Abstract
Abstract. This paper presents a novel approach for detecting road surface wetness with planar capacitive sensors on the wheel arch liner of a motor vehicle. For this purpose, various design parameters of interdigital electrodes are studied by means of the finite element method (FEM). A suitable design for the detection of whirled-up water is proposed, which is manufactured on a flexible printed circuit board (PCB) and investigated in an experimental study. A test bench is built for that purpose, which includes a motor vehicle's front wheel arch liner and can simulate realistic road surface wetness conditions. Experimental results show the possibility of distinguishing between different road wetness conditions and confirm that a static wetting of the wheel arch liner can be detected. Finally, an application-specific sensor system is proposed, which is validated by experiments on a test bench and is integrated into a vehicle. Field test results show the feasibility of detecting different road wetness levels and demonstrate the potential of the presented approach.
Highlights
With the increasing level of automation in today’s motor vehicles, the detection of road surface conditions becomes more important
This work presented a novel approach for detecting road surface wetness with planar capacitive sensors on the wheel arch liner of a motor vehicle
In the first part of the work we investigated the effect of various design parameters for planar interdigital electrodes by three-dimensional electrostatic finite element method (FEM) simulations considering the detection of water
Summary
With the increasing level of automation in today’s motor vehicles, the detection of road surface conditions becomes more important. A possible type of sensor suitable for the detection of road surface wetness is the capacitive sensor, due to its wide range of features. We present a new approach for detecting road surface wetness with planar capacitive sensors on a motor vehicle’s wheel arch liner. To show the feasibility of our approach, we investigate a suitably designed capacitive transducer in an experimental study at a test bench, including a motor vehicle’s front. The detection of road surface wetness with planar capacitive sensors is demonstrated by investigating different wetness levels and vehicle speeds on two test routes.
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