JP2007131169A - Parking space detection system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable a person to detect the width and depth of a parking space using a positioning sensor, and easily make judgment whether or not the vehicle of the person can park in the detected parking space. <P>SOLUTION: First of all, driving the vehicle, an object around the parking space is detected using the positioning sensor. Next, each detected detection point is divided into a front side (the own vehicle) side and a depth side of the parking space bordering along a reference line drawn apart from a first distance l<SB>th</SB>, and parallel to the vehicle side. Out of each detection point in the front side (the own vehicle) side of the parking space, the interval of the detection point more apart from a second distance is recognized as the width of the parking space. The interval between a detection point in the front (the own vehicle) side and a detection point of the parking space is recognized as the depth of the parking space. Compared with the detected parking space and stored dimension of the vehicle, it is judged whether or not the vehicle can park in the space. Thereafter, the judgment result is given. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an apparatus for detecting a parking space in order to assist parking.

  In general, a driving operation for parking a vehicle is one of the driving operations having a high degree of difficulty among various driving operations. For this reason, various devices for supporting parking have been proposed.

  For example, the device described in Patent Document 1 recognizes a parking space using a distance sensor that measures the distance of an object. And the movement locus | trajectory of a vehicle at the time of parking in the recognized parking space is calculated and displayed.

  However, for example, when a distance sensor such as an ultrasonic sensor is used, the directivity becomes wide, so that the object is detected before the object reaches the side of the distance sensor, and the object is detected even after passing through the object. It happens to be detected. Therefore, the recognized parking space has an error from the actual parking space.

  In order to solve this problem, the apparatus described in Patent Literature 2 measures in advance the relationship between the distance detected by the distance sensor and the error in the traveling direction at the detected distance, and stores it as a correction width table. . And in the measurement of the parking width in parking space detection, the correction width according to the detected distance is used as a correction value.

  Thus, in order to detect a parking space using the apparatus described in Patent Document 2, it is necessary to accurately measure the relationship between the distance detected by the distance sensor and the error in the traveling direction at the detected distance. is there.

  However, since the reflectance of the object is different due to the shape and material of the object, actually, the detectable range of the object is different if the shape and material of the object are different. That is, when the shape and material of the object are different, the relationship between the detection distance by the distance sensor and the error in the traveling direction at the detection distance is also different. Therefore, in the apparatus described in Patent Document 2, it is difficult to detect an accurate parking space because it is difficult to detect the exact position of objects around the vehicle if they are different.

In this regard, the apparatus described in Patent Document 3 first detects the front part of each parked vehicle using the positioning sensor that detects the distance and direction of the object. Then, the detection result is linearly approximated for each parked vehicle, and the width of the parking space is recognized using each approximate line. Therefore, if the apparatus described in Patent Document 3 is used, it is not necessary to consider the above-described problems related to the distance sensor.
JP 61-48098 A JP 2003-31414 A Japanese Patent No. 3473378

  However, with the apparatus described in Patent Document 3, the depth of the parking space cannot be detected. Therefore, depending on the size of the vehicle, it may happen that the detected parking space cannot be parked.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and a first object is to detect the width and depth of a parking space using a positioning sensor, and a second object is to detect the vehicle in the detected parking space. It is to provide a parking space detection device that can easily determine whether or not parking is possible.

  In order to achieve the first object, the parking space detection device according to claim 1 periodically transmits a transmission wave to the outside and receives a reflected wave with respect to the transmission wave by an array element including a plurality of elements. Based on the reflected wave, object detection means for calculating the distance and direction of the object, traveling state detection means for detecting the traveling state of the vehicle based on the moving direction and the moving amount of the vehicle, and the traveling state detection means detect Based on the traveling state of the vehicle, a storage means for converting the detection point detected by the object detection means during the traveling of the vehicle into a relative position with respect to the current position of the vehicle, and the storage means Among the detection points, a detection point that is within a range on the vehicle side from a reference line drawn in parallel to the vehicle side surface at a first predetermined distance from the vehicle side surface is selected, and among the selected detection points, Baseline A width recognition unit that recognizes a distance of a detection point that is separated by a second predetermined distance or more as a width of a parking space, and out of the range on the vehicle side from the reference line among the detection points stored by the storage unit Depth recognition means for recognizing the depth of the parking space by using a certain detection point and a detection point within the range of the vehicle side from the reference line.

  For example, the object detection means calculates the distance of the object based on the difference between the time when the transmitted wave is transmitted and the time when the reflected wave is received, and the direction of the object is the phase difference of the reflected wave received by each element of the array element, Calculate based on the time difference. In this way, by dividing the detection points of the object detected by the object detection means within the range on the vehicle side from the reference line, the width and depth of the parking space can be reduced using the width recognition means and the depth recognition means. Can be recognized.

  For example, the depth recognition means recognizes the depth of the parking space from the detection point at the end on the near side (vehicle) side of the parking space and the detection point at the end on the back side, The detection points on the vehicle side and the back side are approximated by straight lines, and the depth of the parking space can be recognized by the distance between the straight lines.

  As described in claim 2, it is preferable that the first predetermined distance is equal to or less than a lateral width of the host vehicle. This is because it is necessary for the host vehicle to travel in the vicinity of the parking space in order to correctly recognize the parking space based on the detection result by the object detection means.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, it is preferable to include a selection unit that allows the user to select whether parallel parking or parallel parking. This is because it is ultimately determined by the user whether to perform parallel parking or parallel parking.

As described in claim 4, it is preferable that the second predetermined distance, which serves as a reference for the width recognition means to recognize the width of the parking space, is different between parallel parking and parallel parking. Since the direction of the parked vehicle is different between the parallel parking and the parallel parking, the width of the required parking space (the frontage of the parking space) is also different. The parking space suitable for each parking mode can be detected by varying the second predetermined distance according to each parking mode (parallel parking, parallel parking).

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the second predetermined distance is preferably set to a distance equal to or greater than the vertical width of the host vehicle when the parallel parking is performed. This is because, in the case of parallel parking, the length of the parking space needs to be at least a length corresponding to the vertical width of the host vehicle.

  On the other hand, as described in claim 6, it is preferable that the second predetermined distance is set to a distance equal to or larger than the lateral width of the host vehicle when the parallel parking is performed. This is because in the case of parallel parking, the length of the parking space needs to be at least a length corresponding to the lateral width of the host vehicle.

  Moreover, in order to achieve the said 2nd objective, as described in Claim 7, 1st alerting | reporting means which alert | reports the information regarding the parking space recognized by the said width recognition means and the said depth recognition means is provided. Is preferred. This allows the user to know information about the detected parking space, which can be useful for subsequent parking operations.

