JP2008268088A - Support device for adjusting mounting angle of on-vehicle radar - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a support device for adjusting the mounting angle of an on-vehicle radar, capable of shortening the distance from a vehicle to be inspected, and of improving inspection efficiency. <P>SOLUTION: The support device for adjusting the mounting angle of the on-vehicle radar that adjusts the mounting angle of the radar 30 on the vehicle is provided with a reflecting mirror 16 for reflecting a laser beam of the radar 30 which is incident from a first direction to a second direction, and reflecting the laser beam incident from the second direction to the first direction; and a corner reflector 14 for reflecting the laser beam reflected to the second direction by the reflecting mirror 16 to the reflecting mirror 16. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an attachment angle adjustment support device that adjusts the attachment angle of a vehicular radar device mounted on a vehicle such as an automobile.

  A vehicle-mounted radar device emits laser light forward from the front of a vehicle, receives laser light from a detected object, and detects the presence or absence of the detected object and the distance to the detected object have. The vehicle radar device must be attached to the vehicle so that the axis line from which the laser light is emitted is substantially parallel to a vertical plane including the axis line in the straight traveling direction of the vehicle. If the mounting position of the vehicular radar device is shifted and the laser beam projected from the vehicular radar device is shifted in the vertical direction, the vehicle traveling ahead cannot be detected accurately, which is very dangerous. is there.

  As a general method for adjusting the mounting angle of the vehicular radar device, a reflecting member that reflects the beam emitted from the vehicular laser device is arranged in front of the vehicle, and the reflected beam is detected by the vehicular radar device. A technique for adjusting the mounting angle of the vehicle radar device to the front portion of the vehicle is known (see, for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2).

JP 2001-174540 A JP 2004-69658 A

  However, as shown in FIG. 1, the distance between the vehicle and the reflecting member requires a predetermined detection distance in order to confirm the performance of the vehicle radar device. For this reason, the number of vehicles that can be mounted on the production line is limited, and there is a problem that the inspection efficiency is not good.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a support device for adjusting the mounting angle of a radar device for a vehicle, in which the distance from the vehicle to be inspected is shortened and the inspection efficiency is improved. To do.

In order to achieve such an object, a support device for adjusting the mounting angle of a vehicular radar device is a support device for adjusting the mounting angle of a vehicular radar device that adjusts the mounting angle of the radar device to the vehicle, and has a first direction A first reflecting member that reflects the laser light incident on the radar apparatus in a second direction and reflects the laser light incident from the second direction in the first direction; and the first reflecting member And a second reflecting member that reflects the laser beam reflected in the second direction to the first reflecting member.
As described above, according to the present invention, the radar light of the radar device is reflected in the second direction by the first reflecting member, and is reflected by the second reflecting member to the first reflecting member, and the radar device is reflected by the first reflecting member. It was set as the structure which returns. For this reason, compared with the case where a laser beam is directly reflected on a radar apparatus, the distance of a 1st reflective member and a radar apparatus can be shortened. Therefore, the distance from the vehicle to be inspected can be shortened and the inspection efficiency can be improved.

In the above-described support device for adjusting the mounting angle of the radar device for a vehicle, the arrangement of the photographing means for photographing the vehicle on which the radar device is mounted, and the first reflecting member and the second reflecting member supported by the arm are moved. The vehicle type of the vehicle is specified using an image captured by the driving unit and the imaging unit, and the driving unit is controlled so that the arrangement positions of the first reflecting member and the second reflecting member are set to the vehicle type. And a control means for moving to a corresponding position.
Therefore, the first reflecting member and the second reflecting member can be arranged at an optimal position according to the vehicle type.

In the support device for adjusting the mounting angle of the vehicular radar apparatus having the above configuration, the sum of the distance between the first reflecting member and the second reflecting member and the distance between the first reflecting member and the radar apparatus is It is good to arrange | position with respect to a vehicle so that the predetermined detection distance of a radar apparatus may be satisfy | filled.
Therefore, the distance between the first reflecting member and the radar apparatus can be shortened while satisfying the minimum detection distance of the radar apparatus.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to improve the inspection efficiency by reducing the distance from the vehicle to be inspected.

  The best embodiment of the present embodiment will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  The mounting angle adjustment support device of the present embodiment is arranged as shown in FIG. 3 with respect to the vehicle. FIG. 2 shows the configuration of the support device 1 for adjusting the mounting angle. In the attachment angle adjustment support device 1, three arms (hereinafter, referred to as a first arm 11, a second arm 12, and a third arm 13) are supported by a support member 10. A corner reflector (corresponding to the second reflecting member of the present invention) 14 is attached to the first arm 11, a camera 15 is attached to the second arm 12, and a reflecting mirror ( 16 (corresponding to the first reflecting member of the present invention) is attached.

  The corner reflector 14 attached to the first arm 11 is a reflector that reflects the laser light projected from the radar device 30 attached to the vehicle. The corner reflector 14 reflects the incident laser light as it is in the incident direction.

