Bistatic lidar architecture for vehicle deployments

A system comprising:

• a rear view mirror assembly for a vehicle;
• a lidar transmitter, wherein the lidar transmitter comprises (1) a laser source, (2) a first mirror that is scannable through a plurality of scan angles along a first axis with respect to a field of view to define where the lidar transmitter is aimed along the first axis, and (3) a second mirror that is scannable through a plurality of scan angles along a second axis with respect to the field of view to define where the lidar transmitter is aimed along the second axis;
• a lidar receiver, wherein the lidar receiver comprises a photodetector array, the photodetector array comprising a plurality of pixels for sensing incident light;
• and
• a control circuit that (1) schedules a plurality of laser pulse shots to be fired by the laser source one at a time toward a plurality of shot angles in the field of view via the first and second mirrors, wherein the shot angles correspond to the scan angles of the first and second mirrors when the laser pulse shots are to be fired, (2) provides firing commands to the laser source in accordance with the scheduled laser pulse shots, and (3) for each of a plurality of the laser pulse shots, (i) maps the shot angle for that laser pulse shot to a set of the pixels within the photodetector array and (ii) activates the mapped set of pixels for a detection interval to sense incident light during the detection interval for use in detection of a return from that laser pulse shot, wherein the pixels of the photodetector array that are not members of the mapped set are deactivated during the detection interval with respect to return detection for that laser pulse shot;
• wherein the lidar transmitter and the lidar receiver are arranged bistatically with respect to each other and are included within or connected to the rear view mirror assembly so that a spatial separation between the lidar transmitter and lidar receiver allows the lidar receiver to detect returns from the laser pulse shots via the activated pixel sets while the lidar transmitter fires the laser pulse shots without flashes from the fired laser pulse shots blinding the activated pixel sets;
• and
• wherein the control circuit schedules the laser pulse shots based on a plurality of energy requirements for the laser pulse shots as compared to a laser energy model that models available energy for laser pulse shots from the laser source over time, wherein the laser energy model takes into consideration a retention of energy in the laser source after laser pulse shots and quantitatively predicts available energy amounts for laser pulse shots based on a history of prior laser pulse shots to support the scheduling.

A method comprising:

• positioning a bistatic lidar system inside a climate-controlled compartment of a vehicle, the bistatic lidar system comprising a lidar transmitter and a lidar receiver, wherein the lidar transmitter comprises (1) a laser source, (2) a first mirror, and (3) a second mirror, and wherein the lidar receiver comprises a photodetector array, the photodetector array comprising a plurality of pixels for sensing incident light;
• scanning the first mirror through a plurality of scan angles along a first axis with respect to a field of view to define where the lidar transmitter is aimed along the first axis;
• scanning the second mirror through a plurality of scan angles along a second axis with respect to the field of view to define where the lidar transmitter is aimed along the second axis;
• scheduling a plurality of laser pulse shots to be fired by the laser source one at a time toward a plurality of shot angles in the field of view via the scanning first and second mirrors, wherein the shot angles correspond to the scan angles of the scanning first and second mirrors when the laser pulse shots are to be fired, and wherein the scheduling is based on a plurality of energy requirements for the laser pulse shots as compared to a laser energy model that models available energy for laser pulse shots from the laser source over time, wherein the laser energy model takes into consideration a retention of energy in the laser source after laser pulse shots and quantitatively predicts available energy amounts for laser pulse shots based on a history of prior laser pulse shots to support the scheduling;
• for each of a plurality of the laser pulse shots, (1) mapping the shot angle for that laser pulse shot to a set of the pixels within the photodetector array and (2) activating the mapped set of pixels for a detection interval to sense incident light during the detection interval for use in detection of a return from that laser pulse shot, wherein the pixels of the photodetector array that are not members of the mapped set are deactivated during the detection interval with respect to return detection for that laser pulse shot;
• and
• firing the scheduled laser pulse shots from the laser source one at a time toward the shot angles via the scanning first and second mirrors;
• and
• detecting a plurality of returns from the fired laser pulse shots via the activated pixel sets for use in range processing;
• wherein the first mirror scanning, second mirror scanning, scheduling, mapping, activating, firing, and detecting steps are performed while the bistatic lidar system is positioned inside the climate-controlled compartment;
• and
• wherein the lidar transmitter and the lidar receiver are arranged bistatically with respect to each other and within the climate-controlled compartment of the vehicle so that a spatial separation between the lidar transmitter and lidar receiver allows the firing and detecting steps to be performed concurrently without flashes from the fired laser pulse shots blinding the activated pixel sets.

