公开(公告)号：US10191155B2

公开(公告)日：2019-01-29

申请号：US15822677

申请日：2017-11-27

Applicant: LUMINAR TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

Inventor： George C. Curatu

IPC: G01C3/08 ,  G01S17/93 ,  G02B27/09 ,  G05D1/00 ,  B60W50/00

Abstract: To solve depth of field issues when scanning, transmitting, and receiving light pulses in a lidar system, a receiver in the lidar system may include a lens having a lens plane in front of one or several photodetectors arranged on a detector plane. The lens plane and the detector plane may be nonparallel with respect to each other creating a wedge shaped depth of field. In this manner, return light pulses from far away and nearby targets may stay in focus.

公开(公告)号：US10139478B2

公开(公告)日：2018-11-27

申请号：US15861147

申请日：2018-01-03

Applicant: LUMINAR TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

Inventor： Stephen D. Gaalema ,  Austin K. Russell ,  Joseph G. LaChapelle ,  Scott R. Campbell ,  Jason M. Eichenholz ,  Tue Tran

IPC: G01C3/08 ,  G01S7/489 ,  G01S17/10 ,  G01S7/486

Abstract: To decrease the likelihood of a false detection when detecting light from light pulses scattered by remote targets in a lidar system, a receiver in the lidar system includes a photodetector and a pulse-detection circuit having a gain circuit with a varying amount of gain over time. The gain circuit operates in a low-gain mode for a time period T1 beginning with time t0 when a light pulse is emitted to prevent the receiver from detecting return light pulses during the threshold time period T1. Upon expiration of the threshold time period T1, the gain circuit operates in a high-gain mode to begin detecting return light pulses until a subsequent light pulse is emitted.

公开(公告)号：US20180284284A1

公开(公告)日：2018-10-04

申请号：US15822677

申请日：2017-11-27

Applicant: LUMINAR TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

Inventor： George C. Curatu

IPC: G01S17/93 ,  G05D1/00 ,  G02B27/09

CPC classification number: G01S17/936 ,  B60W2050/0002 ,  G01S7/4812 ,  G01S7/4816 ,  G01S7/4817 ,  G01S7/4861 ,  G01S17/10 ,  G01S17/42 ,  G01S17/87 ,  G01S17/89 ,  G02B27/0955 ,  G05D1/0088

Abstract: To solve depth of field issues when scanning, transmitting, and receiving light pulses in a lidar system, a receiver in the lidar system may include a lens having a lens plane in front of one or several photodetectors arranged on a detector plane. The lens plane and the detector plane may be nonparallel with respect to each other creating a wedge shaped depth of field. In this manner, return light pulses from far away and nearby targets may stay in focus.

公开(公告)号：US20180284276A1

公开(公告)日：2018-10-04

申请号：US15940494

申请日：2018-03-29

Applicant: LUMINAR TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

Inventor： Scott R. Campbell

IPC: G01S17/10 ,  G01S17/42 ,  G01S17/93 ,  G01S7/481 ,  G01S7/486

Abstract: A lidar system includes a light source configured to emit a beam of light including a sequence of pulses, a scanner configured to scan, using the sequence of pulses, a field of regard of the lidar system along a horizontal dimension and a vertical dimension in accordance with a first scan pattern; a receiver configured to detect light from at least some of the pulses scattered by one or more remote targets to generate an array of pixels, based on the sequence of pulses of the beam of light. The lidar system is further configured to modify the first scan pattern in view of a result of processing the generated array of pixels to generate a second scan pattern, and scan the field of regard using the sequence of pulses along the horizontal dimension and the vertical dimension in accordance with the second scan pattern.

公开(公告)号：US20180284246A1

公开(公告)日：2018-10-04

申请号：US15840993

申请日：2017-12-13

Applicant: Luminar Technologies, Inc.

Inventor： Joseph G. LaChapelle

IPC: G01S7/497 ,  G01S17/10 ,  G01S17/02 ,  G01S17/87 ,  G01S7/481

Abstract: A system includes an acoustic source localization system configured to detect an acoustic signal and determine its location relative to the system. The system also includes a lidar system and a controller. The lidar system includes a light source to emit pulses of light, a scanner to scan a field of regard of the lidar system according to a scan pattern, and a detector to detect light from some of the light pulses scattered by remote targets to generate respective pixels in a point cloud representing objects within the field of regard. The controller configured to receive, from the acoustic source localization system, an indication of the determined location, identify a region of interest within the field of regard that includes the determined location of the source, and cause the lidar system to obtain more data within the region of interest relative to other regions within the field of regard.

公开(公告)号：US20180284234A1

公开(公告)日：2018-10-04

申请号：US15714646

申请日：2017-09-25

Applicant: LUMINAR TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

Inventor： George C. Curatu

IPC: G01S7/481 ,  G01S17/89 ,  G01S17/93 ,  G01S7/483 ,  B60W50/06 ,  G05D1/00 ,  G05D1/02

Abstract: To identify the most important areas in front of a vehicle for avoiding collisions, a lidar system obtains a foveated imaging model. The foveated imaging model is generated by detecting the direction at which drivers' are facing at various points in time for several scenarios based on road conditions or upcoming maneuvers. The lidar system identifies an upcoming maneuver for the vehicle or a road condition and applies the identified maneuver or road condition to the foveated imaging model to identify a region of a field of regard at which to increase the resolution. The lidar system then increases the resolution at the identified region by increasing the pulse rate for transmitting light pulses within the identified region, filtering pixels outside of the identified region, or in any other suitable manner.

