Radar device and sensor fusion system using the same

• US 10,228,457 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2016
• Issued: 03/12/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Inventors: Kai, Koichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Bythrow, Peter M
• Application Number:
  US15/281,357
• Publication Number:
  US 20170336504A1
• Time in Patent Office: 893 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/42 Simultaneous measurement of distance and other co-ordinates indirect measurement G01S13/46
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/58 Velocity or trajectory determination systems; Sense-of-movement determination systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/867 Combination of radar systems with cameras
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/931 of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/93185 Controlling the brakes
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/41 using analysis of echo signal for target characterisation; Target signature; Target cross-section
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/411 Identification of targets based on measurements of radar reflectivity G01S7/415 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/415 Identification of targets based on measurements of movement associated with the target

Abstract

In order to improve accuracy of kind identification of a detected object in a radar device provided in a sensor fusion system, information of the result of kind identification by a camera device provided in the sensor fusion system is given to the radar device and an attribution degree database that is used for identification determination by the radar device during the operation of the sensor fusion system is updated by a database update block.

Claims

1. A sensor fusion system for a vehicle, the sensor fusion system comprising:

a radar device configured to receive a signal wave reflected from a target object, and identify a type of the target object based on a measured reception power of the signal wave by using a preliminarily created database that stores, for a plurality of different object types, a relationship between a distance to a reference object and a reception power of a reference signal wave that is reflected from the reference object;

a camera device configured to identify the type of the target object; and

a sensor fusion section configured to determine whether the type of the target object identified by the radar device is equal to the type of the object identified by the camera device,

wherein the radar device comprises a database update block that updates the database when the type of the object identified by the radar device is different from the type of the object identified by the camera device.

2. The sensor fusion system according to claim 1, wherein the radar device comprises:

a radar signal processor that calculates a distance, a relative speed, and an angle of the target object by performing signal processing based on a transmission wave and a reception wave;

an attribution degree database serving as the database in which a feature quantity of the reference object is made into data to be stored; and

an attribution degree calculator that calculates an attribution degree to a distribution of the feature quantity related to the reference object based on a detection result of the radar signal processor and the attribution degree database and outputs an identification result based on the calculated attribution degree,

wherein the database update block updates the attribution degree database based on the identification result of the attribution degree calculator and another identification result outputted from the camera device to indicate the type of the target object.

3. The sensor fusion system according to claim 1,

wherein the database stores the relationship between the distance and the reception power as a graph, and the database update block updates the database by shifting up the graph to increase a value of the reception power corresponding to the same distance in the graph when a transmission power of the signal wave is lower than a standard transmission power.

4. The sensor fusion system according to claim 2,

wherein the database stores the relationship between the distance and the reception power as a graph, and the database update block updates the database by shifting up the graph to increase a value of the reception power corresponding to the same distance in the graph when a transmission power of the signal wave is lower than a standard transmission power.

5. The sensor fusion system according to claim 1, wherein:

the radar device outputs, as a first detection result, the type of the target object identified by the radar device;

the camera device outputs, as a second detection result, the type of the target object identified by the camera device; and

the sensor fusion section performs fusion processing on the first detection result and the second detection result to track the target object.

6. The sensor fusion system according to claim 2, wherein:

the radar device outputs, as a first detection result, the type of the target object identified by the radar device;

the camera device outputs, as a second detection result, the type of the target object identified by the camera device; and

the sensor fusion section performs fusion processing on the first detection result and the second detection result to track the target object.

7. The sensor fusion system according to claim 5,

wherein the sensor fusion section includes:

a fusion processor which determines as to whether or not the first detection result is equal to the second detection result and performs tracking processing; and

a selection processor that selects first data for controlling the vehicle and second data for updating the database from a result of the fusion processing.

8. The sensor fusion system according to claim 6,

wherein the sensor fusion section includes:

a fusion processor which determines as to whether or not the first detection result is equal to the second detection result and performs tracking processing; and

a selection processor that selects first data for controlling the vehicle and second data for updating the database from a result of the fusion processing.