CN112373409A

CN112373409A - Camera module and unmanned vehicle

Info

Publication number: CN112373409A
Application number: CN202011165903.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 宁柯军
Original assignee: Beijing Sankuai Online Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Beijing Sankuai Online Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-10-27
Filing date: 2020-10-27
Publication date: 2021-02-19
Anticipated expiration: 2040-10-27
Also published as: CN112373409B

Abstract

The utility model relates to a camera module and unmanned car, wherein, the camera module includes: a camera (10); the installation seat (20), the said lens (10) is installed on this installation seat (20); the protective cover (30) is coaxially sleeved on the outer side of the camera (10) and is connected to the mounting seat (20) in a manner of rotating around an axis; and the driving piece (40) is in transmission connection with the protective cover (30) to drive the protective cover (30) to rotate. Like this, the outside of camera is provided with rotatable protection casing to can clean attached to filth and the water droplet at the protection casing front end through the centrifugal force that produces when the protection casing rotation, and then realize the cleanness in camera front end light-transmitting zone, reach the effect of automatically cleaning, guarantee the accuracy that the camera picked up image information.

Description

Camera module and unmanned vehicle

Technical Field

The utility model relates to a commodity circulation transportation technical field specifically, relates to a camera module and unmanned car.

Background

With the rapid development of logistics transportation, unmanned vehicles are widely used as intelligent robot equipment. In general, an unmanned vehicle requires a computing unit to perform environmental perception according to information collected by various sensors to generate a control decision, thereby controlling the motion behavior of the vehicle. Therefore, ensuring that the sensor is in a normal working state is very important for the unmanned vehicle.

For a visual or optical sensor such as a camera, when the surface of a camera lens is heavily dust-collected or drops on the surface of the camera lens in rainy days, the problems of light sensitivity and image distortion are caused, so that the processing result of computer vision is seriously influenced, and the unmanned vehicle control is mistaken. Most of processing schemes of the vehicle camera only guarantee the IP protection level of the camera, and the cleaning is guaranteed by means of manual maintenance operation and lacks measures for automatically cleaning the lens. In recent years, high-end vehicles partially having an ADAS (Advanced Driving Assistance System) function have come to pay attention to the problem of self-cleaning of cameras, and for example, water spray + air spray, micro wipers and the like are used to clean dirt or water attached to the lens of the camera. However, the scheme of water spraying and air spraying relates to the design of a water pump and a pipeline, and the implementation and the daily maintenance are relatively complex and have high requirements; miniature wiper relates to spare part life problem.

Disclosure of Invention

An object of the present disclosure is to provide a camera module and an unmanned vehicle equipped with the same to at least partially solve the problems in the related art.

In order to achieve the above object, the present disclosure provides a camera module, including:

a camera;

the camera is arranged on the mounting seat;

the protective cover is coaxially sleeved on the outer side of the camera and can be connected to the mounting seat in a manner of rotating around an axis; and

the driving piece is in transmission connection with the protective cover to drive the protective cover to rotate.

Optionally, the camera module further comprises a transmission member arranged between the driving member and the protective cover, the transmission member comprises a first gear in transmission connection with an output shaft of the driving member and a second gear in meshing transmission with the first gear, and the protective cover is connected to the second gear.

Optionally, the first gear is configured as an external gear, the second gear is configured as an internal gear, and the protective cover is coaxially sleeved outside the internal gear.

Optionally, the inner wall of the protective cover is attached to the outer peripheral surface of the inner gear ring and fixedly connected with the inner gear ring through a first fastening piece.

Optionally, a bearing coaxial with the protective cover is arranged between the protective cover and the camera, an inner ring of the bearing is fixedly connected with the camera, and an outer ring of the bearing is fixedly connected with the inner wall of the protective cover.

Optionally, the driving member is fixed to the mounting seat through a first bracket, and the first bracket is fixedly connected to the mounting seat through a second fastener.

Optionally, the camera is fixed to the mounting base through a second bracket, and the second bracket is connected to the first bracket.

