Ladar System with Dichroic Photodetector for Tracking the Targeting of a Scanning Ladar Transmitter

Abstract

Disclosed herein are various embodiment of an adaptive ladar receiver and associated method whereby the active pixels in a photodetector array used for reception of ladar pulse returns can be adaptively controlled based at least in part on where the ladar pulses were targeted. Additional embodiments disclose improved imaging optics for use by the receiver and further adaptive control techniques for selecting which pixels of the photodetector array are used for sensing incident light.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE AND PRIORITY CLAIM TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATION[0001]This patent application claims priority to U.S. provisional patent application 62 / 297,112, filed Feb. 18, 2016, and entitled “Ladar Receiver”, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.[0002]This patent application is also related to (1) U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, filed this same day and entitled “Adaptive Ladar Receiving Method” (said application being identified by Thompson Coburn attorney docket number 56976-163576), (2) U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, filed this same day and entitled “Adaptive Ladar Receiver” (said application being identified by Thompson Coburn attorney docket number 56976-164105), (3) U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, filed this same day and entitled “Ladar Receiver with Advanced Optics” (said application being identified by Thompson Coburn attorney docket number 56976-164106), and (4) U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, filed this ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent text explains a technology called ladar, which is used in computer vision systems. This technology uses lasers to measure the distance of objects in a nearby environment. However, conventional ladar solutions are expensive, heavy, and require large power and data bandwidth. This limits their use to applications that require short ranges of vision, narrow fields-of-view, and slow revisit rates. The patent aims to address these issues by providing an improved ladar system that is more cost-effective, compact, and versatile.

Problems solved by technology

However, conventional ladar solutions for computer vision problems suffer from high cost, large size, large weight, and large power requirements as well as large data bandwidth use.

These complicating factors have largely limited their effective use to costly applications that require only short ranges of vision, narrow fields-of-view and / or slow revisit rates.

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