9406 results about "Lidar" patented technology

Position information of equipment at an event, such as a ball, one or more players, or other items in a game or sporting event, is used in selecting camera, camera shot type, camera angle, audio signals, and / or other output data for providing a multimedia presentation of the event to a viewer. The position information is used to determine the desired viewer perspective. A network of feedback robotically controlled Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ), manually controlled cameras and stationary cameras work together with interpolation techniques to create a 2D video signal. The position information may also be used to access gaming rules and assist officiating of the event. The position information may be obtained through a transceiver(s), accelerometer(s), transponder(s), and / or RADAR detectable element(s) fitted into the ball, apparel or equipment of players, the players themselves, or other playing equipment associated with the game or sporting event. Other positioning methods that can be used include infrared video-based tracking systems, SONAR positioning system(s), LIDAR positioning systems, and digital signal processing (DSP) image processing techniques such as triangulation.

A Laser Imaging, Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) system that automatically adjusts laser output so that no eye damage occurs to human targets. In one example, a component automatically measures range to targets in a field of view and determines the closest targets based on the measured range. A laser device outputs a laser beam and a controller adjusts one of pulse repetition frequency, power, or pulse duration of the laser device based on the measured range of the closest target in order to comply with a predefined eye safety model.

A lidar-based system and method are used for the solid state beamforming and steering of laser beams using optical phased array (OPA) photonic integrated circuits (PICs) and the detection of laser beams using photodetectors. Transmitter and receiver electronics, power management electronics, control electronics, data conversion electronics and processing electronics are also included in the system and used in the method.Laser pulses beamformed by the OPA PIC reflect from objects in the field of view (FOV) of said OPA, and are detected by a detector or a set of detectors.A lidar system includes at least one lidar, and any subset and any number of complementary sensors, data processing / communication / storage modules, and a balance of system for supplying power, protecting, connecting, and mounting the components of said system.Direct correlation between the 3D point cloud generated by the lidar and the color images captured by an RGB (Red, Green, Blue) video camera can be achieved by using an optical beam splitter that sends optical signals simultaneously to both sensors.A lidar system may contain a plurality of lidar sensors, a lidar sensor may contain a plurality of optical transmitters, and an optical transmitter may contain a plurality of OPA PICs.

A lidar-based apparatus and method are used for multi-signal detection, weak signal detection and signal disambiguation through waveform approximation utilizing a multi-channel time-to-digital converter (TDC) electronic circuit, with each TDC having an individually adjustable voltage threshold. This advanced TDC-based pulse width time-of-flight (ToF) approach achieves the low cost associated with the TDC-based pulse width ToF approach while solving the signal quality issues associated with the standard single-threshold TDC-based approach.

A method and apparatus for automatically generating a three-dimensional computer model from a “point cloud” of a scene produced by a laser radar (LIDAR) system. Given a point cloud of an indoor or outdoor scene, the method extracts certain structures from the imaged scene, i.e., ceiling, floor, furniture, rooftops, ground, and the like, and models these structures with planes and / or prismatic structures to achieve a three-dimensional computer model of the scene. The method may then add photographic and / or synthetic texturing to the model to achieve a realistic model.

A three-dimensional mapping system comprising a moderate number (typically 2 to 4) of moderate-beam-count (typically 8-beam to 16-beam) lidar sensors is proposed to achieve low cost systems with wide fields of view. Secondary advantages include compact sensors and a small minimum range (possible by optimal placement of each of a plurality of sensors).

A method and apparatus are provided to acquire direct thermal measurements, for example, from a LiDAR collecting vehicle or air vessel, of an overhead electrical conductor substantially simultaneous with collection of 3-dimensional location data of the conductor, and utilize temperature information derived from the direct thermal measurements in line modeling, line rating, thermal line analysis, clearance analysis, and / or vegetation management.