  Specifically, as described in claim 8, the first notifying unit is at least one of a width of the parking space recognized by the width recognizing unit and a depth of the parking space recognized by the depth recognizing unit. May be notified. Accordingly, the user can grasp the detected size of the parking space as a numerical value. Some users know the approximate size of the vehicle, so it is possible to determine whether to park in the parking space based on the notified size of the parking space. .

  When notifying at least one of the width and the depth of the parking space, as described in claim 9, the first notifying unit has a screen, and the memory stores the screen on the basis of the current position of the host vehicle. It is preferable to display the detection points stored by the means, the width of the parking space recognized by the width recognition means, and the depth of the parking space recognized by the depth recognition means. Accordingly, the width and depth of the parking space can be clearly recognized through vision.

  According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, the first notifying unit recognizes the detection point that is a basis for the width recognizing unit to recognize the width of the parking space, and the depth recognizing unit recognizes the depth of the parking space. It is preferable to notify the detection points that have become the basis for this. Thereby, the user can grasp | ascertain whether the parking space was detected from the suitable detection point among the detected detection points.

As described in claim 11, comprising: an imaging unit that images the periphery of the vehicle; and a conversion unit that converts an image captured by the imaging unit into a bird's-eye view image,
The first notifying unit has a screen, displays the bird's-eye view image on the screen, overlaps the bird's-eye view image, and detects the detection points stored by the storage unit and the parking space recognized by the width recognition unit. The width and the depth of the parking space recognized by the depth recognition means may be displayed. In this way, since the width and depth of the parking space are displayed on the bird's-eye view image that more closely matches the actual situation, the size of the parking space can be easily grasped.

  As described in claim 12, the screen of the first notification means is a screen with a touch panel capable of instructing a desired parking space, and the first notification means includes the width recognition means and the screen. Of the parking spaces recognized by the depth recognition means, only the parking space designated by the touch panel is superimposed on the bird's-eye view image, and the detection points stored by the storage means, the parking recognized by the width recognition means. The width of the space and the depth of the parking space recognized by the depth recognition means may be displayed. This is because the display may become complicated if the width and depth of the parking space are displayed for a parking space that the user does not intend to park.

  Furthermore, in order to achieve the second object, as described in claim 13, vehicle shape storage means for storing at least the horizontal and vertical widths of the vehicle, the width recognition means, and the depth recognition means Comparing the recognized parking space with the horizontal and vertical widths of the vehicle stored in the vehicle shape storage means, and determining means for determining whether or not the vehicle can park in the parking space. May be. Even if a parking space is detected, parking may not be possible depending on the size of the host vehicle. Therefore, as in claim 13, by determining whether or not parking is possible, the user is given up on parking in the parking space, or when parking automatically, the parking in the parking space is stopped. You can do it.

  15. The length obtained by subtracting a predetermined margin with respect to at least one of the width of the parking space recognized by the width recognition unit and the depth of the parking space recognized by the depth recognition unit. It is preferable to determine whether or not the vehicle can park in the parking space based on the parking space. For example, even if there is an area where the vehicle can be parked in the parking space, if it is too close to the adjacent parked vehicle when parked, it is difficult to perform the parking operation to the parking space or the operation of taking the vehicle out of the parking space. It is to become. Moreover, even if it can park in such a parking space, it is because the door cannot be opened and the case where entrance / exit to a vehicle cannot be performed may also occur.

  Note that adding a predetermined margin with respect to at least one of the horizontal width and the vertical width of the host vehicle is substantially equivalent to subtracting the predetermined margin from at least one of the width and the depth of the parking space.

As described in claim 15, it is preferable that the predetermined margin is set to a different value between parallel parking and parallel parking.
This is because the operation for parking and the operation for taking the vehicle out of the parking space are different between parallel parking and parallel parking.

  The predetermined margin may be set based on at least one of the size of the vehicle and the minimum turning radius. Usually, it is considered that the smaller the vehicle or the smaller the minimum turning radius of the vehicle, the easier the parking operation and the operation of taking the vehicle out of the parking space. In addition, the smaller the vehicle, the easier it is to enter and exit the parked vehicle. Therefore, the smaller the size of the vehicle and / or the smaller the minimum turning radius, the more the margins can be operated.

  According to a seventeenth aspect of the present invention, a setting unit that allows the user to set the predetermined margin may be provided. Even the same vehicle and the same parking space may or may not be able to park in the parking space depending on the driving skill of the user. Therefore, if the user can set the margin, it is possible to determine whether or not parking is possible in consideration of the user's driving skill and the like.

  The predetermined margin may be set in consideration of a door opening / closing amount of the vehicle. Even if the parking space can be parked, the door may not be opened sufficiently because the distance to the adjacent parked vehicle is short, and the vehicle may not be able to enter and exit. As described above, such a problem can be prevented by setting the margin in consideration of the opening / closing amount of the door.

  According to a nineteenth aspect of the present invention, it is preferable that the first notification unit notifies a determination result of the determination unit. Accordingly, the user can determine whether or not to park in the detected parking space.

  According to a twentieth aspect of the present invention, the first notifying unit includes the width recognizing unit and the depth recognizing unit based on at least one of a horizontal width and a vertical width of the vehicle stored by the vehicle shape storing unit. It is preferable to report information relating to an interval between adjacent objects when the vehicle is parked in the recognized parking space. Depending on the distance from an adjacent object such as a parked vehicle, the operation for parking, the operation for removing the vehicle from the parking space, or the ease of entering and exiting the vehicle when parked differ. Therefore, as described above, the user can easily determine whether or not to park in the parking space by notifying the information on the distance between the adjacent objects.

  According to a twenty-first aspect of the present invention, the first notifying unit may notify an interval itself with an adjacent object when the vehicle is parked. By notifying in numerical values in this way, the user can more easily determine whether or not to park in the parking space.

According to a twenty-second aspect of the present invention, the first notifying unit notifies that the parking space is narrow when an interval between adjacent objects when the vehicle is parked is equal to or less than a reference value. Also good.
In this way, it may be determined whether or not the distance between the adjacent objects is equal to or less than the reference value. If the distance is equal to or less than the reference value, it may be notified that the parking space is narrow. Thereby, it is possible to notify the user only when the interval between the adjacent objects is narrow, and complexity can be eliminated.

