Data processing device

Abstract

To adjust an amount of data to be output.SOLUTION: A signal processing unit 33 can acquire a plurality of data sets for one emitted light. An extraction condition for the plurality of data sets acquired by the signal processing unit 33 is set in a setting unit 32. The signal processing unit 33 generates and outputs a communication frame by extracting from the plurality of data sets based on the setting of the setting unit 32.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a data processing device that performs predetermined processing on a plurality of pieces of received light data acquired in response to one emitted light. [Background technology]

[0002] There are known sensors that use light, such as LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), to measure the distance to an object. In this type of sensor, when a laser beam is irradiated once and reflected by multiple objects, multiple signals (multiple echoes) indicating the respective objects may be detected (also known as multi-echo).

[0003] A technology for removing signals that become noise due to such multi-echoes is disclosed, for example, in Patent Document 1. Patent Document 1 describes that for each of a plurality of target ranging points to be determined among a plurality of ranging points, the lower the continuity between the distance indicated by the target ranging point and the distance indicated by each of a plurality of adjacent ranging points, which are a plurality of ranging points in an irradiation area that are close to the target ranging point, the higher the possibility that the target ranging point is a noise point is evaluated, and noise points that are evaluated to be more likely to be noise points than an evaluation threshold are removed from the plurality of ranging points. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2019-105654 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] The multiple signals acquired by multi-echo have a large amount of data if left as is, which causes a problem of increasing the processing load and communication load of the downstream system. The invention described in Patent Document 1 removes the multiple signals acquired by multi-echo from the perspective of whether they are noise, but it is preferable to be able to arbitrarily adjust the amount of data by configuring the downstream system even for signals that are determined not to be noise.

[0006] One example of a problem to be solved by the present invention is adjusting the amount of data to be output. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] In order to solve the above problem, the invention described in claim 1 comprises an acquisition unit capable of acquiring multiple light reception data for one emitted light, a setting unit that sets at least one extraction condition from multiple extraction conditions for multiple light reception data indicating multiple echoes acquired by the acquisition unit, and an output unit that extracts and outputs light reception data based on the extraction condition from the multiple light reception data based on the setting of the setting unit, wherein the extraction condition is based on at least one of the light reception intensity included in the light reception data, the distance to the target object included in the light reception data, the S / N ratio of the light reception data calculated by an S / N ratio calculation unit, and the reliability of the light reception data calculated by a reliability calculation unit.

[0008] The invention described in claim 2 is a data processing method executed by a data processing device that performs predetermined processing on multiple light reception data acquired for one emitted light, and includes an acquisition process that can acquire the multiple light reception data, a setting process that sets at least one extraction condition from multiple extraction conditions for the multiple light reception data indicating multiple echoes acquired in the acquisition process, and an output process that extracts and outputs light reception data based on the extraction condition from the multiple light reception data based on the extraction condition set in the setting process, wherein the extraction condition is based on at least one of the light reception intensity included in the light reception data, the distance to the target object included in the light reception data, the S / N ratio of the light reception data calculated by an S / N ratio calculation unit, and the reliability of the light reception data calculated by a reliability calculation unit.

[0009] The invention as set forth in claim 3 is characterized in that the data processing method as set forth in claim 2 is executed by a computer.

[0010] The invention as set forth in claim 4 is characterized in that the data processing program as set forth in claim 3 is stored. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0011] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a functional configuration diagram of a LiDAR including a data processing device according to a first embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 2] 2 is an explanatory diagram showing the data structure of a communication frame output from the LiDAR shown in FIG. 1. [Figure 3] 2 is a flowchart of the operation of the control unit shown in FIG. 1. [Figure 4] FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram of a modified example of the data configuration in the data processing device according to the second embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 5] 10 is a flowchart of the operation of a control unit according to the second embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0012] A data processing device according to one embodiment of the present invention will be described below. In the data processing device according to one embodiment of the present invention, the acquisition unit can acquire multiple pieces of received light data for one emitted light, and the setting unit sets extraction conditions for the multiple pieces of received light data acquired by the acquisition unit. The output unit then extracts and outputs data from the multiple pieces of received light data based on the settings of the setting unit. In this way, the amount of data to be output can be adjusted according to the extraction conditions by setting the extraction conditions. Therefore, unnecessary data can be deleted according to the processing capabilities of downstream systems, etc., and communication costs and processing costs can be efficiently reduced.

[0013] The extraction condition may also be based on the intensity of received light included in the received light data. In this way, it is possible to extract received light data based on conditions such as strong or weak received light intensity, thereby reducing the amount of data.

