US 11,988,748 B2
System and method for adaptable lidar imaging
Robert Matthew Panas, Dublin, CA (US); and Phillip Harris Paul, San Francisco, CA (US)
Assigned to Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC, Livermore, CA (US)
Filed by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC, Livermore, CA (US)
Filed on Sep. 24, 2018, as Appl. No. 16/139,895.
Prior Publication US 2020/0096639 A1, Mar. 26, 2020
Int. Cl. G01S 17/66 (2006.01); G01S 7/481 (2006.01); G01S 7/484 (2006.01); G01S 7/486 (2020.01); G01S 17/89 (2020.01); G06V 10/22 (2022.01); G06V 20/56 (2022.01)
CPC G01S 17/66 (2013.01) [G01S 7/4815 (2013.01); G01S 7/4817 (2013.01); G01S 7/484 (2013.01); G01S 7/4868 (2013.01); G01S 17/89 (2013.01); G06V 10/22 (2022.01); G06V 20/56 (2022.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An adaptive light detection and ranging (lidar) system, comprising:
a controller;
lidar control software in communication with the controller;
a focusing control subsystem configured to control focusing and detection of a laser beam;
an emitter/detector subsystem including a micromirror assembly including a plurality of micromirrors and a detector, the emitter/detector subsystem being responsive to commands from the focusing control subsystem to generate at least one laser beam which is used to implement a plurality of different scanning modes for imaging a scene;
the micromirror assembly configured to perform both transmitting of the laser beam toward the scene and reception of reflected light back from one or more objects in the scene during the different scanning modes using first and second different subpluralities of the micromirrors;
the micromirror assembly further configured to form first and second independent transmitting channels to propagate at least a pair of optical signals into the scene using select ones of the first subplurality of micromirrors, and first and second independent receiving channels using select ones of the second subplurality of micromirrors to receive at least a pair of reflected optical signals back from the scene and to reflect the at least a pair of reflected optical signals therefrom toward the emitter/detector subsystem;
the emitter/detector subsystem further being configured and disposed relative to the micromirror assembly to receive the at least a pair of reflected optical signals from the micromirror assembly;
wherein the plurality of different scanning modes includes at least two different scanning modes, each selected by the controller, and executed simultaneously by the emitter/detector subsystem using the first and second independent transmitting channels and the first and second independent receiving channels, wherein the scanning modes relate to at least one of different scanning patterns or different scanning resolutions employed simultaneously using the first and second independent transmitting channels and the first and second independent receiving channels;
wherein only the reflected light reflected back from the scene is used in implementing the first and second independent receiving channels; and
wherein the emitter/detector subsystem further includes a pixel allocation micromirror disposed upstream of the detector, relative to the reflected light received by the micromirror assembly, and having an array of mirrors which are mapped to specific ones of the plurality of micromirrors on the micromirror assembly for steering light received from the plurality of micromirrors to specific pixels forming an image plane of the detector.