Abstract: In an overhead-structure recognition device to be mounted to a vehicle, a determination unit is configured to, in response to a vertical distance between an object of interest and a high-reflectivity object being greater than or equal to a predefined value of vertical distance, determine that the object of interest is an overhead structure which is a structure located above the vehicle that does not obstruct travel of the vehicle. The object of interest corresponds to a subset of interest among a plurality of subsets acquired by dividing range point cloud data. The high-reflectivity object is an object other than the object of interest, among objects corresponding to the respective subgroups, whose reflectance is greater than or equal to a predefined value of reflectance.

Abstract: In an overhead-structure recognition device to be mounted to a vehicle, a determination unit is configured to, in response to there being, among specific pieces of range point data each having a direction variable indicating a predefined direction, a predefined number or more of pieces of range point data each having a distance variable taking a plurality of values, determine that an object of interest corresponding to a subset of interest of pieces of range point data is an overhead structure. The predefined direction is a direction such that a horizontal angle difference from a direction indicated by the direction variable of the piece of range point data corresponding to the object of interest is within a predefined angle range and an angle with respect to a vertical direction is greater than an angle between the vertical direction and a direction of travel of the vehicle.

Abstract: An object recognition device includes a recognition unit and an object determination unit. The object determination unit includes a detection unit, an estimation unit, and a pseudo-determination unit. The estimation unit assumes that a shielding object is a vehicle and estimates a length of a side surface of the shielding object based on the width of the shielding object. The pseudo-determination unit determines whether a candidate object is a pseudo-object by using the length of the side surface. The pseudo-determination unit determines that the candidate object is the pseudo-object, if it is determined that transmission waves radiated in a direction in which the candidate object is located are reflected from the side surface and if another object is recognized at a location apart from a reflection point in a reflection direction by the same distance as a distance from the reflection point to the candidate object.

Abstract: An object recognition device to be mounted to a vehicle includes a cluster point group formation unit and an object recognition unit. The cluster point group formation unit is configured to form a cluster point group by executing clustering for a plurality of reflecting points. The object recognition unit recognizes the cluster point group as an object. The object recognition unit is configured to, in response to determining that an outer shape of an upper surface that is an outer shape of the recognized object viewed from the top has a concave section when viewed from a vehicle side, divide the cluster point group into a plurality of quasi-cluster point groups based on a position of the concave section and recognizes each of the plurality of quasi-cluster point groups as an object.

Abstract: A target recognition device includes a target recognition unit, a tracking unit, a target registration unit, a condition determination unit, and a registration requirement setting unit. The condition determination unit determines whether a target satisfies predetermined conditions J1 to J3. The registration requirement setting unit sets a requirement for registering a target by the target registration unit to be stricter for the target determined to satisfy all of the conditions J1 to J3 than for the target determined to satisfy not all of the conditions J1 to J3.

Abstract: A target recognition device includes a roadside object determination unit, a coordinate calculation unit, a road boundary estimation unit, a distance calculation unit, and a likelihood increasing unit. The roadside object determination unit determines whether a target has a feature of a roadside object. The coordinate calculation unit calculates a coordinate in a lateral direction of the target. The road boundary estimation unit estimates a road boundary. The distance calculation unit calculates a distance from the target to the road boundary. The likelihood increasing unit increases a likelihood that the target is a roadside object, on condition that the distance is a preset threshold value or less.

Abstract: Apparatus for sterilizing packed foods includes a sterilizing chamber for storing packed foods therein, a jet pipe mounted onthe interior upper portion of the sterilizing chamber for jetting mixture of steam and compressed air, an ejector having an inlet port, a suction port and an outlet port and connected at the outlet port to the jet pipe for generating a suction force through a flow of mixture of steam and compressed air, a steam line connected to the inlet port of the ejector for supplying steam thereto, a circulation line connected at one end to the interior lower portion of the sterilizing chamber and at the other end to the suction part of the ejector, a drain line connected to the bottom of the sterilizing chamber for exhausting a part of the mixture of steam and compressed air, a heat exchanger interposed between the sterilizing chamber and the drain line, and a compressed air line connected to the inlet port of the ejector through the heat exchanger.