Patent ID: 7689360

Claim:
An obstacle detecting apparatus for detecting the presence of an obstacle in the vicinity of a vehicle, comprising: plural sensors, each rendered operational by one of plural predetermined parameters; and a processing unit for transmitting the plural predetermined parameters to the plural sensors, the processing unit comprising: vehicle state detector configured to detect a running state of the vehicle, condition determiner configured to determine that the running state of the vehicle corresponds to one of an operating condition that indicates that the plural sensors should be operated and a forbidding condition that indicates that the operation of the plural sensors should be forbidden, communication controller configured to communicate with the plural sensors, and parameter setting processor configured to implement a parameter setting process for transmitting the plural predetermined parameters to the plural sensors and receiving a response from each of the plural sensors that indicates completion of the parameter setting process, wherein the parameter setting processor repeats the parameter setting process for all of the plural sensors upon at least one of the following occurring: the parameter of at least one sensor of the plural sensors is not set, and communication by the communication controller is impossible, when the condition determiner determines that the running state of the vehicle corresponds to the forbidding condition.