Optical detection device and vehicle, laser radar, and detection method

Abstract

The present application provides an optical detection device and vehicle, a laser radar, and a detection method, in which the optical detection device includes a window, an optical transmitting end configured to output a transmission signal, an optical detection end configured to detect an echo signal of the transmission signal, and an optical signal redirecting assembly configured to deflect the transmission signal by motion, thereby making the transmission signal exit from the window of the optical detection device and realize scanning in a second direction field of view, and redirect the echo signal to transmit the echo signal to the optical detection end, wherein the optical path of the transmission signal and the optical path of the echo signal overlap at least between the window and the optical signal redirecting assembly, and the transmitting and receiving ends are arranged opposite to each other rather than overlapping vertically, thereby maintaining and even lowering the height of the device without affecting detection performance, and reducing the close-range blind spot. The laser radar comprises a rotating mirror unit including a polygonal rotating mirror portion, which is rotatable around a rotation axis, has a plurality of reflecting surfaces, and is for changing the angle of the incident beam; a light emitting unit configured to transmit a detection beam; and a receiving unit configured to receive an echo reflected by a target of the detection beam, wherein the detection beam is reflected by the reflecting surfaces of the polygonal rotating mirror portion before being emitted, and the echo reaches the receiving unit after being reflected by the reflecting surfaces, and the scanning field of view range corresponding to each reflecting surface of the polygonal rotating mirror portion is the same.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] This application relates to the technical field of optical ranging, and in particular to optical detection devices and vehicles. [Background technology]

[0002] Laser radar is a device that detects the outside world by emitting a laser beam and receiving the echo signal that returns when the laser beam reaches the surface of the target object. Laser radar used in autonomous vehicles must meet various parameter requirements, including large point cloud density, wide field of view, no blind spots, high refresh frequency, small volume, low energy consumption, low price, etc.

[0003] Generally, a laser radar is configured by stacking a transmitting module and a receiving module, where the transmitting module includes a laser and the receiving module includes a detector.

[0004] However, such a solution causes various problems. First, such a laser radar is large in volume and difficult to hide in the normal installation space in a vehicle, such as a headlight or roof. When the receiving module and the transmitting module are stacked one on top of the other, the total height of the product must be higher than the total height of the two stacked modules, so it is difficult to reduce the total height of the laser radar product. If the height of the radar is unduly reduced, parameters such as the viewing angle or beam line of the radar are sacrificed. Accordingly, the amount of echo signals that can be received by the detector decreases, and the signal-to-noise ratio parameter is sacrificed, that is, the distance and reflectivity data of the target detected by the radar becomes inaccurate, and the performance of the radar is deteriorated. In this case, a laser radar with a high number of beam lines, for example, a laser radar with 32 lines or more (for example, 32 lines, 64 lines, 128 lines, etc.) cannot be realized.

[0005] Secondly, such laser radar has a problem of short-distance blind spots. Because the transmitting module and the receiving module are installed one above the other, when detecting a target within a short distance range from the laser radar, most of the echo signals obtained by the reflection of the laser light emitted from the laser are outside the field of view of the detector, so the laser radar detector cannot receive the echo signals or the received echo signals are very weak, resulting in a short-distance blind spot. Summary of the Invention

[0006] In view of the above-mentioned shortcomings of the prior art, the present application provides a light detection device and vehicle that solves the problems of the prior art.

[0007] In order to achieve the above and other related objectives, a first aspect of the present application provides an optical transmitting end configured to output a transmission signal, the optical transmitting end including an optical transmitter array, the optical transmitter array including N rows of optical transmitters passing each other, each row of optical transmitters extending in a first direction, N>1; and an optical detecting end configured to detect an echo signal reflected by an obstacle of the transmission signal, the optical detecting end including an optical detector array, the optical detecting array including M rows of optical detectors passing each other, each row of optical detectors extending in the first direction, M>1, the optical transmitting array and the optical detecting array forming a plurality of detection channels. the optical detection end is configured to form a scanning in a first direction field of view, each detection channel including at least one optical transmitter and at least one optical detector, each detection channel corresponding to one first direction field of view; and an optical signal redirecting assembly configured to deflect a transmission signal by motion, causing the transmission signal to exit from a window of the optical detection device, thereby realizing scanning in a second direction field of view, and redirect the echo signal, thereby transmitting the echo signal to the optical detection end, wherein the optical path of the transmission signal and the optical path of the echo signal overlap at least between the window and the optical signal redirecting assembly.

[0008] In some embodiments of the first aspect, the optical transmitters in the optical transmitter array are vertical cavity surface emitting lasers, and the optical transmitters included in the optical transmitting end are provided with a microlens array for collimating a transmission signal.

[0009] In some embodiments of the first aspect, each of the optical transmitters includes a plurality of light-emitting units, each microlens unit and each light-emitting unit in the microlens array are arranged in one-to-one correspondence and shape-matching relationship, the plurality of light-emitting units are arranged in a polygonal shape, and each of the microlens units has a corresponding polygonal shape and is connected to each other.

[0010] In some embodiments of the first aspect, the microlens array is provided separately from the optical transmitter or is imprinted on the light emitting surface of the optical transmitter.

[0011] In some embodiments of the first aspect, the optical transmitter is a back-illuminated semiconductor structure, and the microlens array is imprinted on a surface of a substrate of the semiconductor structure.

[0012] In some embodiments of the first aspect, in one signal transmission process from transmission signal transmission to corresponding echo signal detection, a plurality of activated optical transmitters in the optical transmitter array respectively cooperate with a plurality of activated receivers in the optical receiver array to form a plurality of optical signal transmission detection channels in an active state, the optical transmitter array includes a plurality of optical transmitter groups and / or the optical receiver array includes a plurality of optical receiver groups, and each of the activated optical transmitters respectively belongs to a different optical transmitter group and / or each of the activated optical receivers respectively belongs to a different optical receiver group.

[0013] In some embodiments of the first aspect, each optical transmitter in each optical transmitter group and / or each optical detector in each optical detector group is activated in sequence in several signal transmission processes.

[0014] In some embodiments of the first aspect, the light detection device performs a long-distance measurement operation in a predetermined number of transmission processes, and then performs a short-distance measurement operation in a next signal transmission process.

[0015] In some embodiments of the first aspect, the optical transmitter array has a first number of optical transmitters in a central region in a first direction that are activated during a long-distance measurement operation and a second number of optical transmitters that are activated during a short-distance measurement operation, the first number being greater than the second number.

[0016] In some embodiments of the first aspect, the detection distance corresponding to the long distance measurement operation is multiple, where the closer the location of the activated optical transmitter in the optical transmitter array is to the center, the farther the corresponding expected detection distance is.

[0017] In some embodiments of the first aspect, the signal characteristics of the optical signals transmitted in each sensing channel operating in the same signal transmission process are different.

[0018] In some embodiments of the first aspect, the transmitted signal comprises one or more pulsed signals, and the signal characteristic dimensions comprise a combination of one or more of wavelength, pulse width, pulse number, pulse peak, and pulse time interval.

[0019] In some embodiments of the first aspect, the optical transmitter array and the optical detector array are configured together to achieve a number of beamlines of 32 or more.

[0020] In some embodiments of the first aspect, the optical signal redirecting assembly includes a rotating member that rotates in a controlled manner, the rotating member including at least one reflective surface and suitable for receiving an echo signal and / or outputting a transmit signal, and a first redirecting member located in the optical path of the transmit signal and the optical path of the receive signal, the first redirecting member configured to output one of the transmit signal and the echo signal to the rotating member and having a passing portion formed therein to pass the other of the echo signal and the transmit signal.

[0021] In some embodiments of the first aspect, the passage portion includes one or more gaps formed in a side and / or a middle portion of the first redirection member.

[0022] In some embodiments of the first aspect, the first redirecting member includes a first region for outputting a transmit signal to the rotating member and a second region for transmitting echo signals other than those in the first region.

[0023] In some embodiments of the first aspect, the light detection device includes a light blocking member provided in a propagation path of a transmission signal passing through the first redirecting member.

[0024] In some embodiments of the first aspect, at least a portion of an end surface of the first redirecting member away from the rotating member is configured as a first reflecting surface, and the first reflecting surface and an axis of a first optical path portion to the first redirecting member in the optical path of the transmitted signal are set to form a first predetermined included angle so as to divert the optical signal transmitted from the first optical path portion from the optical path of the received signal, and / or at least a portion of an end surface of the first redirecting member away from the rotating member is configured as a second reflecting surface, and the second reflecting surface and an axis of a second optical path portion from the first redirecting member in the optical path of the received signal are set to form a second predetermined included angle so as to divert the optical signal transmitted from the second optical path portion from the optical path of the transmitted signal.

[0025] In some embodiments of the first aspect, an end face of the first redirecting member close to the rotating member is parallel to an axial direction of an optical path portion of an optical path of a received signal from the rotating member to the first redirecting member.

[0026] In certain embodiments of the first aspect, the rotating member includes two or more reflective surfaces.

[0027] In some embodiments of the first aspect, the first redirecting member is enclosed within a first bushing body that extends along an optical path of a transmitted signal toward the optical transmitting end.

[0028] In some embodiments of the first aspect, a size of the first redirecting member is proportional to the divergence angle of the exit beam and inversely proportional to the cross section of the echo beam.

[0029] In some embodiments of the first aspect, the optical detection device is disposed between the rotating member and the first redirecting member, and includes a transmitting / receiving lens for focusing an echo signal from the rotating member side and then transmitting it to a passing portion of the first redirecting member, and for passing a transmission signal from the first redirecting member side.

[0030] In some embodiments of the first aspect, the optical transmitting end corresponds to one end of a second bushing body, which extends along the optical path of the transmitted signal to the first redirecting member and forms an optical output port at the other end, and / or the optical detecting end corresponds to one end of a third bushing body, which extends along the optical path of the received signal to the first redirecting member and forms an optical input port at the other end.

[0031] In some embodiments of the first aspect, the light detection device includes a second lens disposed in an optical path of the received signal and positioned between the light detection end and the first redirecting member.

[0032] In some embodiments of the first aspect, the second lens is oriented at a predetermined deflection angle relative to a longitudinal direction of the light detection device to deflect light incident from an edge viewing angle until it is deflected away from the light detector array.

[0033] In some embodiments of the first aspect, the optical detection device comprises a control module for compensating and processing echo signals received on optical transmission detection channels corresponding to corresponding viewing angles away from the rotating member.

[0034] In some embodiments of the first aspect, the light detection device is a forward-facing laser radar, and M=N>32.

[0035] To achieve the above and other related aims, a second aspect of the present application provides a vehicle comprising an optical detection device according to any one of the first aspect.

[0036] In some embodiments of the second aspect, the vehicle is a car and the light detection device is a forward facing laser radar and is mounted to a front of the vehicle.

