JP6416726B2 - Ultrasonic object detection device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an ultrasonic object detection device that detects an object near a vehicle.

  Conventionally, a technique for detecting a human body or an object existing around a sensor using a distance measuring sensor such as an ultrasonic sensor has been proposed. However, for example, as taken up as a problem of Patent Document 1, by installing a plurality of sensors in one toilet device, there is a possibility that the sensors interfere with each other and erroneous detection occurs.

  With regard to this, in Patent Document 1, for example, the transmission time of a transmission wave is variable, and a technique for determining that a reflected signal that cannot be matched with the reception time of a reflected wave is a reflected wave by a transmission wave from another sensor It is disclosed.

JP 2002-303678 A

  However, the ultrasonic sensor has a characteristic that the sensitivity of the ultrasonic sensor changes depending on the transmission time of the transmission wave, such as the sensitivity of the ultrasonic sensor becomes lower as the transmission time of the transmission wave is shorter. Therefore, when the technique described in Patent Literature 1 is implemented using an ultrasonic sensor, it is necessary to lengthen the transmission time in order to suppress a decrease in sensitivity of the ultrasonic sensor, and the selection range of the transmission time may be narrowed. .

  The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-described problems, and a main object thereof is an ultrasonic object detection apparatus capable of suppressing erroneous detection of an object without narrowing a selection range of transmission time. Is to provide.

  The present invention is an ultrasonic object detection device comprising a plurality of ultrasonic object detection units mounted on a vehicle, each of which transmits a transmission signal as pulsed ultrasonic waves from an object. A transmission / reception unit that receives a reflected signal as a reflected wave, a defining unit that defines a transmission interval of the transmission signal that is transmitted a plurality of times in one routine by the transmission / reception unit, and the transmission interval that is defined by the defining unit; Compared with the reception interval when the reflected signal is received, a removal unit that removes the reflected signal at the reception interval not corresponding to the transmission interval, and based on the reflected signal processed by the removal unit, A detection unit that detects an object in the vicinity of the vehicle, and each of the defining units includes the transmission interval when one of the adjacent units transmits the transmission signal, and then the other before Unit is characterized by comprising the control unit and the transmission interval to perform respectively the first provisions defining the transmission interval differently to the defining portion for sending the transmission signal.

  According to the above configuration, a plurality of ultrasonic object detection units are mounted on the vehicle. Each of the ultrasonic object detection units is provided with a defining unit. A transmission interval of a plurality of transmission signals transmitted in one routine by the transmission / reception unit is defined, and a reflected signal having a reception interval not corresponding to the defined transmission interval is It is removed by the removal unit. However, if the transmission interval is always defined as the same transmission interval, when a transmission signal is transmitted from the other device at the same transmission interval, there is a risk of interference with a transmission signal transmitted from the other device. Therefore, the ultrasonic wave is defined so that the transmission interval of the transmission signal when one of the adjacent ultrasonic object detection units transmits is different from the transmission interval of the transmission signal when the other transmits thereafter. The control unit included in the object detection device causes the specifying unit to execute the control unit. As a result, it is possible to suppress the possibility of interference with transmission signals transmitted from other devices. In addition, the object detection unit using ultrasonic waves has a characteristic that the sensitivity of object detection changes depending on the transmission time of the transmission signal. For this reason, if it is attempted to determine based on the transmission time whether the received reflected signal is based on a transmission signal from another device, there is a possibility that the selection range of the transmission time is narrowed. However, according to the above method, it is possible to suppress erroneous detection of an object without narrowing the selection range of transmission time.

It is a block diagram of the object detection apparatus which concerns on this embodiment. It is the graph which showed the waveform of the received voltage at the time of the object detection apparatus which concerns on a prior art implemented object detection. It is a flowchart of the waveform process performed by the object detection apparatus which concerns on this embodiment. It is a figure explaining the sequence. It is the graph shown about the waveform process which the object detection apparatus concerning this embodiment implements.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment in which an ultrasonic object detection device according to the present invention is applied to a vehicle will be described with reference to the drawings.