[0014] The extraction condition may be based on the distance to the target object included in the received light data. In this way, it is possible to extract received light data based on the condition that the distance to the target object is long or short, thereby reducing the amount of data.

[0015] The extraction conditions may also be based on the S / N ratio contained in the received light data, which allows for extraction of received light data with a good S / N ratio, thereby reducing the amount of data.

[0016] The extraction conditions may also be based on the reliability of the received light data. In this way, it is possible to extract received light data with a high reliability, thereby reducing the amount of data.

[0017] The extraction condition may also be based on the number of pieces of data to be extracted from a plurality of pieces of light reception data. In this way, light reception data can be extracted by limiting the number of pieces of data to be extracted, thereby reducing the amount of data.

[0018] In addition, in a data processing method according to one embodiment of the present invention, the acquisition step can acquire multiple pieces of received light data for one emitted light, and the setting step sets extraction conditions for the multiple pieces of received light data acquired in the acquisition step.The output step then extracts and outputs data from the multiple pieces of received light data based on the extraction conditions set in the setting step.By doing so, the amount of data to be output can be adjusted according to the extraction conditions by setting the extraction conditions.This makes it possible to delete unnecessary data according to the processing capabilities of downstream systems, etc., thereby efficiently reducing communication costs and processing costs.

[0019] Furthermore, the above-described data processing method is executed by a computer. By doing so, the amount of data to be output can be adjusted according to the extraction conditions by setting the extraction conditions using the computer.

[0020] The data processing program may be stored on a computer-readable storage medium, which allows the program to be distributed as a standalone program rather than being incorporated into a device, and allows for easy version upgrades. [Example]

[0021] A data processing device according to a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to Figures 1 to 3. Figure 1 is a schematic functional configuration diagram of a LiDAR 1 equipped with a data processing device according to this embodiment.

[0022] As shown in FIG. 1, the LiDAR 1 includes an optical unit 2 and a control unit 3.

[0023] The optical unit 2 includes a light emitting unit 21, a scanning unit 22, and a light receiving unit 23. The light emitting unit 21 includes a light emitting element such as a laser diode, and optical components such as a collimator lens, a beam splitter, and a light projecting and receiving lens.

[0024] Scanning unit 22 is configured with, for example, a MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) mirror, etc. Scanning unit 22 scans the light emitted from light emitting unit 21 in the horizontal and vertical directions toward an area where an object exists.

[0025] The light receiving unit 23 includes optical components and a light receiving element such as an avalanche photodiode (APD) that receives light scanned by the scanning unit 22 and reflected by an object, etc. Note that some of the optical components included in the light emitting unit 21 may be shared.

[0026] 1, the control unit 3 includes a light emission control unit 31, a setting unit 32, and a signal processing unit 33. The control unit 3 can be configured with a microprocessor including a CPU (Central Processing Unit) or the like, or an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), or the like. The control unit 3 may also be configured with multiple chips. The control unit 3 functions as a data processing device according to this embodiment, as will be described later.

[0027] The light emission control unit 31 controls light emission, such as by causing the light emitting element of the light emitting unit 21 to emit pulsed light. The setting unit 32 sets extraction conditions for a plurality of pieces of light reception data acquired by the signal processing unit 33. The extraction conditions will be described later.

[0028] The signal processing unit 33 receives a signal corresponding to the intensity of light received by the light receiving unit 23 (received light intensity), and calculates the distance to the target based on the signal. Then, data including the received light intensity and distance for one pulse of light and the corresponding scanning direction (angle) is extracted based on extraction conditions described below, and output to an external device as communication data. That is, the signal processing unit 33 functions as an output unit that extracts and outputs the received light data from multiple pieces of data based on the settings of the setting unit 32. Note that in this embodiment, for example, Ethernet (registered trademark) can be used as a communication standard with the external device, but other communication standards may also be used.

[0029] Fig. 2 shows the frame structure of communication data according to this embodiment. As shown in Fig. 2, communication data 10 according to this embodiment includes a header section 11 and a data section 12. In addition to these data, the data may also include a preamble for synchronization, a Frame Check Sequence (FCS), etc.

[0030] The header section 11 contains addresses of the destination and source, etc. The data section 12 contains a data set (received light data) consisting of distance data 12a, intensity data 12b, and angle data 12c corresponding to the signal received by the light receiving section 23. When multiple echoes occur, multiple data sets are generated, increasing the amount of data. In other words, the signal processing section 33 functions as an acquisition section that can acquire multiple pieces of received light data for one emitted light.

