Patent ID: 9709678
Date: 2017-07-18
CPC Classifications: B60W,G01S

Claim:
1. A laser radar device configured to monitor a forward direction of a vehicle, the laser radar device comprising: a projector configured to project measuring light that is of a pulsed laser beam to the forward direction of the vehicle a plurality of times during a detection period having a first predetermined length; a plurality of light receiving elements configured to receive reflected light of the measuring light from a plurality of detection areas having different directions in a horizontal direction, the plurality of light receiving elements including a light receiving element group configured to receive the reflected light from a detection area group in front of a front face of the vehicle; a measurement section configured to select at least one of light reception signals from the light receiving elements and to measure a light reception value by sampling the selected light reception signal; an integrator configured to integrate the light reception values of the light reception signals from the identical light receiving element at an identical sampling clock time, the light reception values being sampled during the detection period; a detector configured to detect an obstacle in each detection period based on the integrated light reception value; and a sensitivity controller configured to increase the number of times of integrating the light reception values of at least a part of the light receiving element group, when the detector does not detect the obstacle and when speed of the vehicle is greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold based on externally-input information.