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US 10,761,196 B2Granted
Adaptive ladar receiving method
AssigneeAeye, Inc.
InventorsLuis Carlos Dussan, Allan Steinhardt, David Cook
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Abstract
Disclosed herein are various embodiment 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.
Claims49
A method comprising:
- transmitting a ladar pulse toward a targeted range point in a field of view;
- sensing light incident on an array of light sensors to generate sensor signals by the light sensors, wherein the sensor signals correspond to the sensed light, and wherein the sensed light includes a reflection of the transmitted ladar pulse;
- controlling which of the sensor signals are used for range computation by selecting a subset of the light sensors in the light sensor array based on a location of the targeted range point in the field of view;
- processing the sensor signal or sensor signals corresponding to the selected subset;
- computing range information attributable to the targeted range point based on the processed sensor signal or sensor signals corresponding to the selected subset;
- and
- repeating the transmitting, sensing, controlling, processing, and computing steps for a plurality of different targeted range points in the field of view.
4 more elements
A method comprising:
- 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 on a relationship between locations of the detector pixels in the photodetector array and locations of the targeted range points in the scan area.
A method comprising:
- sensing light via an array, the array including a plurality of light sensors, each light sensor generating a signal indicative of the sensed light, wherein the sensed light includes a plurality of ladar pulses reflected from a plurality of targeted range points in a scan area;
- selecting a light sensor within the array via a multiplexer based on a relationship between locations of the light sensors in the array and locations of the targeted range points in the scan area;
- passing the signal generated by the selected light sensor to a signal processing circuit via the multiplexer;
- amplifying the passed signal via the signal processing circuit, the amplified signal for processing to compute range information with respect to a range point;
- and
- repeating the selecting, passing, and amplifying steps with respect to a plurality of light sensors over time to support a computation of range information with respect to a plurality of the targeted range points.
3 more elements
A method comprising:
- for each of a plurality of frames, selecting a subset of range points within a frame per frame;
- selectively scanning a plurality of mirrors to target the selected range points for each frame;
- transmitting a plurality of ladar pulses toward the targeted range points via the scanning mirrors, whereupon the ladar pulses are reflected from the range points;
- sensing light that includes the reflected ladar pulses;
- generated a signal indicative of the sensed light;
- digitizing the signal into a plurality of digital samples;
- and
- interpolating, by an FPGA, the digital samples to compute range information for the range points.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.