Vehicle-mounted light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system

A movable system, comprising:

• a movable platform that includes a motorized drive to cause the movable platform to move in position, and a compartment located in an interior part of the movable platform and structured to provide an enclosure that is separated and protected from surroundings;
• and
• a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system mounted to the movable platform to include a probe fiber laser module located on the movable platform and structured to produce pulsed probe laser light and scan the pulsed probe laser light out to a surrounding area for optically sensing presence of one or more objects in the surrounding area based on detection of reflected probe laser light from the one or more objects, wherein the probe fiber laser module includes a base laser module located inside the enclosure of the compartment and remote laser modules that are distributed at the platform instrument holding portions to scan the pulsed probe laser light out to the surrounding area for optically sensing presence of one or more objects in the surrounding area,
• wherein the base laser module that includes
• a seed probe laser module to produce pulsed seed probe laser light at a probe laser wavelength,
• a booster pump laser module to produce booster pump laser light at a booster pump laser wavelength,
• a booster optical amplifier that is coupled to receive both the pulsed seed probe laser light and the booster pump laser light, and is optically energized by the booster pump laser light to amplify the pulsed seed probe laser light to produce an output probe laser beam of amplified probe laser pulses,
• an optical splitter that splits the output probe laser beam of amplified probe laser pulses into different probe laser outputs;
• and
• a plurality of base laser output ports that receive, respectively, different probe laser outputs from the optical splitter,
• wherein the LIDAR system includes a plurality of probe fiber links coupled to the base laser output ports to respectively receive the different probe laser outputs at the probe laser wavelength so that each probe fiber link is coupled to carry a probe laser output, and
• wherein the remote laser modules are physically separated from the base laser module and are located at different remote laser module locations from one another, each remote laser module coupled to one probe fiber link from a corresponding base laser output port of the base laser module, wherein each remote laser module includes an optical scanner that scans a received probe laser output as a scanning output probe laser beam.

A movable system, comprising:

• a movable platform that includes a motorized drive to cause the movable platform to move in position, and a compartment located in an interior part of the movable platform and structured to provide an enclosure that is separated and protected from surroundings;
• and
• a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system mounted to the movable platform to include a probe fiber laser module located on the movable platform and structured to produce pulsed probe laser light and scan the pulsed probe laser light out to a surrounding area for optically sensing presence of one or more objects in the surrounding area based on detection of reflected probe laser light from the one or more objects, wherein the probe fiber laser module includes a base laser module located inside the enclosure of the compartment and remote laser modules that are distributed at the platform instrument holding portions to scan the pulsed probe laser light out to the surrounding area for optically sensing presence of one or more objects in the surrounding area,
• wherein the base laser module includes
• a seed probe laser module to produce pulsed seed probe laser light at a probe laser wavelength,
• an optical splitter that splits the pulsed seed probe laser light from the seed probe laser module into different seed probe laser beams;
• different booster pump lasers to produce booster pump laser beams at a booster pump laser wavelength,
• booster optical amplifiers coupled such that each booster optical amplifier receives a corresponding booster pump laser beam and is optically energized by the booster pump laser light to amplify the pulsed seed probe laser light to produce an output probe laser beam of amplified probe laser pulses, and
• a plurality of base laser output ports that receive, respectively, different probe laser outputs from the booster optical amplifiers,
• wherein the LIDAR system includes a plurality of probe fiber links coupled to the base laser output ports to respectively receive the different probe laser outputs at the probe laser wavelength so that each probe fiber link is coupled to carry a probe laser output, and
• wherein the remote laser modules are physically separated from the base laser module and are located at different remote laser module locations from one another, each remote laser module coupled to one probe fiber link from a corresponding base laser output port of the base laser module, wherein each remote laser module includes an optical scanner that scans a received probe laser output as a scanning output probe laser beam.

A movable system, comprising:

