A novel high-speed 2D laser scanner for the 3D imaging lidar

Abstract

In order to enhance the imaging speed of the 3D imaging lidar (light detection and ranging) and implement high-speed 3D imaging under static conditions, we propose a novel high-speed 2D laser scanner with an asymmetric 16-plane rotating mirror. Firstly, this paper analyzes the principles and characteristics of common laser scanners used in 3D imaging lidars, which mainly include a symmetric rotating mirror scanner, a vibrating mirror scanner, a oval line scanner and a double optical wedge scanner. And then we propose an asymmetric 16-plane rotating mirror with a novel structure, which can carry out faster scanning in 2D field with only one rotating mirror. The scanning principle and main structure of the rotating mirror is introduced in detail. Based on the proposed asymmetric rotating mirror, a new high-speed laser scanner for the 3D imaging lidar is implemented with some advantages: high scanning speed, large scanning field and high reflectivity. Finally, the laser scanning experiment has been carried out with the proposed laser scanner. The experimental results show that the scanning speed is above 30 frames per second, the scanning field is about 32°×12°, the vertical resolution of each frame is 16, and the laser reflectivity is above 0.9. The proposed laser scanner can be applied to areas such as groundborne, vehicleborne and airborne 3D imaging lidars.