US 12,135,395 B2
Multi-beam lidar intensity calibration by interpolating learned response curve
Hatem Alismail, Pittsburgh, PA (US)
Assigned to Aurora Operations, Inc., Pittsburgh, PA (US)
Filed by Aurora Operations, Inc., Pittsburgh, PA (US)
Filed on Dec. 14, 2020, as Appl. No. 17/247,497.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/018,447, filed on Apr. 30, 2020.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/947,253, filed on Dec. 12, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2021/0181319 A1, Jun. 17, 2021
Int. Cl. G01S 7/497 (2006.01); G01S 7/481 (2006.01); G01S 17/931 (2020.01)
CPC G01S 7/497 (2013.01) [G01S 7/4817 (2013.01); G01S 17/931 (2020.01)] 19 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A computer-implemented method of calibrating multi-beam lidar intensity, comprising:
directing multi-beam lidar at a target comprising at least two panels of different reflectance standards covering a calibration range and measuring intensity response curves of reflectance data for each beam of the multi-beam lidar reflected by the at least two panels;
evaluating the intensity response curves of the reflectance data for each beam of the multi-beam lidar to compute a learned reflectance value from an intensity response of each beam and an associated confidence defined as a measure of a probability that a range and raw intensity pair is generated from a surface with reflectance equal to the learned reflectance value; and
from the computed learned reflectance value and associated confidence, determining continuous reflectance for each beam.