KR101672116B1 - Car washing system and washing method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a car wash system device and its car wash method which enable quick and easy automatic car washing of a large vehicle such as a mining truck designed for a specific purpose. The car wash system includes at least one scanner for three-dimensionally scanning a vehicle to be washed, an extracting unit for extracting a car wash area of the car to be washed using the three-dimensional scanned information, and characteristic information for the car wash area And a control unit for controlling driving of the water cannon to perform car wash on the car wash area based on the characteristic information.

Description

The present invention relates to a car washing system and a washing method thereof,

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a car wash system, and more particularly, to a car wash system and a car wash method for quickly and easily car washing a large vehicle such as a mining truck designed and manufactured for a specific purpose.

BACKGROUND ART [0002] Generally, a vehicle washing apparatus (car washer) is an apparatus for washing a front face, an upper face, a rear face, and a side face of a vehicle while rotating a plurality of brushes installed in horizontal and vertical directions. In addition, various washing methods such as a method of removing dirt buried in a vehicle by injecting water at a high pressure or a method of heating water and washing with steam have been known as car wash methods.

However, at present, the generalized car wash is designed for car washing of medium / small size vehicles and is not suitable for large sized vehicles.

In recent years, demand for heavy vehicles and heavy equipment used in various construction sites and industrial fields is continuously increasing, and the necessity of car washing for large vehicles is also increasing. The necessity of car washing for a large-sized vehicle is such that when a large-sized vehicle or a heavy equipment is designed and manufactured for a special purpose, the body may be damaged if foreign matter is left on the body, This is because cost increases are likely to occur as continuous maintenance is needed. Above all, interest in environmental pollution and policy sanctions against it are not negligible.

However, as described above, most of the washer devices are specialized devices for small to medium sized vehicles, which makes it difficult to wash large vehicles. Even in the case of car washing of large vehicles, it still depends heavily on the passive method of spraying water to the car body by directly carrying a high-pressure injector or water injection hose such as fire fighting system.

It is not possible to expect the car wash effect on high speed and high performance as much, and car wash time is consumed not so much because car wash while visually confirming the area to be washed.

Also, even if the car wash is carried out by spraying high-pressure water or steam to the car wash area, it is ultimately washed away by experience, so there is less car wash, oil, dirt, dust, dirt, stains, .

The above-mentioned large vehicles also include dump trucks specially designed and manufactured for use in large mines, quarries, and large-scale construction sites in addition to general trucks. In the case of such large vehicles, the high-pressure injectors and the water- Washing itself is difficult. In other words, the vehicle is much larger than a normal truck, so the area above the vehicle could not be washed without using a ladder or fixed structure. There is also a risk of a safety accident if the ladder or structure is used.

U.S. Pat. No. 8,550,098 (Oct. 10, 2013. Touchless car wash system)

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems occurring in the prior art, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a car wash system device optimized for car wash of a large vehicle such as a mining truck.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a differentiated car wash method in a car wash system device that feeds back a contaminated state of a car that has been washed and determines whether car wash is continued.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image processing apparatus comprising: at least one scanner for three-dimensionally scanning a car to be washed; An extracting unit for extracting a car wash area of the car to be washed using the three-dimensional scanned information; An information generating unit for generating characteristic information about the car wash area; And a control unit for controlling driving of a water canon such that car wash is performed on the car wash area based on the characteristic information.

The information generating unit generates the characteristic information based on the position information of the car to be washed, the distance information between the car wash area and the water cannon, and the contamination degree information of the car wash area.

The characteristic information includes a wash path direction, an operation state of the water cannon, and water spray intensity information.

The car wash system apparatus of the present invention further comprises: a photographing unit photographing a state before and after washing of the car wash area; And a storage unit for storing photographed information before and after the wash, and the control unit controls whether or not to continue washing according to information comparison before and after washing.

