BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a pedestrian protecting device for vehicle designed for protection depending on a protection target when the vehicle collides with a protection target such as a pedestrian, and to a vehicle provided with the same.

2. Description of the Related Art

Known conventional vehicle-mounted protection systems which deploy an airbag to reduce the impact on a protection target (pedestrian) at the time of collision between the vehicle and the protection target are, for example, vehicle-mounted pedestrian protection systems described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-044325 (Patent Document 1) and International Publication No. WO2017/056381 (Patent Document 2).

The vehicle-mounted pedestrian protection system described in Patent Document 1 deploys an airbag, provided with a slide-up preventing means, upward from the front bumper at the time of collision and thereby prevents a pedestrian from sliding up rearward above the vehicle.

The damage reduction system described in Patent Document 2 absorbs the impact on a pedestrian with a hood (bonnet) and an airbag deployed on a windshield, and then prevents the pedestrian from falling down by detecting the movement of the pedestrian on the hood with a camera and performing acceleration or deceleration and steering.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is to be noted that the vehicle-mounted protection systems described in Patent Documents 1 and 2 can absorb the impact on a protection target (pedestrian) with the airbag or the hood at the time of collision. However, when protecting the protection target with the airbag or the hood, the vehicle-mounted protection system operates the hood or the airbag without taking into consideration a difference in the protection target.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and aims to provide a pedestrian protecting device for vehicle capable of protection depending on a protection target such as a pedestrian when the protection target collides with the vehicle, and a vehicle provided with the same.

For the purpose of solving the above problem, a pedestrian protecting device for vehicle according to a first aspect of the present invention comprises: a protection device which protects a protection target upon colliding with a vehicle; a measurement device which measures an image of the protection target and a distance from the vehicle to the protection target; and a control device which operates the protection device in a different manner depending on a size of the protection target.

A vehicle according to a second aspect of the present invention is a vehicle comprising the pedestrian protecting device for vehicle according to the first aspect of the present invention.

The present invention makes it possible to achieve a pedestrian protecting device for vehicle capable of protection depending on the protection target when the protection target such as a pedestrian collides with the vehicle, and a vehicle provided with the same.

