Sizing the field of view of a detector to improve operation of a lidar system

• US 10,641,874 B2
• Filed: 09/20/2017
• Issued: 05/05/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Luminar Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Luminar Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Campbell, Scott R., Martin, Lane A., Weed, Matthew D., Eichenholz, Jason M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Alsomiri, Isam A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Askarian, Amir J
• Application Number:
  US15/710,744
• Publication Number:
  US 20180284241A1
• Time in Patent Office: 958 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/10 using transmission of interrupted, pulse-modulated waves determination of distance by phase measurements G01S17/32
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/42 Simultaneous measurement of distance and other co-ordinates indirect measurement G01S17/46
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/486 Receivers
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/4861 Circuits for detection, sampling, integration or read-out
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/4865 Time delay measurement, e.g. time-of-flight measurement, time of arrival measurement or determining the exact position of a peak peak detection in noise, signal conditioning G01S7/487
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/4868 Controlling received signal intensity or exposure of sensor

Abstract

A lidar system includes a light source, a scanner, and a receiver and is configured to detect remote targets located up to R_MAX meters away. The receiver includes a detector with a field of view larger than the light-source field of view. The scanner causes the detector field of view to move relative to the instantaneous light-source field of view along the scan direction, so that (i) when a pulse of light is emitted, the instantaneous light-source field of view is approximately centered within the detector field of view, and (ii) when a scattered pulse of light returns from a target located R_MAX meters away, the instantaneous light-source field of view is located near an edge of the field of view of the detector and is contained within the field of view of the detector.

Claims

1. A lidar system comprising:

a light source configured to emit pulses of light along a light-source field of view (FOV);

a scanner configured to scan the light-source FOV across a field of regard (FOR) of the lidar system and direct the pulses of light along a scan direction, wherein each of the pulses illuminates a respective instantaneous light-source FOV which corresponds to the light-source FOV at a time when the pulse is emitted; and

a receiver configured to detect the pulses of light scattered by one or more targets, the receiver including a detector with a detector FOV that corresponds to an angular region over which the detector is configured to receive scattered light, wherein;

the light-source FOV is smaller than the detector FOV,

the system is configured to detect the one or more targets, wherein the one or more targets are located up to R_MAX meters away, and

the scanner causes the detector FOV to move relative to the instantaneous light-source FOV along the scan direction, so that (i) when a pulse of light is emitted, the instantaneous light-source FOV is approximately centered within the detector FOV, and (ii) when a scattered pulse of light returns from a first target of the one or more targets, the first target located R_MAX meters away, the instantaneous light-source FOV is located near an edge of the detector FOV.

2. The lidar system of claim 1, wherein the system is configured to deactivate or reduce a gain of the receiver for a period of time from when the pulse of light is emitted until the pulse of light can return from a second target of the one or more targets, the second target located M meters away, wherein M is less than R_MAX.

3. The lidar system of claim 2, further comprising a controller configured to generate a signal that controls when the receiver is activated or deactivated or when the receiver gain is changed.

4. The lidar system of claim 2, wherein the receiver includes a pulse-detection circuit comprising an amplifier, and wherein to deactivate or reduce the gain of the receiver, the system is configured to reduce or remove voltage from the amplifier or reduce or remove a reverse-bias voltage applied to the detector.

5. The lidar system of claim 1, wherein the receiver is configured to apply different gains to the detector at different positions of the detector FOV relative to the instantaneous light-source FOV.

6. The lidar system of claim 1, wherein the scan direction is a first direction that corresponds to a forward scan, and wherein during a back scan, the scanner causes the detector FOV to move relative to the instantaneous light-source FOV along a second direction opposite the first direction.

7. The lidar system of claim 6, wherein the scanner includes a galvanometer actuator that drives a mirror along the first direction during the forward scan and along the second direction during the back scan.

8. The lidar system of claim 1, wherein the detector includes an InGaAs or silicon avalanche photodiode that produces a larger electric signal in response to a larger amount of detected light.

9. The lidar system of claim 1, further comprising a controller configured to control a timing of emitting the pulses of light from the light source.

10. The lidar system of claim 1, wherein the detector FOV is approximately L times larger than the light-source FOV, wherein L is between 1.1 and 10.

11. A method in a lidar system for scanning a field of regard of the lidar system configured to detect one or more targets located up to Ruff meters away, the method comprising:

generating a light pulse for each of a plurality of different scanning positions of a scanner along a scan direction, wherein each of the generated pulses illuminates a respective instantaneous light-source field of view (FOV) which corresponds to a light-source FOV at a time when the pulse is emitted; and

receiving scattered light pulses scattered from the one or more targets in at least some of the plurality of different scanning positions, using a detector with a detector FOV that corresponds to an angular region over which the detector is configured to receive scattered light, wherein the light-source FOV is smaller than the detector FOV, including causing the detector FOV to move relative to the instantaneous light-source FOV along the scan direction, so that (i) when a pulse of light is emitted, the instantaneous light-source FOV is approximately centered within the detector FOV, and (ii) when a scattered pulse of light returns from a first target of the one or more targets, the first target located R_MAX meters away, the instantaneous light-source FOV is located near an edge of the detector FOV.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

when another scattered pulse of light returns from a target located more than R_MAX meters away, causing the instantaneous light-source FOV to be at least partially outside the detector FOV.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

generating a subsequent pulse of light, and

causing an instantaneous light-source FOV associated with the subsequent pulse to be approximately centered within the detector FOV when the subsequent pulse of light is generated.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein when another scattered pulse of light returns from a second target of the one or more targets, the second target located less than R_MAX meters away, the instantaneous light-source FOV is fully contained within the detector FOV between a center of the detector FOV and the edge of the detector FOV.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

deactivating or reducing a gain of the detector for a period of time from when the pulse of light is emitted until the pulse of light can return from a second target of the one or more targets, the second target located M meters away, wherein M is less than R_MAX.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising generating, by a controller, a signal that controls when the detector is activated or deactivated or when the gain of the detector is changed.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising controlling, using a controller communicatively coupled to the light source, a timing of emitting the pulses of lights from the light source.