adhesion amount of a raindrop water film that is expected to adhere to the glass surface based on the state of the vehicle;
Informing means that operates to notify that it is time to replace the wiper blade;
With
The wiper replacement notification device is characterized in that the notification means operates when the amount of raindrop water film exceeds the predicted adhesion amount and the difference between the two reaches a predetermined value or more.   The predicted adhesion amount calculating means calculates the predicted adhesion amount based on at least one of information on a moving speed of the wiper blade, a relative wind speed with respect to the windshield glass, and a speed of the vehicle. The wiper replacement notification device according to 1.   The wiper replacement notification device according to claim 1, wherein the predicted adhesion amount calculation unit includes a correction unit that calculates the estimated adhesion amount by multiplying by a correction coefficient.   The wiper replacement notification device according to claim 3, wherein the correction coefficient is set to a smaller value as the moving speed of the wiper blade increases.   The wiper replacement notification device according to claim 3, wherein the correction coefficient is such that the predicted adhesion amount increases as the speed of the vehicle increases.   The wiper replacement notification device according to claim 3, wherein the correction coefficient is set to a larger value as the relative wind speed with respect to the windshield glass increases. Receiving means for receiving weather information of an area where the vehicle is located;
The said estimated adhesion amount calculation means calculates the estimated adhesion amount based on at least one information among the estimated rainfall, wind speed, and wind direction obtained by the receiving means. Wiper replacement notification device according to item.

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