Patent ID: 8340896

Claim:
A road shape recognition device comprising: distance and height detecting means configured to detect distance data having at least information of distance and height in real space regarding a road surface where a vehicle is traveling at a plurality of mutually different points; approximation line calculating means configured to divide said plurality of distance data into a near group and a far group as viewed from said vehicle based on said distance in real space to calculate approximation lines for approximating said distance data for said groups respectively each time said distance data of a boundary portion between said two groups is transferred from one of said groups to the other of said groups; statistics calculating means configured to calculate statistics based on said approximation lines for each said group where said distance data is transferred; and road shape model generating means configured to select one out of combinations of said approximation lines for said two groups to generate a road shape model using the selected combination of said approximation lines as at least a shape on a distance-height plane, based on said calculated statistics of said two groups.