• a movable platform that includes a motorized drive to cause the movable platform to move in position, and a compartment located in an interior part of the movable platform and structured to provide an enclosure that is separated and protected from surroundings;
• and
• a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system mounted to the movable platform to include a probe fiber laser module located on the movable platform and structured to produce pulsed probe laser light and scan the pulsed probe laser light out to a surrounding area for optically sensing presence of one or more objects in the surrounding area based on detection of reflected probe laser light from the one or more objects, wherein the probe fiber laser module includes a base laser module located inside the enclosure of the compartment and remote laser modules that are distributed at the platform instrument holding portions to scan the pulsed probe laser light out to the surrounding area for optically sensing presence of one or more objects in the surrounding area,
• wherein the base laser module includes
• a seed probe laser module to produce pulsed seed probe laser light at a probe laser wavelength,
• an optical splitter that splits the pulsed seed probe laser light from the seed probe laser module into different seed probe laser beams;
• first booster pump lasers to produce first booster pump laser beams at a booster pump laser wavelength;
• second booster pump lasers to produce second booster pump laser beams at the booster pump laser wavelength;
• base module optical combiners coupled to receive the different seed probe laser beams from a first portion of the seed probe laser beams output by the optical splitter, respectively, and further coupled to receive the first booster pump laser beams of the fist booster pump lasers, respectively, each base module optical combiner operable to combine a received first booster pump laser beam and a received seed probe laser beam into a combined beam;
• base module booster optical amplifiers coupled to the base module optical combiners, respectively, such that each base module booster optical amplifier receives a combined beam from a corresponding base module optical combiner, is optically energized by the booster pump laser light to amplify the pulsed seed probe laser light to produce an output probe laser beam of amplified probe laser pulses;
• first base laser output ports that receive, respectively, different output probe laser beams from the base module booster optical amplifiers;
• and
• second base laser output ports that receive, respectively, a second portion of the seed probe laser beams output by the optical splitter and the second booster pump laser beams from the second booster pump lasers,
• wherein the LIDAR system includes first probe fiber links coupled to the first base laser output ports to respectively receive the different probe laser outputs at the probe laser wavelength amplified by the base module booster optical amplifiers, second probe fiber link coupled to the second base laser output ports to respectively receive the different seed probe laser beams in the second portion of the seed probe laser beams that are not amplified by the base module booster pump amplifiers, and pump fiber links coupled to the second base laser output ports to receive the second booster pump laser beams, respectively, so that each pump fiber link is coupled to carry a second booster pump laser beam,
• wherein the LIDAR system includes first remote laser modules that are physically separated from the base laser module and coupled to the first probe fiber links, respectively, each remote laser module coupled to one first probe fiber link, wherein each first remote laser module includes an optical scanner that scans a received probe laser output as a first scanning output probe laser beam, and
• wherein the LIDAR system includes second remote laser modules that are physically separated from the base laser module and coupled to the second probe fiber links and the pump fiber links, each second remote laser module coupled to one second probe fiber link and one pump fiber link to receive a pair of a seed probe laser beam in the second portion of the seed probe laser beams that are not amplified by the base module booster pump amplifiers and a second booster pump laser output, wherein each second remote laser module includes (1) a remote booster optical amplifier that is coupled to receive, and is optically energized by, a received second booster pump laser output to amplify a received seed probe laser beam, without electrical power, to produce a second output probe laser beam of amplified probe laser pulses, and (2) an optical scanner that scans the second output probe laser beam from the remote booster optical amplifier as a second scanning output probe laser beam.

A movable system, comprising:

• a movable platform that includes a motorized drive to cause the movable platform to move in position, and a compartment located in an interior part of the movable platform and structured to provide an enclosure that is separated and protected from surroundings;
• and
• a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system mounted to the movable platform to include a probe fiber laser module located on the movable platform and structured to produce pulsed probe laser light and scan the pulsed probe laser light out to a surrounding area for optically sensing presence of one or more objects in the surrounding area based on detection of reflected probe laser light from the one or more objects, wherein the probe fiber laser module includes a base laser module located inside the enclosure of the compartment and remote laser modules that are distributed at the platform instrument holding portions to scan the pulsed probe laser light out to the surrounding area for optically sensing presence of one or more objects in the surrounding area,
• wherein the base laser module includes
• a seed probe laser module to produce pulsed seed probe laser light at a probe laser wavelength,
• base laser module driver circuitry coupled to supply electric power to the seed probe laser module for producing the pulsed seed probe laser light, and
• a plurality of base laser output ports that carry a plurality of base laser outputs, respectively, wherein each base laser output includes a base seed probe laser output at the probe laser wavelength from the pulsed seed probe laser light by the seed probe laser module;
• wherein the LIDAR system includes a plurality of probe fiber links coupled to the base laser output ports to respectively receive the base laser outputs at the probe laser wavelength so that each probe fiber link is coupled to carry a base laser output from a corresponding base laser output port of the base laser module, and
• wherein the remote laser modules are physically separated from the base laser module and are located at different remote laser module locations from one another, each remote laser module coupled to one probe fiber link to receive a base seed laser output from a corresponding base laser output port of the base laser module, different remote laser modules respectively coupled to different base laser output ports of the base laser module,
• wherein each remote laser module includes
• a booster pump laser module to produce booster pump laser light at a booster pump laser wavelength,
• a remote booster optical amplifier that is coupled to receive, and is optically energized by, the booster pump laser light to amplify a received base probe laser output to produce an output probe laser beam of amplified probe laser pulses,
• an optical scanner that scans the output probe laser beam of amplified probe laser pulses, and
• remote laser module driver circuitry coupled to supply electric power to the booster pump laser module and the optical scanner.