Apparatus and method for oscillating a transmitted laser beam of light within the field of view (FOV) of a light receiving system

Abstract

An apparatus and method for the measurement of water depth between a water surface and water bottom and adapted for mounting on an aircraft flying above the water surface. The apparatus includes a transmitter and a receiver of laser light. The laser light is reflected from a secondary mirror to a primary mirror and to the water where it is subsequently reflected both from the water surface and the water bottom. The primary mirror then collects these reflections where they are then reflected to a receiver to be processed for subsequent analysis. So as to scan across the water surface the primary mirror is oscillated around a major axis generally transverse to the aircraft flying direction as well as parallel to the aircraft direction to compensate for the aircraft movement, the reflections recorded in a temporal fashion. The secondary mirror also dithers or scans the laser across the primary mirror to provide a higher resolution scan as the beam is oscillated across the water due to the oscillation of both the primary and secondary mirrors.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.