Hybrid LADAR with co-planar scanning and imaging field-of-view
First Claim
1. A laser radar (LADAR) comprising:
- a laser configured to emit a wavelength of light;
an optical transmission system configured to shape the light emitted by said laser into a beam, and to scan said beam along a fan of transmission light paths toward a target;
a 1-dimensional array of photo-detectors, capable of time-of-arrival measurements and sensitive to said wavelength of light emitted by said laser;
an optical reception system configured to collect said laser light reflected from the target onto said photo-detectors of said array along a fan of reception light paths;
an electronic control system configured to synchronize said scan of said beam with a respective time-of-arrival measurement from each said photo-detector, and to analyze said time-of-arrival measurements;
wherein all of said transmission light paths and all of said reception light paths lie in one plane;
wherein every said reception light path intersects with at least one of said transmission light paths;
where the laser is pulsed at least once while the transmission path of said scan of said beam intersects the reception paths from each detector in the array;
where each pulse of said laser is timed to coincide with a center of the laser beam being coincident with a center of a field of view (FOV) of one of said photo-detectors; and
where said timed laser pulses are automatically adjusted based on said analyzed time-of-arrival measurements from the array of photo-detectors.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A laser radar includes: a laser, an optical transmission system, a 1-dimensional array of photo-detectors, an optical reception system, and an electronic control system. The laser emits a wavelength of light, and the optical transmission system shapes the light into a beam, and scans the beam along a fan of transmission light paths toward a target. The photo-detectors are capable of time-of-arrival measurements and are sensitive to the wavelength of light. The optical reception system collects the laser light reflected from the target along a fan of reception light paths. The electronic control system synchronizes the scan of the beam with a respective time-of-arrival measurement from each of the photo-detectors, and analyzes the time-of-arrival measurements. The system is configured for all of the transmission light paths and all of the reception light paths to lie in one plane, with all of the reception light paths intersecting with at least one of the transmission light paths.
-
Citations
88 Claims
-
1. A laser radar (LADAR) comprising:
-
a laser configured to emit a wavelength of light; an optical transmission system configured to shape the light emitted by said laser into a beam, and to scan said beam along a fan of transmission light paths toward a target; a 1-dimensional array of photo-detectors, capable of time-of-arrival measurements and sensitive to said wavelength of light emitted by said laser; an optical reception system configured to collect said laser light reflected from the target onto said photo-detectors of said array along a fan of reception light paths; an electronic control system configured to synchronize said scan of said beam with a respective time-of-arrival measurement from each said photo-detector, and to analyze said time-of-arrival measurements; wherein all of said transmission light paths and all of said reception light paths lie in one plane; wherein every said reception light path intersects with at least one of said transmission light paths; where the laser is pulsed at least once while the transmission path of said scan of said beam intersects the reception paths from each detector in the array; where each pulse of said laser is timed to coincide with a center of the laser beam being coincident with a center of a field of view (FOV) of one of said photo-detectors; and where said timed laser pulses are automatically adjusted based on said analyzed time-of-arrival measurements from the array of photo-detectors. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
-
-
29. A laser radar (LADAR) comprising:
-
a laser configured to emit a wavelength of light; an optical transmission system configured to shape the light emitted by said laser into a beam, and to scan said beam along a fan of transmission light paths toward a target; a 1-dimensional array of photo-detectors, capable of time-of-arrival measurements and sensitive to said wavelength of light emitted by said laser; an optical reception system configured to collect said laser light reflected from the target onto said photo-detectors of said array along a fan of reception light paths; an electronic control system configured to synchronize said scan of said beam with a respective time-of-arrival measurement from each said photo-detector, and to analyze said time-of-arrival measurements; wherein all of said transmission light paths and all of said reception light paths lie in one plane; wherein every said reception light path intersects with at least one of said transmission light paths; and where the photodetectors are equipped with multiple time counters configured to record a time of the arrival of multiple light pulses reflected from multiple objects on the path of the laser beam. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58)
-
-
59. A laser radar (LADAR) comprising:
-
a laser configured to emit a wavelength of light; an optical transmission system configured to shape the light emitted by said laser into a beam, and to scan said beam along a fan of transmission light paths toward a target; a 1-dimensional array of photo-detectors, capable of time-of-arrival measurements and sensitive to said wavelength of light emitted by said laser; an optical reception system configured to collect said laser light reflected from the target onto said photo-detectors of said array along a fan of reception light paths; an electronic control system configured to synchronize said scan of said beam with a respective time-of-arrival measurement from each said photo-detector, and to analyze said time-of-arrival measurements; wherein all of said transmission light paths and all of said reception light paths lie in one plane; wherein every said reception light path intersects with at least one of said transmission light paths; and where each pixel of the laser light collected by said photodetectors is subdivided into several sub-pixels, and a response from each of the subpixels is separately amplified and analyzed. - View Dependent Claims (60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88)
-
Specification