  According to a twenty-third aspect of the present invention, the first notification means has a screen, and the parking space recognized by the detection point stored by the storage means on the screen, the width recognition means, and the depth recognition means. An image when the vehicle is parked may be displayed. If it does in this way, a user can grasp at a glance whether it can park in the detected parking space, or the situation at the time of parking. Further, the user can sensuously understand how far away from an adjacent object (for example, a parked vehicle).

  As described in claim 24, the screen of the first notification means is a screen with a touch panel capable of instructing a desired parking space, and the first notification means includes the width recognition means and the screen. You may make it display the image when the said vehicle parks only with respect to the parking space instruct | indicated with the said touch panel among the parking spaces recognized with the said depth recognition means. This is because, depending on the user, displaying the parking state of a parking space that is not intended to be parked may cause annoyance.

According to a twenty-fifth aspect of the present invention, the imaging device includes an imaging unit that images the periphery of the vehicle, and a conversion unit that converts an image captured by the imaging unit into a bird's-eye view image,
The first notification means has a screen, displays the bird's-eye view image on the screen, and overlaps the bird's-eye view image so that the vehicle is in a parking space recognized by the width recognition means and the depth recognition means. You may make it display the image when parked. In this way, by displaying the image when the host vehicle is parked in the detected parking space superimposed on the bird's-eye view image according to the situation around the actual vehicle, the user can easily grasp the situation when the vehicle is parked. be able to. Further, the user can sensuously grasp how far away from an adjacent object (for example, a parked vehicle).

  As described in claim 26, the screen of the first notification means is a screen with a touch panel capable of instructing a desired parking space, and the first notification means includes the width recognition means and the screen. Of the parking spaces recognized by the depth recognition means, only the parking space designated by the touch panel may be displayed by superimposing the image when the vehicle is parked on the bird's-eye view image. This is for the same purpose as in the twenty-fourth aspect.

According to a twenty-seventh aspect of the present invention, the imaging device includes an imaging unit that images the periphery of the vehicle, and a conversion unit that converts an image captured by the imaging unit into a bird's-eye view image,
The first notifying unit has a screen, displays the bird's-eye view image on the screen, overlaps the bird's-eye view image, and stores the detection points stored by the storage unit, the width recognition unit, and the depth recognition unit. An image when the vehicle is parked may be displayed in the parking space recognized in the above. In this way, when the detected detection points are also superimposed and displayed on the bird's-eye view image according to the actual situation around the vehicle, the user can grasp whether or not the object around the vehicle can be accurately detected, In addition, it is possible to grasp which actual object the detected detection point corresponds to.

  According to a twenty-eighth aspect, the first notification unit has a screen with a touch panel, displays an image indicating the detection point and the vehicle stored in the storage unit on the screen, and indicates with the touch panel. You may make it move the image which shows the vehicle currently displayed on the said screen to the made position. For example, by instructing the position of the parking space detected by the user, the image showing the host vehicle moves to that position, so the user can determine whether or not the parking space can be parked.

  According to a twenty-ninth aspect of the present invention, the first notification unit may notify that the parking space cannot be detected when the parking space cannot be detected by the width recognition unit and the depth recognition unit. . Thereby, in order to detect a parking space, a user can recognize that it is necessary to run the neighborhood of a parking space again.

  According to a thirty-third aspect, the depth recognizing unit substitutes a specified value when there is no detection point stored outside the range on the vehicle side from the reference line among the detection points stored by the storage unit. You may make it recognize the depth of the said parking space. Thereby, for example, even when there is no detection point in the depth direction of the parking space, there is no object in the object detection range, and the recognized parking space width and the area without the object can be detected as the parking space.

  When the depth of the parking space is recognized instead of the specified value, as described in claim 31, the first notifying unit uses the specified value to determine the depth of the parking space. It is preferable to notify that it has been recognized. Thereby, the user can grasp that the detected depth of the parking space is a predicted value.

According to a thirty-second aspect of the present invention, the vehicle includes speed detection means for detecting the speed of the vehicle,
It is preferable that the width recognition unit and the depth recognition unit stop the recognition of the width and depth of the parking space when the speed of the vehicle is larger than a reference value. The temporal detection interval of the object is technically limited. Therefore, the number of detection points that can be detected decreases as the speed of the vehicle increases. Even if it is attempted to detect a parking space from such a small number of detection points, it cannot be said to be accurate. Therefore, when the vehicle speed is larger than the reference value, it is preferable to stop the recognition of the width and depth of the parking space as described above.

  According to a thirty-third aspect, when the width recognition unit and the depth recognition unit stop recognizing the width and depth of the parking space, the first notification unit is parked because the speed of the vehicle is high. It is preferable to notify that the space cannot be recognized. Thereby, the user can recognize that the cause that the parking space cannot be detected is the speed of the vehicle, and can reduce the speed of the vehicle to detect the parking space.

  As described in claim 34, when the object detection means cannot detect an object around the parking space because the vehicle is separated from the parking space by the first predetermined distance or more, the first Preferably, the notification means notifies that the parking space cannot be recognized because the vehicle is too far away from the parking space. Accordingly, the user can detect the parking space by bringing the vehicle close to the parking space or the parked vehicle.

  According to a thirty-fifth aspect of the present invention, the array element is preferably composed of two elements arranged in a horizontal direction with respect to the ground surface. This is because the object is normally located on the ground surface, and it is desirable to detect the position of the object on the horizontal plane by arranging the array elements in the horizontal direction with respect to the ground surface.

  According to a thirty-sixth aspect of the present invention, the array elements may be arranged such that the front surface is perpendicular to the vehicle side surface. Also by this, since the object on the side surface of the vehicle can be detected, the parking space can be detected by detecting the object by running the vehicle parallel to the parking space.

  According to a thirty-seventh aspect of the present invention, it is preferable that the array elements are disposed on both left and right sides of the vehicle. Thereby, parking spaces on both sides of the vehicle can be detected.

  According to a thirty-eighth aspect, the array elements may be disposed at four corners of the vehicle. As a result, the parking spaces on both sides of the vehicle can be detected, and the array elements are arranged at the front and rear of the vehicle, so the detection accuracy of the parking space can be improved and the parking space can be detected with a small travel distance. can do.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of a parking space detection device according to the present invention will be described. The parking space detection device 100 according to the present embodiment detects a parking space while running the vehicle, and notifies whether or not the detected parking space can be parked. Hereinafter, it demonstrates in detail based on drawing.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of the parking space detection device 100 of the present embodiment. As shown in the figure, the parking space detection device 100 includes a transmission control unit 20, a reception control unit 30, elements 40A and 40B, a parking mode selection switch 50, a travel state acquisition unit 60, a vehicle information storage unit 70, and a notification unit 80. And the ECU 10.