Optionally, the mounting seat has a first opening, the protective cover has a second opening opposite to the first opening, the first opening and the second opening are connected in a matching manner to form a closed cavity, and the camera is accommodated in the cavity.

Optionally, a dynamic seal is arranged between the protective cover and the mounting seat.

According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an unmanned vehicle comprising a camera module according to the above.

Through above-mentioned technical scheme, the outside of camera is provided with rotatable protection casing to the centrifugal force that produces when can passing through the protection casing rotation cleans the filth and the water droplet of adhering to at the protection casing front end, and then realizes the cleanness in camera front end light-transmitting zone, reaches the effect of automatically cleaning, guarantees the accuracy that the camera picked up image information.

Additional features and advantages of the disclosure will be set forth in the detailed description which follows.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the disclosure and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the disclosure and together with the description serve to explain the disclosure without limiting the disclosure. In the drawings:

fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a camera module according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a camera module according to another exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 3 is a sectional view of the camera module shown in fig. 2.

Description of the reference numerals

10-camera, 20-mounting base, 30-protective cover, 40-driving piece, 50-driving piece, 51-first gear, 52-second gear, 61-first fastening piece, 62-second fastening piece, 70-bearing, 81-first support, 82-second support and 90-dynamic sealing piece.

Detailed Description

The following detailed description of specific embodiments of the present disclosure is provided in connection with the accompanying drawings. It should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating the present disclosure, are given by way of illustration and explanation only, not limitation.

In the present disclosure, unless otherwise stated, the terms of orientation such as "front" and "rear" are generally defined according to the normal use state of the camera module, and referring to fig. 1 or 3, the left side in the drawing direction is front, and the right side in the drawing direction is rear; "inner" and "outer" refer to the inner and outer contours of the respective components. Furthermore, the terms "first," "second," and the like, as used in this disclosure, are intended to distinguish one element from another, and not necessarily for order or importance. When the following description refers to the accompanying drawings, like numbers in different drawings represent the same or similar elements unless otherwise indicated.

Referring to fig. 1 to 3, the present disclosure provides a camera module including a camera 10, a mount 20, a shield 30, and a driving member 40. The mounting base 20 can be used as a mounting and supporting carrier for each component in the camera module, so as to provide a supporting point and a mounting point for each component in the camera module through a direct or indirect connection relationship, for example, the camera 10, the shield 30 and the driving member 40 can be mounted on the mounting base 20, and a specific mounting relationship of the camera 10, the shield 30 and the driving member 40 to the mounting base 20 will be described below. Meanwhile, the mount 20 may also serve as a joint member between the camera module and the base, and the camera module may be mounted on the base, such as an unmanned vehicle described below, for example, through the mount 20 as a whole. The base member can be for the equipment that needs configuration camera module, can transmit the image information that camera 10 picked up to the display device or the control center of base member through installation camera module on the base member to carry out corresponding operation. The protective cover 30 can be coaxially sleeved on the outer side of the camera 10, and the protective cover 30 can be rotatably connected to the mounting base 20 around the axis thereof, so that dirt, water drops and the like attached to the front end of the camera 10 can be cleaned by the centrifugal acting force of the rotation thereof while the camera is protected; drive member 40 may be drivingly coupled to shield 30 to drive shield 30 to rotate, providing motive force for spinning shield 30. In the embodiment provided by the present disclosure, the front end and the side wall of the shield 30 should be ensured to be separated from the camera 10 by a certain distance, so as to avoid unnecessary collision influence on the camera 10 when the shield 30 rotates, or vibration influence on the camera 10 due to too close distance from the camera 10, and the like. The driving member 40 may have a relatively high rotation speed so that a large centrifugal force can be generated to sufficiently secure the cleaning effect of the shield 30. It should be noted that, when the protection mask 30 rotates at a high speed, dirt, water drops and the like attached to the front end (i.e. the front side of the camera 10) and the side wall of the protection mask can be subjected to centrifugal force, so that a good cleaning effect can be ensured, and a clearer and wider visual field can be provided for the camera 10. In addition, the driving member 40 can be connected with the controller on the base body through signals so as to remotely control the self-cleaning operation of the camera module through the controller, and the method is particularly suitable for the following embodiment that the driving member 40 is positioned in the camera module, so that the self-cleaning operation of the camera module can be conveniently controlled. Of course, in other embodiments, the start and stop of the driving element 40 can be controlled manually in the case that the driving element 40 has a mounting position for convenient operation, which is not limited in the present disclosure.

