Patent ID: 8136404

Claim:
An obstacle detection system for detecting an obstacle in surroundings of the obstacle detection system by utilizing an ultrasonic wave, the obstacle detection system comprising: an ultrasonic wave transmission section configured to transmit the ultrasonic wave toward the surroundings; an ultrasonic wave reception section configured to receive the ultrasonic wave from the surroundings; an obstacle detection section configured to perform an obstacle detection operation to determine whether the obstacle actually exists, wherein, in the obstacle detection operation, the ultrasonic wave transmission section transmits the ultrasonic wave toward the surroundings and the ultrasonic wave reception section receives the ultrasonic wave reflected from the obstacle, wherein the obstacle detection section determines that the obstacle actually exists when the obstacle detection section determines that a first voltage level exceeds a determination threshold, the first voltage level being associated with the ultrasonic wave received in the obstacle detection operation; a noise monitoring section configured to perform a noise monitoring operation to determine a noise level, wherein, in the noise monitoring operation, the ultrasonic wave reception section receives the ultrasonic wave from the surroundings while the ultrasonic wave transmission section does not transmit the ultrasonic wave toward the surroundings, wherein, the noise monitoring section recognizes a second voltage level as the noise level, the second voltage level being associated with the ultrasonic wave received in the noise monitoring operation; and a determination threshold setting section configured to set the determination threshold based on the second voltage level wherein the determination threshold setting section sets the determination threshold to a value that is larger than the second voltage level by a predetermined voltage.