[0031] Therefore, in this embodiment, one or more data sets are extracted from the multiple data sets, and conditions for the extracted data are set in the setting unit 32 so that only the extracted data is transmitted. The extraction conditions include received light intensity, distance, S / N ratio, data reliability, number of data, etc.

[0032] In the case of the received light intensity, conditions can be set to extract a data set with a strong received light intensity or a data set with a weak received light intensity.

[0033] In the case of distance, a condition can be set to extract a data set for which the calculated distance is far, or to extract a data set for which the calculated distance is close.

[0034] In the case of the S / N ratio, the signal processing unit 33 calculates the S / N ratio for each data set, and the S / N ratio can be set when included in the data set. In this case, conditions can be set to extract data sets with a good S / N ratio. This S / N ratio is information indicating the ratio to the intensity of signals determined to be noise, for example.

[0035] In the case of data reliability, the signal processing unit 33 calculates reliability for each data set, and this reliability can be set when the data set includes the calculated reliability. In this case, conditions can be set to extract data sets with high reliability. This reliability is information indicating that the data set is not noise.

[0036] For the number of data items, the number of data sets to be extracted can be set. For example, if five data sets are acquired by multi-echo, setting the number of data sets to be extracted to "2" will result in only two data sets being extracted. Note that the number of data items can be set in combination with the above-mentioned conditions such as received light intensity. For example, it is possible to set it so that the two data sets with the strongest received light intensity are extracted.

[0037] Furthermore, a plurality of the above-described extraction conditions may be combined, making it possible to extract, for example, a data set with the strongest received light intensity and a data set with the longest distance.

[0038] Next, the operation of the data processing device (data processing method) configured as described above will be described with reference to the flowchart in Fig. 3. This flowchart can be configured as a program executed by a computer that functions as a data processing device, thereby creating a data processing program. This data processing program is not limited to being stored in a memory or the like of the data processing device, but may also be stored in a storage medium such as a memory card or optical disk.

[0039] First, the above-mentioned extraction conditions are set in the setting unit 32 (step S11). Note that this step S11 only needs to be performed once before the LiDAR 1 is operated.

[0040] Next, the signal processing unit 33 extracts a data set based on the signal received from the light receiving unit 23 in accordance with the extraction conditions set in the setting unit 32 in step S11 (step S12).

[0041] Then, the signal processing unit 33 generates a communication frame including the data set extracted in step S12 (step S13), and outputs the communication frame to the external device (step S14).

[0042] As is clear from the above explanation, step S11 functions as a setting step, and steps S12 to S14 function as an acquisition step and an output step.

[0043] According to this embodiment, the signal processing unit 33 can acquire multiple data sets for one emitted light, and the setting unit 32 sets extraction conditions for the multiple data sets acquired by the signal processing unit 33. The signal processing unit 33 then extracts data from the multiple data sets based on the settings of the setting unit 32, generates a communication frame, and outputs it. In this way, the amount of data to be output can be adjusted according to the extraction conditions by setting the extraction conditions. Therefore, unnecessary data can be deleted according to the processing capabilities of downstream systems, etc., and communication costs and processing costs can be efficiently reduced.

[0044] The extraction condition may also be the intensity of received light included in the data set. In this way, data sets can be extracted based on conditions such as strong or weak received light intensity, making it possible to reduce the amount of data.

[0045] The extraction condition may also be the distance to the object included in the data set. In this way, data sets can be extracted based on conditions such as whether the distance to the object is far or close, thereby making it possible to reduce the amount of data.

[0046] The extraction condition may also be the S / N ratio included in the data set. In this way, data sets can be extracted based on conditions such as a good S / N ratio, making it possible to reduce the amount of data.

[0047] The extraction condition may also be the reliability included in the received light data. In this way, it is possible to extract received light data with a high reliability, thereby reducing the amount of data.

[0048] The extraction condition may also be the number of data to be extracted from multiple data sets. In this way, data sets can be extracted by limiting the number of data to be extracted, thereby reducing the amount of data. [Example]

[0049] Next, a data processing device according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to Figures 4 and 5. Note that the same parts as those in the first embodiment described above are given the same reference numerals and the description thereof will be omitted.

[0050] The functional configuration in this embodiment is the same as that in Fig. 1. In the first embodiment, the main focus was on reducing the amount of data, but in this embodiment, the frame configuration (data configuration) of the communication frame (communication data) when outputting to an external device can be set arbitrarily.