The control unit performs car wash or car wash on all or a part of the car wash area in accordance with the contamination removal rate of the car wash area.
The at least one scanner is any one of a fixing scanner and a moving scanner.
The fixing scanner is mounted on at least one of the front, rear, left, right, and upper sides of the car to be cleaned.
When the fixing scanner is installed only on one side of the symmetrical both sides of the car to be cleaned, the three-dimensional scanning information on the other side is obtained by symmetrically calculating the one-side three-dimensional scanning information.
The mobile scanner scans the car to be scanned three-dimensionally while moving along the guide rails.
The fixing scanner and the moving scanner can scan only a part of the area of the car to be washed.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a car navigation system comprising: a scanning step in which a car wash system scans a car to be carved three-dimensionally; An extraction step of extracting a car wash area of the car to be washed using the three-dimensional scanned information; A generating step of generating characteristic information including a car wash path for the car wash area and driving information of the water cannon; And a car wash step of washing the car wash area based on the characteristic information.

Wherein the extracting step comprises: a bottom surface information removing step in which the car to be washed is located; And a distance information removing step of removing the long distance information of the car to be washed from the scanner in accordance with the distance information.

Here, if there is a ceiling area covering the upper portion of the car to be washed, the ceiling area information is further removed to extract only the car to be washed.

The wash path includes a starting point position in the car wash area, an initial traveling direction at the starting point, and a changing point in the traveling direction.

The three-dimensional scanning scans all or a part of the car to be washed, and when the part is scanned, the scan information is combined to generate the whole scan information.

Further, the car wash method of the present invention includes the steps of photographing before and after washing of the car wash area; Comparing the photographed information and determining contamination degree information of the car wash area; And determining whether to continue the car wash according to the determination result.

The apparatus and method for car wash system according to the present invention have the following effects.

The present invention carries out a process of generating information on a car wash direction, a driving state of a water cannon, and the like based on car shape scanning, car wash area setting (that is, car wash only), and car wash area characteristics information It is easy to wash large sized vehicles designed for specific purposes such as mining trucks.

Further, since the present invention generates car wash paths and carries out car wash, it is possible to save stable resources while saving resources, rather than using water cannons based on conventional experience.

In addition, since the present invention determines the continuity of the car wash after checking the degree of contamination of the car wash area after washing, the efficiency of washing is improved.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a car wash system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;
2 and 3 are illustrative drawings showing the configuration of a car wash system according to the present invention.
4 is a flowchart illustrating a car wash method according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 5 is an exemplary view showing the car wash direction according to the present invention
6 is a flowchart of a car wash method according to another embodiment of the present invention

The present invention extracts a car wash area on the basis of information obtained by high-speed scanning of a large-sized vehicle, and generates a jet intensity or a car wash path through various characteristic information on the car wash area, thereby intelligently washing As a basic technical point.

The present invention can be applied to a mining truck, a dump truck, or a car washing apparatus of a large-sized vehicle such as a train or a tram, which is specially manufactured for use in a mine, a quarry, a large-scale construction site. However, Will be limited to those objects.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of a car wash system and a car wash method according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a car wash system apparatus according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

As shown, the car wash system apparatus 100 includes a scanner 110 for scanning a car 10 to be washed, a car wash area extracting unit 120 for extracting car wash areas of the car to be washed 10 from the scanned information, An information generating unit 130 for generating information for determining the car wash direction and the intensity of the water in the car wash area, and a water canon 150 for actually car washing based on the generated information. And a control unit 140 for controlling the apparatus.

Each of these configurations will be described in more detail.

The scanner 110 is a device that scans a part or all of the vehicle 10 to be washed to check the size, type, and the like of the car 10 to be washed. Such a scanner 110 can be configured to be fixed or movable. The fixing scanner may be mounted on only one side of the car 10 to be washed or mounted on the front / rear / left / right / upper sides of the car 10 to be washed, respectively. When the fixing scanner is mounted on only one side of the car 10, scanning information on the other side corresponding to the scanning target vehicle 10 can be obtained by symmetrically calculating the information scanned by the fixing scanner. In the case of a portable scanner, it is configured in a movable form. For example, the mobile scanner may be configured to scan the vehicle 10 to be washed while moving along a general guide rail. In addition, the fixing scanner or the moving scanner may scan only a part of the area of the car 10 without scanning the whole of the car. In this case, the scanned information of a plurality of local areas can be combined to obtain the entire scanned information. As an example of such a scanner 110, a laser scanner is used in this embodiment. In the case of a laser scanner, the scanning operation can be performed at a high speed. It goes without saying that other scanner devices other than laser scanners may be used. For example, various photographing means capable of scanning a car 10 to be washed such as a vision camera, an IR camera, a depth camera, and the like can be used. In this case, the scanning process may be performed by combining two or more different types of cameras.

