Apparatus and method for determining wheel alignment change of vehicle

An apparatus for determining a wheel alignment change of a vehicle, comprising:

• a straight driving situation detection unit configured to detect whether a vehicle is going straight, based on information on positions of objects on a road, acquired from a radar sensor of the vehicle, and a yaw rate and a steering angle acquired from a vehicle sensor mounted in the vehicle, the vehicle sensor comprising a yaw rate sensor;
• a wheel alignment change detection unit configured to detect a wheel alignment change based on lane information acquired from a camera sensor of the vehicle, when vehicle information detected by the straight driving situation detection unit indicates that the vehicle is going straight;
• a driver alarming unit configured to output an alarm to a driver when the detected wheel alignment change is larger than a preset threshold value;
• and
• a wheel alignment change compensation unit configured to compensate for steering for SCC (Smart Cruise Control) or LKAS (Lane Keep Assist System) control, when the detected wheel alignment change is smaller than the threshold value,
• wherein the straight driving situation detection unit and the wheel alignment change detection unit are integrated into a control unit, and the control unit verifies whether state of the yaw rate sensor is normal, by determining whether the road on which the vehicle is traveling is a straight road or curved road, using surrounding object arrangement information acquired from the radar sensor,
• wherein when a wheel alignment change is likely to occur in the corresponding mode among an active mode of the LKAS, a passive mode of the LKAS and a mode in which the vehicle driven by the driver in person is traveling on a straight road, the control unit calculates a wheel alignment change angle through a trigonometric function operation based on a distance by which the vehicle moves for a preset time and a distance by which the vehicle leans to any one side from the current position, and compensates for steering based on the wheel alignment change angle, or forcibly stops the SCC or LKAS operation or forbids an entry of the SCC or LKAS.