Ladar pulse deconfliction method
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method comprising:
- encoding a plurality of ladar pulses via a controllable delay between successive ladar pulses, wherein the controllable delay defines the encoding, wherein the encoded ladar pulses comprise n-tuple pulses such that there are n−
1 controllable delays between n successive pulses as part of the encoding, and wherein a different controllable delay is employed between a plurality of the n successive ladar pulses;
transmitting, by a ladar transmitter, the encoded ladar pulses;
receiving a signal, the received signal including the reflected encoded ladar pulses and noise, wherein the noise in the received signal arises in part from interfering ladar pulses from other ladar transmitters; and
identifying the reflected encoded ladar pulses within the received signal based on the controllable delay.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Disclosed herein are a number of example embodiments that employ controllable delays between successive ladar pulses in order to discriminate between “own” ladar pulse reflections and “interfering” ladar pulses reflections by a receiver. Example embodiments include designs where a sparse delay sum circuit is used at the receiver and where a funnel filter is used at the receiver. Also, disclosed are techniques for selecting codes to use for the controllable delays as well as techniques for identifying and tracking interfering ladar pulses and their corresponding delay codes. The use of a ladar system with pulse deconfliction is also disclosed as part of an optical data communication system.
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Citations
68 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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encoding a plurality of ladar pulses via a controllable delay between successive ladar pulses, wherein the controllable delay defines the encoding, wherein the encoded ladar pulses comprise n-tuple pulses such that there are n−
1 controllable delays between n successive pulses as part of the encoding, and wherein a different controllable delay is employed between a plurality of the n successive ladar pulses;transmitting, by a ladar transmitter, the encoded ladar pulses; receiving a signal, the received signal including the reflected encoded ladar pulses and noise, wherein the noise in the received signal arises in part from interfering ladar pulses from other ladar transmitters; and identifying the reflected encoded ladar pulses within the received signal based on the controllable delay. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A method comprising:
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encoding a plurality of ladar pulses via a controllable delay between successive ladar pulses, wherein the controllable delay defines the encoding; transmitting, by a ladar transmitter, the encoded ladar pulses; receiving a signal, the received signal including the reflected encoded ladar pulses and noise, wherein the noise in the received signal arises in part from interfering ladar pulses from other ladar transmitters; and identifying the reflected encoded ladar pulses within the received signal based on the controllable delay; wherein the identifying step comprises; delaying the received signal by the controllable delay to generate a delayed signal; summing the received signal with the delayed signal to generate a delay sum signal; comparing the delay sum signal with a controllable threshold; computing a first data value based on the delayed signal and a controllable value; computing a second data value based on the received signal and the controllable value; comparing the first data value with the received signal; comparing the second data value with the delayed signal; and determining whether the delay sum signal includes the reflected encoded ladar pulses based on the threshold comparison, wherein the determining step comprises determining whether the delay sum signal includes the reflected encoded ladar pulses based on the threshold comparison, the comparison of the first data value with the received signal, and the comparison of the second data value with the delayed signal. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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34. A method comprising:
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encoding a plurality of ladar pulses via a controllable delay between successive ladar pulses, wherein the controllable delay defines the encoding; transmitting, by a ladar transmitter, the encoded ladar pulses; receiving a signal, the received signal including the reflected encoded ladar pulses and noise, wherein the noise in the received signal arises in part from interfering ladar pulses from other ladar transmitters; identifying the reflected encoded ladar pulses within the received signal based on the controllable delay; repeatedly performing the encoding, transmitting, receiving, and identifying steps while the ladar transmitter is in motion; determining whether the moving ladar transmitter has moved into a defined region; and adjusting the controllable delay in response to a determination that the moving ladar transmitter has moved into the defined region. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45)
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46. A method comprising:
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encoding a plurality of ladar pulses via a controllable delay between successive ladar pulses, wherein the controllable delay defines the encoding; selecting the controllable delay based on hashing; transmitting, by a ladar transmitter, the encoded ladar pulses; receiving a signal, the received signal including the reflected encoded ladar pulses and noise, wherein the noise in the received signal arises in part from interfering ladar pulses from other ladar transmitters; and identifying the reflected encoded ladar pulses within the received signal based on the controllable delay. - View Dependent Claims (47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53)
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54. A method comprising:
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encoding a plurality of ladar pulses via a controllable delay between successive ladar pulses, wherein the controllable delay defines the encoding; transmitting, by a ladar transmitter, the encoded ladar pulses; receiving a signal, the received signal including the reflected encoded ladar pulses and noise, wherein the noise in the received signal arises in part from interfering ladar pulses from other ladar transmitters; identifying the reflected encoded ladar pulses within the received signal based on the controllable delay; processing the received signals to extract the controllable delays corresponding to ladar pulses from other ladar transmitters; and storing the extracted controllable delays for the other ladar transmitters. - View Dependent Claims (55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61)
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62. A method comprising:
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encoding a plurality of ladar pulses via a controllable delay between successive ladar pulses, wherein the controllable delay defines the encoding; transmitting, by a ladar transmitter, the encoded ladar pulses; receiving a signal, the received signal including the reflected encoded ladar pulses and noise; and identifying the reflected encoded ladar pulses within the received signal based on the controllable delay; wherein the transmitting step comprises spacing the encoded pulses in a sequence of shorter delays between pulse pairs and longer delays between the pulse pairs with the shorter delays; and wherein the receiving step comprises processing the reflected encoded ladar pulses such that a first set of reflections from the sequence are processed through a delay path and a second set of reflections from the sequence are processed through a non-delayed path. - View Dependent Claims (63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68)
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Specification