Through the technical scheme, the outer side of the camera 10 is provided with the rotatable protective cover 30, so that dirt and water drops attached to the front end of the protective cover 30 can be cleaned through centrifugal acting force generated during rotation of the protective cover 30, cleaning of a light-transmitting area at the front end of the camera 10 is achieved, the self-cleaning effect is achieved, and the accuracy of picking up image information by the camera is guaranteed. The camera module that this disclosure provided does not have special requirement to spare parts such as camera 10, protection casing 30, driving piece 40, does not need highly customized spare part, mostly is standard component and conventional structure machined part, but batch production and cost are controllable, and camera module simple structure, axial dimension are less, but the multiple camera of nimble adaptation.

According to some embodiments, referring to fig. 1 and 3, the camera module may further include a transmission member 50 disposed between the driving member 40 and the shield 30 to smoothly transmit power of the driving member 40 to the shield 30 through the transmission member 50, thereby reducing vibration or other discordance factors when the shield 30 rotates. Drive 40 may be, for example, a motor that can output a rotational movement, so that it can be better adapted to the rotational movement of shield 30. As an embodiment, as shown in fig. 1 and 3, the transmission member 50 may include a first gear 51 in transmission connection with an output shaft of the driving member 40 (an output shaft of the motor) and a second gear 52 in meshing transmission with the first gear 51, the first gear 51 may be sleeved on the output shaft of the driving member 40 and in key fit connection, and the protection cover 30 may be connected to the second gear 52, so that power transmission to the driving member 40 may be achieved through primary gear transmission. The gear transmission has the advantages of stable transmission, high transmission efficiency, high working reliability and the like, has larger speed and transmission power range, and can be used for high-speed transmission of the driving piece 40. Simultaneously, adopt gear drive to still be favorable to realizing foretell reduction camera module axial dimension's technological effect, further save space. Within the allowable range of the structure and size of the camera module, the transmission member 50 may be configured in other structural forms capable of meeting the requirement of the rotation speed of the protection cover 30.

According to further embodiments, the drive element 40 may also be configured to output a linear movement, and the transmission element 50 may accordingly be configured as a transmission structure, such as a rack and pinion, a ball screw, or the like, capable of converting a linear movement into a rotational movement. For example, when the transmission member 50 has a rack-and-pinion structure, the rack may be connected to the output end of the driving member 40, the gear may be correspondingly connected to the shield 30, and the driving member 40 drives the rack to move linearly to realize rotation of the gear, thereby driving the shield 30 to rotate. For another example, when the transmission member 50 is a ball screw structure, the screw may be connected to the protection cover 30, the ball may be correspondingly connected to the output end of the driving member 40, and the driving member 40 drives the ball to move linearly along the screw, so as to rotate the screw, and further drive the protection cover 30 to rotate.

Further, referring to fig. 1 and 3, the first gear 51 may be configured as an external gear, the second gear 52 may be configured as an internal gear, and the second gear 52 is fitted over the outside of the first gear 51 so that the internal gear can be engaged with the external gear. The protective cover 30 can be coaxially sleeved on the outer side of the inner gear ring so as to realize synchronous rotation under the drive of the inner gear ring. Therefore, not only the meshing transmission of the first gear 51 and the second gear 52 is ensured, but also the connection of the shield 30 and the second gear 52 is facilitated. In addition, the first gear 51 and the second gear 52 can further save installation space and facilitate arrangement. The external gear and the internal gear ring can be constructed in different shaft forms, namely, eccentric structures, so that power transmission is realized through partial tooth-shaped meshing of the external gear and the internal gear ring, and the corresponding transmission ratio requirement is met. As another embodiment, the first gear 51 and the second gear 52 may be both configured as external gears, and in this case, a tooth shape capable of meshing with the second gear 52 may be provided on the inner wall of the guard 30, so that the driving member 40 can drive the guard 30 to rotate through the transmission member 50. According to other embodiments, the transmission member 50 may include only the first gear 51 connected to the output shaft of the driving member 40, and the inner wall of the protection cover 30 may be directly provided with a tooth shape engaged with the first gear 51, so that the structure may be further simplified.