A system and method for acquiring spatial mapping information of surface data points defining a region unable to receive effective GPS signals, such as the interior of a building, includes an IMU for dynamically determining geographical positions relative to at least one fixed reference point, a LIDAR or camera for determining range of the IMU to each surface data point, and a processor to determine position data for each surface data point relative to the at least one reference point. A digital camera obtains characteristic image data, including color data, of the surface data points, and the processor correlates the position data and image data for the surface data points to create an image of the region.

Various embodiments are disclosed for improved scanning ladar transmission, including but not limited to an example embodiment where the scanning ladar transmission system includes a spinning polygon mirror for targeting range points according to a dynamic scan pattern.

A method and apparatus for automatically generating a three-dimensional computer model from a “point cloud” of a scene produced by a laser radar (LIDAR) system. Given a point cloud of an indoor or outdoor scene, the method extracts certain structures from the imaged scene, i.e., ceiling, floor, furniture, rooftops, ground, and the like, and models these structures with planes and / or prismatic structures to achieve a three-dimensional computer model of the scene. The method may then add photographic and / or synthetic texturing to the model to achieve a realistic model.

Various embodiments are disclosed for improved scanning ladar transmission, including but not limited to an example embodiment where closed loop feedback control is used to finely control mirror scan positions.

A LIDAR system is provided. The LIDAR system comprises at least one processor configured to: control at least one light source in a manner enabling light intensity to vary over a scan of a field of view using light from the at least one light source; control at least one light deflector to deflect light from the at least one light source; obtain an identification of at least one distinct region of interest in the field of view; and increase light allocation to the at least one distinct region of interest relative to other regions, such that following a first scanning cycle, light intensity in at least one subsequent second scanning cycle at locations associated with the at least one distinct region of interest is higher than light intensity in the first scanning cycle at the locations associated with the at least one distinct region of interest.

Methods and systems for performing three dimensional LIDAR measurements with a highly integrated LIDAR measurement device are described herein. In one aspect, the illumination source, detector, and illumination drive are integrated onto a single printed circuit board. In addition, in some embodiments, the associated control and signal conditioning electronics are also integrated onto the common printed circuit board. Furthermore, in some embodiments, the illumination drive and the illumination source are integrated onto a common Gallium Nitride substrate that is independently packaged and attached to the printed circuit board. In another aspect, the illumination light emitted from the illumination source and the return light directed toward the detector share a common optical path within the integrated LIDAR measurement device. In some embodiments, the return light is separated from the illumination light by a beam splitter. In some other embodiments, the optical design avoids losses associated with a beam splitter.

The present invention relates to a scanning system optimized for lidar that includes a nodding mirror, a rotary electromagnetic drive, a rotary optical encoder, and control circuitry. The rotary electromagnetic drive includes a yoke incorporating a permanent magnet, and an arm having a coil at one end of the arm. The coil is enclosed within the yoke, and an opposite end of the arm is coupled to the nodding mirror, such that movement of the coil within the yoke in response to a current causes the nodding mirror to rotate. The rotary optical encoder produces an output signal in response to rotation of the nodding mirror, which serves as feedback to the control circuitry. The control circuitry adjusts the current provided to the rotary electromagnetic drive in response to the output signal, such that the nodding mirror rotates in a reference scan pattern.

This invention is directed to a 3-dimensional imaging lidar, which utilizes modest power kHz rate lasers, array detectors, photon-counting multi-channel timing receivers, and dual wedge optical scanners with transmitter point-ahead correction to provide contiguous high spatial resolution mapping of surface features including ground, water, man-made objects, vegetation and submerged surfaces from an aircraft or a spacecraft.

A self-driving vehicle with an integrated fully-active suspension system. The fully-active suspension utilizes data from one or more sensors used for autonomous driving (e.g. vision, LIDAR, GPS) in order to anticipate road conditions in advance. The system builds a topographical map of the road surface. Suspension and road data is delivered back to the vehicle in order to change autonomous driving behavior including route planning. Energy storage is regulated based on a planned route. Forward and lateral acceleration feel is mitigated through active pitch and tilt compensation. The fully-active suspension pushes and pulls the suspension in three or more operational quadrants in order to deliver superior ride comfort, handling, and / safety of the vehicle.

