Three-dimensional object ground-contact determining apparatus

A three-dimensional object ground-contact determining apparatus mounted on a vehicle comprising;

• a stereo camera for taking a stereo image of a region in front of said vehicle;
• a processor;
• a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium;
• and
• a set of computer-executable instructions stored on said computer-readable storage medium that cause said processor to implement:
• calculating, based on said stereo image, parallax information including a parallax of each of pixels composing said stereo image;
• detecting a three-dimensional object in said stereo image based on said parallax information;
• calculating, based on said parallax information, a lower end height which is a height from a road surface to a lower end of said detected three-dimensional object;
• making a temporary determination every time a predetermined computation interval elapses to temporarily determine that said three-dimensional object is a ground-contacting object which is ground-contacted with said road surface when said lower end height is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold, and to temporarily determine that said three-dimensional object is a floating object floating from said road surface when said lower end height exceeds said predetermined threshold;
• and
• making a final determination every time said predetermined computation interval elapses to finally determine whether said three-dimensional object is a ground-contacting object or a floating object,
• wherein,
• said processor is configured to;
• finally determine that said three-dimensional object is a ground-contacting object at a current computation timing when it is determined that said three-dimensional object is a ground-contacting object in at least one of said temporary determination at a current computation timing and said final determination at a previous computation timing;
• and
• finally determine that said three-dimensional object is a floating object at a current computation timing when it is determined that said three-dimensional object is a floating object in both of said temporary determination at a current computation timing and said final determination at a previous computation timing.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions, said instructions comprising;

• acquiring a set of images of a region in front of a vehicle, said set of images being taken by a stereo camera;
• calculating, based on said set of images, parallax information including a parallax of each of pixels composing said set of images;
• detecting a three-dimensional object in said set of images based on said parallax information;
• calculating, based on said parallax information, a lower end height which is a height from a road surface to a lower end of said detected three-dimensional object;
• making a temporary determination every time a predetermined computation interval elapses to temporarily determine that said three-dimensional object is a ground-contacting object which is ground-contacted with said road surface when said lower end height is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold, and to temporarily determine that said three-dimensional object is a floating object floating from said road surface when said lower end height exceeds said predetermined threshold;
• and
• making a final determination every time said predetermined computation interval elapses to finally determine whether said three-dimensional object is a ground-contacting object or a floating object,
• wherein,
• said making a final determination is configured to;
• finally determine that said three-dimensional object is a ground-contacting object at a current computation timing when it is determined that said three-dimensional object is a ground-contacting object in at least one of said temporary determination at a current computation timing and said final determination at a previous computation timing;
• and
• finally determine that said three-dimensional object is a floating object at a current computation timing when it is determined that said three-dimensional object is a floating object in both of said temporary determination at a current computation timing and said final determination at a previous computation timing.