EP0782008A2
Expired / Lapsed
EP
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Apparatus for calculating and correcting deflection of central axis of an obstacle detecting apparatus mounted on a vehicle, and system for controlling distance to a preceding vehicle travelling ahead
Assignee: Denso Corp
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Filing: 1996-12-27
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2016-12-27
Abstract
Abstract The present invention aims to facilitate easy correction of the center axis of an obstacle detecting apparatus for a vehicle by calculating deflection of the center axis with respect to the vehicle. Each of most obstacles recognized as moving objects is a preceding vehicle 93, and when the subject vehicle 91 is moving straight, the preceding vehicle 93 is detected in a position straight ahead of the subject vehicle 91. If the optical axis 95 of the transmitting/receiving section 31 is oriented straight ahead of the subject vehicle 91, the preceding vehicle 93 will be detected on the optical axis 95. On the other hand, when the optical axis 95 deviates from the center axis of the vehicle, the preceding vehicle 93 is detected in a position deviated from the optical axis 95 by an angle θm. In this case, the value θ of deflection of optical axis 95 is equal to -θm. In addition, by determining whether or not the relative velocity vector component of an obstacle is within a given range, the accuracy of calculation can be bettered with data of vehicles moving in an adjacent lane and data of vehicles moving along a curve being removed.
Inventors
- 👤 Noriaki c/o DENSO CORPORATION Shirai
- 👤 Katsuhiko c/o DENSO CORPORATION Hibino
- 👤 Takao c/o DENSO CORPORATION Nishimura
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-10-24 16:09
CPC Classifications
B; B60; B60K; B60K31/00; B60K31/0008; B60W; B60W30/00; B60W30/14; B60W30/16; B60W30/18; B60W30/18009; B60W30/18145; G; G01; G01S; G01S17/00; G01S17/88; G01S17/93; G01S17/931; G01S7/00; G01S7/48; G01S7/497; G01S7/4972; B60T; B60T2201/00; B60T2201/08; B60T2201/081; B60W50/00; B60W50/02; B60W50/0205; B60W2050/021; G01S13/00; G01S13/88; G01S13/93; G01S13/931; G01S2013/93185; G01S2013/9319; G01S2013/932; G01S2013/9321; G01S2013/9324; G01S7/02; G01S7/40; G01S7/4004; G01S7/4026; G01S7/403; G01S7/4052; G01S7/4082; G01S7/4091; G01S7/52; G01S7/52004
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 17
Claim 1
Independent Claim
196 words
An apparatus for calculating a deflection of central axis of an obstacle detecting apparatus mounted on a vehicle and operative to radiate a transmission wave over a given angular range from a given central axis to the width direction of the vehicle and to detect a distance to and an angle of an obstacle in response to a reflected wave from the obstacle, comprising: object recognizing means for determining whether the obstacle is a stationary object or a moving object on the basis of changes in distance to and angle of the obstacle detected by the obstacle detecting apparatus; speed calculating means for calculating a vector representing a speed of the obstacle relative to the vehicle; and first deflection calculating means, when a target obstacle is selected from among obstacles detected by the obstacle detecting apparatus under conditions that the target obstacle has been recognized as a moving object by said object recognizing means and the relative speed thereof calculated by said speed calculating means falls within a given range, which calculates the deflection of central axis of the obstacle detecting apparatus relative to the vehicle on the basis of an angle of the target obstacle.
