Real-time measurement technique of the echo signal magnitude in ToF laser scanners

Abstract

Laser scanning, once a niche technology used mainly in the security systems, is now gaining new areas of application mainly in autonomous vehicles, as well as in the systems that allow the construction of precise 3D models of scanned objects. With the development of this technology, there are increasing demands on the precision of distance measurements and the ability to obtain information about properties of objects from which the laser radiation is reflected. These properties are described by the reflectance of the material. The reflectance of a material can be determined by precisely measuring the magnitude of the echo signal. Measuring the magnitude of the echo signal is severely hampered by the dynamics of the signal due to changes in the distance to the object. This paper presents a method for measuring the magnitude of the echo signal in real time even when the echo signal brings the detection channel amplifier to saturation.