  As described in FIG. 1, the object detection apparatus includes a plurality of object detection units 10. The object detection unit 10 includes a pulse generation unit 11, a transmission circuit unit 12, a sonar 13, a reception circuit unit 14, a reflection signal processing unit 15, a reflection signal measurement unit 16, and an obstacle determination processing unit 17. The object detection apparatus includes a control unit 20 that controls the plurality of object detection units 10 in an integrated manner.

  The control unit 20 transmits a signal to the pulse generation unit (corresponding to the defining unit) 11 so as to define the transmission interval of the ultrasonic signal transmitted from the sonar (corresponding to the transmitting / receiving unit) 13. The pulse generation unit 11 receives the signal from the control unit 20 to define the transmission interval of the ultrasonic signal transmitted by the sonar 13 and then transmits the ultrasonic pulse from the sonar 13 to the transmission circuit unit 12. A signal is transmitted so as to transmit a shaped ultrasonic signal.

  The sonar 13 transmits an ultrasonic signal a plurality of times in accordance with the transmission interval defined by the pulse generator 11 in performing object detection once (corresponding to one routine). In the present embodiment, the ultrasonic signal is transmitted twice. When the object exists within a range in which the sonar 13 can transmit the ultrasonic signal, the transmitted ultrasonic signal is reflected by the object, and the sonar 13 receives the reflected signal. The received reflected signal is input to the reflected signal processing unit (corresponding to the removing unit) 15 via the receiving circuit unit 14. The reflection signal processing unit 15 receives the transmission interval defined by the pulse generation unit 11 from the control unit 20, and the reception interval of the two received reflection signals matches the transmission interval input from the control unit 20. It is determined whether or not. If the reception interval of the reflected signal does not coincide with the transmission interval, the waveform of the reflected signal is removed assuming that it is not an ultrasonic signal transmitted by the object detection unit 10.

  Based on the waveform of the reflected signal processed by the reflected signal processing unit 15, the reflected signal measuring unit 16, for example, the time from when the control unit 20 transmits a signal to the transmission circuit unit 12 until receiving the reflected signal. (Reception time) is measured. Then, the obstacle determination processing unit (corresponding to the detection unit) 17 determines whether an object exists within a predetermined range of the vehicle based on the reception time measured by the reflected signal measurement unit 16. The determination result by the obstacle determination processing unit 17 is transmitted to the control unit 20.

  Conventionally, as shown in FIG. 2A, in one routine, the sonar 13 transmits an ultrasonic signal only once, and whether or not an object exists within a predetermined range of the vehicle based on the received reflected signal. Was detected. At this time, in a situation where an object does not exist within a range in which an ultrasonic signal can be transmitted, even if the ultrasonic signal is transmitted, it is not reflected by the object, and thus the reflected signal is not received. In FIG. 2A, the ultrasonic signal transmitted by the object detection unit 10 is also displayed in the waveform of the reception voltage. This is because the voltage generated when the sonar 13 transmits the ultrasonic signal is transmitted to the receiving circuit unit 14.

  However, in an environment in which another object detection unit 10 exists near the object detection unit 10 as in the present embodiment, as illustrated in FIG. A sound wave signal may be received as a reflected signal. In this case, there is a possibility of erroneous determination that an object exists within a predetermined range of the object detection unit 10 that has received the reflection signal.

  With respect to this, conventionally, the transmission time of the ultrasonic signal to be transmitted is arbitrarily changed, and the reflection signal that cannot be matched between the transmission time and the reception time is reflected by the ultrasonic signal from the other object detection unit 10. It was determined to be a signal. However, the sonar 13 using ultrasonic waves has a characteristic that the sensitivity of the sonar 13 changes depending on the transmission time of the ultrasonic signal, such that the sensitivity of the sonar 13 becomes lower as the transmission time of the ultrasonic signal is shorter. . Therefore, in the prior art, it is necessary to lengthen the transmission time in order to suppress a decrease in sonar sensitivity, and the selection range of the transmission time may be narrowed.

