Electronic control unit and object identification method

An electronic control unit, comprising:

• an arithmetic unit configured to execute predetermined processing;
• and
• a storage device that is accessible to the arithmetic unit;
• the electronic control unit includes
• a data acquisition module in which the arithmetic unit is configured to acquire external environment data obtained through observation by an external observation device;
• a data storage module configured to accumulate the external environment data;
• a data superimposition module in which the arithmetic unit is configured to superimpose pieces of external environment data at a plurality of times, which have been stored in the data storage unit;
• an object region candidate specification module in which the arithmetic unit is configured to specify a candidate for a region in which an object is present in the superimposed pieces of external environment data;
• a feature extraction module in which the arithmetic unit is configured to extract a feature of the specified candidate for the region in a feature amount time window including at least adjacent three times;
• and
• an identification module in which the arithmetic unit is configured to identify a peripheral object based on a variation with time in the extracted feature,
• wherein the identification module is configured to compare the variation with time in the feature of the region to a predetermined threshold value and identify the object in the region based on whether a change in the feature of the region is gradual.