[0037] In view of the above, the present application provides an optical detection device and a vehicle, in which the optical detection device includes a window, an optical transmitting end configured to output a transmission signal, an optical detection end configured to detect an echo signal of the transmission signal, and an optical signal redirecting assembly configured to deflect the transmission signal by motion to make the transmission signal exit from the window of the optical detection device, thereby realizing scanning in a second direction field of view, and redirecting the echo signal to transmit the echo signal to the optical detection end, where the optical path of the transmission signal and the optical path of the echo signal overlap at least from the window to the optical signal redirecting assembly. In the embodiment of the present application, the overlap of the optical paths of the transmission signal and the echo signal is realized without being restricted by the vertical overlapping manner of the transmission and reception modules, and the height of the device can be effectively reduced without affecting the detection performance, and the overlap of the transmission and reception optical paths can eliminate the blind spot in the near field of view. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0038] [Figure 1] The structural schematic diagram of a rotating mirror type laser radar in one example is shown. [Figure 2A] 1 shows a schematic diagram of the optical path during laser radar detection in one example. [Figure 2B] FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of the principle of close-range blind spots in one example. [Figure 3A] 1 is a schematic top perspective structural view of a light detection device according to an embodiment of the present application; [Figure 3B] 1 shows a schematic diagram of a front view array structure of an optical transmitter array in one embodiment of the present application; [Figure 3C] A schematic diagram of the left-hand portion of FIG. 3B is shown. [Figure 4A] 1 is a top perspective structural schematic diagram of a light detection device according to a specific embodiment of the present application; [Figure 4B] FIG. 13 is a top perspective structural schematic diagram of an optical detection device in which the shape of a rotating member is changed in another specific embodiment of the present application; [Figure 4C] 4B is a schematic side view of the structure of the optical detection device in FIG. 4A. [Diagram 5] FIG. 2 is a schematic top perspective view of the structure of a light detection device according to a first modified example of the present application. [Figure 6] FIG. 13 is a schematic top perspective view of the structure of a light detection device according to a second modified example of the present application. [Figure 7] FIG. 13 is a schematic plan view of a first direction-changing member according to a third modified example of the present application. [Figure 8] 1 shows a partial structural schematic diagram of a first redirecting member and a rotating member included in an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 9] FIG. 13 is a structural schematic diagram of a first direction-changing member in a fourth modified example of the present application. [Figure 10] FIG. 2 is a schematic top view of the structure of a light detection device according to another embodiment of the present application. [Figure 11A] 1A-1C are schematic top perspective structural views of optical detection devices in two other specific embodiments of the present application; [Figure 11B] 1A-1C are schematic top perspective structural views of optical detection devices in two other specific embodiments of the present application; [Figure 12A] FIG. 3C shows a schematic diagram of a structure in which the optical transmitter group is divided according to the example of FIG. 3B. [Figure 12B] 1 shows a waveform diagram in which a pulse width is a signal characteristic of a corresponding detection channel in one embodiment of the present application. [Figure 12C] 1 shows a waveform diagram of a pulse time interval as a signal characteristic of a corresponding detection channel in one embodiment of the present application. [Figure 13A] 1 shows a schematic diagram of the structure of a microlens array in one embodiment of the present application. [Figure 13B] FIG. 2 shows a structural schematic diagram of a microlens array in another embodiment of the present application. [Figure 14A]FIG. 2 shows a top perspective structural schematic diagram illustrating a window structure of a light detection device according to an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 14B] FIG. 14B shows a schematic diagram of the three-dimensional structure of the window structure of the optical detection device in FIG. 14A. [Figure 15] FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of frame stitching in which scanning is performed by stitching frames together in the prior art. [Figure 16] A schematic diagram of 2D scanning without frame stitching is shown. [Figure 17] 1 shows a schematic diagram of a laser radar according to an embodiment of the present invention; [Figure 18] FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a laser radar according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 19] 1 shows a schematic diagram of a rotating mirror unit according to an embodiment of the present invention; [Figure 20] 1 shows an exploded view of a rotating mirror unit according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 21] 13 shows a schematic diagram of a rotating mirror unit according to another embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 22A] 4 is a schematic diagram of a detection beam when a dihedral rotating mirror unit according to an embodiment of the present invention is at a scan start position. [Figure 22B] 22B shows a schematic diagram of an echo when the dihedral rotating mirror unit in FIG. 22A is at the scan start position. [Figure 23A] 4 is a schematic diagram of a detection beam when a dihedral rotating mirror unit according to an embodiment of the present invention is in a scan end position. [Figure 23B] 23B shows a schematic diagram of an echo when the dihedral rotating mirror unit in FIG. 23A is at the scan end position. [Figure 24A] 1 shows a schematic diagram of a microlens provided in a laser according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 24B] 1 shows a schematic diagram of a microlens provided in a laser according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 25A] 1 shows a schematic diagram of a microlens structure provided at a laser emission point according to one embodiment of the present invention; [Figure 25B] 25B illustrates preferred size relationships for the embodiment of FIG. 25A. [Figure 26]13 is a schematic diagram of a microlens structure provided at a laser emission point according to another embodiment of the present invention; FIG. [Figure 27] A schematic diagram of the motion distortion that occurs during two-dimensional scanning on a single beamline is shown. [Figure 28] A schematic diagram of the motion distortion that occurs during one-dimensional scanning with multiple beamlines is shown. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0039] In the following, the embodiments of the present application will be described by specific specific examples, and those skilled in the art can easily understand other advantages and effects of the present application from the contents disclosed in this specification. The present application may be implemented or applied in other different specific embodiments, and each detail of the present specification may be modified or changed in various ways based on different perspectives and applications without departing from the spirit of the present application. It should be noted that, unless inconsistent, the features of the embodiments and the embodiments in the present application may be combined with each other.

[0040] In the following, the present application will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings in order to enable those skilled in the art to easily carry out the present application. The present application may be embodied in various different forms and is not limited to the embodiments described herein.

[0041] For clarity in describing this application, parts that are not relevant to the description will be omitted, and the same or similar components will be labeled with the same reference numerals throughout the specification.

[0042] Throughout the specification, when a component is described as being "connected" to another component, this includes not only the case where the component is "directly connected" to another component, but also the case where the component is "indirectly connected" to another component through another element therebetween. Furthermore, when a component is described as "including" a certain component, this does not mean that the component excludes other components, but that the component may further include other components, unless otherwise specified.

[0043] When a part is described as being "on" another part, it may be directly on the other part, but there may be other parts between them. Conversely, when a part is described as being "directly on" another part, it means that there are no other parts between them.

[0044] In some instances, terms such as first, second, etc. are used herein to describe various elements, but these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are merely intended to distinguish one element from another. Examples include descriptions such as a first interface and a second interface. As used herein, the singular forms "a", "an" and "the" are intended to include the plural forms unless the context indicates otherwise. It should be further understood that the terms "including" and "including" specify the presence of the stated features, steps, operations, elements, components, items, types, and / or groups, but do not exclude the presence, occurrence, or addition of one or more other features, steps, operations, elements, components, items, types, and / or groups. As used herein, the terms "or" and "and / or" are to be construed as inclusive or mean any one or any combination. Thus, "A, B or C" or "A, B and / or C" means "any one of A, B, C, A and B, A and C, B and C, or A, B and C." Exceptions to this definition can occur only when combinations of elements, features, steps or operations are in some way inherently mutually exclusive.

[0045] The terminology used herein is merely to describe particular embodiments and is not intended to limit the present application. As used herein, the singular form includes the plural form unless the phrase clearly indicates otherwise. The term "comprising" as used herein is intended to embody certain features, regions, integers, steps, operations, elements and / or components, and does not exclude the presence or addition of other features, regions, integers, steps, operations, elements and / or components.

[0046] Relative spatial terms such as "below," "above," and the like may be used to more easily describe the relationship of one part shown in the figures to another part. Such terms include other orientations or operations of the device in use in addition to the orientation shown in the figures. For example, if the device in the figures were turned over, the parts described as being "below" other parts would be described as being "above" other parts. Thus, the exemplary term "below" includes both above and below. The device may be rotated 90 degrees or at other angles, and the relative spatial terms would be interpreted accordingly.

[0047] Unless otherwise defined, all terms, including technical and scientific terms, used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by a person skilled in the art to which this application belongs. Terms defined in commonly used dictionaries are additionally interpreted as having a meaning consistent with the contents of the relevant technical literature and this disclosure, but should not be interpreted in an ideal or very formal sense unless defined.

[0048] First aspect Typically, a laser radar consists of a transmitting module and a receiving module stacked one on top of the other.

[0049] Take the rotating mirror scanning laser radar as an example. Figure 1 shows the structure diagram of a rotating mirror type laser radar in one example.

[0050] The rotating mirror scanning laser radar 10 comprises a single laser 11, a transmitting lens 12, a rotating mirror 13, a receiving lens 14 and a single photodetector 15. The laser 11 and the photodetector 15 are stacked one on top of the other. The laser 11 is located at the top and emits light to emit laser light as a transmission signal, and the central axis of the light-emitting surface of the laser 11 is A1. The photodetector 15 is located below the laser 11 and receives the light beam of an echo signal of the transmission signal, and the central axis of the receiving surface of the photodetector 15 is B1. The transmitting lens 12 is for processing the passing transmission signal such as collimating it, and the receiving lens 14 is for processing the passing echo signal to focus it on the photodetector 15.

[0051] The rotating mirror 13 is controllably rotatable, and is shown in the figure to rotate in the counterclockwise direction of the arrow X. In this example, the size of the rotating mirror 13 is designed to be large, so that the transmission signal and the echo signal can be transmitted in different areas on one surface or multiple surfaces, respectively, and the transmission signal emitted from the laser 11 is transmitted to the rotating mirror 13 through the transmitting lens 12. Accordingly, the rotating mirror 13 rotates to a predetermined position to receive the transmission signal on one surface, and reflects it to the external environment along the arrow C, and the optical axis of the output optical path is A2. Accordingly, the echo signal is further incident on the optical path with the optical axis B2 along the arrow D through the receiving lens 14 to the optical detector 15, and the optical axes B2 and B1 are connected in the figure, and the dotted shading in the figure exemplarily indicates the light spot at the beam arrival point.

[0052] As can be seen from the figure, the height of the entire radar must be at least equivalent to the total height of the laser 11 and the photodetector 15, so the structure in which the laser 11 and the photodetector 15 are stacked vertically has the problem that it is difficult to reduce the height. In addition, in this example, the size of the rotating mirror 13 must be increased according to the structure to cover the arrival point of the transmission signal and the echo signal, which increases the overall size of the rotating mirror scanning laser radar. If the size of the rotating mirror scanning laser radar is reduced, the effective aperture of the radar transmission and reception will inevitably decrease, the viewing angle of the radar will decrease, and the radar performance will obviously deteriorate. In addition, the method shown in FIG. 1 cannot meet the radar product requirements for a high number of beamlines (32 lines or more, for example 32 lines, 64 lines, 128 lines) required by the mainstream of the autonomous driving industry in the future, and furthermore, this stacked structure will bring about the problem of blind spots in close-range detection.

[0053] FIG. 2A shows a schematic diagram of the optical path during a laser radar detection process in one example.

[0054] In a laser radar in which the transmitting module 21 and the receiving module 22 are stacked vertically, the field of view of the receiving module 22 is set to receive the echo signal of the transmitting signal reflected at a long distance (e.g., 200 meters from the laser radar as shown by the vertical solid line at the far right of FIG. 2A) in order to detect a target E1 at a long distance. Therefore, within a certain distance range (e.g., several meters, several tens of meters, or several tens of meters) close to the laser radar, the transmitting signal emitted from the transmitting module 21 may not fall within the field of view (FOV) of the receiving module 22 when transmitted by the transmitting lens 23, so that the receiving module 22 may not be able to receive the echo signal reflected on the target or the received echo signal may be extremely weak, thus forming a short-distance blind spot. In FIG. 2A, the area F between the two dashed lines exemplarily shows the short-distance blind spot.

[0055] For details, refer to Fig. 2B. Assuming that a target E2 exists in the area A, when the transmission signal hits the target E2 and is reflected to form an echo signal, the image point G formed by the echo signal passing through the receiving lens 24 is not on the focal plane of the receiving lens 24 but behind the focal plane. In addition, since a close-range target is above the optical axis of the receiving lens 24, the image point formed by the echo signal passing through the receiving lens 24 is necessarily below the optical axis of the receiving lens 24. By combining these two factors, the position of the image point G of the close-range target E2 is completely off the receiving module 22, and the receiving module 22 of the laser radar cannot receive the reflected signal of the target at all.

[0056] The cause of the near-distance blind spot is that the optical axes of the transmission optical path of the transmission signal and the reception optical path of the echo signal form an angle, as shown by α in Figure 2A, and such an optical path structure may be called a "paraxial" structure.

[0057] In addition to the above, such a paraxial optical path structure also affects the performance of laser radar signal detection, for example, to bring about differences between detection channels. First, to define "detection channel", in the case of a laser radar provided with multiple lasers or a laser radar with multiple beamlines, the optical transmitters of each row / column can extend in a certain direction, and similarly, the optical detectors of each row / column can extend in a certain direction and jointly configure scanning to a field of view corresponding to the extension direction (e.g., a vertical field of view corresponding to the column direction, a horizontal field of view corresponding to the row direction, etc.). Among them, the measurement dimension of the field of view (FOV) is often called the field of view angle, for example, the horizontal FOV is 100° and the vertical FOV is 120°. Each detection channel may include at least one laser and at least one detector, and each detection channel corresponds to one of the directional fields of view (e.g., a vertical field of view or a horizontal field of view). In other words, one detection channel may be composed of multiple lasers and one detector, may be composed of one laser and multiple detectors, or may be composed of one laser and one detector. In other words, one detection channel is composed of one or more lasers and one or more corresponding optical detectors, where correspondence refers to the correspondence between the laser that transmits a transmission signal and the optical detector that receives an echo signal of the transmission signal, that is, a laser and optical detector that correspond to the same detection field. For example, one detection channel of a laser radar is composed of one laser and one detector, and multiple detection channels are what are known as "multiple lines" in the radar field.

