Apparatus for detecting an object located ahead of a vehicle using plural cameras with different fields of view

摘要

An onboard forward monitoring system is disclosed in which three television cameras, each supported by a steering mechanism, take picture of a road surface located forward of a vehicle at near distance, a medium distance and a far distance zone to detect white lines which partition a lane on the road surface, thus detecting a vehicle running ahead on the lane which is defined by the white lines. To enable a reliable detection and tracking of the vehicle running ahead in any zone of the road surface even when the road is curved, the individual television cameras are steered so that a vehicle running ahead is positioned at the center of the screen whenever such vehicle is present and so that a center across the width of the lane is positioned at the center of screen when a vehicle running ahead is not detected.