  The camera 15 attached to the second arm 12 is used for determining the vehicle type. A plurality of types of vehicles are mounted on the vehicle production line, and the mounting position of the radar device differs depending on the vehicle. For this reason, the vehicle type of the vehicle is specified by the camera 15, and the arm is adjusted so that the corner reflector 14 and the reflecting mirror 16 are in the optimum positions according to the vehicle type.

  The reflecting mirror 16 attached to the third arm 13 reflects the laser light emitted from the radar device 30 toward the corner reflector 14. Further, the laser beam reflected and returned by the corner reflector 14 is reflected toward the radar device 30 mounted on the vehicle. In the present embodiment, the laser light projected by the radar device 30 attached to the vehicle mounted horizontally on the production line having no inclination of the angle is reflected in the vertical direction with respect to the production line, and the corner reflector 14 is also reflected. In order to reflect the laser beam reflected and returned to the radar device 30 side, the reflecting mirror 16 is attached to the production line at an angle of 45 ° (see FIG. 4).

Motors 17 and 18 for moving the arms are attached to the first arm 11 and the third arm 13, respectively. In addition, a control unit 20 that performs drive control of the motors 17 and 18 is provided. The control unit 20 identifies the vehicle type of the vehicle to which the radar device 30 is attached from the image captured by the camera 15 from information such as the vehicle height and the vehicle width that are stored in the storage device in the control unit 20 in advance. When the vehicle type is specified, the motors 17 and 18 are driven to move the first arm 11 and the third arm 13, and the corner reflector 14 and the reflecting mirror 16 are arranged at a position optimal for the specified vehicle type.
Further, when the adjustment of the mounting angle of the radar device 30 is completed, the control unit 20 moves the first arm 11 and the third arm 13 to a position that does not hinder the movement of the vehicle on the production line.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 3, the corner reflector 14 may be attached to be rotatable in the vertical direction around the first arm 11. Similarly, the reflecting mirror 16 may be attached so as to rotate in the horizontal direction around the third arm 13 as shown in FIG. By attaching the corner reflector 14 and the reflecting mirror 16 in this manner, the corner reflector 14 and the reflecting mirror 16 can be moved to a position that does not become an obstacle when the vehicle moves. Further, as shown in FIG. 3, the corner reflector 14 and the reflecting mirror 16 may be manually arranged at optimum positions according to the vehicle without providing the motors 17 and 18.

The mounting angle adjustment support apparatus having the above-described configuration is disposed at a distance of 1 m from the radar apparatus 30 mounted on the vehicle. When the predetermined detection distance of the radar device 30 is 2 m, conventionally, as shown in FIG. 1, it has been necessary to separate the mounting angle adjustment support device from the vehicle rudder device by 2 m or more. In contrast, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, a distance of 1 m is provided between the reflecting mirror 16 and the corner reflector 14, and the projection light of the radar device 30 is directed toward the corner reflector 14 by the reflecting mirror 16. By adopting the configuration of reflecting, the radar device 30 of the vehicle can be arranged at a distance of 1 m from the reflecting mirror 16.
Therefore, the number of vehicles that can be put on the production line can be increased, and the inspection efficiency can be increased.

  FIG. 5 shows the configuration of the radar apparatus 30. The radar apparatus 30 includes an antenna 34, a transmission circuit 32, a reception circuit 35, a signal processing circuit 36, a display 37, and the like, which will be described later, housed in a casing 31.

  At the time of inspection, the antenna 34 receives the reflected wave of the transmission signal reflected from the reflecting mirror 16 via the corner reflector 14 as a received signal with respect to the reflecting mirror 16 as shown in FIG. The antenna 34 is connected to the transmission circuit 32 and the reception circuit 35 via the separator 33 as shown in FIG.

The transmission circuit 32 outputs a pulsed transmission signal through the antenna 34. The output of the transmission circuit 32 is also connected to the reception circuit 35.
When detecting an obstacle, the reception circuit 35 mixes the reception signal from the antenna 34 and the transmission signal from the transmission circuit 32, and outputs the mixed detection signal to the signal processing circuit 36. The receiving circuit 35 outputs the reflected wave (received signal) received from the antenna 34 to the signal processing circuit 36 as it is when the antenna 34 is adjusted.

  When detecting an obstacle, the signal processing circuit 36 detects a phase difference or time difference between the transmission signal and the reception signal, calculates the distance between the vehicle and the obstacle using the phase difference or the like, and displays the calculation result on the display 37. To display. Further, the signal processing circuit 36 detects the intensity of the received signal when adjusting the mounting position of the radar device 30 and displays the detected intensity of the received signal on the display 37.