[0058] Due to the paraxial optical path structure in FIG. 2A, each detection channel has a different position and orientation relative to the same obstacle, and the optical response curves (e.g., describing the relationship between light intensity and the distance of the target) of each channel are significantly different from each other. As a result, it is difficult to measure the distance and reflectivity of the obstacle using the echo signal.

[0059] In response to the various problems in the above examples, the embodiments of the present application provide a light detection device that innovatively abandons the paraxial optical path and utilizes at least partially overlapping transmitting and receiving optical paths to solve the above problems.

[0060] FIG. 3A shows a schematic top perspective structure diagram of a scanning optical detection device with high beam lines (beam lines may be ≧32) in one embodiment of the present application.

[0061] 3A shows an internal perspective view of the light detection device at a lateral plane at a top view angle. For clarity, the case of the light detection device is not shown in the figure. The lateral plane may be a plane perpendicular to the height direction of the light detection device, such as a horizontal plane or other plane.

[0062] The optical detection device 30 includes a window 31, through which both the transmission signal and the echo signal are transmitted and received. Here, the echo signal is generated when the transmission signal hits an obstacle and is reflected. Exemplarily, the window 31 may be a flat window glass. In another embodiment, the window 31 may have a curved structure. The optical detection device 30 includes an optical transmitting end 32 and an optical detecting end 33. The optical transmitting end 32 is configured to output a transmission signal, and the optical detecting end 33 is configured to detect an echo signal of the transmission signal. Exemplarily, a space for providing the optical transmitting end 32 and the optical detecting end 33 may be formed inside the case.

[0063] The optical transmitting end 32 may include an optical transmitter array. Figure 3B shows a front view of the array structure of the optical transmitter array in one embodiment of the present application.

[0064] The optical transmitter array may include N rows of optical transmitters passing each other, each row of optical transmitters extending in a first direction and forming a scan in a first direction field of view, where N>1. Exemplarily, the first direction field of view may be a vertical field of view. Optionally, the fields of view of adjacent optical transmitters in the same row may not overlap each other. Specifically, in one optical transmitter row, each optical transmitter corresponds to one vertical field of view, so that the combination of the vertical fields of view of each optical transmitter in the same row corresponds to the vertical field of view of the optical transmitter row (the field of view of the optical transmitter row is obtained similarly), and the combination of the vertical fields of view of each optical transmitter row corresponds to the vertical field of view of the optical detection device.

[0065] To clearly explain the structure of the optical transmitter rows passing each other, please refer to FIG. 3B and FIG. 3C at the same time. FIG. 3C shows a schematic diagram of the left-side portion of FIG. 3B. The optical transmitter array 321 is mounted on a circuit board 322 (PCB). The optical transmitter row on the left side and the adjacent optical transmitter row on the right side are not aligned in the row direction, forming the passing-by. More specifically, the first optical transmitter b1 in the optical transmitter row on the right side is slightly lower than a1, and slightly higher than the second optical transmitter a2 on the left side. Here, the absolute value of the vertical viewing angle corresponding to a1>the absolute value of the vertical viewing angle corresponding to optical transmitter b1>the absolute value of the vertical viewing angle corresponding to a2. The passing-by may be understood as the two rows of optical transmitters passing each other in the first direction, and the viewing angles of each laser in the first direction (e.g., vertical direction) do not overlap at least partially.

[0066] As can be seen from Fig. 3C, in side view, b1 fills the gap between a1 and a2 in the column direction, so that the optical transmitters in the column direction are more densely distributed, and the vertical resolution of the optical detection device can be further improved. For example, the linear array arrangement of the optical transmitters in Fig. 3B can realize one-dimensional solid-state scanning (1D solid-state) in the column direction (corresponding to the vertical field of view). Similarly, in other embodiments, adjacent optical transmitter rows may also be arranged alternately in the row direction, and the detailed description is omitted here.

[0067] 3B and 3C, the optical transmitter array arranged in a linear array has a smaller number of optical transmitters and reduces costs compared to, for example, a square array, etc. On the other hand, the structure in which adjacent optical transmitter rows pass each other in a linear array is smaller in size and achieves higher resolution than the multiple rows of lasers.

[0068] In some embodiments, each optical transmitter may be a laser, such as a Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL), an Edge Emitting Laser (EEL), etc. Accordingly, the optical detector end 33 may include an optical detector array, and each optical detector (which may also be called a detector or a photodetector) included therein may be implemented, for example, as an avalanche photodiode (APD) or a silicon photomultiplier (SiPM), etc.

[0069] The optical detection device 30 further includes an optical signal redirecting assembly 34. The redirecting refers to changing / deflecting the direction of the input optical signal through optical signal processing methods such as optical reflection, refraction, and transmission, and re-determining the transmission direction of the output optical signal. As shown in FIG. 3, the optical signal redirecting assembly 34 is configured to deflect the transmission signal by motion, so that the transmission signal is emitted from the window 31 of the optical detection device 30, so as to realize scanning in the second direction field of view, and to redirect the echo signal, so that the echo signal is transmitted to the optical detection end 32. The optical signal redirecting assembly 34 can have various motion forms. If the optical signal redirecting assembly is a rotating mirror, the motion here can be rotation, specifically, for example, clockwise 300° rotation or 360° rotation, or reciprocating motion, for example, reciprocating between -50°-+50°. Alternatively, if the optical signal redirecting assembly is a galvano mirror, the motion here can be swinging.

[0070] Here, the optical path of the transmission signal and the optical path of the reception signal at least include an overlap between the window 31 and the optical signal redirection assembly 34. The overlap may be coaxial, i.e., the two optical path portions have overlapping optical axes as shown at J in the figure. It can be seen that both the transmission signal and the echo signal pass through the overlapping optical path portions in the light detection device 30, and such a coaxial optical path structure can avoid various problems caused by the paraxial optical path structure in the above example. Furthermore, under the reflective action of the reflecting surface 341, the optical path of the transmission signal and the optical path of the reception signal also overlap at the optical path portion with the optical axis K.

[0071] The optical signal redirection assembly 3 can also separate the optical path of the transmitting signal from the optical path of the receiving signal in another optical path portion. For example, the optical path where the optical axis K exists is provided with a reflecting surface 37 for deflecting the transmitting signal of the optical transmitting end 32 and guiding it to the overlapping optical path portion.

[0072] Here, due to the overlapping optical paths of the transmitting signal and the receiving signal, it is not necessary to adopt the structure of stacking the transmitting and receiving modules in the above-mentioned example, and the height of the optical detection device 30 is effectively reduced. As can be seen from the structure shown in Fig. 3A, within the horizontal plane shown by the top view angle of the optical detection device 30, the window 31, the optical transmitting end 32, the optical detecting end 33 and the optical signal redirecting assembly 34 are arranged oppositely on the left and right on the horizontal plane, and at least one vertical side of each of the window 31, the optical transmitting end 32, the optical detecting end 33 and the optical signal redirecting assembly 34 is an optical surface, and each vertical side is arranged corresponding to each other to form the optical path of the transmitting signal and the optical path of the receiving signal extending in the horizontal direction, so that the overall height of the radar is not increased.

[0073] In a specific example, the optical signal redirecting assembly 34 may include one or more optical surfaces to achieve a light redirecting action, such as one or a combination of reflection, refraction, focusing, diffusing, etc. The one or more optical surfaces may be located on a receiving member. By way of further example, the receiving member may be rotating (e.g., a rotating mirror in a rotating mirror scanning laser radar) or stationary (e.g., a reflecting mirror, a refracting mirror, a lens, a lens group, etc.).

[0074] In a specific embodiment, a first lens 35 may be provided at the front of the optical transmitting end 32 to collimate the transmission signal of the optical transmitting end 32 before transmitting it. The first lens 35 may be, for example, a plano-convex lens, with its convex surface facing the optical transmitting end 32. A second lens 36 may be provided at the front of the optical detecting end 33 to focus the passing echo signal on the optical detecting end 33. The second lens 36 may be, for example, a plano-convex lens, with its flat surface facing the optical detecting end 33. It should be noted that the optical transmitting end 32, the first lens 35 (or a lens group) and the reflecting mirror 37 may be implemented as one transmitting module, and the optical detecting end 33 and the second lens 36 may be implemented as one receiving module, which can improve the ease of assembly.

[0075] 4A shows a schematic top perspective structural view of a light detection device according to a specific embodiment of the present application. In the example of FIG. 4A, a specific structure of one embodiment of the light signal redirecting assembly 34 is shown.

[0076] In the example of Figure 4A, in addition to the window 31, optical transmitting end 32, optical detecting end 33, first lens 35, and second lens 36 shown in Figure 3A, an optical signal redirecting assembly 34 is also shown, which may specifically include a rotating member 41 and a first redirecting member 42.

[0077] The rotating member 41 is controlled to rotate, and in the example of FIG. 4A, it is shown that scanning of a horizontal field of view (relative to the vertical field of view) can be achieved by one-dimensional rotation in a horizontal plane (in the example shown in the figure, the counterclockwise direction indicated by the arrow) in the horizontal plane. In the above example, it is shown that vertical field scanning is achieved by optical transmitters arranged in a column direction, and horizontal field scanning is achieved by one-dimensional rotation of the rotating member in the horizontal direction, but it can be understood that this is not limited to this. In another specific example, the arrangement angle of the optical detection device may be changed, for example, to rotate 90 degrees with respect to FIG. 4A, so that vertical field scanning is achieved by one-dimensional rotation of the rotating member, and horizontal field scanning is achieved by optical transmitters in "rows" instead of "columns".

[0078] Exemplarily, the rotating member 41 may be fitted to the outside of the rotating shaft of the motor so as to rotate following the rotation of the rotating shaft when the motor drives the rotating shaft. The rotating member 41 includes at least one reflecting surface used in the optical path of the transmitting signal and the optical path of the receiving signal. When there is only one reflecting surface, the optical path of the transmitting signal and the optical path of the receiving signal may share this reflecting surface. When there are multiple reflecting surfaces, the optical path of the transmitting signal and the optical path of the receiving signal may not share the same reflecting surface of the rotating member 41. In the example of FIG. 4A, the rotating member 41 is exemplarily shown as a rectangular parallelepiped, and two opposing vertical sides 411, 412 thereof may be reflecting surfaces. When the rotating member 41 rotates to a predetermined position, for example, the position shown in the figure, one reflecting surface 411 deflects the transmitting signal to enter the window 31, and the transmitting signal passes through the window 31 and is emitted into the environment outside the light detection device and detected. When the transmitted signal hits an obstacle and forms an echo signal, the echo signal reaches the reflecting surface 411 through the window 31 and is deflected by the reflecting surface 411 before reaching the detector 33 .

[0079] The first redirecting member 42 is located in the optical path of the transmission signal and the optical path of the reception signal, configured to output the transmission signal to the rotating member 41, and has a passage for passing the echo signal. In the example of FIG. 4A, the first redirecting member 42 may be realized by a reflecting mirror and may have one reflecting surface 421. In the optical path of the transmission signal, the reflecting surface 421 is for reflecting the transmission signal emitted from the optical transmitting end 32 to the rotating member 41, and when the rotating member 41 is in the position shown in FIG. 4A, for example, the reflecting surface 411 or 412 can receive the transmission signal, deflect it to the window, and then emit it to the outside.

[0080] In the example of Fig. 4A, the passing portion is shown as a gap 43 on both sides of the first direction changing member 42, and the gap 43 may be formed between the first direction changing member 42 and the inner wall of the case of the optical detection device or between the first direction changing member 42 and another part (such as a support) provided in the case. In the structure illustrated in Fig. 4A, in the optical path of the received signal, the echo signal is reflected by one reflecting surface 411 of the rotating member 41 and transmitted to the first direction changing member 42, passes through the gap 43 on the side of the first direction changing member 42, and is received by the optical detection end 33.

