Patent ID: 6553283
Filing Date: 2003-04-22
Classification: B60R,G01S,G06K

Abstract:
An apparatus for recognizing a road shape, comprising:radar means for applying a transmission wave to a predetermining angular range in a width-wise direction of a vehicle and for detecting each object based upon a reflected wave which results from reflection of the transmission wave; and recognizing means for recognizing a shape of a road extending ahead of the vehicle based upon a result of detection by the radar means; wherein the recognizing means comprises: 1) object-unit data generating means for generating object-unit data pieces containing at least data pieces representing distances to objects in correspondence with vehicle-width-wise direction angles based upon the result of the detection by the radar means; 2) object recognizing means for determining whether each object is moving or stationary based upon a speed of the vehicle and a relative speed of the object which is derived from the reflected wave; 3) effective data extracting means for extracting objects from the object-unit data pieces which are effective for road shape recognition based upon a result of the determination by the object recognizing means; 4) road-side-object group data generating means for grouping objects of the extracted effective object-unit data pieces which represent monotonically increasing distances as viewed along a clockwise angle direction to generate data representative of a first road-side-object group, for grouping ones of the extracted effective object-unit data pieces which represent monotonically increasing distances as viewed along a counterclockwise angle direction to generate data representative of a second road-side-object group, for determining whether or not a farthest object in the first road-side-object group is on a same road side as other objects in the first road-side-object group based upon a positional relationship among the farthest object and the other objects, for keeping the farthest object in the first road-side-object group only when the farthest object is on the same road side as the other objects, for determining whether or not a farthest object in the second road-side-object group is on a same road side as other objects in the second road-side-object group based upon a positional relationship among the farthest object and the other objects, and for keeping the farthest object in the second road-side-object group only when the farthest object is on the same road side as the other objects; and 5) road edge recognizing means for recognizing a road edge based upon the data representative of the first and second road-side-object groups generated by the road-side-object group data generating means.