  As a countermeasure, in the present embodiment, after defining the transmission interval, the sonar 13 transmits the ultrasonic signal twice in one routine in which the object detection unit 10 detects the object. Then, based on the reception interval of the reflected signal that has been reflected, it is determined that the reflection signal received at a reception interval that cannot be matched with the transmission interval is an ultrasonic signal from another object detection unit 10, and the corresponding reflection signal Remove. Thereby, it becomes possible to suppress erroneous detection of an object without narrowing the selection range of the transmission time.

  The control content of FIG. 3 performed by one object detection unit 10 among a plurality of object detection units 10 will be described below. Note that the control shown in FIG. 3 is repeatedly executed at predetermined intervals by the object detection unit 10 and the control unit 20 during the power-on period of the object detection unit 10.

  First, in step S100, the control unit 20 confirms that the vehicle system is activated. In step S110, the control unit 20 selects one sequence among a plurality of sequences stored in itself.

As shown in FIG. 4, the sequence defines how often the sonar 13 provided in each of the plurality of object detection units 10 mounted on the vehicle transmits ultrasonic signals in one routine. It is a thing. In this embodiment, the transmission interval is defined by the pulse generator 11 between 1 ms and 10 ms in this embodiment. The sequence is set so that at least two conditions among the conditions 1 to 3 described below are established at random. As shown in the upper diagram of FIG. 4, one object detection unit 10 is arranged on the left side, two on the front side, and one on the right side of the bumper 40 of the vehicle.
1. The transmission interval is defined so that the transmission interval when one of the adjacent object detection units 10 transmits the ultrasonic signal is different from the transmission interval when the other object detection unit 10 transmits the ultrasonic signal thereafter. .
2. The transmission interval is defined so that each object detection unit 10 is different from the transmission interval when the ultrasonic signal was transmitted last time.
3. It is assumed that an ultrasonic signal is transmitted in a period overlapping with an ultrasonic signal transmitted by at least one object detection unit 10 among the plurality of object detection units 10 controlled by the control unit 20. In this case, the object detection unit 10 that is likely to have overlapping ultrasonic signals defines the transmission interval so as to be different from the transmission interval of the object detection unit 10 that is transmitting ultrasonic signals that are likely to overlap.

  The sequence defines how to repeat a routine in addition to the contents of each routine. Specifically, in the routine executed next time, a plurality of the conditions set in the sequence are satisfied, and the transmission interval specified by each object detection unit 10 in the routine executed last time is different. The transmission interval is redefined.

  In step S120, the control unit 20 determines whether or not the determination result that the object exists within the predetermined distance of the vehicle has been input from the obstacle determination processing unit 17 in the previous object detection. The predetermined distance is set as a distance at which diffuse reflection may occur when an ultrasonic signal is transmitted a plurality of times in a short time. When it is determined that the determination result that the object exists within the predetermined distance of the vehicle has already been input from the obstacle determination processing unit 17 (S120: YES), the control unit 20 transmits the ultrasonic signal for a short time. If it is transmitted twice, the ultrasonic signal is irregularly reflected on the object, and it may be impossible to detect the object normally, and the process proceeds to step S180. In step S180, based on the signal from the control unit 20, the pulse generation unit 11 transmits a signal to the transmission circuit unit 12 so that the ultrasonic signal is transmitted only once per routine. Then, the process proceeds to step S150. When it is determined that the determination result that the object exists within the predetermined distance of the vehicle is not input from the obstacle determination processing unit 17 (S120: NO), the control unit 20 is currently within the predetermined distance of the vehicle. In step S130, it is assumed that there is a low possibility that an object exists in

  In step S130, the sonar 13 transmits an ultrasonic signal. In step S140, after the sonar 13 sets an interval based on the transmission interval defined by the pulse generation unit 11 according to the sequence selected by the control unit 20, the sonar 13 transmits the second ultrasonic signal. .