[0081] 4A, 4B and 4C may be referred to at the same time. FIG. 4C shows a side view of the optical detection device in FIG. 4A or 4B. Specifically, FIG. 4C shows a structural schematic diagram shown at a viewing angle where the window 31 in FIG. 4A faces downward. In FIG. 4A, the structures erected between the optical transmission end 32, the optical detection end 33, the rotating member 41 and the first direction changing member 42 can be more clearly observed. For ease of understanding, FIG. 4C omits the window 31, the first lens 35 and the second lens 36, and exemplarily adds some cases of the upper and lower boundaries for reference. The figure exemplarily shows the optical transmitter array 321 included in the optical transmission end 32 and the optical detector array 331 included in the optical detection end 33 for constructing the transmission and reception detection channels of each optical signal.

[0082] The rotating member 41 may rotate continuously to transmit a transmission signal and receive an echo signal at different times, or may rotate back and forth to transmit a transmission signal and receive an echo signal at different times. It can be understood that the rotation speed of the rotating member 41, the number of reflecting surfaces, and the light emission switching speed of the adjacent lasers affect the frame rate of the radar point cloud detection, and each factor needs to be matched with each other to realize detection at a predetermined frame rate. When the detection frame rate is fixed, the larger the number of reflecting surfaces, the smaller the required rotation speed may be. Therefore, the rotation speed and the number of reflecting surfaces of the rotating member 41 may be set according to the actual detection requirements. The number of reflecting surfaces is also related to the structure of the rotating member 41, and may be at least two, for example, two, three, four or more. In a specific embodiment, the rotating member 41 may be a prism. The cross section of the rotating member 41 may be axially symmetrical or centrally symmetrical to realize the transmission and reception of optical signals at a uniform time. For example, take the rotating member 41 in FIG. 4A as an example of a prism with a rectangular cross section, and its two opposing surfaces may be reflecting surfaces. Alternatively, the rotating member 41 may be a prism with a square cross section, all four of which may be reflective. Alternatively, in FIG. 4B, the rotating member 41B shown is a prism with an equilateral triangular cross section, all three of which may be reflective, and during rotation, the three reflective surfaces may be used in sequence for transmitting optical signals, and no side must be used for transmitting optical signals. It should be noted that in other examples, the rotating member 41 may be a prism with a more polygonal cross section (e.g., a pentagonal prism, a hexagonal prism, etc.), and is not limited to the above examples.

[0083] It is understood that the size, structure, and shape of the first redirecting member may affect the detection performance of the optical detection end for the echo signal. Therefore, the present application provides various modifications based on the structure in FIG. 4B to help improve the performance of the optical detection device.

[0084] FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing a top perspective structure of a light detection device according to a first modified example of the present application.

[0085] The example of FIG. 5 is mainly different from the previous embodiment in that the positions of the optical transmitting end 52 and the optical detecting end 53 are exchanged, and the first redirecting member is changed to two separated sub-redirecting members 54 and 55. Between the two sub-redirecting members 54 and 55, there is a gap which is a passage for passing the transmitting signal and reflecting it out of the window 51 by the rotating member 57. Optionally, the first lens 56 is adapted to the size of the gap accordingly. The surfaces of the two sub-redirecting members 54 and 55 on the side facing the rotating member 57 are reflective surfaces for reflecting the echo signal transmitted from the rotating member 57 which is incident on the window 51 and transmitting it to the optical detecting end 53 by the second lens 58. Optionally, the two sub-redirecting members 54 and 55 may be parallel. Furthermore, the two sub-redirecting members 54 and 55 may be arranged so that their two sides are aligned along one straight line, for example, as shown in FIG. 5, in the same plane. Alternatively, the two sub-redirecting members 54 and 55 may be the edges of a perforated reflector.

[0086] FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing a top perspective structure of a light detection device according to a second modified example of the present application.

[0087] 6 is different from the embodiment of FIG. 4B mainly in that the optical transmitting end 62 and the optical detecting end 63 share a transmitting / receiving lens 64, and the transmitting / receiving lens 64 is provided in an overlapping optical path portion located between the rotating member 65 and the first direction changing member 66 in the optical path of the transmitting signal and the optical path of the receiving signal. Alternatively, the transmitting / receiving lens 64 may be, for example, a plano-convex lens, with its convex surface facing the rotating member 65.

[0088] When an echo signal is incident from the window 61 and is incident on the transmitting / receiving lens 64 from the rotating member 65, the transmitting / receiving lens 64 focuses the echo signal and transmits it to the optical detection end 63 through the gap, thereby improving the efficiency of echo signal detection. When a transmission signal emitted from the optical transmitting end 62 is reflected from the first direction changing member 66 to the transmitting / receiving lens 64 along the optical path of the transmission signal, the signal is incident on the transmitting / receiving lens 64 from the reverse direction, so that it is reflected by the rotating member 65 and transmitted to the outside of the window 61. By adopting such an architecture, it is possible to transmit and receive using the same transmitting / receiving lens 64 (or lens group), thereby reducing the number of lenses (or lens groups).

[0089] In some embodiments, the circuit board supporting the optical transmitter array of the optical detection end may be a flexible board, capable of being bent into a curved surface, and the recess formed therein is arranged to correspond to the first redirecting member so that the output optical axes of each optical transmitter in the optical transmitter array are concentrated and directed toward the first redirecting member.

[0090] It is understood that the optical paths of the transmission signal and the reception signal can also form overlapping portions between the rotating member and the first redirecting member, so that the echo signal and the transmission signal pass through the first redirecting member from different directions of the two optical paths, respectively. Thus, the first redirecting member can form a reflecting surface for reflecting one of the echo signal and the transmission signal, and can also form a passing portion for passing the other of the echo signal and the transmission signal.

[0091] In any optical path architecture, the size of the first redirecting member must be appropriately set in consideration of multiple factors. For example, in the optical path architecture shown in FIG. 4B, if the size of the first redirecting member 42 is too large, the reception of the echo signal will be disturbed too much, and the signal-to-noise ratio will be reduced. If the size is too small, the outgoing beam itself will have a certain divergence angle, which will affect the reflection of the transmission signal. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the relationship between the divergence angle of the transmission signal and the amount of the echo signal passing through the passage part (which affects the signal-to-noise ratio of the echo signal) and set the relationship to reach a predetermined optimization target, so that as many transmission signals as possible are deflected to the rotating mirror and deflected and reflected by the rotating mirror to the external obstacle, and it is also necessary to reduce the echo signals reflected from the obstacle as much as possible, so that as many echo signals as possible can be received by the optical detection end, can be used to calculate distance and reflectance information, and can be used to generate a point cloud map. Therefore, the size of the first redirecting member 42 and the divergence angle of the outgoing beam at the first redirecting member 42 are proportional. For example, for the optical path architecture shown in FIG. 5, if the size of the first redirecting members (54 and 55) becomes too small, it will be insufficient to deflect the echo signal, and the signal-to-noise ratio will be further reduced. If it becomes too large, the outgoing beam itself will also have a certain divergence angle, which will affect the outgoing transmission signal. Therefore, in different optical path architectures, the relationship between the outgoing amount of the transmission signal and the passing amount of the echo signal (which will affect the signal-to-noise ratio of the echo signal) should be considered and set to reach a certain optimization ratio, so as to comprehensively achieve the goal of a longer measurement distance and a higher signal-to-noise ratio with a relatively small overall size. In addition, the structural setting of the first redirecting member also affects the stray light, and the possible deformation of the first redirecting member will be described below with an example.

[0092] In the above embodiment, there is a gap formed on the side or middle of the first redirecting member to allow the optical signal to pass through. However, the material through which the optical signal can pass is not limited to the gap, and may be transparent material, such as glass, etc. Based on this idea, some embodiments of the present application may further provide a first redirecting member composed of different transparent and reflective parts.

[0093] FIG. 7 shows a schematic plan view of a first direction-changing member in a third modified example of the present application.

[0094] One surface of the first direction-changing member 70 shown in FIG. 7 corresponds to the reflecting surface 421 in FIG. 4. In this embodiment, the first direction-changing member 70 includes a first region 71 for outputting a transmission signal to the rotating member, and a second region 72 for transmitting echo signals other than the first region 71. Exemplarily, the first region 71 may be coated with a reflective material, and the second region 72 may be made of a transparent material (e.g., glass, etc.). In this embodiment, the second region 72 may be fixed to each other while surrounding the first region 71 to constitute the first direction-changing member 70. This first direction-changing member 70 is further useful for highly efficient transmission of echo signals and transmission signals, and for improving the detection performance of the optical detection device.

[0095] In addition, the structure of the end surface of the first direction-changing member also affects the detection performance of the optical detection device. Figure 8 shows a schematic diagram of the partial structure of the first direction-changing member and the rotating member in one embodiment of the present application. In this example, the cross section of the first direction-changing member 82 is rectangular, and the convex angle of one end 821 close to the rotating member 81 prevents the echo signal W from being transmitted to the optical detection end. In addition, the other end 822 of the first direction-changing member 82 away from the rotating member 81 in Figure 8 may cause a reflection effect on the end surface that can be irradiated with the transmission signal. For example, the transmission signal Y1 in the figure is normally reflected by the first direction-changing member 82 and transmitted along the first optical path, but the transmission signal Y2 is reflected to the second optical path by the end surface of the other end 822 of the first direction-changing member 82 (as shown by the right-facing dashed arrow in the figure), and when reflected to the second optical path, it is transmitted to the optical detection end along the second optical path, causing interference. Here, the approach or separation refers to the approach or separation with respect to one fixed point on the rotating member 81, and the fixed point is, for example, the central position of the rotation shaft of the rotating member 81, or the like.

[0096] FIG. 9 shows a structural schematic diagram of a first direction-changing member in a fourth modified example of the present application.

[0097] The first redirecting member 90 in the embodiment of FIG. 9 is an improvement over the embodiment of FIG.

[0098] In the embodiment of Figure 9, optionally, the corner of one end (i.e., the upper end in Figure 8) of the first direction-changing member 90 shown in Figure 8 that is close to the rotating member is cut so that the end face 91 of said end is configured to be parallel to the axial direction of the optical path portion of the optical path of the received signal between the rotating member and the first direction-changing member.

[0099] In the embodiment of Figure 9, optionally, at least a part of the end surface of the first direction-changing member 90 at one end away from the rotating member (i.e., the lower end in Figure 9) is set as a first reflecting surface 92, and the first reflecting surface 92 and the axis of the first optical path portion in the optical path of the transmitted signal to the first direction-changing member 90 are set to form a first predetermined included angle, such as the included angle β shown in the figure, which may be a right angle or an obtuse angle, so that the incident optical signal cannot enter the optical path of the received signal even if it is reflected, i.e., it does not deviate from the optical path of the received signal and interfere with the optical detection end.

[0100] Furthermore, for a first redirecting member having a transparent portion, the transmitted signal may pass through it and be further reflected, causing interference.

[0101] 10 shows a schematic top view of the structure of an optical detection device in an embodiment of the present application, which is an example based on a combination of the embodiments of FIG. 4B and FIG. 9. In order to reduce interference caused by the transmission signal transmission, the optical detection device in this embodiment further includes a light blocking member 101 arranged in the transmission signal transmission path passing through the first direction changing member 90. In some examples, the light blocking member 101 may be integrated with the first direction changing member 90, for example, a light absorbing material applied to the surface of the first direction changing member 90.

[0102] FIG. 11A shows a schematic top perspective structural view of a light detection device according to another embodiment of the present application.

[0103] In this example, the bottom plate 1100 of the case of the optical detection device 110, the window 1101 located on the bottom plate 1100, the optical transmission end 1102, the optical detection end 1103, the rotating member 1104, the first direction changing member 1105, the second direction changing member 1106, the third direction changing member 1107, the first bushing body 1108, the second bushing body 1109, the third bushing body 1110, the first lens 1111, the second lens 1112, etc. are shown. The black dashed line indicates the direction of the emitted beam, which is emitted from the optical transmitter (array) 1102, further deflected by the reflecting mirror 1106, further deflected by the first direction changing member 1105, enters the rotating mirror 1104, and is deflected before being emitted to the outside.

