Multiple pulse, lidar based 3-D imaging

A light detection and ranging (LiDAR) method, comprising:

• emitting, by a plurality of laser diodes, a respective plurality of multi-pulse light beams, wherein the plurality of laser diodes includes a first laser diode, and where emitting the plurality of multi-pulse light beams includes emitting, by the first laser diode, a first multi-pulse light beam having a first delay time between a first pair of adjacent pulses and a second multi-pulse light beam having a second delay time between a second pair of adjacent pulses, wherein the first delay time differs from the second delay time;
• generating, by a controller, control signals to control the first and second delay times;
• collimating and projecting, by an optical collimator, the multi-pulse light beams toward a plurality of projection points in an x-y plane, the multi-pulse light beams being projected over an angular range in a y-direction of the x-y plane at a plurality of angular increments;
• detecting, by a plurality of light detecting elements, a plurality of reflected portions of the multi-pulse light beams;
• and
• determining, by one or more processing devices, a distance to a particular location in a three-dimensional environment based on a time of flight of a particular one of the multi-pulse light beams from a particular one of the laser diodes to the particular location and back to a particular one of the light detecting elements.