Claim 2
Independent Claim
209 words
An apparatus for calculating a deflection of central axis of an obstacle detecting apparatus mounted on a vehicle and operative to radiate a transmission wave over a given angular range from a given central axis to the width direction of the vehicle and to detect a distance to and an angle of an obstacle in response to a reflected wave from the obstacle, comprising: object recognizing means for determining whether the obstacle is a stationary object or a moving object on the basis of changes in distance to and angle of the obstacle detected by the obstacle detecting apparatus; speed calculating means for calculating a vector representing a speed of the obstacle relative to the vehicle; and second deflection calculating mean, when a target obstacle is selected from among obstacles detected by the obstacle detecting apparatus under conditions that the target obstacle has been recognized as a stationary object by said object recognizing means and the distance thereto detected by the obstacle detecting apparatus is less than a given value, which calculates the deflection of central axis of the obstacle detecting apparatus relative to the vehicle on the basis of the direction of the vector representing the relative speed of the target obstacle calculated by said speed calculating means.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
87 words
An apparatus as set forth in claim 1, further comprising third deflection calculating means, when a target obstacle is selected from among obstacles detected by the obstacle detecting apparatus under a condition that the target obstacle has been recognized as a stationary object by said object recognizing means, which calculates the deflection of central axis of the obstacle detecting apparatus relative to the vehicle on the basis of the direction of the vector representing the relative speed of the target obstacle calculated by said speed calculating means.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
109 words
An apparatus as set forth in claim 1 or 3, wherein when a target obstacle is selected, from among obstacles continuously detected for a given time period or more by the obstacle detecting apparatus, under conditions the target obstacle has been recognized as a moving object by said object recognizing means and the components of the vector representing the relative speed thereof calculated by said speed calculating means falls within a given range, said first deflection calculating means calculates the deflection of central axis of the obstacle detecting apparatus relative to the vehicle on the basis of the angle of the target obstacle detecting by the obstacle detecting apparatus.
Claim 5
Independent Claim
150 words
An apparatus as set forth in any one of claims 1, 3 and 4, further comprising width calculating means for calculating a width of an obstacle on the basis of the distance to and angle of the obstacle detected by the obstacle detecting apparatus, wherein when a target obstacle is selected from among obstacles detected by the obstacle detecting apparatus under conditions that the target obstacle has been recognized as a moving object by said object recognizing means, the components of the vector representing the relative speed thereof calculated by said speed calculating means falls within a given range, and the width thereof calculated by said width calculating means falls within a given range, said first deflection calculating means calculates the deflection of central axis of the obstacle detecting apparatus relative to the vehicle on the basis of the angle of the target obstacle detected by the obstacle detecting apparatus.
Claim 6
Independent Claim
179 words
An apparatus as set forth in any one of claims 1 and 3 to 5, further comprising: average value calculating means for calculating a mean or average value of a plurality of deflect ions of central axis each of which is individually calculated as a result of plural calculation cycles of said first deflection calculating means; standard deviation calculating means for calculating a standard deviation of the plurality of deflections; and a deflection evaluating means for evaluating the average value of the plurality of deflections to be a reliable value for the deflection of central axis of the obstacle detecting apparatus relative to the vehicle when the standard deviation is smaller than a given value and the number of deflections upon which the average value and the standard deviation are calculated is a given number or more, or for evaluating the value of each deflection and the average value of the plurality of deflections to be unreliable values when the standard deviation is the given value or larger and the number of deflections is less than the given number.
Claim 7
Independent Claim
206 words
An apparatus for calculating a deflection of central axis of an obstacle detecting apparatus for a vehicle, which includes either said second deflection calculating means or said third deflection calculating means as set forth in any one of claims 2 through 6, further comprising: average value calculating means for calculating a mean or average value of a plurality of deflections of central axis each of which is individually calculated as a result of plural calculation cycles of said second or third deflection calculating means; standard deviation calculating means for calculating a standard deviation of the plurality of deflections; and deflection evaluating means for evaluating the average value of the plurality of deflections to be a reliable value for the deflection of central axis of the obstacle detecting apparatus relative to the vehicle when the standard deviation is smaller than a given value and the number of deflections upon which the average value and the standard deviation are calculated is a given number or more, or for evaluating the value of each deflection and the average value of the plurality of deflections to be unreliable values when the standard deviation is the given value or larger and the number of deflections is less than the given number.
Claim 8
Independent Claim
77 words
An apparatus for calculating a deflection of central axis of an obstacle detecting apparatus for a vehicle, which includes both said first deflection calculating means and said third deflection calculating means as set forth in any one of claims 3 through 7, wherein when an absolute value of the deflection calculated by said third deflection calculating means is a given value or larger, the value of the deflection calculated by said first deflection calculating means is neglected.
