US 11,675,059 B2
Hyper temporal lidar with elevation-prioritized shot scheduling
Philippe Feru, Dublin, CA (US); Luis Dussan, Dublin, CA (US); Joel Benscoter, Dublin, CA (US); Il Woong Jung, Dublin, CA (US); Alex Liang, Dublin, CA (US); Igor Polishchuk, Dublin, CA (US); and Allan Steinhardt, Dublin, CA (US)
Assigned to AEYE, Inc., Dublin, CA (US)
Filed by AEYE, Inc., Dublin, CA (US)
Filed on Sep. 23, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/482,983.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/166,475, filed on Mar. 26, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2022/0308170 A1, Sep. 29, 2022
Int. Cl. G01S 7/48 (2006.01); G01S 7/484 (2006.01); G01S 17/89 (2020.01); G01S 7/481 (2006.01); G01S 17/10 (2020.01); G01S 17/42 (2006.01); G01S 17/931 (2020.01)
CPC G01S 7/484 (2013.01) [G01S 7/4814 (2013.01); G01S 7/4816 (2013.01); G01S 7/4817 (2013.01); G01S 17/10 (2013.01); G01S 17/42 (2013.01); G01S 17/89 (2013.01); G01S 17/931 (2020.01)] 34 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A lidar apparatus comprising:
a laser source;
a mirror subsystem that defines where the lidar apparatus is aimed within a field of view, wherein the mirror subsystem is optically downstream from the laser source; and
a control circuit that orders a list of range points into a shot list of laser pulse shots that are to be fired by the laser source at the range points, each range point having a corresponding azimuth and elevation so that the range points on the range point list encompass a plurality of different azimuths and a plurality of different elevations;
wherein the control circuit orders the range point list into the shot list by (1) selecting which of the elevations are to be prioritized within the shot list over others of the elevations based on defined criteria and (2) ordering the range points into the shot list based on the selected elevation prioritizations so that the shot list defines an order for the laser pulse shots where laser pulse shots which target range points from the range point list at the selected prioritized elevations are to be fired before laser pulse shots which target range points from the range point list at the other elevations; and
wherein the defined criteria comprise (1) which of the elevations corresponds to a horizon in the field of view, (2) range information applicable to one or more detected objects in the field of view, (3) velocity information applicable to one or more detected objects in the field of view, (4) directional heading information applicable to one or more detected objects in the field of view, and/or (5) eye safety criteria.