OBSTACLE DETECTION APPARATUS, AUTOMATIC BRAKING APPARATUS USING OBSTACLE DETECTION APPARATUS, OBSTACLE DETECTION METHOD, AND AUTOMATIC BRAKING METHOD USING OBSTACLE DETECTION METHOD

A histogram is calculated based on a road surface image of a portion around a vehicle, a running-allowed region in which the vehicle can run is detected based on the histogram, an obstacle region is extracted based on the running-allowed region, and a position of an obstacle in the obstacle region is detected, to further enhance the accuracy of detecting an obstacle around the vehicle as compared with conventional art.