ROAD SHAPE RECOGNITION DEVICE

A road shape recognition device includes: distance and height detecting means for detecting distance data having a distance and height in real space regarding a road surface where a vehicle is traveling at multiple mutually different points; approximation line calculating means for dividing the plurality of distance data into near and far groups as viewed from the vehicle to calculate an approximation line of the distance data for each group each time the distance data of the boundary portion between the two groups is transferred from one of the groups to the other; statistics calculating means for calculating statistics from the corresponding approximation line for each group where the distance data is transferred; and road shape model generating means for selecting one out of combinations of the approximation lines to generate a road shape model using the selected combination.