OBJECT DETECTION APPARATUS

• US 20160116585A1
• Filed: 10/12/2015
• Published: 04/28/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/22/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation, Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation, Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Fukuman, Masumi, Ohbayashi, Motonari, Kida, Akihiro
• Granted Patent: US 10,436,899 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/46 Indirect determination of position data
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/878 wherein transceivers are operated, either sequentially or simultaneously, both in bi-static and in mono-static mode, e.g. cross-echo mode
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/931 of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2015/465 by Trilateration, i.e. two transducers determine separately the distance to a target, whereby with the knowledge of the baseline length, i.e. the distance between the transducers, the position data of the target is determined
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2015/938 in the bumper area radar in bumper area G01S2013/93275; bumper with obstacle sensor of electric or electronic type B60R19/483
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/527 Extracting wanted echo signals Doppler systems G01S15/50

Abstract

An object detection apparatus includes a first acquisition unit that acquires, as a first direct wave group, reflected versions of first probing waves transmitted from and received at a first position, and acquires, as a first indirect wave group reflected versions of the first probing waves received at a second position, a second acquisition unit that acquires, as a second indirect wave group, reflected versions of second probing waves transmitted from the second position and received at the first position, and acquires, as a second direct wave group, reflected versions of the second probing wave received at the second position, and a determination unit that determines whether the object is a real object or a ghost in accordance with the receptions times of the first and second direct wave groups and the first and second indirect wave groups.

Claims

1. An object detection apparatus for detecting at least one object present in a vicinity thereof by transmitting first probing waves from a first position and subsequently transmitting second probing waves from a second position different from the first position, a detection area of the first probing waves and a detection area of the second probing waves being partially overlapped with each other, and by receiving reflected versions of the first and second probing waves as detection data of the object, comprising:

a first acquisition unit that acquires, as a first direct wave group including first direct waves, the reflected versions of the first probing waves received as the first direct waves at the first position, and acquires, as a first indirect wave group including first indirect waves, the reflected versions of the first probing waves received as the first indirect waves at the second position;

a second acquisition unit that acquires, as a second indirect wave group including second indirect waves, the reflected versions of the second probing waves received as the second indirect waves at the first position, and acquires, as a second direct wave group including second direct waves, the reflected versions of the second probing waves received as the second direct waves at the second position;

a first calculation unit that calculates a position of the object in accordance with combinations each including one of the first direct waves and one of the first indirect waves;

a second calculation unit that calculates the position of the object in accordance with combinations each including one of the second direct waves and one of the second indirect weaves; and

a determination unit that determines whether the object is a ghost or not depending on whether the position of the object has been calculated by both the first and second calculation units or has been calculated by only one of the first and second calculation units;

wherein

the determination unit determines that the object whose position is calculated by the first calculation unit is a real object if a difference of a distance to the object detected based on reception times of the first direct waves and a distance to the object detected based on reception times of the first indirect waves is larger than a predetermined threshold, and determines that the object whose position is calculated by the second calculation unit is a real object if a difference of a distance to the object detected based on reception times of the second direct waves and a distance to the object detected based on reception times of the second indirect waves is larger than a predetermined threshold.