Patent ID: 7880669

Claim:
A radar apparatus comprising: a radar sensor which transmits a transmitted wave by scanning over a predetermined angular range and receives a reflected wave reflected by an object located within the angular range; and a processing unit which obtains a peak of signal strength from a distribution of signal strength of the received reflected waves over the predetermined angular range and determines the direction of the object within the angular range based on the peak of signal strength, wherein the processing unit is adapted to: have a reference number of the received reflected waves predetermined based on an average number of the received reflected waves of the object, wherein the average number of the received reflected waves of the object is included in the predetermined angular range, and process the signal strength over one scan at the end of the scanned angular range, wherein if the peak in signal strength is not detected and the distribution of strength of the received reflected wave has a tendency of increasing toward the end to the angular range, the processing unit is further adapted to determine that the object is positioned in the direction rotated by an angle corresponding to the reference number of the received reflected waves toward the end of the angular range, based on the angle at which the increasing tendency begins.