  In step S150, the sonar 13 receives the reflected signal reflected from the object. However, in the present embodiment, since a plurality of object detection units 10 exist, the received reflected signal may be an ultrasonic signal from another adjacent object detection unit 10. Therefore, in step S <b> 160, the reflected signal processing unit 15 executes waveform processing for removing a waveform that does not correspond to the ultrasonic signal transmitted from the object detection unit 10.

  Waveform processing will be described with reference to FIG. As described in Equation (1) and Equation (2), an object that transmits a signal (hereinafter referred to as a noise signal) that causes an unexpected disturbance in the waveform of the received voltage exists outside the vehicle. A threshold value vth is provided for the voltage to be applied. Therefore, a voltage smaller than the threshold value vth is highly likely to be a noise signal, or even a reflected signal is highly likely to be outside the predetermined range of the vehicle. Therefore, processing is performed with the output voltage V (t) at time t set to 0 on condition that the voltage v (t) indicated at time t is lower than the threshold value vth. Further, processing is performed with the output voltage V (t + T0) at time t + T0 set to 0 on condition that the voltage v (t + T0) indicated at time t + T0 when the transmission interval T0 has elapsed from time t is lower than the threshold value vth.

…（１）

... (1)

…（２）

... (2)

  Next, it is assumed that a reflected signal having a voltage higher than the threshold value vth is received at time t. In this case, the voltage v (t) indicated at time t is compared with the voltage v (t + T0) indicated at time t + T0, and the lower voltage is obtained as the output voltage V (t) at time t. . When this process is expressed by a mathematical expression, the expression (4) is executed on condition that the expression (3) is established.

  The above process will be described in more detail. When a reflected signal having a voltage higher than the threshold value vth is received at time t, it is determined whether the voltage v (t + T0) indicated at time t + T0 when the transmission interval T0 has elapsed from time t is also higher than the threshold value vth. . When the voltage v (t + T0) indicated at time t + T0 is lower than the threshold value vth, a voltage v (t) higher than the threshold value vth indicated at time t is transmitted from another object detection unit 10. Assuming that the received voltage is generated by receiving the ultrasonic signal, the output voltage V (t) at time t is treated as 0 from equation (4). By executing this process from the measurement start time 0 to the measurement end time te in one routine, the processed signal waveform is acquired.

  When the voltage v (t + T0) indicated at the time t + T0 is higher than the threshold value vth, at least the voltage v (t) indicated at the time t is determined by the ultrasonic signal transmitted by the object detection unit 10. It is considered that the reflected signal is generated. Therefore, in the object detection, the smaller one of the voltage v (t) indicated at time t and the voltage v (t + T0) indicated at time t + T0 is acquired as the output voltage V (t). In the present embodiment, since the number of transmissions of the ultrasonic signal transmitted in one routine is 2, the reflected signal is not received at time t + T0 + T0 when the transmission interval T0 has elapsed from time t + T0, and the voltage v shown (T + T0 + T0) is lower than the threshold value vth. Therefore, the output voltage V (t + T0) at time t + T0 is set to 0 from the equation (4). In practice, a comparison is made between the voltage v (t) with the timing of time t + T0 shown in FIG. 5 as time t and the voltage v (t + T0) after the transmission interval T0 from that time. The result processed in this way is a graph shown after the waveform processing in FIG.

…（３）

... (3)

…（４）

... (4)

  In step S170, the obstacle determination processing unit 17 determines whether an object exists within a predetermined range of the vehicle based on the waveform of the reflection signal subjected to the waveform processing in step S160. And this control is complete | finished.

  Next, operation | movement of the object detection unit 10 which concerns on this embodiment is demonstrated using FIG.