公开(公告)号：US20180284228A1

公开(公告)日：2018-10-04

申请号：US15983545

申请日：2018-05-18

Applicant: LUMINAR TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

Inventor： Joseph G. LaChapelle

IPC: G01S7/484 ,  G01S17/93 ,  G05D1/02 ,  G01S7/486 ,  G01S7/481 ,  G05D1/00

Abstract: A lidar system includes a lighting module configured to (i) select a wavelength from among a plurality of wavelength values, for a particular time period, and (ii) emit light at the selected wavelength. The lighting module emits light at different wavelengths during at least two adjacent periods of time. The lidar system further includes a scanner configured to direct the pulse of light to illuminate a respective region within a field of regard of the lidar system and a receiver module configured to (i) receive a light signal and (ii) determine whether the received light signal includes the light emitted by the lighting module and scattered by a remote target, based at least in part on the wavelength selected by the lighting module.

公开(公告)号：US10088559B1

公开(公告)日：2018-10-02

申请号：US15876669

申请日：2018-01-22

Applicant: LUMINAR TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

Inventor： Matthew D. Weed ,  Scott R. Campbell ,  Lane A. Martin ,  Jason M. Eichenholz ,  Austin K. Russell ,  Rodger W. Cleye ,  Melvin L. Stauffer

IPC: G01S7/484 ,  G01S7/481 ,  G01S17/08

Abstract: To compensate for motor dynamics in a scanner in a lidar system, a light source transmits light pulses at a variable pulse rate in accordance with a scan speed of the scanner. More specifically, the pulse rate may be directly related to the scan speed so that the light source transmits light pulses uniformly across a field of regard. A controller may determine the scan speed and provide a control signal to the light source adjusting the pulse rate accordingly.

公开(公告)号：US20180269646A1

公开(公告)日：2018-09-20

申请号：US15901838

申请日：2018-02-21

Applicant: LUMINAR TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

Inventor： David Welford ,  Martin A. Jaspan ,  Jason M. Eichenholz ,  Scott R. Campbell ,  Lane A. Martin ,  Matthew D. Weed

IPC: H01S3/11 ,  H01S3/0941 ,  H01S3/102 ,  G01S7/481 ,  H01S3/094 ,  G01S17/10 ,  G01S17/88 ,  H01S3/30

CPC classification number: H01S3/1115 ,  G01S7/4814 ,  G01S7/484 ,  G01S17/10 ,  G01S17/42 ,  G01S17/88 ,  H01S3/0092 ,  H01S3/061 ,  H01S3/0612 ,  H01S3/0621 ,  H01S3/0627 ,  H01S3/08 ,  H01S3/094076 ,  H01S3/094084 ,  H01S3/0941 ,  H01S3/09415 ,  H01S3/1022 ,  H01S3/113 ,  H01S3/1611 ,  H01S3/1643 ,  H01S3/1673 ,  H01S3/30

Abstract: A lidar system can include a solid-state laser to emit pulses of light. The solid-state laser can include a Q-switched laser having a gain medium and a Q-switch. The lidar system can also include a scanner configured to scan the emitted pulses of light across a field of regard and a receiver configured to detect at least a portion of the scanned pulses of light scattered by a target located a distance from the lidar system. The lidar system can also include a processor configured to determine the distance from the lidar system to the target based at least in part on a round-trip time of flight for an emitted pulse of light to travel from the lidar system to the target and back to the lidar system.

公开(公告)号：US10007001B1

公开(公告)日：2018-06-26

申请号：US15727073

申请日：2017-10-06

Applicant: LUMINAR TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

Inventor： Joseph G. LaChapelle ,  Jason M. Eichenholz

IPC: G01S17/89 ,  G01S17/10 ,  G01S7/486 ,  G01S7/497 ,  G01S7/481 ,  G01J1/44 ,  G01S17/93 ,  G01S7/484

CPC classification number: G01S17/89 ,  G01J1/44 ,  G01J2001/4466 ,  G01S7/003 ,  G01S7/4802 ,  G01S7/4817 ,  G01S7/4818 ,  G01S7/484 ,  G01S7/4865 ,  G01S7/487 ,  G01S7/497 ,  G01S17/10 ,  G01S17/42 ,  G01S17/87 ,  G01S17/936 ,  H01L31/03046 ,  H01L31/09 ,  H01L31/1085 ,  H01L31/167

Abstract: A lidar system operates as an active short-wave infrared (SWIR) camera system to determine a four-dimensional image at each point in a two-dimensional field of regard. The camera system includes a short-wave infrared spectrum scanner that transmits a pulse of light at a particular position or coordinate in a two-dimensional field of regard and a receiver that detects return pulses scattered from a target in the field of regard coincident with the particular position. The receiver includes a detector that detects the returned pulse, a range determination unit that determines, based on the timing of the returned pulse, a distance to the target at the particular position, and an intensity measurement unit that determines the magnitude, amplitude, or intensity of the returned pulse, which information provides an indication of the relative, or in some cases, absolute reflectivity of the target at the particular point in the field of regard.