  The ECU 10 is a normal computer and includes a ROM, a RAM, a CPU, an I / O (not shown), and a bus connecting them. When detecting the parking space, the ECU 10 instructs the transmission control unit 20 to transmit a transmission wave to the outside of the vehicle at a predetermined timing. Further, the ECU 10 instructs the reception control unit 30 to transmit the position information of the detection point with respect to an object such as a parked vehicle to itself. Then, the ECU 10 recognizes the width and depth of the parking space based on the detection points detected while traveling, and determines whether or not parking can be performed in the recognized parking space. The determination result is notified using a notification unit 80 described later. Detailed processing at this time will be described later using a flowchart.

  The transmission control unit 20 is a part that generates a predetermined transmission signal based on a transmission instruction from the ECU 10 and outputs the transmission signal to each of the elements 40A and 40B. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 2, the transmission phase determination unit 21 and the transmission waveform generation units 22A and 22B are configured.

  The transmission phase determination unit 21 determines the phase of the transmission signal input to each of the elements 40A and 40B, and instructs the transmission waveform generation units 22A and 22B. In this embodiment, each phase is determined so that the transmission signals input to the elements 40A and 40B are in phase.

  Based on an instruction from the transmission phase determination unit 21, the transmission waveform generation units 22A and 22B generate a sine wave with a predetermined phase and a predetermined frequency, and use a pulse-modulated signal as a transmission signal for each element 40A and 40B. input.

  The elements 40A and 40B are array elements arranged in an array, and are arranged on the vehicle side surface so as to be horizontal with respect to the ground surface and perpendicular to the vehicle side surface. . The elements 40A and 40B transmit a transmission wave corresponding to the transmission signal transmitted from the transmission waveform generation units 22A and 22B to the outside. Further, the elements 40 </ b> A and 40 </ b> B receive a signal (reflected wave) coming from the outside, and transmit this received signal to the reception control unit 30. Specific examples of the elements 40A and 40B include an ultrasonic microphone that generates ultrasonic waves and an antenna that generates radio waves.

Thus, since the elements 40A and 40B are array elements, the combined transmission wave of the transmission waves transmitted from the elements 40A and 40B has directivity. Specifically, the directivity E (θ, φ) of the combined transmission wave is expressed by the following equation. In the following equation, θ and φ are angles between a straight line connecting the arbitrary point and the origin at the arbitrary point when the origin and the reference axis are provided in the space as shown in FIG. 3 and the reference axis. E ₀ (θ, φ) is the directivity of each element, λ is the wavelength of the transmission wave, and d is the distance between the elements 40A and 40B. Further, the following expression shows the directivity when the angle φ = 0, that is, the two-dimensional plane of the angle φ = 0 and the phases of the transmission waves transmitted from the elements 40A and 40B are in phase. .

(Equation 1)
E (θ, φ) = E ₀ (θ, φ) × [1 + exp {j ((2π / λ) × d × sin θ)}]
Here, for example, when the element interval d is λ / 2, the above equation 1 is transformed as the following equation.

(Equation 2)
E (θ, φ) = E ₀ (θ, φ) × [1 + exp {j (π × sin θ)}]
Using this equation 2, the directivity E (θ, φ) is strongest in the direction of the central axis between the elements 40A and 40B, as shown in FIG. Thus, by narrowing the directivity E (θ, φ) in the front direction of the elements 40A and 40B, the detection range of the object in that direction can be increased.

  The reception control unit 30 is a part that receives the reflected waves received by the elements 40A and 40B and calculates the position of the object based on the reflected waves. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 5, it includes quadrature demodulation units 31 </ b> A and 31 </ b> B, a phase difference calculation unit 32, an azimuth calculation unit 33, a distance calculation unit 34, and a position conversion unit 35.

  The quadrature demodulation units 31A and 31B are parts that perform quadrature demodulation on the signals transmitted from the elements 40A and 40B. Specifically, the signals sent from the elements 40A and 40B are multiplied by a sine wave and a cosine wave of each predetermined frequency, a high-frequency component is removed by a low-pass filter, and an in-phase component (I) and a quadrature component (Q ). This operation may be performed after AD conversion, or may be AD converted after quadrature demodulation and converted to a digital value. Thereby, the received reflected wave can be divided into an amplitude component and a phase component. The signal after the orthogonal demodulation is sent to the phase difference calculation unit 32 and the distance calculation unit 34.

  The phase difference calculation unit 32 is a part that calculates the phase difference Δφ in each element of the reflected wave received by each element 40A, 40B. Specifically, as shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B, the phase difference Δφ is obtained by subtracting the phase of each element at the timing when both amplitude components of the reflected waves exceed a predetermined threshold. calculate. The phase difference Δφ calculated here is sent to the bearing calculation unit 33.

  The direction calculation unit 33 is a part that calculates the arrival direction θ of the reflected wave, that is, the direction of the object, from the phase difference Δφ in each element of the reflected wave sent from the phase difference calculation unit 32. Specifically, the arrival direction θ of the reflected wave is calculated by substituting the phase difference Δφ into the following equation.

(Equation 3)
θ = sin ⁻¹ (Δφ × λ / (2π × d))
The distance calculation unit 34 is a part that calculates the distance to the object. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 7, when the amplitudes of the reflected waves received by the elements 40A and 40B both exceed a predetermined threshold value, each time when the elements 40A and 40B first exceed the threshold value. Is calculated based on the difference between the intermediate time and the time when the transmission wave is transmitted to the outside. As described above, the reason why each element 40A, 40B first uses an intermediate time between each time when the threshold value is exceeded is to calculate the distance from the midpoint between the elements 40A, 40B to the object.

  The position conversion unit 35 is a part that converts the object distance information calculated by the distance calculation unit 34 and the object direction information calculated by the direction calculation unit 33 into coordinate information indicating a position. In this embodiment, since the two elements 40A and 40B are used, they are converted into two-dimensional coordinates on the plane to which each element belongs. The position conversion unit 36 transmits the position information to the ECU 10 based on the position information request instruction from the ECU 10.

  Returning to the description of FIG. 1 again, the parking mode selection switch is a switch for the user to select parallel parking or parallel parking. By this switch operation, the ECU 10 detects a parking space for each parking mode, and determines whether or not the parking space can be parked.