[0104] The thick grey arrows indicate the incident path of the echo reflected from an obstacle in the product's direct frontal field of view; the echo first enters the rotating mirror 1104, is deflected, passes through the peripheral side of the first direction-changing member 1105, is deflected by the lens (group) 1112 and the reflector 1107, and finally enters the detector (array) 1103.

[0105] Since a light beam with high intensity may be incident on the window edge (for example, the left edge of the window 1101 in FIG. 4A and FIG. 11A, or the leftmost viewing angle of the detection field of the light detection device) (especially when it hits an obstacle with high reflectivity), if it enters the optical path of the received signal, it will also cause strong optical interference at the light detection end. Therefore, in some examples, as shown in FIG. 11B, the erection direction of the second lens 1112B may not be along the vertical direction (i.e., the height direction) of the horizontal plane, but may have a certain deviation angle (tilted downward) with respect to the vertical direction, for example, a deviation angle of 3° to 6° or 6° to 9°, so that the stray light incident from the edge viewing angle can be deflected to a position deviating from the light detector array at the light detection end 1103 after passing through the inclined lens 1112B and the reflector 1107B, for example, can be incident on the side wall of 1110 as shown by the gray arrow in the figure, and the field scattering can be further improved.

[0106] Optionally, at least one second redirecting member 1106, such as a reflector, may be provided in the optical path of the transmitting signal to form a folded optical path of the transmitting signal. The position of the optical transmitting end 1102 may be adjusted accordingly, for example, located at the left wall in Figs. 11A and 11B, and the transmitting signal is reflected by the second redirecting member 1106 to the first redirecting member 1105. Similarly, at least one third redirecting member 1107, such as a reflector, may be provided in the optical path of the receiving signal to form a folded optical path of the receiving signal, so that the position of the optical detecting end 1103 can also be changed, for example, located near the rear wall of the optical detecting device in the figure. The positions of the optical transmitting end 1102 and the optical detecting end 1103 are variable and can be located at desired positions to meet the spatial layout requirements in the optical detecting device, and the positions of the optical transmitting end 1102 and the optical detecting end 1103 may be far away from each other to reduce the probability of crosstalk.

[0107] In FIG. 11A, the optical path of the transmission signal is as shown by the dashed arrow, and the optical path of the reception signal is as shown by the gray arrow.

[0108] Exemplarily, the first redirecting member 1105 may be enclosed in a first bushing body 1108, which extends in a direction approaching the optical transmitting end 1102 along the optical path of the transmitting signal, and the first bushing body 1108 may have a light-transmitting portion (such as an opening or a window provided with a light-transmitting member) on a surface corresponding to the second lens 1112. Within the coverage area of ​​the first bushing body 1108, the transmitting signal and the echo signal can be effectively separated to reduce crosstalk between the transmitting signal and the echo signal. Optionally, the first bushing body 1108 may be realized by a bushing, and the bushing may be hard.

[0109] In order to reduce the interference of the echo signal received by the optical path portion between the optical transmitting end 1102 and the first direction changing member 1105, a second bushing body 1109 may be provided in this optical path portion, and the optical transmitting end 1102 corresponds to one end of the second bushing body 1109. The second bushing body 1109 extends to the first direction changing member 1105 along the optical path of the transmission signal, and forms an optical output port at the other end. Optionally, a first lens 1111 may be provided at the optical output port of the second bushing body 1109. Optionally, the second bushing body 1109 may be realized by a bushing, and the bushing may be hard.

[0110] Further optionally, when the first bush body 1108 is present, one end of the optical output port of the second bush body 1109 may be connected to one end of the extending portion of the first bush body 1108, so as to reduce crosstalk as much as possible. It should be noted that the connection may be a seamless connection or a connection that leaves a seam.

[0111] Similarly, optionally, a third bushing body 1110 may be provided in the optical path of the corresponding received signal. The light detection end 1103 may correspond to one end of the third bushing body 1110. The third bushing body 1110 extends to the first redirecting member 1105 along the optical path of the received signal, and forms an optical input port for receiving an echo signal at the other end. Optionally, the third bushing body 1110 may be realized by a bushing, and the bushing may be rigid.

[0112] For example, the first bushing body 1108, the second bushing body 1109 and the third bushing body 1110 may be fixed to the case of the detection device or a support to which the case is attached by a method such as screwing, adhesive or engagement.

[0113] It should be noted that although the first bush body 1108, the second bush body 1109 and the third bush body 1110 are shown in the embodiment, any one or a combination of multiple bush bodies may be selected and used in the actual embodiment, and the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment.

[0114] Optionally, a barrier section 1113 may be provided between the optical path of the transmitting signal and the optical path of the receiving signal to reduce crosstalk between them. The barrier section 1113 may be, for example, a bent section, and the surface of the bent section may be, for example, a sharp convex surface as shown in the figure, or a circular arc surface or a flat surface, and the structure is not limited. The bent section may block the direct transmission path of the optical transmitting end and the optical detecting end, thereby reducing crosstalk. In some alternative examples, the surface of the second bush body 1110 may be provided with a recess that engages with the bent section, thereby enhancing the blocking effect on the arriving optical signal.

[0115] As in the previous embodiment, multiple detection channels are formed between the optical transmitter array and the optical detector array, and in one optical signal transmission and reception, multiple optical transmitters in the optical transmitter array are activated to emit light, and multiple optical detectors in the optical detector array are activated to detect, which constitute multiple detection channels. In this process, crosstalk may be generated between the detection channels that work together.

[0116] In order to reduce crosstalk between detection channels, in some embodiments, each optical transmitter row or column may be divided into a plurality of optical transmitter groups (banks), and each optical transmitter group may correspond to one detection channel. In one signal transmission process, the optical transmitter array selects an optical transmitter from each optical transmitter group to emit light when activated. In this way, the separation space between the optical transmitters of different detection channels that are activated and operated in the same signal transmission process, i.e., the space occupied by each non-activated optical transmitter between two activated optical transmitters, can be increased, thereby reducing crosstalk. Similarly, the optical detector array can be divided into optical detector groups, and by selecting and activating optical detectors from each optical detector group corresponding to different detection channels in one signal transmission process, the separation space between the optical detectors of different detection channels that are activated and operated in the same signal transmission process can also be formed, thereby reducing crosstalk.

[0117] Optionally, the above-mentioned grouping of the optical transmitter arrays and selecting the optical transmitters to be activated in one signal transmission process, and the grouping of the optical detector arrays and selecting the optical transmitters to be activated in one signal transmission process may be implemented alternatively or jointly. When implemented jointly, the crosstalk between multiple detection channels (especially adjacent detection channels) operating jointly in one signal transmission process can be more effectively reduced.

[0118] For the sake of simplicity, the following description will be given by illustrating only an example in which the optical transmitter array is divided into groups of optical transmitters. FIG. 12A shows a schematic diagram of a structure in which the optical transmitter groups are divided according to the structure of the example of FIG. 3B. In this example, every eight optical transmitters arranged continuously in the column direction are regarded as one unit, and two units in one column, i.e., 16 optical transmitters, are regarded as one optical transmitter group, forming a total of eight optical transmitter groups, i.e., Bank0 to Bank7. In one optical signal transmission / reception, one optical transmitter in each Bank may be selected and activated. In this case, eight optical transmitters emit light in one signal transmission process, and are represented by hatched lines in the figure.

[0119] For these reasons, by grouping the optical transmitters and selecting each optical transmitter to emit light, the greater the number of optical transmitters included in each optical transmitter group, the greater the separation space between the activated optical transmitters.

[0120] It should be noted that the grouping method of the optical transmitter group in Fig. 12A is merely an example and is not the only one. For example, one unit of eight optical transmitters arranged continuously in the column direction in the figure may be one bank, or three or more units in one column may be one bank, or a variable number of optical transmitters arranged discretely, for example, in different rows or at different positions, may be one bank, and is not limited to the examples here.

[0121] For example, the optical transmitters of adjacent optical transmitter rows or optical transmitter columns may be alternately arranged in the extending direction. For example, the figure shows that the adjacent column banks are alternately arranged at intervals in the column direction when one unit is one bank. This example is similar to the alternate arrangement of the optical transmitters in the previous adjacent optical transmitter column or row for the purpose of increasing the resolution.

[0122] In some examples, the signal transmission process in which each optical transmitter in each optical transmitter group and / or each optical detector in each optical detector group is activated is different. For example, in one signal transmission process, a1 in Bank0 is activated, b1 in Bank1 is activated, and one optical transmitter is selected and activated from each of the other banks. In the next signal transmission process, a2 in Bank0 is activated, b3 in Bank1 is activated, and another optical transmitter is selected and activated from each of the other banks. In this way, after the optical transmitters in each bank are activated, they are activated again in order.

[0123] Similarly, each photodetector in each photodetector group can be activated in turn in different signal transmission processes. For example, photodetectors i2 and a1 in photodetector group Bank9 correspond to one detection channel, i1 and a2 correspond to one detection channel, j1 and b1 in Bank10 correspond to one detection channel, and j2 and b2 correspond to one detection channel. When a1 and b1 are activated in a signal transmission process, i2 and j1 are also activated, and so on.

[0124] FIG. 12A shows eight banks, each of which has 16 optical transmitters, for a total of 128 optical transmitters. If one optical transmitter and one optical detector constitute one detection channel, there are a total of 128 detection channels, that is, "128 lines". In each signal transmission process, eight of the 128 detection channels work together, and all detection channels are traversed through 16 signal transmission processes. Each optical transmitter may adopt a VCSEL laser, for example, which achieves a very high vertical resolution of about 0.2°.

[0125] In a specific application scenario, the optical detection device may be realized as a laser radar applied to a vehicle (e.g., a car). Generally, in the laser radar field, one frame of detection can obtain one detection result (e.g., one point cloud map), which covers the entire horizontal and vertical fields of view.

[0126] For example, in a road driving scenario, the obstacles may be pedestrians or vehicles on the road, which are very important for unmanned driving. Among the detection channels of the laser radar, the field of view of the middle detection channel covers more pedestrians or vehicles on the road, and the edge detection channel is farther away from the obstacles on the road. It can be understood that the optical transmitter in the middle region of the optical transmitter array belongs to the middle detection channel, and the optical transmitter in the edge region of the optical transmitter array belongs to the edge detection channel.

[0127] In order to improve the effect of short-distance obstacle detection, the laser radar may emit light for short-distance measurement (e.g., 3 m) in addition to long-distance measurement (e.g., 150 m) in one detection (e.g., detection corresponding to one horizontal viewing angle), and the detection result is obtained by merging the results of the long-distance measurement and the short-distance measurement. In a specific embodiment, the short-distance measurement operation and the long-distance measurement operation can be realized by different flight time windows, and the flight time window is a flight time range, which is calculated as τ=2×d / c, where τ is the flight time from the emission of the transmission signal from the optical transmitter to the reception of the echo signal, d is the obstacle distance, c is the speed of light, and 2 times d represents the round-trip distance between the transmission signal and the echo signal. For example, when detecting an object at a distance of 150 meters, only the echo signal obtained within a predetermined flight time range possible at a distance of 150 meters is received, and the echo signal beyond this predetermined flight time range is restricted to be excluded.

[0128] In possible examples, the distance corresponding to the long-distance measurement operation may be 100 meters to 150 meters, or 150 meters to 200 meters, or 200 meters to 250 meters, and the distance corresponding to the short-distance measurement operation may be 3 meters to 5 meters, 5 meters to 10 meters, etc.

[0129] In a possible example, the short-distance measurement operation and the long-distance measurement operation may use detection channels that partially overlap or completely overlap, for example, the optical transmitter in the middle region in the first direction of the optical transmitter array is used when the long-distance measurement distance is 250 meters and the short-distance measurement distance is 3 meters. When long-distance measurement is the main operation and short-distance measurement is the auxiliary operation, the operation frequency in each detection and the resource of the detection channel may be set mainly for the long-distance measurement operation, for example, one short-distance measurement operation is performed after every four long-distance measurement operations.

