Methods and systems for oil leak determination

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10843702-B2
Application number	US-201816001175-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 6, 2018
Priority date	Jun 6, 2018
Publication date	Nov 24, 2020
Grant date	Nov 24, 2020

Abstract

Methods and systems are provided for an oil diagnostic. In one example, a method may include intrusively increasing an oil pump displacement to determine if an internal oil leak is occurring. The method may further include adjusting a parking routine to determine if an external oil leak is determining.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
increasing an oil pump output intrusively to a high displacement during a higher engine load in response to an oil volume decreasing at a rate greater than a threshold rate to determine if an internal oil leak is present, wherein higher engine loads include mid- and high-loads, wherein a high-load is greater than a mid-load, and wherein the oil pump output is decreased to a low displacement during the higher engine loads in response to the oil volume decreasing at a rate less than or equal to the threshold rate, wherein the low displacement is less than the high displacement;
executing an external oil leak diagnostic which includes arranging an autonomous vehicle a length of the autonomous vehicle outside of a parking spot, capturing a first image of the parking spot, arranging the autonomous vehicle the length of the autonomous vehicle outside of the parking spot following a threshold duration, capturing a second image, and comparing gray scale sums of the first image and the second image to detect an external oil leak; and
indicating an oil sensor is degraded in response to an absence of the internal oil leak and the external oil leak.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising directing an image capturing device to visualize exhaust gas expelled from an exhaust pipe.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the image capturing device captures at least one image of the exhaust gas, and where the at least one image is passed through blue color frequencies.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein internal oil leak is determined in response to an amount of blue in the at least one image being greater than a threshold amount of blue.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein an oil pump is arranged on the autonomous vehicle.

6. A method executed via a controller comprising computer-readable instructions stored on non-transitory memory thereof that, when executed, enable the controller to execute the method comprising:
arranging a vehicle outside of a parking spot at a first position;
capturing a first image of the parking spot via an image capturing device;
storing the first image in a memory of the controller;
propelling the vehicle to the parking spot;
propelling the vehicle outside of the parking spot to a second position after parking the vehicle for a threshold duration;
capturing a second image of the parking spot;
storing the second image in the memory of the controller;
identifying an oil leak based on a comparison of the first image and the second image, wherein the oil leak is determined to be an external oil leak based on a difference between the first image and the second image;
intrusively increasing an oil pump output and detecting an amount of blue in an exhaust gas to determine if the oil leak is an internal oil leak; and
indicating an oil sensor is degraded in response to an absence of the external oil leak and the internal oil leak.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the comparison includes assigning gray scale values to the first image and the second image, and wherein the gray scale values include a gray scale value selected between 1 to 5 assigned to each pixel of the first image and the second image, wherein 1 corresponds to a light gray color and 5 corresponds to a dark gray color.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the external oil leak is occurring if a sum of the gray scale values of the first image is less than a sum of the gray scale values of the second image.

9. The method of claim 6 , wherein the image capturing device is one of a plurality of image capturing devices arranged around a periphery of the vehicle.

10. The method of claim 6 , wherein the first position and the second position are outside of the parking spot, and wherein each of the first image and the second image captures a portion of the parking spot above which an engine and a transmission will be arranged.

11. The method of claim 6 , wherein the first position and the second position are identical.

12. The method of claim 6 , further comprising detecting an oil volume decreasing at greater than a threshold rate.

13. The method of claim 6 , wherein the first position and the second position are different.

14. A system comprising:
an autonomous vehicle comprising a hybrid engine selectively coupleable to an electric motor; and
a controller with computer-readable instructions stored on non-transitory memory thereof that, when executed, enable the controller to:
execute an oil leak diagnostic in response to an oil volume decreasing at a rate greater than a threshold rate;
the oil leak diagnostic including an internal oil leak diagnostic and an external oil leak diagnostic;
the internal oil leak diagnostic including intrusively increasing an oil pump output and detecting an amount of blue in exhaust gas to detect an internal oil leak;
the external oil leak diagnostic including arranging the autonomous vehicle a length of the autonomous vehicle outside of a parking spot, capturing a first image of the parking spot, arranging the autonomous vehicle the length of the autonomous vehicle outside of the parking spot following a threshold duration, capturing a second image, and comparing gray scale sums of the first and second images to detect an external oil leak; and
in an absence of internal and external oil leaks, indicating an oil sensor as degraded.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the autonomous vehicle comprises a plurality of image capturing devices arranged along one or more of a front, a rear, a left side, a right side, and a top of the autonomous vehicle.

16. The system of claim 14 , wherein the length of the autonomous vehicle is measured relative to a direction of propulsion desired to park the autonomous vehicle in the parking spot.

17. The system of claim 14 , wherein the oil sensor is coupled to an oil pan, and where the threshold duration is based on an engine off soak state.

18. The system of claim 14 , wherein the internal oil leak diagnostic comprises imaging the exhaust gas via a first image capturing device, and wherein the external oil leak diagnostic comprises capturing the first image and the second image via a second image capturing device, the second image capturing device being similar or different than the first image capturing device.

Assignees

• Ford Global Tech Llc

Inventors

• Dudar Aed

Classifications

• B60W2422/90

  on bumper, e.g. collision sensor · CPC title

• F01M11/12 Primary

  concerning lubricant level · CPC title

• F01M2011/1453

  by considering oil quantity · CPC title

• F16N2260/12

  using warning lamps · CPC title

• F16N2250/34

  Transparency; Light; Photo sensor · CPC title