  The traveling state acquisition unit 60 is a part that acquires a traveling state indicating a vehicle speed and a moving direction at each time of the vehicle from a vehicle speed sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, a gyroscope, a steering angle sensor, and the like. Based on the traveling state of the vehicle acquired by the traveling state acquisition unit 60, the ECU 10 converts a detection point, which is coordinate information indicating the position of the detected object, into a relative position with respect to the current position.

  The vehicle information storage unit 70 stores the width and length of the host vehicle. Based on the vehicle width and length stored in the vehicle information storage unit 70, the ECU 10 determines whether or not the detected parking space can be parked.

  The notification unit 80 is a part that notifies whether the ECU 10 can park in the detected parking space, and includes a display device such as a liquid crystal display and a speaker that outputs sound.

  Next, processing performed when the ECU 10 detects a parking space and notifies whether or not the detected parking space can be parked will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  First, in step S10, a parking mode of parallel parking or parallel parking is selected. This is performed by operating the parking mode selection switch 50 by the user.

  Next, in step S20, as shown in FIG. 9, an object around the parking space is detected while moving the vehicle. At this time, the position information of the detection point sent from the reception control unit 30 is stored in the RAM in association with the time. In step S30, based on the traveling state of the vehicle acquired by the traveling state acquisition unit 60 in accordance with the movement of the vehicle, the detection point that is each position information stored in the RAM is set as a relative position based on the current position. Convert and update.

Next, in step S40, as shown in FIG. 10, a reference line that is substantially parallel to the vehicle side surface, drawn from the vehicle side surface to the first predetermined distance l _th is defined, and each detection stored in the RAM is performed. The points are divided into the front (own vehicle) side and the back side of the parking space with the reference line as a boundary. The first predetermined distance l _th is set to a length equal to or less than the lateral width of the host vehicle. This is because the host vehicle needs to travel in the vicinity of the parking space in order to correctly recognize the parking space based on the transmission / reception results of the elements 40A and 40B. In addition, when the vehicle is parked, it is considered that it is rare for the user to travel more than the width of the host vehicle with respect to the parking space.

  Next, in step S50, as shown in FIG. 11, the width of the parking space is calculated based on the detection points belonging to the front side of the parking space (own vehicle) among the detection points divided by the reference line. To do. Specifically, the distance between the detection points belonging to the front (own vehicle) side of the parking space is calculated. And let the distance between the detection points which are separated more than 2nd predetermined distance be the width (frontage) of a parking space. The second predetermined distance is set to a different value between the parking space for parallel parking and the parking space for parallel parking. Usually, since the parking space for parallel parking is wider than the parking space for parallel parking, the second predetermined distance is set to a larger value for parallel parking than for parallel parking. . For example, when parallel parking, the second predetermined distance set to a distance equal to or greater than the vertical width of the own vehicle is used as a reference, and when parallel parking, the horizontal width of the own vehicle is used as a reference to exceed the width of the own vehicle. A second predetermined distance set as the distance is used. In this way, parking spaces that can be candidates for parking spaces are extracted.

  Next, in step S60, the depth of the parking space is calculated from each detection point divided by the reference line as shown in FIG. 12 for the parking space where the distance between the detection points is a second predetermined distance or more. To do. Specifically, first, each detection point divided by the reference line is linearly approximated (line A and line B in FIG. 12). Then, an interval between the straight lines A and B is calculated, and the interval is set as the depth of the parking space. Moreover, it is good also considering the space | interval of the detection points in an edge among each detection point in the front (own vehicle) side and back side of a parking space divided by the said reference line as the depth of a parking space. In addition, among the detection points on the near side (own vehicle) side and the back side of the parking space, the distance in the direction perpendicular to the side direction of the own vehicle among the detection points on the far side (divided by the reference line) May be calculated as the depth of the parking space.

  Next, in step S70, it is determined whether or not the host vehicle can be parked in the parking space composed of the width and depth of the parking space calculated in steps S50 and S60. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 13, first, a certain margin is subtracted from the parking space, which is composed of the width and depth of the parking space calculated in steps S50 and S60. The space after subtracting this margin is defined as a parking space. In this way, the margin is subtracted, for example, when parking in a parking space is too close to an adjacent parked vehicle, it is difficult to park in that parking space or to take the vehicle out of that parking space. It is because it becomes. Moreover, even if it can park in such a parking space, it is because the door cannot be opened and the case where access to a vehicle cannot be performed may also occur. When calculating the parking space, a certain margin may be further subtracted in the depth direction of the parking space.

  Thereafter, the size of the vehicle (the width and width of the vehicle) is read from the vehicle information storage unit 70, and the size of the vehicle and the parking space are compared to determine whether or not parking is possible in the parking space. .

  Next, in step S80, the determination result in step S70 is notified using the notification unit 80. For example, when it is determined that parking is possible, as shown in FIG. 14, an image indicating each detected point, the detected parking space, and a state where the vehicle is parked in the parking space is displayed. Moreover, you may alert | report that it can park. On the other hand, when it is determined that parking is impossible, for example, when the vehicle is parked in the detected parking space, an image indicating a state where the vehicle protrudes from the parking space is displayed. Similarly, it may be notified by voice that parking is impossible. Thus, the user can know whether or not the parking space can be parked before entering the parking operation.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the vehicle is located on the front (vehicle) side of the parking space with a reference line drawn substantially parallel to the vehicle side face drawn from the vehicle side face to the first predetermined distance l _th. The detection point and the detection point on the back side are separated. Thereby, the width and depth of the parking space can be calculated and the parking space can be detected. Further, by storing the size of the vehicle (the width and width of the vehicle), it can be determined whether or not the detected parking space can be parked, and the result is notified. Thereby, the user can easily determine whether or not the parking space can be parked.

  In addition, this invention is not limited to this embodiment, Based on the meaning of this invention, it can implement with a various form. Hereinafter, possible modifications will be described.

(Modification 1)
Any method may be used as long as the position of the object can be detected, not limited to the method described in the above embodiment. For example, in the above embodiment, the element that transmits the transmission wave to the outside and the element that receives the reflected wave are shared, but they may be separated.

  Moreover, in the said embodiment, although the phase of the transmission wave transmitted from each element 40A, 40B was made into the same phase, you may transmit a transmission wave from each element by what kind of phase. Further, a transmission wave may be transmitted from either one of the elements. That is, it is not necessary to use an array element as a transmission wave element.

  In the above embodiment, the azimuth of the object is calculated from the phase difference between the reflected waves at the elements 40A and 40B. However, the azimuth of the object may be calculated from the time difference between the reflected waves at the elements 40A and 40B. Depending on the direction of arrival of the reflected wave, there is a difference in the path from the object to each element 40A, 40B. That is, a difference occurs in the time of the reflected wave received by each element 40A, 40B according to the arrival direction of the reflected wave. Therefore, by detecting this time difference, the arrival direction of the reflected wave, that is, the azimuth of the object can be calculated.

