CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority to and the benefit of Japanese Patent Application No. 2019-009735 filed on Jan. 23, 2019, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a moving body control apparatus.

Description of the Related Art

There is known a vehicle in which a camera has been provided in the vehicle to capture the periphery of the vehicle. In such a vehicle, the camera captures the periphery of the vehicle through a portion of a window part. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2017-206098 proposes a technique of arranging a heater to remove or prevent the fogging of a portion of a window part which falls within the field of view of the camera.

As an air-conditioning device incorporated in a moving body such as a vehicle or the like, there is an air-conditioning device that can switch the in-vehicle air-conditioning state between an inside air circulation state and an outside air introduction state. In the case of the inside air circulation state, the humidity inside the vehicle tends to increase more easily than in the outside air introduction state. As a result, the fogging of the portion of the window part which falls within the field of view of the camera will occur more frequently.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An embodiment of the present invention provides to more effectively remove or prevent fogging of a portion of a window part which falls within a field of view of an image capturing apparatus.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, a moving body control apparatus comprises: an image capturing unit configured to capture a periphery of a moving body through a transmitting portion which forms a window part of the moving body; a heater configured to be capable of heating the transmitting portion; an air-conditioning unit configured to switch an air-conditioning state in the moving body between an inside air circulation state and an outside air introduction state; a control unit configured to control the heater; and an ambient temperature detection unit configured to detect an ambient temperature, wherein the control unit performs control in which a condition related to the ambient temperature for starting an operation of the heater differs between a case in which the air-conditioning state is set to the inside air circulation state and a case in which the air-conditioning state is set to the outside air introduction state, and starts the operation of the heater when the ambient temperature is not more than a predetermined temperature threshold, and the predetermined temperature threshold of the case in which the air-conditioning state is set to the inside air circulation state is higher than the predetermined temperature threshold in the case in which the air-conditioning state is set to the outside air introduction state.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, a moving body control apparatus comprises: an image capturing unit configured to capture a periphery of a moving body through a transmitting portion which forms a window part of the moving body; a heater configured to be capable of heating the transmitting portion; an air-conditioning unit configured to switch an air-conditioning state in the moving body between an inside air circulation state and an outside air introduction state; a control unit configured to control the heater; and an ambient temperature detection unit configured to detect an ambient temperature, wherein the control unit performs control in which a condition related to the ambient temperature for starting an operation of the heater differs between a case in which the air-conditioning state is set to the inside air circulation state and a case in which the air-conditioning state is set to the outside air introduction state, and starts the operation of the heater when a change amount of the ambient temperature per predetermined time is not less than a predetermined threshold, and the predetermined threshold of the case in which the air-conditioning state is set to the inside air circulation state is smaller than the predetermined threshold in the case in which the air-conditioning state is set to the outside air introduction state.

Further features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments (with reference to the attached drawings).

