Patent ID: 7545313

Claim:
An off-axis estimation method for estimating an off-axis angle of a radar device mounted on a vehicular object, the off-axis angle estimation method comprising: detecting relative-velocity components along the line of radar sight and azimuthal angles of a plurality of reflection points by said radar device; selecting a plurality of the detected reflection points whose relative-velocity components in the traveling direction of the vehicular object are approximately equal; and calculating the off-axis angle based on the relative-velocity components along the line of radar sight and the azimuthal angles of the plurality of selected reflection points, wherein selecting a plurality of the detected reflection points whose relative-velocity components in the traveling direction of the vehicular object are approximately equal includes selecting, from among reflection points detected by the radar device, a plurality of the reflection points so that the radar-device off-axis angle being calculated based on the relative velocities along the line of vehicular-object radar-sight and on the azimuthal angles of the reflection points is distributed within a predetermined range of values.