  In the above embodiment, when calculating the distance of the object, an intermediate time between the timings when the amplitudes of the reflected waves received by the respective elements exceed the threshold is used (see FIG. 7). However, for example, the distance of the object may be calculated using the time when the amplitude of the reflected wave received by one of the elements exceeds. In this case, the distance to the object with the one element as a reference is calculated.

(Modification 2)
In the above-described embodiment, when notifying whether or not parking is possible in the detected parking space, each detected detection point, the detected parking space, and an image indicating the state of parking in the parking space are displayed. (See FIG. 14). In order to make it easier to grasp whether or not the detected parking space can be parked, as shown in FIG. 15A, the vehicle is parked in the parking space so as to overlap the bird's-eye view around the actual parking space. An image indicating the state may be displayed. In this case, it is necessary to provide a function of connecting a camera that captures the vehicle periphery to the ECU 10 and converting an image captured by the camera into a bird's eye image. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 5B, detection points may be displayed in a bird's-eye view image. This makes it possible to grasp which part of the actual object corresponds to the detected point.

(Modification 3)
In the said embodiment and the modification 2, only the image which shows the state parked in the detected parking space was displayed (refer FIG. 14, 15). In order to easily determine whether or not to park in the parking space, information regarding the parking space such as the size of the parking space may be displayed. This allows the user to know information about the detected parking space, which can be useful for subsequent parking operations.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 16 (a), the size of the detected parking space (at least one of width and depth) on the bird's-eye view image or the image displaying the detection points, and when parking in the parking space, Displays the distance between adjacent objects such as parked vehicles. Accordingly, the width and depth of the parking space can be clearly recognized through vision. However, the size or the like of the parking space may be notified by voice or the like.

  In addition, depending on the distance from an adjacent object such as a parked vehicle, the operation for parking, the operation for taking the vehicle out of the parking space, or the ease of entering and exiting the vehicle when parked differ. Therefore, as described above, the user can easily determine whether or not to park in the parking space by notifying the information about the distance from the object such as the adjacent vehicle when the vehicle is parked in the parking space.

  As the information on the distance to the adjacent object, as described above, the distance to the adjacent object itself may be notified, or the distance to the adjacent object is compared with a predetermined reference value, and the predetermined reference value is determined. In the following cases, it may be notified that the parking space is narrow.

  In addition, as shown in FIG. 5B, the basis for recognizing the width and depth of the parking space so that it can be grasped which of the detected detection points is recognized based on the detection point. The detected point may be displayed. Thereby, the user can grasp | ascertain whether the parking space was detected based on the position of an appropriate object, for example, the edge of a parked vehicle among the detected detection points.

(Modification 4)
In the said embodiment, when there exist multiple detected parking spaces, it was not mentioned in particular about whether to alert | report whether it can park in all those parking spaces. However, some users may find it troublesome to make such notifications even for parking spaces that they do not intend to park. Furthermore, if the size of the parking space or the like is displayed for a parking space that is not intended to be parked, the display may be complicated.

  Therefore, the user may be allowed to specify a parking space for such notification. Specifically, a display device having a screen with a touch panel on the surface is employed as the notification unit 80. And when detecting a parking space, the surroundings of a vehicle are displayed as a bird's-eye view image, or each detection point is displayed on a screen. Only the parking space around the touched portion on the screen is notified whether parking is possible or the size of the parking space is displayed. This is particularly effective when there are a plurality of parking spaces around the vehicle.

(Modification 5)
In the above embodiment, in order to calculate the depth of the parking space, it is assumed that there is an object such as a curb on the back side of the parking space. However, there may be a case where there is no object behind the parking space, or there is an object at a distance farther than the object detection range. Therefore, when there is no detection point on the far side of the parking space with the reference line as a boundary, the depth of the parking space may be determined using a predetermined value determined in advance. As this specified value, a distance capable of detecting an object may be used. Thereby, it can alert | report that there is no object in a detectable range and it can be set as a parking space. In this case, as shown in FIG. 17, it is desirable to notify so that it can recognize that the object of the depth of the detected parking space is undetected. Thereby, the user can grasp that the detected depth of the parking space is a predicted value.

(Modification 6)
In the above embodiment, in order to detect a parking space, it is assumed that an object around the parking space is detected. However, as shown in FIG. 18, if the vehicle is too far away from the parking space or the parked vehicle, the detection point is not included in the range within the first predetermined distance l _th and the parking space cannot be detected. sell.

  Thus, when a parking space cannot be detected, it is preferable to notify that effect by voice or screen display. Thereby, in order to detect a parking space, a user can recognize that it is necessary to run the neighborhood of a parking space again.

For example,
If the parking space cannot be detected because the vehicle is too far from the parking space, a notification to that effect is given. Specifically, the notification is made by voice or by displaying a straight line indicating a reference line that is a first predetermined distance l _th away from the side surface of the host vehicle on the screen as shown in FIG. As a result, the user can bring the vehicle closer to the parking space and detect the parking space.

(Modification 7)
In the said embodiment, in order to detect a parking space, it is premised on detecting the shape of the object around a parking space finely. However, if the speed of the vehicle is high, the intervals between the detection points become coarse, and objects around the parking space cannot be detected in detail. This is because the object detection interval is limited in time. Even if a parking space is detected in this case, it may not be accurate. Therefore, when the vehicle speed is equal to or higher than the reference value, the detection of the parking space may be stopped. When the detection of the parking space is stopped, it is desirable to notify that the parking space cannot be detected because the vehicle speed is high. Thereby, the user can subsequently slow down the speed of the vehicle and detect the parking space.

(Modification 8)
In the above-described embodiment, a space obtained by subtracting a predetermined margin from the detected parking space is set as a parking available space, and whether or not parking is possible in the parking available space is determined. No particular mention was made of the margin value.

  For example, the margin value may be changed when a parallel parking parking space is detected and when a parallel parking parking space is detected. This is because the operation for parking and the operation for taking the vehicle out of the parking space are different between parallel parking and parallel parking. Specifically, when detecting a parking space for parallel parking, a larger margin is used than when detecting a parking space for parallel parking.

  In addition, it is considered that the smaller the vehicle or the smaller the minimum turning radius of the vehicle, the easier the parking operation and the operation of leaving the vehicle from the parking space. In addition, the smaller the vehicle, the easier it is to enter and exit the parked vehicle. That is, even if this margin is reduced, these operations can be performed. Therefore, this margin may be set based on the size of the vehicle and the minimum turning radius.

