Hiroaki Kumon

Solid or not solid: vision for radar target validation

In the context of combining radar and vision sensors for a fusion application in dense city traffic situations, one of the major challenges is to be able to validate radar targets. We take a high-level fusion approach assuming that both sensor modalities have the capacity to independently locate and identify targets of interest. In this context, radar targets can either correspond to a vision target- in which case the target is validated without further processing- or not. It is the latter case that drives the focus of this paper. A non-matched radar target can correspond to some solid object which is not part of the objects of interest of the vision sensor (such as a guard-rail) or can be caused by reflections in which case it is a ghost target which does not match any physical object in the real world. We describe a number of computational steps for the decision making of non-matched radar targets. The computations combine both direct motion parallax measurements and indirect motion analysis- which are not sufficient for computing parallax but are nevertheless quite effective- and pattern classification steps for covering situations which motion analysis are weak or ineffective. One of the major advantages of our high-level fusion approach is that it allows the use of simpler (low cost) radar technology to create a combined high performance system.

ACC in consideration of visibility with sensor fusion technology under the concept of TACS

ACC (adaptive cruise control) system maintains the distance to preceding vehicle instead of drivers. However, drivers may feel uncomfortable, especially under bad visibility conditions, because, for example, a driver tends to keep a longer distance when a large preceding truck blocks its frontal view, whereas current ACC tries to keep the same distance despite of such condition. This paper proposes a novel Visibility-ACC (V-ACC) system, which enhances current ACC system with considering such driver behavior under the concept of TACS (Three-layer Architecture for Comfort and Safety). A driver model is built from driver behavior database. A new distance control algorithm for the V-ACC system is constructed based on the driver model and a newly developed sensor fusion system. Vehicle test was performed to evaluate its advantage.