LiDAR apparatus and method of operating the same
AssigneesSamsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology
InventorsJungwoo Kim, Youngjoon Jo, Kyihwan Park
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Abstract
A light detection and ranging (LiDAR) apparatus and a method of operating the LiDAR apparatus are provided. The LiDAR apparatus includes a light transmitter configured to irradiate a laser pulse towards an object, the laser pulse being generated based on a reference signal; a light receiver configured to receive the laser pulse reflected from the object and configured to obtain a first signal from the received laser pulse; and at least one processor configured to convert the first signal and the reference signal respectively into unipolar signals and configured to detect a flight time of the laser pulse based on a correlation between the converted first signal and the converted reference signal.
Claims14
A light detection and ranging (LiDAR) apparatus, comprising:
- a light transmitter configured to irradiate a laser pulse towards an object, the laser pulse being generated based on a reference signal;
- a light receiver configured to receive the laser pulse reflected from the object and configured to obtain a first signal from the received laser pulse;
- and
- at least one processor configured to convert the first signal into a first unipolar signal and covert the reference signal into a second unipolar signal and configured to detect a flight time of the laser pulse by determining, based on a correlation between the first unipolar signal of the converted first signal and the second unipolar signal of the converted reference signal, a time of receiving, at the light receiver, the laser pulse reflected from the object,
- wherein the at least one processor is further configured to obtain a cross correlation function between the first unipolar signal of the converted first signal and the second unipolar signal of the converted reference signal, and detect the flight time based on a time period from a time point at which the laser pulse generated based on the reference signal is irradiated towards the object to a time point at which a value of the cross correlation function exceeds a preset critical value.
A method of operating a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) apparatus, the method comprising:
- irradiating a laser pulse towards an object, the laser pulse being generated based on a reference signal;
- obtaining a first signal from the laser pulse reflected from the object;
- converting the first signal into a first unipolar signal and covert the reference signal into a second unipolar signal;
- and
- detecting a flight time of the laser pulse by determining, based on a correlation between the first unipolar signal of the converted first signal and the second unipolar signal of the converted reference signal, a time of receiving, at the light receiver, the laser pulse reflected from the object,
- wherein the detecting comprises:
- obtaining a cross correlation function between the first unipolar signal of the converted first signal and the second unipolar signal of the converted reference signal;
- and
- detecting the flight time based on a time period from a time point at which the laser pulse generated based on the reference signal is irradiated towards the object to a time point at which a value of the cross correlation function exceeds a preset critical value.
A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored therein one or more instructions that are executable by a processor, to perform:
- obtaining a first signal from a laser pulse irradiated to and reflected from an object, the laser pulse being generated based on a reference signal;
- converting the first signal into a first unipolar signal and covert the reference signal into a second unipolar signal;
- and
- detecting a flight time of the laser pulse by determining, based on a correlation between the first unipolar signal of the converted first signal and the second unipolar signal of the converted reference signal, a time of receiving, at the light receiver, the laser pulse reflected from the object,
- wherein the detecting comprises:
- obtaining a cross correlation function between the first unipolar signal of the converted first signal and the second unipolar signal of the converted reference signal;
- and
- detecting the flight time based on a time period from a time point at which the laser pulse generated based on the reference signal is irradiated towards the object to a time point at which a value of the cross correlation function exceeds a preset critical value.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.