A one-dimensional planar beam forming and steering optical phased array chip is a simple building block of a two-dimensional beam forming and steering solid-state lidar, enabling manufacturing of said lidars at high yield and low cost through the use of a plurality of said chips. Innovative photonic integrated circuit chip architectures that follow design for manufacturing rules enable said building blocks.

Methods and systems for performing three dimensional LIDAR measurements with different pulse repetition patterns are described herein. Each repetitive pattern is a sequence of measurement pulses that repeat over time. In one aspect, the repetition pattern of a pulsed beam of illumination light emitted from a LIDAR system is varied to reduce total energy consumption and heat generated by the LIDAR system. In some examples, the repetitive pattern is varied by skipping a number of pulses. In some examples, the repetitive pattern of pulses of illumination light emitted from the LIDAR system is varied by changing a repetition rate of the sequence of emitted pulses. In some examples, the pulse repetition pattern is varied based on the orientation of the LIDAR device. In some examples, the repetition pattern is varied based on an object detected by the LIDAR device or another imaging system.

Several systems and a method are taught for rapid modulation of a light beam in lidar and other imaging. Most of these involve micromechanical and other very small control components. One such unit is a light-switching fabric, based on displacement of liquid in a tube that crosses a junction of two optical waveguides. In some forms, the fabric is preferably flexible to enable folding or coiling to form a two-dimensional face that interacts with optical-fiber ends an opposed fiber bundle. The rapid operation of the switch fabric enables it to be used as a beam-splitter, separating incoming and return beams; and also to form pulses from supplied CW light. Other control components include micromechanical mirrors (e. g. MEMS mirrors) operated in arrays or singly, liquid-crystal devices, and other controlled-birefringence cells. Some of these devices are placed within an optical system for directional light-beam steering.

An apparatus and method are used for real-time wide-field-of-view ranging with a time-of-flight lidar sensor having one or a plurality of laser emitters and one or a plurality of photodetectors. When a plurarity of laser emitters are used, they are preferably copackaged or are in the form of an integrated multi-emitter chip or emitting multi-chip module in a single package, and when a plurarity of photoreceivers are used, they are preferably copackaged or are in the form of an integrated multi-photoreceiver chip or photoreceiving multi-chip module in a single package. Furthermore, the apparatus comprises any combination of (a) no moving external parts in contact with the environment, (b) wireless energy and data transfer between the static and the moving parts of the lidar, and (c) protective body, sealant and / or damage-resistant tamper-resistant theft-resistant cage.

Methods and systems for performing multiple pulse LIDAR measurements are presented herein. In one aspect, each LIDAR measurement beam illuminates a location in a three dimensional environment with a sequence of multiple pulses of illumination light. Light reflected from the location is detected by a photosensitive detector of the LIDAR system during a measurement window having a duration that is greater than or equal to the time of flight of light from the LIDAR system out to the programmed range of the LIDAR system, and back. The pulses in a measurement pulse sequence can vary in magnitude and duration. Furthermore, the delay between pulses and the number of pulses in each measurement pulse sequence can also be varied. In some embodiments, the multi-pulse illumination beam is encoded and the return measurement pulse sequence is decoded to distinguish the measurement pulse sequence from exogenous signals.

A lidar-based apparatus and method are used for the solid state steering of laser beams using Photonic Integrated Circuits. Integrated optic design and fabrication micro- and nanotechnologies are used for the production of chip-scale optical splitters that distribute an optical signal from a laser essentially uniformly to an array of pixels, said pixels comprising tunable optical delay lines and optical antennas. Said antennas achieve out-of-plane coupling of light.As the delay lines of said antenna-containing pixels in said array are tuned, each antenna emits light of a specific phase to form a desired far-field radiation pattern through interference of these emissions. Said array serves the function of solid state optical phased array.By incorporating a large number of antennas, high-resolution far-field patterns can be achieved by an optical phased array, supporting the radiation pattern beam forming and steering needed in solid state lidar, as well as the generation of arbitrary radiation patterns as needed in three-dimensional holography, optical memory, mode matching for optical space-division multiplexing, free space communications, and biomedical sciences. Whereas imaging from an array is conventionally transmitted through the intensity of the pixels, the optical phased array allows imaging through the control of the optical phase of pixels that receive coherent light waves from a single source.

The present invention relates to a scanning system optimized for lidar that includes a nodding mirror, a rotary electromagnetic drive, a rotary optical encoder, and control circuitry. The rotary electromagnetic drive includes a yoke incorporating a permanent magnet, and an arm having a coil at one end of the arm. The coil is enclosed within the yoke, and an opposite end of the arm is coupled to the nodding mirror, such that movement of the coil within the yoke in response to a current causes the nodding mirror to rotate. The rotary optical encoder produces an output signal in response to rotation of the nodding mirror, which serves as feedback to the control circuitry. The control circuitry adjusts the current provided to the rotary electromagnetic drive in response to the output signal, such that the nodding mirror rotates in a reference scan pattern.

The present disclosure describes a system and method for coaxial LiDAR scanning. The system includes a first light source configured to provide first light pulses. The system also includes one or more beam steering apparatuses optically coupled to the first light source. Each beam steering apparatus comprises a rotatable concave reflector and a light beam steering device disposed at least partially within the rotatable concave reflector. The combination of the light beam steering device and the rotatable concave reflector, when moving with respect to each other, steers the one or more first light pulses both vertically and horizontally to illuminate an object within a field-of-view; obtain one or more first returning light pulses, the one or more first returning light pulses being generated based on the steered first light pulses illuminating an object within the field-of-view, and redirects the one or more first returning light pulses.

A method for developing a map of objects in a region surrounding a location is disclosed. The method includes interrogating the region along a detection axis with a series of optical pulses and detecting reflections of the optical pulses that originate at objects located along the detection axis. A multi-dimensional map of the region is developed by scanning the detection axis about the location in at least one dimension. The reflections are detected via a single-photon detector that is armed using a sub-gating scheme such that the single-photon detector selectively detects photons of reflections that originate only within each of a plurality of zones that collectively define the detection field. In some embodiments, the optical pulses have a wavelength within the range of 1350 nm to 1390 nm, which is a spectral range having a relatively high eye-safety threshold and a relatively low solar background.

A system for detecting airborne agents. The system can include a laser source that provides laser pulses of at least two wavelengths, a transmitter that transmits the laser pulses, and a coupling mechanism configured to remotely couple the laser pulses between the laser source and the transmitter. The system can include a receiver receives both elastically backscattered signals from airborne agents and fluorescence signals from the airborne agents. The system can include a telescope both transmits a collimated laser beam of the laser pulse from the transmitter to a far field and receives the elastically backscattered signals and the fluorescence signals from the far field. The system can include a detection system having at least one of a backscatter optical detector that detects the elastically backscattered signals and one or more fluorescence optical detectors that detect the fluorescence signals in selected spectral band(s) from the airborne agents.

Methods and systems for performing three dimensional LIDAR measurements with varying illumination field density are described herein. A LIDAR device includes a plurality of pulse illumination sources and corresponding detectors. The current pulses supplied to the pulse illumination sources are varied to reduce total energy consumption and heat generated by the LIDAR system. In some embodiments, the number of active pulse illumination sources is varied based on the orientation of the LIDAR device, the distance between the LIDAR device and an object detected by the LIDAR device, an indication of an operating temperature of the LIDAR device, or a combination thereof. In some embodiments, the number of active pulse illumination sources is varied based on the presence of an object detected by the LIDAR device or another imaging system.

A method and apparatus for performing wide area terrain mapping. The system comprises a digital elevation map (DEM) and mosaic generation engine that processes images that are simultaneously captured by an electro-optical camera (RGB camera) and a LIDAR sensor. The image data collected by both the camera and the LIDAR sensor are processed to create a geometrically accurate three-dimensional view of objects viewed from an aerial platform.