Dust resuspension system for a motor vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017166209-A1
Application number	US-201615372910-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 8, 2016
Priority date	Dec 9, 2015
Publication date	Jun 15, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

A motor vehicle includes a dust sensor. The dust sensor is configured to observe a part of a roadway surface situated ahead of the vehicle in a direction of travel to create observation data. The motor vehicle further includes an estimation device configured to generate an estimate of the road dust load in the observed part of the roadway surface based on the observation data.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A motor vehicle comprising:
a dust sensor configured to observe a part of a roadway surface situated ahead of the vehicle in a direction of travel to create observation data; and an estimation device configured to generate an estimate of the road dust load in the observed part of the roadway surface based on the observation data.

2 . The motor vehicle as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the dust sensor is a component of a radar system and includes a camera and a laser scanner.

3 . The motor vehicle as claimed in claim 1 further comprising a reduction system configured to reduce a dust resuspension, wherein the reduction system is configured to receive the observation data relating to the observed part of the roadway surface and the estimate of the road dust load, and implement one or more measures to counteract the dust resuspension.

4 . The motor vehicle as claimed in claim 3 , wherein the reduction system comprises an electrostatic dust reduction system.

5 . The motor vehicle as claimed in claim 3 , wherein the reduction system includes a human-machine interface that provides a prompt to reduce a driving speed of the motor vehicle.

6 . The motor vehicle as claimed in claim 3 , wherein the reduction system includes a cloud server of a network for vehicle-to-vehicle communication.

7 . A method for reducing dust resuspension by a motor vehicle comprising:
optically observing, via a dust sensor, a part of a roadway surface situated ahead of the motor vehicle in a direction of travel; and estimating a road dust load in the observed part of the roadway surface based on data relating to the roadway surface from the dust sensor.

8 . The method as claimed in claim 7 further comprising, in response to the estimated road dust load in the observed part of the roadway surface exceeding a threshold value, implementing measures for reducing dust resuspension.

9 . The method as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the measures for reducing dust resuspension include binding dust by way of spray water.

10 . The method as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the measures for reducing dust resuspension include reducing a driving speed of the motor vehicle.

11 . A dust resuspension system for a vehicle comprising:
one or more dust sensors mounted to a roof, the dust sensors being configured to observe a part of a roadway surface situated ahead of the vehicle in a direction of travel and provide data of a magnitude of a road dust load of the roadway surface based on the type of road surface; and a device configured to, in response to the data indicating that the magnitude of the road dust load being above a predefined threshold, implement a dust resuspension measure, wherein the measure activates a brake system to impose a forced speed restriction.

12 . The dust resuspension system as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the road dust load of the roadway surface is a particle concentration correlated with expected dust emissions of the vehicle.

13 . The dust resuspension system as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the measure activates a human-machine interface to provide a prompt of the forced speed restriction.

14 . The dust resuspension system as claimed in claim 13 , wherein the prompt is provided to an optical display.

15 . The dust resuspension system as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the device is further configured to communicate with a cloud server to create a dust load map, via the data, that represents a map of the road dust load.

16 . The dust resuspension system as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the dust sensors comprise a stereo camera that provide the data based on deviations in image features.

17 . The dust resuspension system as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the dust sensors comprise an array of laser scanners that provide the data based on a height profile of the roadway surface.

18 . The dust resuspension system as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the device is further configured to filter the data such that the magnitude of the dust load of a section of the roadway surface is estimated.

19 . The dust resuspension system as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the data includes height profile data and optical camera data that is amalgamated to increase accuracy of the magnitude of the dust load.

Assignees

• Ford Global Tech Llc

Inventors

• Mathissen Marcel
• Scheer Volker
• Vogt Rainer

Classifications

• B60W2555/20

  Ambient conditions, e.g. wind or rain · CPC title

• B60W10/04

  including control of propulsion units · CPC title

• B60W30/18009 Primary

  related to particular drive situations · CPC title

• B60W40/06 Primary

  Road conditions · CPC title

• G01N15/06 Primary

  Investigating concentration of particle suspensions (by weighing G01N5/00; investigating sedimentation of particle suspensions G01N15/04; investigating individual particles G01N15/10) · CPC title