[0130] In a possible embodiment, the number of optical transmitters used for short-distance measurement is small, and the number of detection channels is reduced accordingly. For example, if only channels close to the central region in 8 banks are selected for short-distance measurement, and 40 optical transmitters can be selected from the <128 portion, for example, and each optical transmitter corresponds to one detection channel, 40 detection channels are configured, and the 40 detection channels are polled in order to perform short-distance measurement operations. Optionally, the short-distance measurement operation and the long-distance measurement operation are also different in the polling method for channels. For example, in one signal transmission process of each long-distance measurement operation, optical transmitters of one channel each are selected from multiple banks in the middle region (e.g., banks 2, 3, 4, and 5 in FIG. 12A) and operated jointly, but in one signal transmission process of each short-distance measurement operation, one channel in only one bank is selected and operated from multiple banks in the middle region.

[0131] In a possible example, the detection distances corresponding to the long distance measurement operation are various, for example 150 meters and 250 meters. The closer to the center the activated optical transmitter is located in the optical transmitter array, the farther the corresponding expected detection distance is, i.e. the wider the detection time window expected to be provided. For example, an optical transmitter relatively close to the middle in the vertical central region in FIG. 3B provides a 250 meter measurement window (window τ=2×d / c) and is expected to be able to detect up to 250 m, while an optical transmitter relatively close to the edge provides a 150 meter measurement window and is expected to be able to detect up to 150 m.

[0132] The activation scheme for the optical transmitters described above is merely an example and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. For example, in another example, multiple optical transmitters (e.g., in the same row) corresponding to one vertical field of view may be arranged, but the multiple light-emitting units do not emit light in unison (e.g., polled light-emitting), thereby increasing the service life and reliability of each.

[0133] In some embodiments, the driving scheme of the optical transmitter array and the corresponding driving circuit can be set to realize individual control of each optical transmitter therein, so that each optical transmitter can emit light by polling, jointly, or in any other combination manner. For example, each optical transmitter in the optical transmitter array can be polled in any order, interval, signal characteristic (e.g., one or more combinations of wavelength, pulse width, pulse number, pulse peak, and pulse time interval), etc., thereby realizing flexible electronic scanning (e-scanning).

[0134] In some examples, in order to reduce crosstalk between the detection channels, the optical signals transmitted within each detection channel operating in the same signal transmission process have different signal characteristics, where the optical signals transmitted in each detection channel include a transmission signal and a corresponding echo signal, and the optical detection device may further include a control module that can be used to determine the detection channel to which a signal belongs based on the signal characteristics.

[0135] Specifically, the optical detector at the optical detection end may convert the received optical signal into an electrical signal, and transmit it to the control module after undergoing certain signal processing (e.g., filtering, analog-to-digital conversion, etc.). The control module determines whether the signal characteristics of the echo signal match the signal characteristics of the transmission signal of the optical transmitter of the corresponding detection channel, and if so, may use the echo signal in the corresponding detection channel to calculate the detection result, such as calculating the distance to the target. In a specific embodiment, the control module may be realized by, for example, a microcontroller unit (MCU), a programmable gate array (FPGA), or a system on chip (SoC).

[0136] In some examples, each optical transmitter is activated by a drive signal of a drive circuit, the drive signal being generated by the drive circuit of the optical transmitter. Optionally, the drive signal may include one or more pulsed electrical signals (e.g., periodic pulse signals), in which case the transmission signal of the optical transmitter accordingly includes one or more pulsed optical signals. In a corresponding example, the signal characteristic dimensions may include one or more combinations of wavelength, pulse width, pulse number, pulse peak, and pulse time interval.

[0137] The principle of signal features of each dimension will be explained by an example.

[0138] In the example where wavelength is the signal characteristic, the wavelengths of the transmission signals of each optical transmitter group are not completely the same, and the optical wavelengths of the transmission signals of the optical transmitters operating in the same signal transmission process are different. For example, BANK0, BANK1, BANK2, and BANK3 each have one optical transmitter transmission signal in the same round, BANK0 is a plurality of optical transmitters that emit optical signals with a wavelength of λ0, and accordingly, BANK1 to BANK3 are optical transmitters that emit optical signals with wavelengths of λ1 to λ3, respectively, where λ0≠λ1≠λ2≠λ3. Thus, one optical transmitter-emitted optical signal is selected from each of the four BANKs in each round, and the wavelengths of the signals emitted by the four optical transmitters that jointly transmit signals in any round are all different.

[0139] Furthermore, in the optical detector array, an optical detector group corresponding to the optical transmitter group may be provided, and an optical filter unit may be provided on the optical path of each optical detector in each optical detector group, and each optical filter unit may be configured to allow only an echo signal of a wavelength corresponding to its own detection channel to pass, thereby filtering out echo signals of other detection channels and interference from ambient light.

[0140] As another example, suppose that n optical transmitter groups are divided in the optical transmitter array. The optical wavelength of the transmission signal of each optical transmitter group is different, respectively λ1 to λn. Thus, the optical transmitter array is suitable for joint transmission of up to n transmission signals. When optical transmitters are selected and activated from any optical transmitter groups among the n optical transmitter groups, the multiple optical transmitters that transmit jointly can emit signal beams of different wavelengths. When n optical transmitter groups are selected and activated jointly, in one optical signal transmission and reception, one optical transmitter transmission signal is selected and detected from each optical transmitter group, and the beam of the transmission signal is emitted by the transmitting lens and reflected by the target to form an echo signal. The wavelength of each echo signal is the same as the corresponding input transmission signal, λ1 to λn, and the n echo signals return from the window into the optical detection device and are transmitted to the optical detector array by the receiving lens. In the optical detector array, n optical detector groups may be provided corresponding to the n optical transmitter groups, and an optical filter unit may be provided in front of each optical detector in each optical detector group, and each of the optical filter units may be configured to allow only echo signals of a wavelength corresponding to a self-detection channel to pass, and one optical detector from one optical detector group is selected and activated in one transmission of an optical signal, thereby allowing the n echo signals to be detected by each of the n optical detectors without echo signals of other wavelengths being detected, thereby reducing interference.

[0141] In the example where the pulse width is the signal characteristic, each transmission signal may include multiple pulses, and the ratio of these pulse widths may be set in various ways, for example, 2:3:1:..., which is the signal characteristic of the transmission signal (a signal characteristic code can be obtained by coding). In the same signal transmission process, the pulse width ratios of the transmission signals of different detection channels that work together are different. For example, the pulse width ratios may be different depending on the bank, for example, as shown in FIG. 5B, the multiple consecutive pulses included in the transmission signal of each optical transmitter in bank 0 adopt a pulse width ratio of 1:2:1:..., the multiple pulses included in the transmission signal of each optical transmitter in bank 1 adopt a pulse width ratio of 1:2:3:..., and the pulse width ratios of each other bank are also different. In this case, in the same signal transmission process, the pulse width ratios of the transmission signals of the optical transmitters selected from different banks are different, so that the pulse width ratios of the echo signals generated by each of them are also different. By determining whether the pulse width ratio of the echo signal is the same as the pulse width ratio of the transmission signal of the self-detection channel, it can be determined whether the echo signal is an echo of the self-detection channel. If the pulse width ratio of the echo signal is different from the pulse width ratio of the transmission signal of the self-detection channel, it is removed by a filter as an interference signal. Thus, by using the different pulse widths as signal features, the echo signal belonging to different detection channels can be distinguished.

[0142] In the example where the pulse time interval is the signal feature, the pulse time interval ratios of the transmission signals of different detection channels operating together in the same signal transmission process are different. For example, the pulse time interval ratios may be realized to be different for different BANK transmission signals. For example, as shown in FIG. 5C, the pulse time interval ratio of the multiple consecutive pulses included in the transmission signal of the optical transmitter in BANK0 is 2:3:1:..., and the pulse time interval ratio of the multiple consecutive pulses included in the transmission signal of the optical transmitter in BANK1 is 2:2:3.... Therefore, the pulse time interval ratios of the echo signals generated respectively are also different, and the echo signal attribution of different detection channels is distinguished by determining whether the pulse time interval ratio of the echo signal is consistent with the pulse time interval ratio of the self-detection channel transmission signal.

[0143] In the example of using the number of pulses as the signal feature, the number of pulses included in the transmission signals of different detection channels operating together in the same signal transmission process is different. For example, the number of pulses included in the transmission signals of the optical transmitters of different banks is different, so that the number of pulses of the echo signals generated respectively is also different, and the echo signal attribution of different detection channels is distinguished by determining whether the number of pulses of the echo signal is consistent with the number of pulses of the self-detection channel transmission signal.

[0144] In the example of using pulse peaks (corresponding optical intensity peaks or peaks converted into electrical signals) as signal features, the peak intensity ratios of multiple pulses included in the transmission signals of different detection channels operating together in the same signal transmission process are different. For example, the pulse peak intensity ratios of multiple pulses included in the transmission signals of the optical transmitters in different banks are realized to be different. For example, the pulse peak ratios of multiple pulses included in the transmission signals of the optical transmitters in bank 0 are X:Y:Z:..., and the pulse peaks of one or more pulses included in the transmission signals of the optical transmitters in bank 1 are all W:X:Y.... Thus, the pulse peak ratios of the echo signals generated respectively are also different, and the echo signal attributions of different detection channels are distinguished by determining whether the pulse peak intensity ratios of the echo signals are consistent with the pulse peak intensity ratios of the self-detection channel transmission signals.

[0145] Additionally, the above signal features may be combined to generate signal features for optical signals of different detection channels.

[0146] It should be noted that the above ratios, such as the pulse width ratio, the pulse time interval ratio, the pulse peak intensity ratio, and the integer ratios, are merely exemplary, and in practice, the above ratios may be any numerical values.

[0147] It will be appreciated that in one or more of the various embodiments in which the associated detection channel is distinguished by the signal characteristics, the optical detection device may be a laser radar, and (by addressing the lasers) any one laser or any combination of lasers may be polled and freely selected, allowing highly flexible detection scanning and achieving at least multiple objectives.

[0148] Free selection of detection target and area can be realized. Specifically, when the optical detection device is a laser radar, it can be mounted on a vehicle (such as an intelligent driving vehicle) and detected accordingly. When a specific target or area of ​​interest is recognized from point cloud data obtained by a certain scan, if it is necessary to scan again next time, it is possible to select only this specific target or area of ​​interest to be activated / scanned by free addressing, which can be applied to, for example, performing encryption scanning for a specific target or area of ​​interest.

[0149] Meanwhile, the crosstalk of the detection channel can be reduced. Specifically, since the area to be emitted or scanned can be freely selected, the laser with the largest possible physical distance can be selected during detection as in the embodiment of Fig. 12A, and emitted in the same signal transmission process, so that the crosstalk of the detection channel can be significantly reduced, and a higher signal-to-noise ratio and detection effect can be achieved compared to the current laser radar products.

[0150] In addition, it can reduce the number of detections required to collect point cloud data, and reduce the energy consumption of the entire optical detection device. With the technological trend of increasing the number of beamlines, the more beamlines there are, the higher the corresponding energy consumption will be, which will lead to excessive heat dissipation and reliability problems.

[0151] In some embodiments, the optical transmitter may employ a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL), which has the advantage of a spatially symmetric distribution of divergence angles. To address the problem of the large scattering angle of VCSELs, a single large-aperture lens is typically used to collimate the entire VCSEL, which may result in a large equivalent emitting surface and reduced power density. In view of this, a separate micro-lens array (MLA) may be added or directly imprinted on the emitting surface of the VCSEL.

[0152] A vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) includes a plurality of light emitting units (e.g., light emitting points), and each microlens unit in the microlens array is arranged to correspond to a light emitting unit one-to-one and to match the shape. In order to avoid the existence of gaps between the microlens units, which may cause uncollimated light leakage and affect the power density of the vertical cavity surface emitting laser, in an alternative embodiment, the plurality of light emitting units are arranged in a polygonal shape, and each of the microlens units is in a corresponding polygonal shape and is connected to each other. The polygon may be a triangular or higher shape, such as a triangle, a parallelogram, a rectangle, a square, a regular pentagon or other pentagons, a regular hexagon or other hexagons, or other more polygonal shapes.