  Moreover, even if it is the same vehicle and the same parking space, depending on the driving skill of the user, the parking space may or may not be parked. Therefore, the margin may be set by the user.

  Even if parking is possible in the parking space, the vehicle may not be able to enter or exit because the distance to the adjacent parked vehicle is short. Therefore, this margin may be set based on the door opening / closing amount of the vehicle.

  Moreover, you may set the margin amount of the front-back, left-right direction of a vehicle to a different value for every parking mode.

(Modification 9)
In the above embodiment, the specific arrangement position and the number of array elements are not mentioned. Therefore, for example, as shown in FIG. 20A, array elements are arranged on both side surfaces of the vehicle. Thereby, parking spaces on both sides of the vehicle can be detected. In addition, as shown in FIG. 4B, array elements may be arranged at the four corners of the vehicle. As a result, the parking spaces on both sides of the vehicle can be detected, and the array elements are arranged at the front and rear of the vehicle, so the detection accuracy of the parking space can be improved and the parking space can be detected with a small travel distance. can do. Thus, when detecting a parking space using a plurality of array elements, it is necessary to store the arrangement positions of the array elements in order to handle the position information of the detection points detected by the array elements in a unified manner. is there.

(Modification 10)
In the said embodiment, the image which shows the state parked in the detected parking space was displayed (refer FIG. 14). However, as shown in FIG. 21, an image of the own vehicle is displayed on the screen at an arbitrary position on the same screen as the detection point, and the user drags the image of the own vehicle to move it to the parking space position formed by the detection point. May be. This also allows the user to determine whether or not the detected parking space can be parked.

It is a block diagram which shows the whole structure of the parking space detection apparatus 100 of this embodiment. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a transmission control unit 20. FIG. It is the figure which showed the relationship between a reference axis and the arbitrary positions of space, in order to demonstrate synthetic | combination directivity of a transmission wave. It is a figure which shows the directivity when these transmission waves are synthesize | combined when the phase of the transmission waves transmitted from each element 40A, 40B is made into the same phase. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a reception control unit 30. FIG. It is a figure for demonstrating the calculation method of phase difference (DELTA) (phi) of each element of the reflected wave which the phase difference calculation part 32 of the reception control part 30 performs. It is a figure for demonstrating the calculation method of the distance to the object which the distance calculation part 34 of the reception control part 30 performs. It is the flowchart which showed the process at the time of alert | reporting whether a parking space is detected and it can park in the detected parking space. It is the figure which showed the place which is detecting the shape of the object around a parking space, moving a vehicle. It is a figure for demonstrating dividing each detected point into the front (parking vehicle) side and back side of a parking space on the basis of the reference line parallel to the vehicle side surface drawn by the distance _lth from the vehicle side surface. is there. It is a figure for demonstrating the calculation method of the width of a parking space. It is a figure for demonstrating the calculation method of the depth of a parking space. It is a figure for demonstrating making the space which deducted the margin from the detected parking space into a parking possible space. It is a figure which shows the example of alerting | reporting when it determines with parking in the detected parking space. It is a figure which shows the example of alerting | reporting when it determines with parking in the detected parking space. It is a figure which shows the example of alerting | reporting when it determines with parking in the detected parking space. It is a figure which shows the example of alerting | reporting of the parking space when the depth of a parking space cannot be detected. It is a figure for demonstrating that a parking space cannot be detected because the vehicle is too far from the parking space. It is the figure which showed the example of alerting | reporting when a parking space cannot be detected because the vehicle is too far from the parking space. (A), (b) is the figure which showed the example of arrangement | positioning to the vehicle of an array element. It is a figure for demonstrating whether a user drags the image of the own vehicle to the detected parking space, and judges whether the user can park in the parking space himself.

Explanation of symbols

100 obstacle detection device 10 ECU
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 20 Transmission control part 30 Reception control part 40A, 40B Element 50 Parking mode selection switch 60 Running condition acquisition part 70 Vehicle information storage part 80 Notification part

Claims (38)