The car wash area extracting unit 120 extracts a car wash area based on the information of the scanned car 10 to be scanned. That is, only the car 10 to be washed is located at the car wash location. In the embodiment, only the car wash area, that is, the car 10 to be washed is extracted through a process except for the parts other than the car 10 to be carved. At this time, a series of parameters is required to extract the car wash area. The parameters include the floor information on which the car 10 is located, the minimum distance and maximum distance information between the scanner and the car 10 to be washed, the height of the car 10 to be washed, (Height filter) information. Or if the information scanned by the scanner 110 is three-dimensional, it may be used as it is.

Once the car wash area is extracted, it is possible to verify the characteristics of the car wash area. That is, it is possible to identify which part protrudes as a cross-sectional information of a car wash area (also referred to as a car wash surface) of the car 10, or a flat part or a curved part.

The information generating unit 130 generates all the information required to perform the car wash substantially according to the characteristics of the car wash area, such as the wash path or the intensity of the water sprayed from the water cannon 150. For example, the car wash path may refer to the direction of car wash, such as the left or right side of the car 10 to the right or left, or the lower or upper direction from the upper or lower side. Therefore, it is possible to intelligently set the car wash path based on the characteristics of the car wash area instead of the experience-based method used in the conventional car wash method. In addition, the information generating unit 130 may include information on stoppage of water injection in the section where the direction of the change is changed. Also, interval information between the water spray lines may be included. That is, the interval between the first line and the second line is determined in consideration of the jetting area when the water jetted from the water cannon 150 is jetted onto the washing surface. If the ejection area is wide, the interval between the lines becomes wider. The intensity of the water sprayed from the water cannon 150 can be determined using the distance information from the outlet of the water cannon 150 to the actual washing surface of the car 10 to be washed. For example, when the distance between the water cannon 150 and the car wash surface is divided into a first distance and a second distance that is longer than the first distance, the water strength is increased when the second distance is washed. The intensity of the water may be set differently based on the contamination information of the car wash surface. The contamination information can be a range of contamination, a type of pollution, and so on.

The control unit 140 controls the movement of the water cannon 150, the water injection operation, and the like based on the information provided by the information generation unit 130. [ The controller 140 is a microcontroller and controls operations of the scanner 110, the wash area extractor 120, and the like in addition to the water injection operation.

The water cannon 150 controlled by the control unit 140 should have a structure capable of moving in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction. Therefore, the water cannon 150 is equipped with a driving motor for the moving direction, a motor for water injection, and the like.

The present invention may further comprise a configuration for checking the degree of contamination on the washing surface after completion of washing and determining whether the washing is continued or not according to the result. The camera 200 or the like may be used to confirm the degree of contamination on the washing surface. The camera 200 is installed at a car wash location and shoots a car to be washed, and one or more cameras can be mounted. The storage unit 210 stores information on the washed car wash surface. Information on the car wash surface is information before and after washing. Thus, the control unit 140 compares the vision information with respect to the car wash surface before and after the car wash, and further carries out car wash on the car wash surface when the contamination degree is equal to or greater than a predetermined reference ratio. The description thereof will be described in detail below.

FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 are illustrations showing the construction of a car wash system according to the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 2, the water cannon 150 is configured to scan the car 110 and the car 10 to spray the high-pressure water to one side of the car to be scanned so as to scan the car 10, . If only one scanner 110 and one water cannon 150 are installed, the scanner 110 and the water canon 150 should be movable. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 3, the scanner 110 and the water cannon 150 may be configured on both sides of the car 10 to be washed.

That is, the car wash system 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention can variously arrange the scanner 110 and the water cannon 150 on the basis of the car 10 to be washed.

Next, a car wash method in the car wash system apparatus having the above-described configuration will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating a car wash method according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

First, as shown in Fig. 2 or Fig. 3 described above, the vehicle 10 to be washed must be located at an arbitrary car wash place (s100). When the car 10 is located as described above, a scanning process for the car 10 to be washed is performed according to a method of automatically detecting that the car 10 is located at the car wash place or by an operation of the manager s110). Therefore, a sensor for detecting the state in which the vehicle 10 to be washed enters the car should be constructed.

