Development of long range, real-time, and high resolution 3D imaging ladar

Abstract

In the previous study, we have introduced the concept of the real-time 3D imaging LADAR (LAser Detection And Ranging) using linear array receiver. In this paper, we demonstrate a long range, high resolution, and high speed 3D imaging using the developed system. The system consists of in-house-made key components. The linear array receiver consists of the previously reported APD array and the ROIC array assembled in one package. We newly developed the transmitting optics using pupil divide method which realizes a uniform illumination on a target. By combining these devices with the one dimensional fast scanner, we realized a 256 × 256 pixels range imaging with a on-line frame rate of more than 10 Hz at a distance of more than 1 km.