Parking assistance apparatus and parking assistance method

A parking assistance apparatus for assisting parking at a predetermined target parking position, comprising:

• a vehicle-side device mounted on a vehicle;
• and
• a parking-lot-side device provided in association with the predetermined target parking position,
• the parking-lot-side device comprising:
• a fixed target comprising a plurality of light-emitting means, the fixed target being fixed in a predetermined positional relationship with respect to the predetermined target parking position, each of the plurality of light-emitting means being provided in a predetermined positional relationship with respect to the fixed target;
• parking-lot-side communication means, which receives a turn-ON request transmitted from the vehicle-side device, the turn-ON request containing information regarding which of the plurality of light-emitting means is to be turned ON;
• and
• display control means for turning ON or OFF the plurality of light-emitting means based on the turn-ON request,
• the vehicle-side device comprising:
• turn-ON request generation means for generating the turn-ON request;
• vehicle-side communication means for transmitting the turn-ON request to the parking-lot-side device;
• a camera for taking an image of at least one of the plurality of light-emitting means;
• image recognition means for extracting characteristic points based on the image of the at least one of the plurality of light-emitting means taken by the camera and recognizing two-dimensional coordinates of the characteristic points in the taken image;
• positional parameter calculation means for calculating positional parameters of the camera including at least a two-dimensional coordinate and a pan angle with respect to the fixed target, based on two or more two-dimensional coordinates recognized by the image recognition means and on the turn-ON request;
• relative position identification means for identifying a relative positional relationship between the vehicle and the target parking position based on the positional parameters of the camera calculated by the positional parameter calculation means and the predetermined positional relationship of the fixed target with respect to the predetermined target parking position;
• and
• parking locus calculation means for calculating a parking locus for guiding the vehicle to the target parking position based on the relative positional relationship identified by the relative position identification means.