Method and apparatus for monitoring the surroundings of a vehicle and for detecting failure of the monitoring apparatus

A failure judgment apparatus for judging a failure of a surroundings monitoring apparatus comprising:

• a camera having an optical axis, said camera being mounted on a vehicle for picking up an image of a road;
• a beam-scan type laser radar having an optical axis mounted on said vehicle and installed such that an optical axis center thereof is coincident with the optical axis of said camera;
• a representative coordinate computing means for computing representative coordinates of other vehicle detected by said laser radar;
• a coordinate transforming means for transforming said representative coordinates in conformance with coordinate axes on a display image of said camera;
• a window setting means for setting a window for designating a prescribed region on the basis of said representative coordinates transformed by said coordinate transforming means;
• an optical axis judging means for judging whether or not the optical axis of said camera is coincident with the optical axis of said laser radar depending upon whether or not the other vehicle is within said window by processing image signals in said window.

A surroundings monitoring method for monitoring surroundings of a vehicle, comprising the steps of:

• detecting image signals of a lane in which said vehicle is located with a camera mounted on said vehicle;
• determining coordinates of said lane on a display image by processing said image signals;
• detecting an object ahead of said vehicle with a beam-scan type laser radar the center of whose optical axes are coincident with the optical axes of said camera;
• transforming coordinates of said detected object in conformity with coordinate axes on said display image;
• and
• judging whether said detected object is within the lane of said vehicle by comparing said transformed coordinates with said coordinates of said lane.

A failure judging method for judging a failure of a surroundings monitoring apparatus, said apparatus being provided with a camera mounted on a vehicle for picking up an image of a road and a beam-scan type laser radar mounted on said vehicle and installed such that an optical axis center thereof is coincident with an optical axis of said camera, comprising the steps of:

• computing representative coordinates of another vehicle detected by said laser radar:
• transforming said representative coordinates in conformity with coordinate axes of a display image detected by said camera;
• setting a window for designating a prescribed region on the basis of said transformed representative coordinates of said other vehicle;
• processing image signals in said window and judging whether or not the optical axes of said camera are coincident with the optical axes of said laser radar depending upon whether said other vehicle is within said window.