One or more scanners 110 for scanning may be provided. The scanner 110 may be provided on at least one side of the car 10 to be washed or may be installed in all directions of the car 10 to be washed, that is, front / rear / left / right / upper side. The scanned image of the car 10 to be scanned by the thus installed scanner 110 may be two-dimensional or three-dimensional. For example, when only one side is scanned, two-dimensional information of one side of the vehicle will be provided as scanned information, and three-dimensional information will be provided if it is scanned by two or more scanners. The scanner 110 scans through a laser scanner, and can scan other scanners. That is, the present invention can be applied to a vehicle including a vision camera, an IR camera, a depth camera, an ultrasonic sensor, etc., which can scan all or a part of a large vehicle as a car 10 to be washed, The above can be used in any combination.

When the scan for the car 10 to be washed is completed (s120), the car wash area extracting unit 120 extracts the car wash area (s130). The car wash area is the actual car information on which car wash will proceed. That is, only the form of the car 10 to be washed is extracted. The extraction of the car wash area includes information about the floor on which the car 10 is located, the minimum distance and maximum distance between the scanner 110 and the car 10, (Height filter) of the optical disk 10 is used. In the case of extracting the car 10 to be washed using the above parameters, the floor information of the car 10 to be washed is first removed. Then, remove the area that is a long distance from the distance. Thereafter, if there is a ceiling area covering the upper portion of the car to be washed according to the height information, the car is removed. According to this process, image information other than the car 10 to be washed is removed at the car wash location, and only car wash target car 10 information is extracted.

Information on the car wash area can be confirmed through the extracted information. In other words, contamination information on the car wash area can be checked if the cross section of the car wash area to be actually washed is formed, or if vision information is used.

In the meantime, the present invention is not necessarily limited to a method of using the parameters described above in extracting the car wash area. Another method or algorithm capable of extracting only information of the car 10 to be washed can be used. Or the scanner and the extraction step may not necessarily be performed. This is because the information can be accessed from the pre-stored db based on the manufacturer and the vehicle model information of the car to be washed which enters the car wash place.

The information generating unit 130 may determine whether the water cannon 150 is driven, the direction of movement of the water cannon 150 (i.e., the wash path), the injection of water And intensity information are generated (S140).

Whether or not the water cannon 150 is driven can be exemplified by stopping the water injection operation while the water canon 150 is located outside the car wash area. Also, the moving direction of the water cannon 150 is the same as that for determining the wash path (arrow direction) as shown in Fig. In FIG. 5, it is decided to move from the upper part of the car 10 to be washed downward and from the left to the right in the first direction, and then to proceed alternately thereafter. Such a car wash path is determined in consideration of the circumstances in which car wash can proceed quickly and accurately. As a result, the car wash path may be determined in the longitudinal direction instead of the lateral direction in Fig. Since the water cannon 150 includes distance information to the cross section of the car wash area as information on the car wash area, the water wash area located farther from the water cannon 150 is more tightly controlled . Also, if the contamination information is confirmed according to the vision information, the car wash direction may be determined according to the contamination degree. For example, the water cannon 150 determines the car priority so that the car is washed from a portion with a high degree of contamination.

In this way, the information generating unit 130 generates the car wash path or the intensity of the water sprayed from the water cannon 150 according to the characteristics of the washing surface.

The various information processed by the information generation unit 130 is transmitted to the control unit 140.

The control unit 140 controls the movement of the water cannon 150 or controls the intensity of the water according to the information provided by the information generating unit 130 so that the wash of the wash area is performed at step S150. In this case, the process of washing the car wash area by spraying the high pressure water proceeds by the movement of the water cannon 150 as described above. On the other hand, when the water cannon 150 is fixed and the car to be washed 10 is moved, It is possible.

According to this process, car wash for the car to be washed proceeds and is completed.

Meanwhile, the present invention may further include a configuration for receiving the car wash information after the car wash is completed, and determining whether the car wash is continued according to the result. For example, if there is not enough wash in the car wash area, car wash operations will proceed further.

See FIG. 6 for a description thereof.

First, at least one camera 200 photographs a wash area before a wash start command is transmitted (s200). Preferably, when the vehicle 10 to be washed enters and is located at the car wash location, the camera 200 will automatically take all of the car wash area of the car 10 to be washed. Or the camera 200 may photograph the car wash area while the vehicle 10 is moving.

Then, information on the washed car wash area is stored in the storage unit 210 (S210).

