Performance improvement of real-time 3D imaging ladar based on a modified array receiver

Abstract

In the previous study, we have demonstrated the first development result of the 3D imaging LADAR (LAser Detection And Ranging) which can obtain the 3D data using linear array receiver. The system consists of in-house-made key components. The linear array receiver consists of the previously reported APD (Avalanche Photo Diode) array, the ROIC (Read Out Integrated Circuit) array assembled in one package, and the transmitting optics using pupil divide method which realizes a uniform illumination on a target. In this paper, we report the advanced 3D imaging LADAR with improved ROIC. The ROIC has the function to set the optimum threshold for pulse peak detection in each element and switch the measurement range width on a case by case basis. Moreover, the response of MUX in ROIC is improved. Installing this ROIC, we realized 256× 256 pixels range imaging with an on-line frame rate of more than 30 Hz. Then, we tried online object detection with the obtained 3D image using a simple detection algorithm. We demonstrated system has the potential to detect the object even in the scene with some clutters.