Turntable touchless car wash
The car turns on a turntable past four fixed spray columns: about twice the throughput of a standard in-bay wash.
The hard part
In-bay washes are slow because the spray arms travel around a parked car. Here the car turns instead, past four fixed spray columns, with camera-based path planning.
What I built
The turntable and spray column mechanics, the PLC control, and the camera-based path planning that fits the spray path to each car.
Result
About twice the throughput of a standard in-bay wash and up to 20% less chemical. Released as open hardware under CERN OHL-W v2.
How it works
The car drives onto a turntable and stops. A camera measures it, the controller plans the spray path, and the turntable rotates the car past four fixed spray columns for foam, wash and rinse. Nothing has to travel around the car, so each cycle is shorter.
Related work
- Patent VN 2-0003657 for the turntable touchless car wash system, released as open hardware under CERN OHL-W v2.
- Patent VN 1-0051197 for a water cleaning module for conveyor touchless car washes, with Le Nguyen Han.
- An open communication method between vehicles and automated car washes, published under CC-BY 4.0.