Claim 9
Independent Claim
55 words
An apparatus as set forth in any one of claims 1 through 8, further comprising straight advancement determining means for determining whether or not the vehicle is traveling straight, wherein said first, second or third deflection calculating means calculates the deflection only when said straight advancement determining means determines that the vehicle is traveling straight.
Claim 10
Independent Claim
63 words
An apparatus for correcting a deflection of central axis of an obstacle detecting apparatus for a vehicle, comprising angle correcting means for correcting the angle of the obstacle detected by the obstacle detecting apparatus on the basis of the value of the deflection calculated by said deflection of central axis calculating apparatus as set forth in any one of claims 1 through 9.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
163 words
An apparatus as set forth in claim 10, wherein the obstacle detecting apparatus comprising: transmitting means for radiating a transmission wave every given angle in a scanning manner; receiving means for receiving a reflected wave from an obstacle; distance calculating means for calculating a distance to the obstacle on the basis of an interval of time between the moment of transmission of the transmission cave by said transmitting means and the moment of reception of the reflected wave by said receiving means; and storage means for storing data representing the distance to the obstacle provided by said distance calculating means with maintaining the one-to-one correspondence between the distance to the obstacle and the angle of radiation at which the corresponding transmission wave is radiated, such that said angle correcting means corrects the angle of the obstacle relative to the vehicle by changing the correspondence or the relation between the distance to the obstacle and the angle of radiation stored in said storage means.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
76 words
An apparatus as set forth in claim 10 or 11, further comprising coordinate transforming means for transforming the distance to and angle of the obstacle detected by the obstacle detecting apparatus into a position of orthogonal coordinates by solving a given equation for coordinate transformation, such that the angle correcting means corrects the angle of the obstacle relative to the vehicle by changing or alternating the equation for coordinate transformation provided by said coordinate transformation means.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
183 words
An inter-vehicle distance control system including an obstacle detecting apparatus for a vehicle which serves to radiate a transmission wave over a given angular range along the central axis thereof for detecting a distance to and an angle of an obstacle, preceding vehicle selecting means for selecting a preceding vehicle from among obstacles detected by said obstacle detecting apparatus, the preceding vehicle corresponding to a target obstacle for which inter-vehicle distance control should be executed, and inter-vehicle distance control means for controlling the speed of the subject vehicle equipped with the system to hold a distance between the subject vehicle and the preceding vehicle selected by said preceding vehicle selecting means, said inter-vehicle distance control system comprising: an apparatus for calculating a deflection of central axis as set forth in any one of claims 1 through 9, which calculates a deflection of central axis of said obstacle detecting apparatus; and control condition changing means for changing the control condition of said inter-vehicle distance control means on the basis of the value of the deflection calculated by said deflection of central axis calculating apparatus.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
49 words
An inter-vehicle distance control system as set forth in claim 13, wherein said control condition changing means changes the value of acceleration/deceleration of the subject vehicle to be adjusted by said inter-vehicle distance control means in response to the deflection calculated by said deflection of central axis calculating apparatus.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
50 words
An inter-vehicle distance control system as set forth in claim 14, wherein said control condition changing means reduces the value of the acceleration/deceleration of the subject vehicle to be adjusted by said inter-vehicle distance control means in response to the deflection calculated by said deflection of central axis calculating apparatus.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
47 words
An inter-vehicle distance control system as set forth in claim 13, wherein said control condition changing means stops the control processing to be executed by said inter-vehicle distance control means in response to the value of the deflection calculated by said deflection of central axis calculating apparatus.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
72 words
An inter-vehicle distance control system as set forth in claim 16, further comprising sudden-change detecting means for detecting a sudden change in deflection of central axis of said obstacle detecting apparatus, such that said control condition changing means stops the control processing to be executed by said inter-vehicle distance control means when a sudden change in deflection of central axis of said obstacle detecting apparatus is detected by said sudden-change detecting means.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
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