  When the object detection by the object detection unit 10 is performed, one sequence is selected from the plurality of sequences by the control unit 20 that controls the plurality of object detection units 10 mounted on the vehicle. Based on the selected sequence, the pulse generation unit 11 provided in each object detection unit 10 defines how long an ultrasonic signal is transmitted at the transmission interval T0. Then, the sonar 13 transmits the ultrasonic signal twice based on the prescribed transmission interval T0. When the sonar 13 receives the reflected signal, the reflected signal processing unit 15 performs waveform processing.

  In FIG. 5A, since a reflected signal having a voltage higher than the threshold value vth is received after a transmission interval T0 after receiving a reflected signal higher than the threshold value vth, the reflected signal received at least first time is It is determined that it is based on the ultrasonic signal transmitted by the object detection unit 10. Therefore, the waveform of the reflected signal received at the first time is left as it is, but the reflected signal waveform received at the second time cannot receive a reflected signal having a voltage higher than the threshold value vth after the transmission interval T0. . For this reason, the waveform of the reflected signal received for the second time is processed as zero. Object detection is performed based on the waveform of the reflected signal that has been subjected to waveform processing by the reflected signal processing unit 15 in this way. In the case of FIG. 5A, the obstacle determination processing unit 17 determines that an object is present near the vehicle, and determines whether the object is within a predetermined distance of the vehicle based on the reception time and the strength of the reception voltage. Is done.

  In FIG. 5B, the reflected signal having a voltage higher than the threshold value vth is not received after the transmission interval T0 after receiving the reflected signal received at the first time or the reflected signal received at the second time. In this case, the waveforms of both reflected signals are processed as zero. Therefore, in the case of FIG. 5B, the obstacle determination processing unit 17 determines that there is no object near the vehicle, assuming that the ultrasonic signal transmitted from the sonar 13 is not reflected by the object.

  With this configuration, the present embodiment has the following advantages.

  The transmission interval T0 of the ultrasonic signal transmitted twice by the pulse generation unit 11 is defined, and the reflected signal at the reception interval that does not correspond to the defined transmission interval T0 is removed by the reflected signal processing unit 15. At this time, the transmission interval T0 of the ultrasonic signal when one of the adjacent object detection units 10 transmits is different from the transmission interval T0 of the ultrasonic signal when the other object detection unit 10 transmits thereafter. The transmission interval T0 of each object detection unit 10 is defined by the control unit 20. Thereby, it is possible to suppress the possibility of interference with an ultrasonic signal transmitted from another object detection unit 10. Further, according to the above method, it is possible to suppress erroneous detection of an object without narrowing the selection range of transmission time.

  The transmission interval T0 is defined by each pulse generator 11 so as to be different from the transmission interval T0 when the ultrasonic signal was transmitted last time. In this case, even if an ultrasonic signal having the same transmission interval T0 is transmitted from another object detection unit 10, interference can be suppressed.

  -When transmitting an ultrasonic signal by the at least 2 object detection unit 10 in the overlapping period, it defines by each prescription | regulation part so that transmission interval T0 may mutually differ. Thereby, even if an ultrasonic signal is transmitted in a period in which the ultrasonic signal is overlapped by at least two object detection units 10, mutual interference can be suppressed.

  The sequence is set so that at least two of the conditions 1 to 3 are satisfied. Thereby, it is possible to diversify the way of setting the ultrasonic signal.

  -In preparation for the case where a vehicle that transmits an ultrasonic signal at the same transmission interval T0 exists around the vehicle, at least two of the conditions 1 to 3 are established at random each time the vehicle system is activated. One sequence is selected from the plurality of sequences. Thereby, it is possible to suppress the possibility of interference with the transmission signal from the object detection unit 10 provided in the other vehicle.

  When the obstacle determination processing unit 17 detects that an object is present within a predetermined distance of the vehicle, each pulse generation unit 11 specifies that the ultrasonic signal is transmitted by the sonar 13 only once. Is done. Thereby, it is possible to normally perform object detection without irregularly reflecting the ultrasonic signal.

