The invention relates to a method for identifying at least one object (9, 10) in a surrounding area (7) of a motor vehicle (1), in which the motor vehicle (1) is moved relative to at least one object (9, 10) and, while the motor vehicle (1) is moved relative to the at least one object (9, 10), a measurement cycle is performed at each of a plurality of successive times, wherein each measurement cycle involves an ultrasonic sensor (4) of the motor vehicle (1) being used to transmit an ultrasonic signal, and a feature (14) being determined that describes a position value, which describes a position of the at least one object (9, 10) and which is ascertained on the basis of a first received echo of the ultrasonic signal, and a presence of a second echo of the ultrasonic signal that is received within a predetermined period of time after the first echo, wherein the respective features (14) are associated with a cluster (13) on the basis of their position value, and the features (14) of the cluster (13) are signalled as belonging to the at least one object (9, 10) on the basis of the presence of the second echo.

An object identification apparatus includes: an identifier that identifies whether an object is a control target based on a result of comparison between reflection intensity of a detection wave and an identification threshold when the detection wave is received by the moving body; and a changer that changes identification sensitivity of the identifier according to positions of at least two points of the object when the detection wave is reflected at the at least two points and received by the moving body.

An ultrasonic type object detection apparatus sequentially detects a distance between an ultrasonic sensor and an object in a coverage of a transmission wave at a predetermined detection cycle based on a time taken for the ultrasonic sensor to transmit the transmission wave and then to receive a reflection wave. The apparatus includes: a storage storing the distance to the object; a vehicle information acquisition device acquiring vehicle information for calculating a movement distance; a detection distance predictor predicting a next detected distance to the object based on a past detection result and the vehicle information; and a short range determinator determining whether the object is present in a short range area in which the distance between the object and the ultrasonic sensor is equal to or shorter than a short range threshold.

A method and an apparatus for determining the fill level of a fluid (2) in a tank (1), wherein a propagation time of an ultrasonic signal between an ultrasound element (4) and a reflection at the surface (3) of the fluid (2) is measured. A first, single reflection and a second, double reflection are evaluated, wherein the measurement of the reflections is carried out with a measurement setting with an excitation energy of the ultrasonic signal and a sensitivity. The sensitivity is indicated by a gain and a comparison value (13). Via measurements with different measurement settings, a suspected first reflection and a suspected second reflection are located and a plausibility check is carried out of the propagation times of the first and second reflections with respect to each other.

An intelligent ultrasonic system may include: a camera sensor unit configured to take an image of a road ahead of a driving vehicle; an ultrasonic signal input unit configured to receive an ultrasonic signal sensed through one or more ultrasonic sensors mounted on the vehicle; a feature extraction unit configured to extract a feature of the received ultrasonic signal; a data collision unit configured to collect one or more data related to a surrounding situation of the road on which the vehicle is driven; and a control unit configured to divide the surrounding situation into two or more classes based on the one or more data collected through the data collection unit, and change or reset an existing parameter to a parameter corresponding to any one class of the classes when the surrounding situation corresponds to the one class or is changed to the one class.

An intelligent ultrasonic system may include: a camera sensor unit configured to take an image of a road ahead of a driving vehicle; an ultrasonic signal input unit configured to receive an ultrasonic signal sensed through one or more ultrasonic sensors mounted on the vehicle; a feature extraction unit configured to extract a feature of the received ultrasonic signal; a data collision unit configured to collect one or more data related to a surrounding situation of the road on which the vehicle is driven; and a control unit configured to divide the surrounding situation into two or more classes based on the one or more data collected through the data collection unit, and change or reset an existing parameter to a parameter corresponding to any one class of the classes when the surrounding situation corresponds to the one class or is changed to the one class.

A transmission/reception control device is configured to control transmission and reception in an ultrasonic sensor. The ultrasonic sensor includes an ultrasonic transducer. The ultrasonic transducer is configured to transmit a probe wave as an ultrasonic wave and receive a reception wave. The reception wave includes a reflected wave of the probe wave. The transmission/reception control device includes a transmission frequency setting unit, a reception signal processing unit, and an object detection unit. The transmission frequency setting unit sets a frequency of the probe wave to a transmission frequency different from a resonance frequency of the ultrasonic transducer. The reception signal processing unit processes a reception result of the reception wave based on the probe wave transmitted with the transmission frequency. The object detection unit detects the object based on a result of processing by the reception signal processing unit.

An ultrasonic object detection device includes: a first echo prolongation determination unit that sequentially determines whether a measured echo time of an ultrasonic sensor is prolonged from a reference echo time; a second echo prolongation determination unit that determines whether an addition echo time is prolonged from the reference echo time when the measured echo time is not prolonged from the reference echo time, and the ultrasonic sensor detects a reflected wave, the addition echo time being obtained by adding, to the measured echo time, a time from termination of an echo to termination of a first reflected wave; and a short distance object detection unit that determines that an object is disposed within a short distance so as to receive the reflected wave while the echo is not terminated when one of the measured echo time or addition echo time is prolonged from the reference echo time.

An in-vehicle object determining apparatus cooperates with an obstacle sensor unit, which detects an obstacle at a first time. An estimated detected state is calculated as a detected state of the obstacle estimated to be detected by the obstacle sensor unit at a second time after a lapse of a predetermined time period from the first time, on condition that the obstacle is assumed to be under stationary state, based on (i) a vehicle-relative position of the obstacle detected at the first time, (ii) a sensor position of the obstacle sensor unit, and (iii) a vehicle position change during a period from the first time to the second time. It is determined that the obstacle is a moving object based on a discrepancy between the estimated detected state of the obstacle and a real detected state of the obstacle actually detected by the obstacle sensor unit at the second time.

In one form, an acoustic signal is generated for an acoustic transducer, where the acoustic transducer transmits the acoustic signal to determine a first position of an obstacle. In response to the acoustic signal encountering the obstacle within a predetermined distance, an echo, or pulse, is detected at the acoustic transducer. At a first time, a magnitude is detected in response to a rising edge of the pulse intersecting a determined threshold. A second magnitude is detected in response to the detection of a first peak of the pulse. A time of flight of the acoustic signal, within the predetermined distance, is determined when a compensation time is extracted from a correction calculation algorithm in response to detecting the first magnitude and the second magnitude. The compensation time is subtracted from the first time, and the difference of the compensation time and the first time is the time of flight.