Patent ID: 8538902

Claim:
A behavior predicting device that is connected to a sensor and a communication device, the behavior predicting device comprising: a type determining unit that determines whether an object around a vehicle is a motorcycle, a bicycle, or a pedestrian based on information received from the communication device; a characteristic value temporary setting unit that temporarily sets characteristic values of the object on the basis of the type of object determined by the type determining unit; a behavior detecting unit that detects the behavior of the object; a characteristic value correcting unit that corrects the characteristic values of the object temporarily set by the characteristic value temporary setting unit on the basis of the behavior of the object detected by the behavior detecting unit; a type setting unit that sets whether the object is the motorcycle, the bicycle, or the pedestrian on the basis of the characteristic values of the object corrected by the characteristic value correcting unit; and a behavior predicting unit that predicts the behavior of the object on the basis of the type of object set by the type setting unit, wherein: the characteristic values of the object include an area in which the object exists on a road, a direction change property indicating the possibility that the object will change its direction, and a road crossing property indicating the possibility that the object will move across the road, the characteristic value temporary setting unit temporarily sets the existence area to at least one of three areas, that is, a central portion of a lane of the road, a side portion of the lane of the road, and a sidewalk, the characteristic value temporary setting unit temporarily sets the direction change property to at least one of three levels, that is, a high level, a middle level, and a low level, the characteristic value temporary setting unit temporarily sets the road crossing property to at least one of three levels, that is, a high level, a middle level, and a low level, when the type determining unit determines that the object is the motorcycle, the characteristic value temporary setting unit temporarily sets the existence area to the central portion of the lane of the road, the direction change property to the low level, and the road crossing property to the low level, when the type determining unit determines that the object is the bicycle, the characteristic value temporary setting unit temporarily sets the existence area to the side portion of the lane of the road and the sidewalk, the direction change property to the middle level, and the road crossing property to the middle level, and when the type determining unit determines that the object is the pedestrian, the characteristic value temporary setting unit temporarily sets the existence area to the sidewalk, the direction change property to the high level, and the road crossing property to the high level.