  In this embodiment, an ultrasonic signal is transmitted twice in one routine, but the interval is shortened to 1 ms to 10 ms. As a result, it is possible to keep the time period required for receiving the reflected signal generated by the ultrasonic signal transmitted the second time after transmitting the ultrasonic signal the first time within 50 to 60 ms. As a result, memory consumption can be suppressed.

  The above embodiment can also be implemented with the following modifications.

  The object detection device includes a control unit 20 that controls the plurality of object detection units 10 in an integrated manner. In this regard, the control unit 20 may be included in each object detection unit 10. In this case, it is necessary that the control units 20 included in the object detection unit 10 communicate with each other and exchange information.

  In the above embodiment, in one routine, the number of ultrasonic signal transmissions is defined as two. For this, it is not necessary to limit the number of times to two. For example, the number of ultrasonic signal transmissions may be defined as three. Alternatively, the number of transmissions of ultrasonic signals may be changed each time one routine is repeated so that the number of transmissions of ultrasonic signals transmitted in one previous routine is different. In this case, since the number of transmissions of the ultrasonic signal transmitted for each routine is changed, it is possible to further suppress the erroneous detection of the object.

  With respect to this example in which the number of transmissions of ultrasonic signals is changed each time one routine is repeated, the reflected signal processing unit 15 may remove a reflected signal that does not correspond to the number of transmissions and the number of receptions. Thereby, even if an ultrasonic signal is transmitted from another object detection unit 10 at the same transmission interval T0, the number of transmissions of the object detection unit 10 may correspond to the number of transmissions of another object detection unit 10. Therefore, the ultrasonic signal of another object detection unit 10 can be more reliably removed.

  In the above embodiment, a plurality of sequences are stored in the control unit 20 in advance. In this regard, it is not necessary to store the sequence in the control unit 20 in advance, and the transmission interval T0 so that at least two of the conditions 1 to 3 are satisfied by the pulse generation unit 11 provided in each of the plurality of object detection units 10. May be defined.

  In the above embodiment, the transmission interval T0 of the ultrasonic signal is defined based on the sequence selected by the control unit 20. This sequence is set so that at least two of the conditions 1 to 3 are satisfied. In this regard, the sequence may be set so that one condition is satisfied. Or you may add a condition further to the conditions of 1-3. For example, 4. It is defined that the transmission interval T0 is different between when the vehicle is stopped and when the vehicle is traveling. You may add the condition. The own vehicle and the other vehicle may be equipped with the same ultrasonic object detection device. In this case, it is possible to suppress interference between the stopped vehicle and the traveling vehicle by defining the transmission interval T0 to be different between the stopped vehicle and the traveling vehicle. It becomes.

  When a reflected signal having a transmission interval and a reception interval that are different is received, the sequence may be changed when the next routine is executed. If the reflected signal having a transmission interval different from the reception interval is a noise signal transmitted from outside the vehicle, the object detection unit 10 may receive the noise signal irregularly, and the object detection may not be performed normally. is there. In this case, the influence of the noise signal can be further suppressed by changing the sequence selected by the control unit 20.

  In the above-described embodiment, when the correspondence between the transmission interval T0 of the transmission signal transmitted twice in one routine and the reception interval of the received reflected signal cannot be taken, the reflected signal that cannot be dealt with is another object detection unit 10 It was determined that it was due to the ultrasonic signal from In addition, for example, it may be determined whether the maximum value of the voltage of the received reflected signal matches the maximum value of the voltage of the other reflected signal. Alternatively, it may be determined whether the reception time of the reflected signal matches the reception time of the other reflected signal.

