System and method for using an industrial manipulator for atmospheric characterization lidar optics positioning

A system comprising:

• a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) unit onboard a vehicle and comprising an optical transceiver module, the LiDAR unit configured to transmit light into an external interaction air region, and collect scattered portions of the transmitted light from the external interaction air region;
• a robotic arm mounted to the vehicle and operatively coupled to the LiDAR unit, the robotic arm operative to move the LiDAR unit into multiple different positions and orientations;
• an inertial measurement unit (IMU) deployed on the vehicle and operative to generate inertial data for the vehicle;
• and
• a processor unit onboard the vehicle, the processor unit in operative communication with the IMU and the robotic arm, wherein the processor unit is operative to:
• (a) receive and process the inertial data from the IMU, the inertial data comprising orientation and velocity measurements of the vehicle in body axes coordinates;
• (b) calculate a required position for the robotic arm, based on the inertial data from the IMU, to maintain pointing of the optical transceiver module in a direction of interest;
• (c) send commands to the robotic arm to move to the calculated required position;
• and
• (d) repeat the previous steps starting at step (a) to provide an adaptive feedback for maintaining active stabilization of the LiDAR unit.

A method comprising:

• (a) providing a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) unit comprising an optical transceiver module, and a robotic arm operatively coupled to the LiDAR unit, the robotic arm mounted on a vehicle;
• (b) receiving inertial data from an inertial measurement unit (IMU) onboard the vehicle, the inertial data comprising orientation and velocity measurements of the vehicle in body axes coordinates;
• (c) calculating a required position for the robotic arm, based on the inertial data from the IMU, to maintain pointing of the optical transceiver module in a direction of interest;
• and
• (d) sending commands to the robotic arm to move to the calculated required position.