Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for vehicle motion planning where a sensor, such as a ladar system, is used to detect threatening or anomalous conditions within the sensor's field of view so that priority warning data about such conditions can be inserted at low latency into the motion planning loop of a motion planning computer system for the vehicle. Also disclosed herein is a ladar system that includes a ladar transmitter, ladar receiver, and camera, where the camera that is co-bore sited with the ladar receiver, the camera configured to generate image data corresponding to a field of view for the ladar receiver. Also disclosed are techniques where a ladar system can estimate intra-frame motion for an object within a field of view of the ladar system using a tight cluster of ladar pulses. Further still, a ladar transmitter is disclosed that can be controlled to target range points based on any of a plurality of defined shot list frames. A processor can process data about the field of view such as range data and/or camera data to make selections as to which of the defined shot list frames should be selected for a given frame of ladar data.

IPC Classes  ?

• G01S 17/93 - Lidar systems, specially adapted for specific applications for anti-collision purposes

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a compact beam scanner assembly that includes an ellipsoidal reimaging mirror.

IPC Classes  ?

• G01S 7/481 - Constructional features, e.g. arrangements of optical elements
• G01S 17/02 - Systems using the reflection of electromagnetic waves other than radio waves
• G02B 26/08 - Optical devices or arrangements for the control of light using movable or deformable optical elements for controlling the direction of light
• G02B 26/10 - Scanning systems

Abstract

Disclosed herein are various embodiment of an adaptive ladar receiver and associated method whereby the active pixels in a photodetector array used for reception of ladar pulse returns can be adaptively controlled based at least in part on where the ladar pulses were targeted. Additional embodiments disclose improved imaging optics for use by the receiver and further adaptive control techniques for selecting which pixels of the photodetector array are used for sensing incident light.

IPC Classes  ?

• G01S 7/4863 - Detector arrays, e.g. charge-transfer gates
• G01S 7/4861 - Circuits for detection, sampling, integration or read-out
• G01S 7/4865 - Time delay measurement, e.g. time-of-flight measurement, time of arrival measurement or determining the exact position of a peak
• G01J 11/00 - Measuring the characteristics of individual optical pulses or of optical pulse trains
• G01S 7/48 - RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION OR RERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES - Details of systems according to groups , , of systems according to group
• G01S 7/484 - Transmitters

Abstract

Various embodiments are disclosed for improved ladar transmission, including but not limited to example embodiments where closed loop feedback control is used to finely control mirror scan positions, example embodiments where range point down selection is used to improve scanning, and others.

IPC Classes  ?

• G01S 7/484 - Transmitters
• G01S 7/481 - Constructional features, e.g. arrangements of optical elements
• G01S 7/487 - Extracting wanted echo signals
• G02B 26/12 - Scanning systems using multifaceted mirrors