IP Library › Granted Patent US 10,406,993

Granted Patent B2

US 10,406,993 · App. 15/248,149 · Granted Sep 10, 2019

Method of manufacturing vehicle

Inventor: Yushi Takehara (Kawasaki, JP)

Assignee: NIDEC CORPORATION

B60R11/04 H04N5/2252 H04N5/2257 B60R2011/0026 B60R2011/0063 B60R2011/0071

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Quick Facts

Patent No.: US 10,406,993
App. No.: 15/248,149
Granted: Sep 10, 2019
Kind: B2

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Abstract

A method of manufacturing a vehicle in which a vehicle-mounted camera is attached to a glass surface on a vehicle interior side of a window glass of a vehicle body, and includes a seat fixed to the glass surface and including a seat surface extending along a predetermined direction and preferably formed by machining, includes determining the predetermined direction on the basis of an inclination angle of the glass surface to set an optical axis direction of the vehicle-mounted camera in any direction. The method of manufacturing provides a vehicle-mounted camera that is low in costs and includes an optical axis with an angle which is easy to adjust.

Claims (114)

1. A method of manufacturing a vehicle including a vehicle-mounted camera including a cover housing including a tabular top plate and a camera main assembly, the vehicle-mounted camera being attached to a glass surface on a vehicle interior side of a window glass in a posture in which the top plate extends along the window glass facing forward or rearward of a vehicle body, and capable of capturing an image of a scene of a vehicle exterior, the method comprising:

preparing a set of dies including a pair of or three or more partial dies that obtain, when combined, an internal cavity including a tabular portion sandwiched by a pair of internal surfaces;

injecting a material in a flow state into the internal cavity in a state in which the partial dies are combined;

solidifying the material;

separating the partial dies in the combined state and extracting an intermediate member;

applying machining to the intermediate member to obtain the cover housing;

fixing the camera main assembly to an inner side of the cover housing;

preparing the vehicle body;

attaching the cover housing attached with the camera main assembly to the window glass; and

performing direction adjustment processing for the camera main assembly; wherein

the camera main assembly includes a lens assembly,

the cover housing includes a seat;

a pair of inner surfaces of the die sandwiching the tabular portion in the internal cavity are respectively surfaces of the different partial dies;

one of the pair of inner surfaces includes a first surface and the other includes a second surface opposed to the first surface in a vertical direction;

the intermediate member includes an intermediate seat portion made of the material solidified between the first surface and the second surface;

a distance in the vertical direction between the first surface and the second surface is larger than a vertical dimension of the seat;

in the machining, at least a portion of the intermediate seat portion is cut to form the seat;

when the seat is formed in the machining, a seat surface that is a surface along a predetermined direction and to be fixed to the glass surface is formed;

the predetermined direction is determined with reference to an inclination angle of the glass surface of the vehicle body, a difference between a direction of the glass surface and a direction of the seat surface, and a direction of an optical axis of the camera main assembly;

the vehicle-mounted camera includes:

a board connected to the camera main assembly and accommodated in the cover housing; and

a processing circuit mounted on the board and capable of executing, by electronically processing an image captured by the camera main assembly, at least attachment direction detection processing and direction calculation processing;

in the direction adjustment processing, the attachment direction detection processing and the direction calculation processing are executed;

in the attachment direction detection processing:

in a state in which the vehicle-mounted camera is attached to the glass surface, a target object image of a target object used in direction detection located in a known direction when viewed from the vehicle body is acquired through image-capturing by the camera main assembly;

a position of the target object used in direction detection on the target object image is detected;

an attachment direction deviation of the camera main assembly calculated using the known direction and the position of the target object used in direction detection is retained in the processing circuit; and

in the direction calculation processing, from a position on an image of an object captured by the camera main assembly, a direction in which the object is located when viewed from the vehicle body is calculated using both of the known direction and the position of the target object used in the direction detection or the attachment direction deviation.

2. The method of manufacturing the vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein the predetermined direction is determined further with reference to an image-capturing direction in which the camera main assembly captures an image of a scene and a tolerance allowed in the image-capturing direction.

3. The method of manufacturing the vehicle according to claim 1 , further comprising a surface treatment process of forming a surface film in at least a portion of a surface of the intermediate member.

4. The method of manufacturing the vehicle according to claim 2 , further comprising a surface treatment process of forming a surface film in at least a portion of a surface of the intermediate member.

5. The method of manufacturing the vehicle according to claim 3 , wherein the machining is carried out after the surface treatment process.

6. The method of manufacturing the vehicle according to claim 4 , wherein the machining is carried out after the surface treatment process.

7. The method of manufacturing the vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein

a first angle formed by, of side surfaces of the seat, a rearward side surface on an opposite side of an image-capturing direction of the camera main assembly and the top plate is smaller than 90°; and

a second angle defined by, of the side surfaces of the seat, a forward side surface on the image-capturing direction side of the camera main assembly and the top plate is smaller than 90°.

8. The method of manufacturing the vehicle according to claim 2 , wherein

a second angle formed by, of the side surfaces of the seat, a forward side surface on the image-capturing direction side of the camera main assembly and the top plate is smaller than 90°.

9. The method of manufacturing the vehicle according to claim 3 , wherein

a second angle formed by, of the side surfaces of the seat, a forward side surface on the image-capturing direction side of the camera main assembly and the top plate is smaller than 90°.

10. The method of manufacturing the vehicle according to claim 4 , wherein

a second angle formed by, of the side surfaces of the seat, a forward side surface on the image-capturing direction side of the camera main assembly and the top plate is smaller than 90°.

11. The method of manufacturing the vehicle according to claim 5 , wherein

a second angle formed by, of the side surfaces of the seat, a forward side surface on the image-capturing direction side of the camera main assembly and the top plate is smaller than 90°.

12. The method of manufacturing the vehicle according to claim 6 , wherein

a second angle formed by, of the side surfaces of the seat, a forward side surface on the image-capturing direction side of the camera main assembly and the top plate is smaller than 90°.

13. The method of manufacturing the vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein the seat surface and the glass surface are fixed by an adhesive.

14. The method of manufacturing the vehicle according to claim 2 , wherein the seat surface and the glass surface are fixed by an adhesive.

15. The method of manufacturing the vehicle according to claim 3 , wherein the seat surface and the glass surface are fixed by an adhesive.

16. The method of manufacturing the vehicle according to claim 4 , wherein the seat surface and the glass surface are fixed by an adhesive.

17. The method of manufacturing the vehicle according to claim 5 , wherein the seat surface and the glass surface are fixed by an adhesive.

18. The method of manufacturing the vehicle according to claim 6 , wherein the seat surface and the glass surface are fixed by an adhesive.

19. The method of manufacturing the vehicle according to claim 10 , wherein the seat surface and the glass surface are fixed by an adhesive.

20. The method of manufacturing the vehicle according to claim 11 , wherein the seat surface and the glass surface are fixed by an adhesive.

21. The method of manufacturing the vehicle according to claim 12 , wherein the seat surface and the glass surface are fixed by an adhesive.

22. The method of manufacturing the vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein