Temperature based control in LIDAR

A vehicle, comprising:

• a vehicle body;
• at least one light source configured to project light toward a field of view for illuminating a plurality of objects in an environment of the vehicle;
• at least one processor located within the vehicle body and configured to:
• control the at least one light source in a manner enabling light flux of light from the at least one light source to vary over scans of a plurality of portions of the field of view, wherein during scanning of the field of view, heat is radiated from a system component among a plurality of system components;
• receive information indicating that a temperature associated with at least one system component among the plurality of system components exceeds a threshold;
• and
• in response to the received information, modify an illumination ratio between two portions of the field of view such that during at least one subsequent scanning cycle, less light is delivered to the field of view than in a prior scanning cycle.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform a method for detecting objects using a LIDAR system including at least one light source configured to project light toward a field of view for illuminating a plurality of objects in an environment of a vehicle, the method comprising:

• controlling the at least one light source in a manner enabling light flux of light from the at least one light source to vary over scans of a plurality of portions of the field of view, wherein during scanning of the field of view, heat is radiated from a system component among a plurality of system components;
• receiving information indicating that a temperature associated with at least one system component among the plurality of system components exceeds a threshold;
• and
• in response to the received information, modifying an illumination ratio between two portions of the field of view such that during at least one subsequent scanning cycle less light is delivered to the field of view than in a prior scanning cycle.