A system comprising:

• a lidar transmitter, wherein the lidar transmitter comprises (1) a laser source, (2) a first mirror that is scannable through a plurality of scan angles along a first axis with respect to a field of view to define where the lidar transmitter is aimed along the first axis, and (3) a second mirror that is scannable through a plurality of scan angles along a second axis with respect to the field of view to define where the lidar transmitter is aimed along the second axis;
• a lidar receiver, wherein the lidar receiver comprises a photodetector array, the photodetector array comprising a plurality of pixels for sensing incident light
• a climate-controlled compartment of a vehicle;
• and
• a control circuit that (1) schedules a plurality of laser pulse shots to be fired by the laser source one at a time toward a plurality of shot angles in the field of view via the first and second mirrors, wherein the shot angles correspond to the scan angles of the first and second mirrors when the laser pulse shots are to be fired, (2) provides firing commands to the laser source in accordance with the scheduled laser pulse shots, and (3) for each of a plurality of the laser pulse shots, (i) maps the shot angle for that laser pulse shot to a set of the pixels within the photodetector array and (ii) activates the mapped set of pixels for a detection interval to sense incident light during the detection interval for use in detection of a return from that laser pulse shot, wherein the pixels of the photodetector array that are not members of the mapped set are deactivated during the detection interval with respect to return detection for that laser pulse shot
• wherein the lidar transmitter and the lidar receiver are arranged bistatically with respect to each other and within the climate-controlled compartment of the vehicle so that a spatial separation between the lidar transmitter and lidar receiver allows the lidar receiver to detect returns from the laser pulse shots via the activated pixel sets while the lidar transmitter fires the laser pulse shots without flashes from the fired laser pulse shots blinding the activated pixel sets;
• wherein the detection intervals are non-overlapping;
• and
• wherein each detection interval has a corresponding laser pulse shot, wherein the lidar receiver further comprises a signal processing circuit, wherein the signal processing circuit includes an analog-to-digital converter that digitizes sensed signals from the photodetector array into a plurality of samples that are stored in a buffer, and wherein the signal processing circuit (1) reads samples out of the buffer in groups corresponding to the detection intervals and (2) processes the groups of samples to determine whether any of the groups of samples include returns from the corresponding laser pulse shots for their corresponding detection intervals.

A system comprising:

• a rear view mirror assembly for a vehicle;
• a lidar transmitter, wherein the lidar transmitter comprises (1) a laser source, (2) a first mirror that is scannable through a plurality of scan angles along a first axis with respect to a field of view to define where the lidar transmitter is aimed along the first axis, and (3) a second mirror that is scannable through a plurality of scan angles along a second axis with respect to the field of view to define where the lidar transmitter is aimed along the second axis;
• a lidar receiver, wherein the lidar receiver comprises a photodetector array, the photodetector array comprising a plurality of pixels for sensing incident light and
• a control circuit that (1) schedules a plurality of laser pulse shots to be fired by the laser source one at a time toward a plurality of shot angles in the field of view via the first and second mirrors, wherein the shot angles correspond to the scan angles of the first and second mirrors when the laser pulse shots are to be fired, (2) provides firing commands to the laser source in accordance with the scheduled laser pulse shots, and (3) for each of a plurality of the laser pulse shots, (i) maps the shot angle for that laser pulse shot to a set of the pixels within the photodetector array and (ii) activates the mapped set of pixels for a detection interval to sense incident light during the detection interval for use in detection of a return from that laser pulse shot, wherein the pixels of the photodetector array that are not members of the mapped set are deactivated during the detection interval with respect to return detection for that laser pulse shot
• wherein the lidar transmitter and the lidar receiver are arranged bistatically with respect to each other and are included within or connected to the rear view mirror assembly so that a spatial separation between the lidar transmitter and lidar receiver allows the lidar receiver to detect returns from the laser pulse shots via the activated pixel sets while the lidar transmitter fires the laser pulse shots without flashes from the fired laser pulse shots blinding the activated pixel sets;
• wherein the detection intervals are non-overlapping;
• and
• wherein each detection interval has a corresponding laser pulse shot, wherein the lidar receiver further comprises a signal processing circuit, wherein the signal processing circuit includes an analog-to-digital converter that digitizes sensed signals from the photodetector array into a plurality of samples that are stored in a buffer, and wherein the signal processing circuit (1) reads samples out of the buffer in groups corresponding to the detection intervals and (2) processes the groups of samples to determine whether any of the groups of samples include returns from the corresponding laser pulse shots for their corresponding detection intervals.