In this state, car wash for the car 10 to be washed proceeds according to the above-described process (s220).

Thereafter, when the car wash is completed (s230), the camera 200 photographs the car wash area of the car to be washed again (s240). The information on the car wash surface after the car wash is stored in the storage unit 210 (S250).

The control unit 140 compares the information about the car wash area before and after the car wash stored in the storage unit 210 (s260). Then, the washing process is repeated according to the comparison result, or the washing process is performed only for a part of the washing area, or the washing process is completed (s270). In the case where the car wash is repeated or additionally performed to some areas, the case where the degree of contamination with respect to the car wash area is equal to or higher than a predetermined level value is exemplified. In this case, the car washer process may be repeated until it becomes less than the level value. For example, the level value may be about 10% or less for the entire car wash area or some car wash area. However, the criterion for such a level value is only one embodiment, and other embodiments may be applied in any number of ways.

As described above, the present embodiment contemplates shape measurement through high-speed scanning of a large-sized vehicle, car wash area setting, car wash method for a car wash area, and the like, thereby facilitating car wash operation of a large car.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments, It will be apparent that modifications, variations and equivalents of other embodiments are possible. Therefore, the true scope of the present invention should be determined by the technical idea of the appended claims.

10: Cars to be washed
100: car wash system 110: scanner
120: wash area extracting unit 130: information generating unit
140: control unit 150: water canon
200: camera 210: storage unit

Claims (16)

At least one scanner for three-dimensionally scanning a car to be washed;
An extracting unit for extracting a car wash area of the car to be washed using the three-dimensional scanned information;
An information generating unit for generating characteristic information about the car wash area; And
And a controller for controlling driving of a water canon such that car wash is performed on the car wash area based on the characteristic information. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the information generating unit comprises:
Wherein the characteristic information generating unit generates the characteristic information based on the position information of the car to be washed, the distance information between the car wash area and the water cannon, and the contamination degree information of the car wash area. 3. The method of claim 2,
The characteristic information may include,
A wash path direction, an operating state of the water cannon, and water spray intensity information. The method according to claim 1,
A photographing unit photographing a state before and after washing of the car wash area; And
Further comprising a storage unit for storing photographed information before and after washing,
Wherein the control unit controls whether or not to continue washing according to comparison of information before and after washing. 5. The method of claim 4,
Wherein,
And carries out or carries out all or a part of the car wash area according to the contamination degree removal ratio of the car wash area. A scanning step of the car wash system scanning the car to be washed three-dimensionally;
An extraction step of extracting a car wash area of the car to be washed using the three-dimensional scanned information;
A generating step of generating characteristic information including a car wash path for the car wash area and driving information of the water cannon; And
And car washing the car wash area based on the characteristic information. The method according to claim 6,
Wherein the extracting step comprises:
A floor surface information removal step of the car being washed;
And a distance information removing step of removing the distance information of the car to be washed from the scanner in accordance with the distance information. 8. The method of claim 7,
Wherein the extracting step comprises:
Further comprising the step of removing ceiling area information covering an upper portion of the car to be washed. The method according to claim 6,
Wherein the wash path comprises:
A starting point of the car wash area, an initial traveling direction of the starting point, and a changing point of the traveling direction. The method according to claim 6,
The three-
Scanning all or a part of the car to be washed,
Wherein when the part is scanned, each scan information is combined to generate the whole scan information. The method according to claim 6,
Photographing the pre-wash and post-wash information of the wash area;
Comparing the photographed information and determining contamination degree information of the car wash area; And
And determining whether to continue the car wash according to the determination result. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the at least one scanner comprises:
Wherein the fixing device is one of a fixing scanner and a moving scanner. 13. The method of claim 12,
The fixing scanner includes:
Wherein the vehicle is mounted on at least one of front, rear, left, right, and upper sides of the car to be washed. 14. The method of claim 13,
The fixing scanner includes:
Wherein the three-dimensional scanning information for the other side is obtained by symmetrically calculating the three-dimensional scanning information of the one side when mounted on only one side of the symmetrical both sides of the car to be washed. 13. The method of claim 12,
In the moving scanner,
Dimensional scanning of the car to be washed while moving along the guide rails. 13. The method of claim 12,
The fixing scanner and the moving scanner may be configured such that,
Wherein only a part of the area can be scanned on one side of the car to be washed.

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