[0153] 13A shows a schematic diagram of the structure of a microlens array in one embodiment of the present application. In this example, the light emitting units 131A are arranged in a rectangular shape, and the microlens units 132A are correspondingly square, and the microlens units 132A are joined together side by side to form a microlens array with almost no gaps.

[0154] 13B shows a schematic diagram of the structure of a microlens array in another embodiment of the present application. In this example, each light-emitting unit 131B is arranged in a regular hexagon, and each microlens unit 132B is correspondingly a regular hexagon, and each microlens unit 132B is joined together side-to-side as a nearly gap-free microlens array, forming a honeycomb shape as shown. In an alternative example, the regular hexagonal microlens unit has a diameter length of its inscribed circle equal to the center-to-center distance of adjacent light-emitting units, achieving a dense distribution.

[0155] In an alternative embodiment, the surface shape of the microlens may be designed to be plano-convex (i.e., one side is convex and the other side is flat) depending on the collimation requirements, and the convex side may be spherical or aspheric. In an alternative embodiment, the flat and / or convex sides of the MLA may be plated with an anti-reflection coating at VCSEL wavelengths to enhance transmittance.

[0156] In some cases, the microlens array may be imprinted on the light-emitting surface of the optical transmitter by a semiconductor process. If the optical transmitter is a back-side illumination (BSI) VSCEL, the process difficulty of imprinting the microlens array is reduced. Specifically, the light-emitting direction of each light-emitting unit in the VSCEL is from the active region toward the substrate, that is, the light is emitted from one side of the substrate, and the substrate surface can be directly processed to form each microlens to form the microlens array, which is much less difficult than the case of separately attaching a separate microlens array that precisely corresponds to each light-emitting unit.

[0157] In some examples, the shape of the window may be set to a shape more favorable for collecting echo signals. Figures 14A and 14B show top perspective structural schematic diagrams representing the window structure of the optical detection device in one embodiment of the present application. The window 140 may be set to a curved shape, specifically including a first portion 141 and a second portion 142 of the curved surface, the first portion 141 being an area through which the transmission signal and the echo signal pass, the second portion 142 being an area through which the transmission signal and the echo signal do not pass, and the second portion 142 may be of any shape. In this way, the FOV of the optical detection device is increased, while the received echo signal also has a certain centripetal focusing effect, improving the quality of the echo signal and improving the detection performance. The rotating member 143 depicted in Figure 14 is merely for reference to the current arrangement posture of the optical detection device.

[0158] In the optical detection device in the embodiments of Figures 2A, 3A, 4A, 4B, 5, etc., the rotating member is provided on the relatively left side in the internal lateral direction, that is, close to the left side of the window. Since the echo signal incident from the right viewing angle of the window may have a larger loss in the transmission process to the optical detection end than the echo signal incident from the left viewing angle, a compensation calculation may be performed on the echo signal of the detection channel corresponding to the right viewing angle. Specifically, the compensation calculation can be completed by a control module (e.g., realized by FPGA, SoC, etc.) in the optical detection device.

[0159] In the embodiment of the present application, a vehicle equipped with the optical detection device in the above-mentioned embodiment can be further provided. In a specific example, the vehicle can be realized as a vehicle, such as an electric or gasoline-powered automobile, and can be a non-autonomous, semi-autonomous (assisted), or unmanned automobile. The optical detection device can be realized as a mechanical laser radar, specifically a forward-facing laser radar, that is, it is installed on the vehicle in the posture shown in the above-mentioned embodiment (e.g., FIG. 2A, FIG. 3A, FIG. 4A, FIG. 4B, FIG. 5), and the window faces forward to perform detection.

[0160] In an alternative embodiment, the optical detection device may be installed at the front of the vehicle, for example at the head position. The optical detection device may be installed in a hidden manner, for example, embedded in the body shell, in the light, near the ride, in the logo, or in the bumper. Since the optical detection device does not need to adopt a structure in which the transmitting and receiving modules are stacked up and down, the height is greatly reduced and can be more flexibly adapted to the mounting space of the vehicle, and the overlapping of the transmitting and receiving optical paths can greatly solve the problem of blind spots at close range. In addition, the detection performance can be further improved by combining with alternative embodiments in the various embodiments described above.

[0161] Second aspect A rotating mirror type vehicle-mounted laser radar is usually installed at the front end or side of a vehicle, for example, a multi-faceted rotating mirror type laser radar. As shown in the schematic diagram of frame stitching in which frames are stitched together for scanning in FIG. 15, for example, there is an angle difference between two faces of a two-face mirror, and one frame is synthesized at a point scanned from these two faces to improve vertical resolution. When the frame rate is 10 Hz, the time period of collection for a point on an object in the field of view is 50 ms. The time period of frame stitching with a three-face mirror is 66.6 ms, the time period of frame stitching with a four-face mirror is 75 ms, and so on.

[0162] Also, for example, in some scanning methods that do not stitch frames, take the two-dimensional scanning on a single beamline shown in FIG. 16 as an example, and the two-dimensional scanning on a single beamline is usually realized by combining a fixed light source and a scanning device. For example, in the case of two or more prisms, the beam emission position is adjusted by the relative rotation of the prisms to realize scanning. In the two-dimensional scanning method on a single beamline, when the frame rate is 10 Hz, the time period of collection for a point on an object in the field of view may be close to 100 ms. Therefore, it takes a long time to cover an area as a whole, and there may be a certain amount of motion blur on the entire scanned object.

[0163] 17 and 18 are schematic diagrams of a laser radar 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIGS. 17 and 18, the laser radar 100 includes a rotating mirror unit 200, a transmitting unit 300, and a receiving unit 400. The rotating mirror unit 200 includes a polygonal rotating mirror section 210 (see FIG. 19), which has a rotation axis OO' (see FIG. 19), is rotatable around the rotation axis OO', and has a plurality of reflecting surfaces 211 (see FIG. 17). In FIG. 17, the polygonal rotating mirror section 210 is exemplarily shown to have two reflecting surfaces 211, but the present invention is not limited thereto, and may have other numbers of reflecting surfaces, for example, 3, 4, 5 or more reflecting surfaces.

[0164] The multiple reflecting surfaces 211 are for changing the angle of the incident beam, and it is preferable that the multiple reflecting surfaces 211 of the polygonal rotating mirror unit 210 are rotationally symmetrical with respect to the rotation axis. In the present invention, "the multiple reflecting surfaces 211 of the polygonal rotating mirror unit 210 are rotationally symmetrical with respect to the rotation axis" means that even if the polygonal rotating mirror unit 210 rotates at a certain angle around the rotation axis OO', the multiple reflecting surfaces 211 of the polygonal rotating mirror unit 210 can still overlap with the multiple reflecting surfaces 211 before rotating at that angle. Taking an example of the polygonal rotating mirror unit 21 having two reflecting surfaces 211 (e.g., 180 degrees opposite each other), the two reflecting surfaces 211 overlap once every time the polygonal rotating mirror unit 210 rotates 180 degrees. Taking an example of the polygonal rotating mirror unit 21 having a square shape and four reflecting surfaces 211, the four reflecting surfaces 211 overlap once every time the polygonal rotating mirror unit 210 rotates 90 degrees. Taking the example of polygonal rotary mirror section 21 having a rectangular shape and including four reflecting surfaces 211, the four reflecting surfaces 211 overlap once every time polygonal rotary mirror section 210 rotates 180 degrees.

[0165] The transmitting unit 300 is configured to transmit a detection beam L1, and the receiving unit 400 is configured to receive an echo L1' reflected by a target OB of the detection beam L1 and convert it into an electrical signal, and a subsequent processing unit can calculate information such as the distance and / or reflectivity of the target based on the electrical signal. Here, the detection beam L1 is reflected by the reflecting surface 211 of the polygonal rotating mirror unit 210 and then emitted, and the echo L1' is reflected by the reflecting surface 211 and then reaches the receiving unit 400. The scanning field of view range corresponding to each reflecting surface 211 of the polygonal rotating mirror unit 210 is the same, that is, during the rotation of the polygonal rotating mirror unit 210, each reflecting surface 211 has the same operating angle range, and within this range, the detection beam L1 is reflected by the reflecting surface to the outside of the laser radar, and the echo L1' is reflected by the reflecting surface and then enters the receiving unit 400. Outside the range, the transmitting unit 300 does not transmit the detection beam L1, the receiving unit 400 also stops receiving echoes, or alternatively, outside the range, the processing unit does not calculate information such as the distance and / or reflectivity of the target based on the electrical signal.

[0166] FIG. 18 shows a block diagram of a laser radar according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 18, the laser radar 100 further includes a processing unit 500, which is coupled to the receiving unit 400 and configured to obtain an electrical signal generated by the receiving unit 400 based on an echo reflected by any reflective surface 211 of the rotating mirror unit 200, and generate a point cloud of one frame. Therefore, according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the echoes obtained by each reflective surface of the rotating mirror are individually configured as a point cloud of one frame, so that frame stitching based on the echoes of multiple reflective surfaces is not required. Specifically, when the laser radar 100 is in operation, the transmitting unit 300 transmits a detection beam L1 into the surrounding environment through reflection by the rotating mirror unit 200, and the emitted detection beam L1 is projected to the target OB, where scattering occurs, and a part of the detection beam is reflected back and focused to form an echo L1'. The receiving unit 400 receives the echo L1' reflected by the rotating mirror unit 200 and converts it into an electrical signal. The processing unit 500 analyzes and calculates the electrical signal to obtain the distance between the target OB and the laser radar 100 .

[0167] Furthermore, when the laser radar of the present invention is in operation, not all reflecting surfaces are used to generate a point cloud for one frame, but rather, for example, only a portion of the reflecting surfaces may be used to generate a point cloud.

[0168] According to one embodiment of the present invention, as shown in Fig. 17, the transmission optical axis and the reception optical axis of the laser radar 100 are partially coaxial. Alternatively, the transmission optical axis and the reception optical axis share the same optical axis, i.e., the optical path of the detection beam L1 after being reflected by one of the reflecting surfaces 211 and the optical path of the echo L1' returning to the reflecting surface 211 are the same or parallel. Or, according to one alternative embodiment of the present invention, the transmission optical axis and the reception optical axis are not coaxial, i.e., the transmission optical axis along which the detection beam L1 transmitted from the transmitting unit 300 reaches the reflecting surface 211 of the polygonal rotating mirror unit 210 is reflected and emitted, and the reception optical axis along which the echo L1' reaches the receiving unit 400 after being reflected by the reflecting surface are independent from each other. For example, different areas of the reflecting surface 211 can be used for transmitting the detection beam L1 and receiving the echo L1', respectively. Preferably, a transmitting lens barrel and a receiving lens barrel are provided, both extending to the rotating mirror unit 200, for transmitting the detection beam L1 and receiving the echo L1', respectively, and the axes of the transmitting lens barrel and the receiving lens barrel are independent of each other.

[0169] 17, the laser radar 100 further includes a spectroscopic assembly 600, in which the detection beam L1 is reflected by the spectroscopic assembly 600 to the rotating mirror unit 200, and a corresponding echo L1' passes through the spectroscopic assembly 600 and is received by the receiving unit 400. Alternatively, the detection beam L1 passes through the spectroscopic assembly 600 to reach the rotating mirror unit 200, and a corresponding echo L1' is reflected by the spectroscopic assembly 600 and is received by the receiving unit 400.

[0170] According to one embodiment of the present invention, the splitting assembly 600 is a semi-transparent mirror, for example a reflector with a central aperture, such that beams incident on parts other than the aperture are reflected and beams incident on the aperture are transmitted, or alternatively, the splitting assembly 600 includes a polarizing splitting structure that causes the difference between the outgoing and incoming beams to be half a wavelength, respectively transmitting / reflecting beams of different wavelengths.

