Object recognition apparatus for vehicle, inter-vehicle control apparatus, and distance measurement apparatus
First Claim
1. An object recognition apparatus for a vehicle comprising:
- radar means for emitting a plurality of transmission waves throughout a predetermined angular range in each of vertical and horizontal directions of said vehicle to, on the basis of reflected waves thereof, detect distances to reflecting objects, angles in said vertical and horizontal directions and intensities of said reflected waves;
decision means for, when a plurality of reflecting objects satisfy a predetermined unity condition, making a decision that said plurality of reflecting objects constitute a unitary reflecting object;
selection means for selecting the highest intensity of intensities of reflected waves corresponding to said reflecting objects decided to be a unitary reflecting object in said decision means; and
recognition means for recognizing said reflecting objects on the basis of said distance and said angles in said vertical and horizontal directions which are detection results acquired by said radar means, and for enhancing a probability of said reflecting object being recognized as a non-vehicle when the highest intensity selected by said selection means is lower than a predetermined reference intensity.
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Accused Products
Abstract
In an object recognition apparatus for a vehicle which uses intensities of reflected waves from reflecting objects to make a recognition on whether a reflecting object is a vehicle or a non-vehicle, a plurality of transmission waves are emitted to receive a plurality of reflected waves from the reflecting objects, and a decision is made as to whether or not the reflecting object producing the plurality of reflected waves is a unitary reflecting object. If the decision shows a unitary reflecting object, the highest intensity of intensities of the reflected waves from the unitary reflecting object is compared with a reference intensity to makes a decision on whether the reflecting object is a vehicle or a non-vehicle. This enables univocally making a decision for each unitary reflecting object as to whether the reflecting object is more likely to be a vehicle or to be a non-vehicle, thus improving the recognition accuracy.
63 Citations
31 Claims
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1. An object recognition apparatus for a vehicle comprising:
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radar means for emitting a plurality of transmission waves throughout a predetermined angular range in each of vertical and horizontal directions of said vehicle to, on the basis of reflected waves thereof, detect distances to reflecting objects, angles in said vertical and horizontal directions and intensities of said reflected waves;
decision means for, when a plurality of reflecting objects satisfy a predetermined unity condition, making a decision that said plurality of reflecting objects constitute a unitary reflecting object;
selection means for selecting the highest intensity of intensities of reflected waves corresponding to said reflecting objects decided to be a unitary reflecting object in said decision means; and
recognition means for recognizing said reflecting objects on the basis of said distance and said angles in said vertical and horizontal directions which are detection results acquired by said radar means, and for enhancing a probability of said reflecting object being recognized as a non-vehicle when the highest intensity selected by said selection means is lower than a predetermined reference intensity. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. An inter-vehicle control apparatus comprising:
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radar means for emitting a plurality of transmission waves throughout a predetermined angular range in each of vertical and horizontal directions of a vehicle to, on the basis of reflected waves thereof, detect distances to reflecting objects, angles in said vertical and horizontal directions and intensities of said reflected waves;
decision means for, when a plurality of reflecting objects satisfy a predetermined unity condition, making a decision that said plurality of reflecting objects constitute a unitary reflecting object;
selection means for selecting the highest intensity of intensities of reflected waves corresponding to said reflecting objects decided to be a unitary reflecting object in said decision means;
recognition means for, on the basis of at least a shape of said reflecting object, recognizing that said reflecting object is a preceding vehicle;
calculation means for calculating a relative speed with respect to said preceding vehicle in time series on the basis of a variation of said distance to said preceding vehicle and for calculating an average relative speed by averaging a plurality of relative speed calculated in time series;
inter-vehicle control means for implementing inter-vehicle control on the basis of said distance to said preceding vehicle and said average relative speed; and
stability decision means for making a decision as to a recognition stability on said preceding vehicle on the basis of whether or not the highest intensity of said reflected wave selected by said selection means with respect to said preceding vehicle exceeds a predetermined reference intensity, wherein, when said stability decision means makes a decision that said preceding vehicle recognition stability is high, said calculation means enhances the influence of the latest relative speed in calculating said average relative speed. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. An object recognition apparatus for a vehicle comprising:
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radar means for emitting a plurality of transmission waves throughout a predetermined angular range in a forward direction of said vehicle to, when each of the transmission waves are reflected by a reflecting object and the reflected wave is received, output a reception signal corresponding to an intensity of the reflected wave; and
recognition means for recognizing an object existing in the forward direction of said vehicle on the basis of a result of the transmission/reception by said radar means, said radar means including;
distance calculation means for calculating a distance to said reflecting object in an emission direction of the transmission wave on the basis of a time length from the emission of the transmission wave to the reception of the reflected wave; and
intensity calculation means for calculating an intensity of the reflected wave on the basis of said reception signal, and said recognition means includes first unification for, when said radar means receives a plurality of reflected waves, unifying reflecting objects producing said plurality of reflected waves to recognize them as the same reflecting object in a case in which a difference between distances calculated on the basis of said plurality of reflected waves in said distance calculation means is shorter than a predetermined distance, said plurality of reflected waves are produced by transmission waves emitted close to each other from said radar means, and a difference between the intensities of said plurality of reflected waves calculated by said intensity calculation means is lower than a predetermined value. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A distance measurement apparatus comprising:
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outputting means for emitting a transmission wave to around a vehicle to output a reception signal corresponding to an intensity of a reflected wave thereof;
decision means for making a decision as to whether or not an amplitude and a wavelength of said reception signal satisfy a predetermined relationship; and
detection means for detecting a distance to a reflecting object on the basis of said reception signal satisfying said predetermined relationship as a decision result in said decision means. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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Specification