Non-Intrusive LiDAR Protection Module Emulating Bio-Inspired Wiping Motion for Outdoor Unmanned Vehicles

Abstract

In this paper, we have developed a protection module for Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensors used in outdoor unmanned vehicles. Bio-inspired wiping motion was figured to have more efficient and excellent wiping performance than conventional cleaning methods for LiDAR sensors. An water wiping experiment confirmed that the finger wiping motion removed 35% more water than the translational wiping motion. Also, the theoretical analysis for the existence of an optimal rotational speed at maximum wiping performance was verified to be consistent with the experiment. The LiDAR distortion experiment results demonstrated no data distortion, showing an average error of up to 0.40% for detecting obstacles even when the acrylic cover rotates. Finally, a contamination protection experiment was conducted for water, powder, soil, and mud. As a result, although there was a change in the number of pointcloud and a decrease in the intensity of the sensor data after contamination, it was validated that the number of pointclouds and average intensity of data could be restored to at least 97% and 67% after being cleaned. © 2024 IEEE.