Method and Apparatus for an Adaptive Ladar Receiver
First Claim
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1. A ladar receiver apparatus comprising:
- an array comprising a plurality of light sensors, each light sensor configured to sense light that is indicative of a plurality of ladar pulses reflected from a plurality of range points and generate a signal indicative of the sensed light; and
a circuit in communication with the array, the circuit configured to (1) selectively define a plurality of subsets of the light sensors for read out over time to produce a signal representative of the sensed light, the produced signal for use in computing range information with respect to the range points.
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Abstract
Disclosed herein are various embodiments of an adaptive ladar receiver and associated method whereby the active pixels in a photodetector array used for reception of ladar pulse returns can be adaptively controlled based at least in part on where the ladar pulses were targeted. Additional embodiments disclose improved imaging optics for use by the receiver and further adaptive control techniques for selecting which pixels of the photodetector array are used for sensing incident light.
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Citations
30 Claims
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1. A ladar receiver apparatus comprising:
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an array comprising a plurality of light sensors, each light sensor configured to sense light that is indicative of a plurality of ladar pulses reflected from a plurality of range points and generate a signal indicative of the sensed light; and a circuit in communication with the array, the circuit configured to (1) selectively define a plurality of subsets of the light sensors for read out over time to produce a signal representative of the sensed light, the produced signal for use in computing range information with respect to the range points. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method comprising:
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transmitting a ladar pulse toward a targeted range point in a field of view; sensing light via an array of light sensors, wherein the sensed light includes a reflection of the transmitted ladar pulse; selecting a subset of the light sensors in the array based on a location of the targeted range point in the field of view; generating a signal representative of the light sensed by the selected subset; and repeating the transmitting, sensing, selecting, and generating steps for a plurality of different targeted range points in the field of view. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. A method comprising:
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transmitting a plurality of ladar pulses toward a plurality of targeted range points within a scan area; and for a photodetector array comprising a plurality of detector pixels and while the ladar pulses are being transmitted, adaptively controlling which of the detector pixels are activated at a given time to sense light for use in range processing based a relationship between locations of the detector pixels in the photodetector array and locations of the targeted range points in the scan area.
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Specification