An object detection means for periodically transmitting a transmission wave to the outside, receiving a reflected wave with respect to the transmission wave by an array element including a plurality of elements, and calculating a distance and an orientation of the object based on the reflected wave;
A running state detecting means for detecting a running state of the vehicle comprising a moving direction and a moving amount of the vehicle;
Storage means for converting the detection point detected by the object detection means during the traveling of the vehicle into a relative position with respect to the current position of the vehicle based on the traveling state of the vehicle detected by the traveling state detection means; ,
Among the detection points stored by the storage means, a detection point that is within the range on the vehicle side from a reference line drawn in parallel to the vehicle side surface at a first predetermined distance from the vehicle side surface is selected and selected. Width recognition means for recognizing the distance of the detection point that is separated by a second predetermined distance or more along the reference line as the width of the parking space among the detection points;
Of the detection points stored by the storage means, detection points that are outside the range on the vehicle side from the reference line, and detection points that are within the range on the vehicle side from the reference line, and A parking space detection device comprising depth recognition means for recognizing a depth.   The parking space detection device according to claim 1, wherein the first predetermined distance is equal to or less than a lateral width of the host vehicle.   The parking space detection device according to claim 1, further comprising selection means for allowing a user to select whether parallel parking or parallel parking.   The said 2nd predetermined distance used as the reference | standard for the said width recognition means to recognize the width | variety of a parking space differs at the time of parallel parking and parallel parking. The described parking space detection device.   5. The parking space detection device according to claim 4, wherein the second predetermined distance is set to a distance equal to or greater than the vertical width of the host vehicle when the parallel parking is performed.   5. The parking space detection device according to claim 4, wherein the second predetermined distance is set to a distance equal to or greater than a lateral width of the host vehicle when the parallel parking is performed.   The parking space detecting device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, further comprising first notifying means for notifying information on the parking space recognized by the width recognizing means and the depth recognizing means.   The said 1st alerting | reporting means alert | reports at least one of the width of the parking space which the said width recognition means recognized, and the depth of the parking space which the said depth recognition means recognized. Parking space detection device.   The first notification means has a screen, and the detection point stored by the storage means on the screen, the width of the parking space recognized by the width recognition means, and the depth recognition based on the current position of the host vehicle. 8. The parking space detecting device according to claim 7, wherein the depth of the parking space recognized by the means is displayed.   The first notification means is a detection point that is a basis for the width recognition means to recognize the width of the parking space, and a detection point that is a basis for the depth recognition means to recognize the depth of the parking space. The parking space detection device according to claim 9, wherein: Imaging means for imaging the periphery of the vehicle;
Conversion means for converting an image captured by the imaging means into a bird's-eye view image,
The first notifying unit has a screen, displays the bird's-eye view image on the screen, overlaps the bird's-eye view image, and detects the detection points stored by the storage unit and the parking space recognized by the width recognition unit. 8. The parking space detection device according to claim 7, wherein the parking space depth recognized by the width and the depth recognition means is displayed.   The screen is a screen with a touch panel capable of instructing a desired parking space, and the first informing means includes the touch panel among the parking spaces recognized by the width recognizing means and the depth recognizing means. Only for the parking space indicated in (2), the detection point stored by the storage means, the width of the parking space recognized by the width recognition means, and the depth of the parking space recognized by the depth recognition means are superimposed on the bird's-eye view image. The parking space detection device according to claim 11, wherein: Vehicle shape storage means for storing at least the width and width of the vehicle;
The parking space recognized by the width recognition means and the depth recognition means is compared with the horizontal width and vertical width of the vehicle stored by the vehicle shape storage means, and it is determined whether or not the vehicle can park in the parking space. The parking space detection device according to claim 1, further comprising a determination unit that determines.   The determination means is based on a space having a length obtained by subtracting a predetermined margin for at least one of the width of the parking space recognized by the width recognition means and the depth of the parking space recognized by the depth recognition means. The parking space detection device according to claim 13, wherein it is determined whether or not the vehicle can be parked in the parking space.   The parking space detection device according to claim 14, wherein the predetermined margin is set to a different value between parallel parking and parallel parking.   The parking space detection device according to claim 14, wherein the predetermined margin is set based on at least one of a size of the vehicle and a minimum turning radius.   15. The parking space detection device according to claim 14, further comprising setting means for allowing the user to set the predetermined margin.   The parking space detection device according to claim 14, wherein the predetermined margin is set in consideration of a door opening / closing amount of the vehicle.   The parking space detection device according to any one of claims 13 to 18, wherein the first notification unit notifies a determination result of the determination unit.   The first notifying unit is configured to park the vehicle in a parking space recognized by the width recognizing unit and the depth recognizing unit based on at least one of a horizontal width and a vertical width of the vehicle stored by the vehicle shape storing unit. The parking space detection device according to any one of claims 13 to 19, wherein information on an interval between adjacent objects is notified.   21. The parking space detection device according to claim 20, wherein the first notification means notifies the interval itself with an adjacent object when the vehicle is parked.   The said 1st alerting | reporting means alert | reports that a parking space is narrow, when the space | interval with the adjacent object when the said vehicle parks is below a reference value, The parking space is narrow. Parking space detection device.   The first notification means has a screen, and an image when the vehicle is parked in a parking space recognized by the detection point stored by the storage means on the screen and the width recognition means and the depth recognition means. The parking space detection device according to claim 13, wherein the parking space detection device is displayed. The screen is a screen with a touch panel capable of instructing a desired parking space,
The first notifying unit displays an image when the vehicle is parked only in the parking space designated by the touch panel among the parking spaces recognized by the width recognizing unit and the depth recognizing unit. The parking space detection device according to claim 23, wherein: Imaging means for imaging the periphery of the vehicle;
Conversion means for converting an image captured by the imaging means into a bird's-eye view image,
The first notification means has a screen, displays the bird's-eye view image on the screen, and overlaps the bird's-eye view image so that the vehicle is in a parking space recognized by the width recognition means and the depth recognition means. The parking space detection device according to any one of claims 13 to 22, wherein an image when the vehicle is parked is displayed. The screen is a screen with a touch panel capable of instructing a desired parking space,
The first notifying unit displays an image when the vehicle is parked only in a parking space designated by the touch panel among parking spaces recognized by the width recognizing unit and the depth recognizing unit. The parking space detection device according to claim 25, wherein the parking space detection device displays the image so as to overlap the image. Imaging means for imaging the periphery of the vehicle;
Conversion means for converting an image captured by the imaging means into a bird's-eye view image,
The first notifying unit has a screen, displays the bird's-eye view image on the screen, overlaps the bird's-eye view image, and stores the detection points stored by the storage unit, the width recognition unit, and the depth recognition unit. The parking space detecting device according to any one of claims 13 to 22, wherein an image when the vehicle is parked is displayed in the parking space recognized in the above.   The first notifying unit has a screen with a touch panel, displays an image indicating the detection point and the vehicle stored by the storage unit on the screen, and is displayed on the screen at a position designated by the touch panel. The parking space detecting device according to any one of claims 13 to 22, wherein an image showing a moving vehicle is moved.   The said 1st alerting | reporting means alert | reports that a parking space cannot be detected, when a parking space cannot be detected by the said width | variety recognition means and the said depth recognition means. The described parking space detection device. The depth recognition means recognizes the depth of the parking space by substituting with a specified value when there is no detection point outside the range on the vehicle side from the reference line among the detection points stored by the storage means. The parking space detection device according to any one of claims 1 to 28.   The parking space detecting device according to claim 30, wherein the first notifying unit notifies that the depth recognizing unit has recognized the depth of the parking space using the specified value. Comprising speed detecting means for detecting the speed of the vehicle;
32. The width recognition unit and the depth recognition unit stop recognition of the width and depth of the parking space when the speed of the vehicle is larger than a reference value. The described parking space detection device.   When the width recognizing unit and the depth recognizing unit stop recognizing the width and depth of the parking space, the first notifying unit notifies that the speed of the vehicle is high and the parking space cannot be recognized. The parking space detection device according to claim 32, wherein:   When the object detection unit cannot detect an object around the parking space because the vehicle is separated from the parking space by the first predetermined distance or more, the first notification unit displays the parking of the vehicle. The parking space detection device according to any one of claims 1 to 33, which notifies that the parking space cannot be recognized because it is too far away from the space.   The said array element is comprised by the two elements arrange | positioned in the horizontal direction with respect to the ground surface, The parking space detection apparatus in any one of Claims 1-34 characterized by the above-mentioned.   The said array element is arrange | positioned so that a perpendicular direction may become a front with respect to the said vehicle side surface, The parking space detection apparatus in any one of Claims 1-35 characterized by the above-mentioned.   The parking space detection device according to any one of claims 1 to 36, wherein the array elements are arranged on both left and right sides of the vehicle.   The parking space detection device according to any one of claims 1 to 37, wherein the array elements are respectively arranged at four corners of the vehicle.

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