Here, in order to sufficiently secure the power transmission effect of the second gear 52 to the guard 30 and to better achieve the stable movement of the guard 30, referring to fig. 3, the inner wall of the guard 30 may be attached to the outer circumferential surface of the ring gear and fixedly connected by the first fastening member 61. The first fastener 61 may be, for example, a threaded fastener, which may radially penetrate the sidewall of the shield 30 and protrude into the outer peripheral wall of the ring gear to connect the second gear 52 and the shield 30 together. The inner gear ring can be provided with an annular axial lengthened section, the wall thickness of the axial lengthened section is smaller than that of the inner gear ring, the outer peripheral surface of the axial lengthened section can be in a circle with the outer peripheral surface of the inner gear ring, and the threaded fastener can be installed at the position corresponding to the axial lengthened section, so that the axial lengthened section can be fixedly connected with the protective cover 30, and the processing and the assembly are facilitated. The first fastening member 61 may include a plurality that is uniformly arranged in the circumferential direction. In order to ensure the connection strength between the first fastening member 61 and the shield 30, referring to fig. 2, when the shield 30 has a cylindrical structure, the outer circumferential surface of the shield may be ground corresponding to the mounting position of the first fastening member 61, so that the head of the threaded fastening member may be sufficiently attached to the outer wall of the shield 30, thereby increasing the contact area and improving the connection effect. In addition, the outer peripheral surface of the ring gear may also form a spacing distance with the inner wall of the protection cover 30, and at this time, the ring gear and the protection cover may also be fixedly connected through a plurality of connectors uniformly arranged along the circumferential direction.

According to some embodiments, referring to fig. 1 and 3, a bearing 70 may be further disposed between the shield 30 and the camera 10, the bearing 70 may be coaxial with the shield 30 and the camera 10, an inner ring of the bearing 70 may be fixedly connected with the camera 10, and an outer ring of the bearing 70 may be correspondingly fixedly connected with an inner wall of the shield 30. Through setting up bearing 70, can realize the location to protection casing 30 on the one hand, protection casing 30 can also link to each other with camera 10 through bearing 70 promptly, and then indirectly fix on mount pad 20, guarantee the installation intensity of protection casing 30, and on the other hand can also realize the roll connection between protection casing 30 and the camera 10 for protection casing 30 can rotate relatively camera 10.

According to some embodiments, referring to fig. 1 and 3, the driving member 40 may also be fixed on the mounting base 20 through the first bracket 81, that is, the driving member 40 may be fixed on the first bracket 81, such that the first bracket 81 may carry the driving member 40, the first bracket 81 is fixedly connected with the mounting base 20, and the transmission member 50 is in transmission connection with the driving member 40, and the first bracket 81 may also carry the transmission member 50, so that the fixing of the transmission member 50 on the mounting base 20 may also be indirectly achieved. As shown in fig. 3, the first bracket 81 and the mounting base 20 may be fixedly connected by a second fastening member 62, and the second fastening member 62 may be a threaded fastening member, for example. In order to ensure the connection strength, referring to fig. 2, the second fastening member 62 may also include a plurality of members uniformly arranged along the circumferential direction, and in the case where the mounting seat 20 has a cylindrical portion configuration as described below, the outer circumferential surface thereof may also be subjected to a grinding process at a position corresponding to the mounting position of the second fastening member 62, so that the head of the threaded fastening member may sufficiently fit the outer wall of the cylindrical portion, increasing the contact area, and improving the connection effect. Referring to fig. 3, the first bracket 81 may also be disposed to be in contact with the inner wall of the cylindrical portion, and the second fastening member 62 may radially penetrate through the sidewall of the cylindrical portion and extend into the body of the first bracket 81 to connect the mounting seat 20 and the first bracket 81 together. The first bracket 81 may have any shape configuration, and the first bracket 81 capable of achieving the above-mentioned effects of the embodiment of the present disclosure falls within the scope of the present disclosure.

