Development of receiver optics for simplified 3D laser scanner composition

Abstract

Development of autonomous drive and control technology for vehicles such as a car or a train has become major trends, so there are great needs for a 3D measuring system which detects terrains or obstructs on forward area of the vehicle.The authors developed simplified receiver optical system using the line scan type laser scanner which is one of the 3D measurement methods used for laser ranging and mirror scanning. The developed receiver enabled to acquire the 3D data from wide field of view with a common low aspect pixel format 1D detector array and without a receiver scanner mirror. For the operation, the receiver optics spatially resolved the measured area horizontally and measured the whole vertical FOV (Field Of View) without scanning.The arrangement of the system was derived by a simulation, then its function and performance were evaluated thorough a laboratory test. As a result of the test, the horizontal spatial resolution of 0.05 deg was obtained, and for the vertical direction the view angle of one pixel was extended 28 times compared to an existing system. With this novel receiver optics, the FOV of a 1D line detector array is expanded to 2D area from its original 1D line shape view. The receiver also enables to obtain 3D information without a receiver scanner mirror and a special pixel format detector with large aspect ratio.