[0051] For example, as shown in Fig. 4(a), communication data 10A may have a frame configuration in which the header section 11 is positioned after the data section 12. Alternatively, as shown in Fig. 4(b), the order of distance data 12a, intensity data 12b, and angle data 12c may be reversed in the configuration of data section 12. Alternatively, the order of data in header section 11 or the order of data other than the above data sets in data section 12 may be reversed.

[0052] In this embodiment, distance data 12a, intensity data 12b, and angle data 12c are described as representative examples of multiple items related to reflected light relative to emitted light, but the S / N ratio, reliability, etc. described in the first embodiment are also included. In short, all that is required is a signal (data) generated based on reflected light and data related to that data (header, etc.).

[0053] The settings for the setting unit 32 described above may be made by connecting an adjustment device (which may be a device different from the external device) to the LiDAR1 (control unit 3) and setting the order, etc. on a GUI (Graphical User Interface) displayed on the adjustment device.

[0054] Alternatively, the data may be acquired by downloading a file in which the data structure is defined. That is, the setting unit 32 may acquire a file in which the data structure is defined (information on the data structure) from the outside, and the signal processing unit 33 may output communication data in the data structure described in the acquired file.

[0055] Also in this embodiment, only the data required may be transmitted depending on the output destination (external device). That is, items to be included in the communication data may be set from among the items included in the acquired measurement data. In this embodiment, data included in the header section 11 may be arbitrarily selected, not limited to the data section 12. In this way, it is possible to reduce the amount of data, as in the first embodiment.

[0056] That is, the signal processing unit 33 functions as an acquisition unit that acquires measurement data including multiple items related to reflected light relative to emitted light, and an output unit that outputs communication data in a data configuration based on the setting by the setting unit. The setting unit 32 sets the data configuration of the communication data when outputting the acquired measurement data.

[0057] Next, the operation of the data processing device (data processing method) according to this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart in Fig. 5. This flowchart can be configured as a program executed by a computer that functions as a data processing device, thereby creating a data processing program. This data processing program is not limited to being stored in a memory or the like of the data processing device, but may also be stored in a storage medium such as a memory card or optical disk.

[0058] First, the above-mentioned data configuration is set in the setting unit 32 (step S21). Note that this step S21 only needs to be performed once before the LiDAR 1 is operated.

[0059] Next, the signal processing unit 33 acquires necessary data from among data based on the signal received from the light receiving unit 23 in accordance with the data configuration set in the setting unit 32 in step S21 (step S22).

[0060] Then, the signal processing unit 33 composes a communication frame having the data configuration set in the setting unit 32 in step S21, including the data acquired in step S22 (step S23), and outputs the frame to the external device (step S24).

[0061] According to this embodiment, the signal processing unit 33 acquires measurement data including multiple items related to reflected light relative to emitted light, and the setting unit 32 sets the data configuration of the communication frame when outputting the acquired measurement data. The signal processing unit 33 then outputs the communication frame with the data configuration based on the setting of the setting unit 32. In this way, the configuration of the communication frame to be output can be easily changed, and the data configuration can be flexibly changed according to the requirements of the output destination. Therefore, it is possible to respond to small-volume, high-mix production at low cost.

[0062] The setting unit 32 may also set the order of items that make up the communication frame. In this way, the communication frame can be configured in an order of items that meets the requirements of the output destination.

[0063] The setting unit 32 may also set items to be included in the communication frame from among the items included in the acquired measurement data. In this way, the communication frame can be configured with only the items required by the output destination, making it possible to reduce the amount of communication data.

[0064] Alternatively, the setting unit 32 may externally acquire a file relating to the data configuration, and the signal processing unit 33 may output a communication frame with a data configuration based on the acquired file. In this way, the data configuration can be acquired from an external file. Therefore, the degree of freedom in the configuration of communication data can be further increased.

[0065] As is clear from the above explanation, step S21 functions as a setting step, and steps S22 to S24 function as an acquisition step and an output step.

[0066] Furthermore, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments. In other words, those skilled in the art can implement various modifications in accordance with conventional knowledge without departing from the gist of the present invention. As long as such modifications still include the data processing device of the present invention, they are of course included in the scope of the present invention. [Explanation of symbols]

[0067] 1. LiDAR 2 Optical unit 3. Control unit (data processing unit) 31 Light emission control unit 32 Setting section 33 Signal processing unit (acquisition unit, output unit)

Claims

[Claim 1] an acquisition unit capable of acquiring a plurality of pieces of received light data for one emitted light; a setting unit that sets extraction conditions for the plurality of pieces of light reception data acquired by the acquisition unit; an output unit that extracts and outputs the light reception data from the plurality of light reception data based on the setting of the setting unit; A data processing device comprising:

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