  When a reflected signal having a voltage higher than the threshold value vth is received at time t, the lower voltage is acquired as the output voltage V (t) at time t using equation (4). With respect to this, not only the expression (4) but also the average of the voltage v (t) indicated at time t and the voltage v (t + T0) indicated at time t + T0, as shown in expression (5). The voltage may be calculated. In this case, when the voltage v (t + T0) indicated at time t + T0 is 0, the calculated average voltage is smaller than the voltage v (t) indicated at time t. Therefore, when the calculated average voltage becomes smaller than the voltage v (t) indicated at time t by a predetermined voltage or more, the voltage v (t) indicated at time t is detected by another object. Assuming that there is a high possibility that the ultrasonic signal transmitted from the unit 10 has been received, the voltage v (t) indicated at time t is treated as zero. Even with such a configuration, it is possible to suppress the possibility of interference with an ultrasonic signal transmitted from another object detection unit 10. Further, it is possible to suppress erroneous detection of an object without narrowing the selection range of transmission time.

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... (5)

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Object detection unit, 11 ... Pulse generation part, 13 ... Sonar, 15 ... Reflection signal process part, 17 ... Obstacle determination process part, 20 ... Control part.

Claims (10)

A plurality of ultrasonic object detection units (10) mounted on a vehicle;
Each of the units is
A transmission / reception unit (13) for transmitting a transmission signal as a pulsed ultrasonic wave and receiving a reflection signal as a reflected wave from an object;
A defining unit (11) for defining a transmission interval of the transmission signals transmitted in a single routine by the transmitting / receiving unit;
A removal unit (15) that compares the transmission interval defined by the defining unit with a reception interval when the reflected signal is received, and removes the reflected signal at the reception interval that does not correspond to the transmission interval;
A detection unit (17) for detecting an object near the vehicle based on the reflected signal processed by the removal unit;
With
The transmission interval is defined such that the transmission interval when one of the adjacent units transmits the transmission signal and the transmission interval when the other unit transmits the transmission signal thereafter are different. An ultrasonic object detection apparatus comprising a control unit (20) for causing the defining unit to execute one regulation.   2. The control unit according to claim 1, wherein the control unit causes the defining unit to execute a second definition that defines the transmission interval so that the transmission interval is different from the transmission interval when the transmission signal was transmitted last time. Ultrasonic object detection device.   The control unit, when at least two of the units transmit the transmission signal in an overlapping period, causes the defining unit to execute a third definition that defines the transmission intervals different from each other. The ultrasonic object detection device according to claim 1 or 2. The control unit, when at least two of the units transmit the transmission signal in an overlapping period, causes the defining unit to execute a third definition that defines the transmission intervals different from each other,
The ultrasonic object detection device according to claim 2, wherein at least two of the first to third rules are executed in the one routine.   The ultrasonic object detection device according to claim 4, wherein at least two rules executed in the one routine are selected at random when the vehicle is started.   6. The control unit according to claim 4, wherein, when it is estimated that noise is mixed in the reflected signal, the control unit causes the definition unit to change at least two rules executed in the one routine. The ultrasonic type object detection apparatus described in 1. The defining unit defines the number of transmissions of the transmission signal transmitted to the routine by the transmitting / receiving unit,
When the object is detected within a predetermined distance from the vehicle by the detection unit, the control unit causes the definition unit to define the transmission signal so that the transmission signal is transmitted only once in the one routine. The ultrasonic object detection apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 6.   8. The control unit according to claim 1, wherein the control unit causes the specifying unit to define the transmission interval so that the transmission interval differs between when the vehicle is stopped and when the vehicle is running. The ultrasonic object detection apparatus of any one of Claims.   The ultrasonic object detection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit causes the defining unit to define the transmission interval to 1 ms to 10 ms, respectively. The defining unit defines the number of transmissions of the transmission signal transmitted to the routine by the transmitting / receiving unit,
When the one routine is repeated, the control unit sets the number of the transmission signals transmitted to the one routine to the defining unit so as to be different from the number of the transmission signals transmitted in the previous one routine. The ultrasonic object detection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the ultrasonic object detection apparatus is defined.

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