Velocity detection apparatus

A velocity detection apparatus which detects a relative velocity of a target with respect to a vehicle, which is equipped with an in-vehicle radar, from a reception signal received by the in-vehicle radar, the in-vehicle radar transmitting a radar wave based on a transmission signal which is modulated into a pulse form having a certain width and is repeated with a certain period and receiving a reflected wave from the target which has reflected the radar wave, the velocity detection apparatus comprising:

• a velocity detection section configured to detect a vehicle velocity of the vehicle;
• a candidate detection section configured to detect a candidate for the relative velocity corresponding to a phase difference between a plurality of pulses contained in the reception signal;
• a range setting section configured to set an observation range of the relative velocity to a range which corresponds to the vehicle velocity detected by the velocity detection section, the observation range being set to a range less than twice a Nyquist velocity corresponding to a repetition period of the pulses;
• and
• a selection section configured to select, as the relative velocity, a candidate which falls within the observation range set by the range setting section out of candidates for the relative velocity detected by the candidate detection section.