The procedure for adjusting the mounting angle of the radar apparatus will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.
First, the vehicle is aligned so that the distance between the vehicle on the production line and the reflecting mirror 16 is 1 m (step S1). Next, the first arm 11 and the third arm 13 of the support device 1 for mounting angle adjustment are moved to the vehicle side (step S2).
Next, the camera 15 is used to photograph the vehicle and specify the vehicle type. The corner reflector 14 and the reflecting mirror 16 are arranged at a position optimal for the specified vehicle type (step S4).

  When the alignment is completed, a laser beam is projected from the radar device 30 mounted on the vehicle. The projected laser beam is reflected by the reflecting mirror 16 in the vertical direction. The laser light reflected in the vertical direction is returned to the direction of the reflecting mirror 16 by the corner reflector 14 and returned to the radar device 30 side by the reflecting mirror 16. The laser beam reflected and returned from the mounting angle adjustment support device 1 is received by the antenna 34 of the radar device 30 (step S6).

The reflected light received by the antenna 34 is processed by the signal processing circuit 36, and it is determined whether or not the reflected light has an angle of 0 ° of the maximum reception level in the horizontal and vertical directions at the antenna (step S7). If the maximum reception level at the reflected light antenna is not 0 ° (step S8 / NO), the screwing portion between the vehicle casing and the casing 31 of the radar apparatus 30 is moved to move the radar apparatus 30. Adjust the mounting position. Then, the radar light is again projected toward the support device 1 for adjusting the mounting angle. This process is repeated to adjust the maximum reception level of the reflected light at the antenna to an angle of 0 °.
When the maximum reception level at the reflected light antenna is adjusted to an angle of 0 ° (step S8 / YES), the first arm 11, the third arm 13, the reflecting mirror 16, and the corner reflector 14 are moved to their original positions. Move to a position that does not interfere with vehicle movement.

The embodiment described above is a preferred embodiment of the present invention. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.
For example, in the above-described embodiments, the case where the mounting position of the radar device provided at the front portion of the vehicle is adjusted has been described as an example. In addition to this, the support device for adjusting the mounting angle of the radar device for a vehicle according to the present invention can be applied to a radar device that detects an obstacle in front of the vehicle or a radar device that is attached to the rear of the vehicle. it can.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the radar light projected from the radar device 30 of the vehicle is reflected in the vertical direction by the reflecting mirror 16, but the direction in which the radar light is reflected is a predetermined detection distance of the radar device 30. Any direction may be used as long as it can be secured.
Further, the installation position of the corner reflector 14 may be any installation position as long as a predetermined detection distance of the radar apparatus 30 can be secured by reflecting the radar light of the reflecting mirror 16.

  In the above-described embodiment, the distance from the radar device 30 to the reflecting mirror 16 is set to 1 m, and the distance from the reflecting mirror 16 to the corner reflector 14 is set to 1 m. However, if the minimum detection distance 2 m of the radar device 30 can be secured, This distance can also be changed. For example, the distance from the radar device 30 to the reflecting mirror 16 may be set to 0.5 m, and the distance from the reflecting mirror 16 to the corner reflector 14 may be set to 1.5 m. Furthermore, the predetermined detection distance of the radar device 30 is not limited to 2 m shown in the present embodiment, and can be changed according to the performance of the radar device.

It is a figure which shows the assistance apparatus for the conventional attachment angle adjustment. It is a figure which shows the structure of the assistance apparatus for attachment angle adjustment. It is a figure which shows the structure of the assistance apparatus for attachment angle adjustment. It is a figure which shows the arrangement position of the assistance apparatus for attachment angle adjustment. It is a figure which shows the structure of a radar apparatus. It is a flowchart which shows the attachment angle adjustment procedure of a radar apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Supporting device for angle adjustment 10 Support member 11 1st arm 12 2nd arm 13 3rd arm 14 Corner reflector 15 Camera 16 Reflector 17, 18 Motor 20 Control apparatus 30 Radar apparatus

Claims (3)

A support device for adjusting the mounting angle of a radar device for a vehicle that adjusts the mounting angle of the radar device to the vehicle,
A first reflecting member that reflects the laser light incident from the first direction in the second direction and reflects the laser light incident from the second direction in the first direction;
A second reflecting member that reflects the laser light reflected in the second direction by the first reflecting member to the first reflecting member;
A support apparatus for adjusting the mounting angle of a vehicular radar apparatus, comprising: Photographing means for photographing a vehicle equipped with the radar device;
Driving means for moving the arrangement of the first reflecting member and the second reflecting member supported by an arm;
The vehicle model of the vehicle is specified using the image captured by the imaging unit, and the drive unit is controlled to change the arrangement position of the first reflection member and the second reflection member to a position corresponding to the vehicle type. Control means to move;
The support apparatus for adjusting the mounting angle of the vehicular radar apparatus according to claim 1, wherein   The sum of the distance between the first reflecting member and the second reflecting member and the distance between the first reflecting member and the radar device is arranged with respect to the vehicle so as to satisfy a predetermined detection distance of the radar device. The support device for adjusting the mounting angle of the radar device for a vehicle according to claim 1 or 2, wherein

Images