In addition, referring to fig. 1 and 3, the camera head 10 may be fixed to the mounting base 20 by a second bracket 82, and the second bracket 82 may be connected to the first bracket 81, so that the second bracket 82 is indirectly fixed to the mounting base 20 by the first bracket 81. Of course, the second bracket 82 may also be directly connected to the mounting base 20, which is not limited in this disclosure. As shown in fig. 1 and 3, the bearing 70 may be mounted on the second bracket 82, so as to achieve a fixed connection with the camera head 10. As an embodiment, the second bracket 82 may have a cylindrical shaft body structure, and accordingly, the inner race of the bearing 70 may be connected with the circumferential surface of the cylindrical shaft body structure, the camera 10 may be mounted on one end surface of the cylindrical shaft body structure, and the first bracket 81 may be connected to the other end surface of the cylindrical shaft body structure. Referring to fig. 1, the second bracket 82 may be configured to have shoulders at two ends in the axial direction, the diameter of the shoulder is greater than that of the middle shaft, and the inner ring of the bearing 70 may be installed in cooperation with the middle shaft, so that the bearing 70 may be further positioned by limiting the axial movement of the bearing 70 by means of the shoulders at two sides.

In an embodiment provided by the present disclosure, referring to fig. 2, the mount 20 may include a cylindrical portion, one of end surfaces of which is not closed such that the mount 20 has a first opening. The mount 20 may further include a plate-shaped portion provided on the other end surface side of the cylindrical portion, and the plate-shaped portion may be provided with a plurality of mounting holes by which the above-described connection of the camera module to the base body is achieved. In order to increase the strength of the mounting seat 20, as shown in fig. 2, a triangular reinforcing plate may be disposed at the junction of the plate-shaped portion and the cylindrical portion. Referring to fig. 2, the shield 30 may be configured in a cylindrical shape, one end surface of which is not closed such that the shield 30 has the second opening, and the other end surface of which is positioned in front of the camera 10 to form a cleaning region. At least the portion of the protection cover 30 located in front of the camera 10 is made of a transparent material so as to normally transmit light, thereby avoiding influence on image pickup of the camera 10. As an embodiment, as shown in fig. 2, the protection mask 30 may have a stepped cylindrical shape, so that the structure of the camera 10 can be matched and the aesthetic effect can be achieved. When the camera module is installed, the first opening of the mounting base 20 and the second opening of the protection cover 30 are oppositely arranged and are matched to form a closed cavity, and the camera 10, the driving member 40, the transmission member 50 and the bearing 70 can be all accommodated in the cavity. The closed cavity can also protect the camera 10 and all parts, and can also block external dust and impurities, thereby avoiding unnecessary influence on all parts of the camera module and prolonging the service life of the parts.

Further, in order to sufficiently ensure the sealing effect of the camera module, referring to fig. 1 to 3, a dynamic sealing element 90 may be further disposed between the protective cover 30 and the mounting base 20. Dynamic seal 90 may be, for example, a sliding seal ring, such that rotation of shield 30 relative to mount 20 may be achieved while ensuring a sealing effect. As an embodiment, referring to fig. 3, the dynamic seal 90 may include a body and a ball disposed on the body, the ball may be embedded on an inner wall of the body and be in rolling fit with an outer wall of the protection shield 30, and the body may axially extend to the mounting seat 20 and be mounted in fit with an outer sidewall of the mounting seat 20.

Like this, the camera module that this disclosed embodiment provided is when carrying out the automatically cleaning operation, and driving piece 40 work makes the high-speed rotation of motor, and the high-speed rotation of motor drives first gear 51 synchronous rotation, and first gear 51 drives second gear 52 and then drives protection casing 30 and rotate to produce centrifugal force to filth and water droplet etc. attached to protection casing 30, realize the cleaning action.

