Position estimation device and position estimation method

Abstract

The position estimation device that estimates a position of a moving object on a road surface includes an illuminator, an imager, and a controller. The illuminator illuminates the road surface. The imager has an optical axis non-parallel to an optical axis of the illuminator, and images the illuminated road surface. The controller acquires road surface information including a position and a corresponding feature of a road surface to the position. The controller determines a matching region from a road surface image captured by the imager, extracts a feature of the road surface from the road surface image in the matching region, and estimates the position of the moving object by performing matching processing between the extracted feature of the road surface and the road surface information. Furthermore, the controller determines validity of the matching region, and performs the matching processing when determining the matching region is valid.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.