US 11,733,387 B2
Adaptive ladar receiver control using spatial index of prior ladar return data
Luis Carlos Dussan, Pleasanton, CA (US); Allan Steinhardt, Brentwood, CA (US); Federico Presutti, Ithaca, NY (US); and Joel David Benscoter, Pleasanton, CA (US)
Assigned to AEYE, Inc., Dublin, CA (US)
Filed by AEYE, Inc., Dublin, CA (US)
Filed on Mar. 18, 2019, as Appl. No. 16/356,079.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/805,781, filed on Feb. 14, 2019.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/750,540, filed on Oct. 25, 2018.
Prior Publication US 2020/0225324 A1, Jul. 16, 2020
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. G01S 17/89 (2020.01); G01S 7/484 (2006.01); G01S 7/4863 (2020.01); G01S 17/10 (2020.01); G01S 17/00 (2020.01); G01S 7/481 (2006.01); G01S 7/4861 (2020.01); G01S 7/48 (2006.01); G01S 17/93 (2020.01); G01S 17/931 (2020.01); G01S 17/58 (2006.01); G01S 17/46 (2006.01)
CPC G01S 17/89 (2013.01) [G01S 7/484 (2013.01); G01S 7/4808 (2013.01); G01S 7/4814 (2013.01); G01S 7/4816 (2013.01); G01S 7/4817 (2013.01); G01S 7/4861 (2013.01); G01S 7/4863 (2013.01); G01S 17/006 (2013.01); G01S 17/10 (2013.01); G01S 17/58 (2013.01); G01S 17/93 (2013.01); G01S 17/931 (2020.01); G01S 17/46 (2013.01)] 36 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
23. An adaptive system comprising:
a ladar receiver configured to receive incident light and detect ladar returns from a plurality of ladar pulse shots based on the received incident light;
a memory configured to spatially index ladar return data for prior ladar pulse shots by location in a coordinate space, wherein the spatially indexed ladar return data comprises a tree structure having a root node, a plurality of branches, and a plurality of leaf nodes, wherein the leaf nodes associate the ladar return data with corresponding locations in the coordinate space; and
a processor configured to (1) traverse the tree structure based on a targeted location in the coordinate space for a new ladar pulse shot to identify leaf nodes in the tree structure that include ladar return data associated with locations in the coordinate space that are within a defined vicinity of the targeted location, (2) extract ladar return data from the identified leaf nodes, and (3) define a control parameter for the ladar receiver based on an analysis of the extracted ladar return data; and
wherein the ladar receiver is further configured to detect a ladar return for the new ladar pulse shot based on the defined control parameter.