The present disclosure also provides an unmanned vehicle, wherein, unmanned vehicle can dispose foretell camera module. Unmanned car has the whole beneficial effect of foretell camera module, and this place is no longer repeated. When the unmanned vehicle is applied to logistics distribution, namely when the unmanned vehicle is used for unmanned distribution, the driving part 40 of the camera module can be in signal connection with a control center of the unmanned vehicle, so that the camera of the unmanned vehicle can be automatically cleaned, and the unmanned vehicle can be used on the road in rainy days, and achieves a better cleaning effect. Wherein, every unmanned car can be equipped with a plurality of camera modules to can satisfy the user demand of a plurality of automatically cleaning camera modules. The unmanned vehicle also can be unmanned vehicle, and the camera module can be installed on the roof or the front bumper of unmanned vehicle for example to driving piece 40 of camera module can be with unmanned vehicle's intelligent driver signal connection, thereby also can obtain more accurate road information, barrier information etc. through the automatically cleaning, provides further guarantee for unmanned vehicle's security performance.

In addition, the camera module that this disclosure provided can also be applied to various vision or optics class sensor to self-cleaning effect through the camera module can make the sensor be in normal operating condition, guarantees the degree of accuracy of sensor information collection.

The preferred embodiments of the present disclosure are described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, however, the present disclosure is not limited to the specific details of the above embodiments, and various simple modifications may be made to the technical solution of the present disclosure within the technical idea of the present disclosure, and these simple modifications all belong to the protection scope of the present disclosure.

It should be noted that, in the foregoing embodiments, various features described in the above embodiments may be combined in any suitable manner, and in order to avoid unnecessary repetition, various combinations that are possible in the present disclosure are not described again.

In addition, any combination of various embodiments of the present disclosure may be made, and the same should be considered as the disclosure of the present disclosure, as long as it does not depart from the spirit of the present disclosure.

Claims

1. The utility model provides a camera module which characterized in that includes:

a camera (10);

the installation seat (20), the said lens (10) is installed on this installation seat (20);

the protective cover (30) is coaxially sleeved on the outer side of the camera (10) and is connected to the mounting seat (20) in a manner of rotating around an axis; and

the driving piece (40) is in transmission connection with the protective cover (30) to drive the protective cover (30) to rotate.

2. The camera module according to claim 1, characterized in that it further comprises a transmission (50) arranged between the driving member (40) and the shield (30), said transmission (50) comprising a first gear (51) in driving connection with the output shaft of the driving member (40) and a second gear (52) in meshing transmission with the first gear (51), the shield (30) being connected to the second gear (52).

3. The camera module according to claim 2, characterized in that the first gear (51) is configured as an external gear, the second gear (52) is configured as an internal gear, and the protective cover (30) is coaxially sleeved outside the internal gear.

4. The camera module according to claim 3, wherein the inner wall of the protective cover (30) is attached to the outer peripheral surface of the inner gear ring and fixedly connected by a first fastening member (61).

5. The camera module according to claim 1, wherein a bearing (70) coaxial with the shield (30) is disposed between the shield (30) and the camera (10), an inner ring of the bearing (70) is fixedly connected with the camera (10), and an outer ring of the bearing (70) is fixedly connected with an inner wall of the shield (30).

6. The camera module according to claim 1, wherein the driving member (40) is fixed to the mounting base (20) by a first bracket (81), and the first bracket (81) is fixedly connected to the mounting base (20) by a second fastening member (62).

7. The camera module according to claim 6, characterized in that the camera (10) is fixed on the mounting base (20) by a second bracket (82), and the second bracket (82) is connected with the first bracket (81).

8. The camera module according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the mounting base (20) has a first opening, the shield (30) has a second opening opposite to the first opening, the first opening and the second opening being in a mating connection to form a closed cavity, the camera (10) being accommodated in the cavity.

9. The camera module according to claim 8, characterized in that a dynamic seal (90) is provided between the shield (30) and the mounting seat (20).

10. An unmanned aerial vehicle comprising the camera module of any one of claims 1-9.