[0171] According to one preferred embodiment, a rotationally symmetric structure corresponding to the central axis of the entire polygonal rotary mirror 210 is realized by adjusting the relative angle of each mirror surface 211 of the polygonal rotary mirror 210. FIG. 19 shows a schematic diagram of a rotary mirror unit according to one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 20 shows an exploded view of the rotary mirror unit according to one embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIGS. 19 and 20, the rotary mirror unit 200 further includes a motor 220 and a rotary mirror holder 230 for accommodating the multiple reflecting surfaces 211, the motor 220 is contained in a polygonal space surrounded by the reflecting surfaces 211, and is configured to drive the rotation of the polygonal rotary mirror unit 210 around the rotation axis O1, and the rotary mirror holder 230 is connected to the rotor of the motor 220 and is interlocked with the rotor of the motor 220. Alternatively, the motor 220 is an integrated motor, and the polygonal rotating mirror portion 210 of the rotating mirror unit 200 is connected to the motor 220 via an elastic member 231, where the elastic member 231 is, for example, a disc spring, and the multiple reflecting surfaces 211 are configured so that the mirror surface angle in the vertical direction can be adjusted by the disc spring.

[0172] Fig. 21 is a schematic diagram of a rotary mirror unit according to another embodiment of the present invention. As shown in Fig. 21, the rotary mirror unit 200 includes a motor 220, a polygonal rotary mirror unit 210, and a rotary mirror holder 230. The motor 220 is a separate motor, and the rotary mirror holder 230 and the motor 220 are connected via a fixing bolt 232. The mirror angle in the vertical direction of the reflection surface 211 on the left side of the figure is adjusted by an eccentric bolt 233. In the embodiment of Fig. 21, the polygonal rotary mirror unit 210 includes two reflection surfaces 211 that are 180 degrees opposite to each other, realizing rotational symmetry.

[0173] According to one embodiment of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 17 , the transmitting unit 300 includes a transmitting module 310 and a transmitting lens group 320, in which the transmitting module 310 is configured to transmit a detection beam L1, and the detection beam L1 is emitted to the reflecting surface 211 of the rotating mirror unit 200 through the transmitting lens group 320 and the spectroscopic assembly 600.

[0174] 17, according to one embodiment of the present invention, the transmitting unit 300 further includes at least one first folded reflector 330. The at least one first folded reflector 330 is for changing the direction of the detection beam L1 emitted from the transmitting module 310 so that the detection beam L1 can be reflected at least once and then incident on the reflecting surface 211 and emitted to the surrounding environment.

[0175] According to one embodiment of the present invention, the transmitting lens group 320 may include one or more lenses disposed between the transmitting module 310 and the first folded reflector 330, and may also, or alternatively, include one or more transmitting lenses disposed between the first folded reflector 330 and the spectroscopic assembly 600.

[0176] According to one embodiment of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 17, the receiving unit 400 includes a receiving lens group 420 and a receiving module 410, and the echo L1' is reflected by any reflecting surface 211 of the rotating mirror unit 200 and then enters the receiving module 410 via the spectroscopic assembly 600 and the receiving lens group 420.

[0177] According to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in Fig. 17, the receiving unit 400 further includes at least one second folded reflector 430. The at least one second folded reflector 430 is for changing the transmission direction of the echo L1' after being reflected by the reflecting surface 211, so that the echo L1' can be received by the receiving module 410 after being reflected at least once. The provision of the first folded reflector 330 and the second folded reflector 430 contributes to a more compact design of the structures of the transmitting unit and the receiving unit, and saves space.

[0178] According to one embodiment of the present invention, the receiving lens group 420 may include one or more receiving lenses disposed between the spectroscopic assembly 600 and the second folded reflector 430, and / or may alternatively include one or more receiving lenses between the second folded reflector 430 and the receiving module 410.

[0179] Figures 22A and 22B, and Figures 23A and 23B respectively show schematic diagrams of the optical path when the two-faceted rotating mirror unit of one embodiment of the present invention is at the scanning start and scanning end positions, of which Figures 22A and 22B respectively show schematic diagrams of the detection beam and echo when the polygonal rotating mirror unit is at the scanning start position, and Figures 23A and 23B respectively show schematic diagrams of the detection beam and echo when the polygonal rotating mirror unit is at the scanning end position.

[0180] As shown in Figures 22A, 22B and 23A, 23B, the polygonal rotary mirror unit 210 includes two reflecting surfaces 211 (i.e., the long sides of the rectangular polygonal reflecting unit 210 in the figures), and the polygonal rotary mirror unit 210 can rotate around a rotation axis OO' in the direction indicated by an arrow R. The polygonal rotary mirror unit 210 rotates around the rotation axis OO' in a clockwise direction from the scan start position shown in Figures 22A and 22B to the scan end position shown in Figures 23A and 23B. Here, the scanable angle of the beam is twice the rotation angle of the polygonal rotary mirror unit 210, that is, the polygonal rotary mirror unit 210 rotates horizontally by 60° from the scan start position shown in Figures 22A and 22B to the scan end position shown in Figures 23A and 23B, and accordingly, the emitted detection beam L1 rotates in a horizontal field of view range of 120°.

[0181] According to one embodiment of the present invention, the polygonal rotating mirror unit 210 includes three or four reflecting surfaces 211. Those skilled in the art can understand that the number of the reflecting surfaces 211 may be set to be more as necessary. And, for the same frame rate, the more the number of the reflecting surfaces 211 set, the slower the rotation speed required for the rotating mirror unit 200, so that the advantage of longer flight time is brought about. For example, when the laser radar 100 generates a point cloud of 10 frames per second, the polygonal rotating mirror unit 210 having two reflecting surfaces 211 needs to rotate five times, while the polygonal rotating mirror unit 210 having four reflecting surfaces 211 only needs to rotate 2.5 times. Obviously, under the same conditions, the rotation speed of the polygonal rotating mirror unit 210 having four reflecting surfaces 211 can be slower, so that more measurement time is allocated to each reflecting surface 211, so that the advantage of longer flight time is brought about, and the long-distance measurement performance is further improved.

[0182] According to one embodiment of the present invention, the transmitting module 310 includes a plurality of lasers 311 arranged in a linear array or an area array, and the receiving unit 400 includes a plurality of photoelectric detectors, the number of which is the same as the lasers 311 and the arrangement manner of which corresponds to the lasers 311, where each photoelectric detector corresponds to one laser 311 and is configured to receive an echo L1' of the detection beam transmitted from the corresponding laser 311 reflected on the target OB. Alternatively, the plurality of lasers 311 may be arranged in various ways, such as a single row, a double row, a staggered arrangement, etc., and the photoelectric detectors are arranged according to the arrangement manner of the lasers 311. Here, the number of beamlines may vary according to the actual required scanning accuracy. For example, by adopting a transmission and reception pattern with multiple beamlines of 32 lines, 64 lines, or 128 lines, higher measurement accuracy can be achieved.

[0183] 24A and 24B are schematic diagrams of a microlens provided on a laser according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in Fig. 24A and 24B, the plurality of lasers 311 includes at least one laser 311 provided with a microlens 312. By providing the microlens 312 on the at least one laser 311, the collimation effect of the detection beam L1 can be improved, horizontal angle restriction can be realized, and the utilization rate of the output light energy can be improved.

[0184] According to one embodiment of the present invention, the microlensed laser 311 includes a plurality of light emitting points 313, and each light emitting point 313 has a corresponding microlens structure 314. Optionally, the laser 311 is a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL). Compared with edge emitting lasers (EELs) that are widely used in current laser radars, vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) have the advantage that the divergence angle is distributed symmetrically in space. VCSELs are applied to laser radars, and due to the requirement of high peak power of laser radars, more and more VCSELs are used to increase the transmission power by using triple junction and quintuple junction quantum well structures. However, due to the large divergence angle of VCSELs, the transmission power density has not yet been significantly improved. In most conventional VCSEL collimation methods, a single large diameter lens is used to collimate the entire VCSEL, which results in a large equivalent light emitting surface and a low power density. In the embodiment of the present invention, a separate type micro-lens array (MLA) is added to the light emitting surface of the VCSEL or directly imprinted thereon. Different from the method of collimating the entire VCSEL with one lens, each lens unit in the micro-lens structure 314 in this embodiment collimates the laser beam emitted from each light emitting point 313, and the shape of the micro-lens is designed according to the arrangement of the light emitting points 313. FIG. 25A shows a schematic diagram of a micro-lens structure provided at a laser light emitting point according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 25B shows a preferred size relationship of the embodiment of FIG. 25A. As shown in FIG. 25A, the laser 311 includes a plurality of light emitting points 313 distributed in a hexagonal shape, and each of the micro-lens structures 314 is also hexagonal structure accordingly. In the commonly used circular lens, it is difficult to arrange the circular lens units closely, and some of the detection beams pass through the gaps, and the light in this part cannot be collimated, resulting in some loss of power density.As shown in Figures 25A and 25B, the hexagonal microlens structure 314 is arranged to match the light emitting points 313, and the length of the inscribed circle diameter d2 of the hexagonal microlens structure 314 is the center interval d1 of the adjacent light emitting points 313 (i.e., the center interval of the light emitting units of the VCSEL), i.e., d1 = d2, so that a dense arrangement is realized and the light energy utilization rate of the VCSEL is improved. Optionally, the surface shape of the lens can be designed to be plano-convex according to the collimation requirements, and its convex side is spherical or aspherical. Optionally, the flat and convex surfaces or any surface of the MLA can be plated with an anti-reflection film of the VCSEL wavelength to enhance the transmittance.

[0185] According to one embodiment of the present invention, the microlens structure 314 is provided corresponding to the arrangement pattern of each of the light emitting points 313. Fig. 26 shows a schematic diagram of a microlens structure provided at a laser light emitting point according to another embodiment of the present invention. As shown in Fig. 26, the laser 311 includes a plurality of light emitting points 313 distributed in a quadrangle, and accordingly, each of the microlens structures 314 is also a quadrangle structure. Similarly, for light emitting points distributed in a pentagon, a corresponding pentagonal microlens structure is provided, and the same is true for the following, and detailed description is omitted here.

[0186] According to one embodiment of the present invention, the horizontal viewing angle range of the entire transmitting unit 300 is less than 10 degrees. Optionally, the horizontal viewing angle range of the transmitting and receiving channels can be controlled by designing the transmitting and receiving line rows as narrow as possible in the horizontal direction and with a long focal length, to avoid an excessive horizontal angle affecting the rotation angle between the encoder disks and affecting the next scan.

[0187] The present invention further relates to a detection method for a laser radar, which is detected by using the laser radar 100. According to one embodiment of the present invention, the transmission module 310 includes a plurality of lasers 311 arranged in a linear array or an area array, the plurality of lasers 311 are divided into several groups, the lasers of each group are excited once or several times at each detection angle, and a point cloud combination arranged in a linear array or an area array is obtained through several detections within a horizontal angle range, and a point cloud of one frame within a field of view is generated based on the point cloud combination.

[0188] According to one embodiment of the present invention, lasers arranged in a linear array divided into several groups are used for detection, and the detectors of each group are excited in sequence at each detection angle to obtain a linear array point cloud, and a frame of point cloud is generated based on a combination of the linear array point clouds at each detection angle.

[0189] According to one embodiment of the present invention, during detection, one or several groups of lasers are excited with different energies at some detection angles to obtain point cloud information at close and long distances, and a frame of point cloud is generated based on the point cloud information.

[0190] The advantages of the embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the following example: Take an obstacle having a size of 2m*2m*2m and a distance of 50m from the laser radar 100 as an example, and the obstacle moves at a speed of 100km / h relative to the laser radar 100.

[0191] Figure 27 shows a schematic diagram of motion distortion that occurs when two-dimensional scanning with a single beamline is adopted. As shown in Figure 27, when two-dimensional scanning with a single beamline is adopted, the frame rate is 10Hz, and one frame of image is obtained every 100ms. In a single frame, the time difference between the first and last obstacle hit points can be up to 100ms. Considering the moving distance of an obstacle at 100km / h, the moving distance of the obstacle within 100ms is 2.8 meters, that is, the distortion of the obstacle is 2.8 meters in this scanning method.

[0192] Figure 28 shows a schematic diagram of the motion distortion that occurs when one-dimensional scanning with multiple beamlines is adopted. As shown in Figure 28, under the same conditions, when one-dimensional scanning with multiple beamlines is adopted, the horizontal viewing angle of an obstacle with a width of 2m at a distance of 50m is about 2.3°, the horizontal scanning viewing angle range is 120°, and the frame rate is 10Hz, the time to scan the angle is 33ms*(2.3 / 120)=0.63ms, and the moving distance of the obstacle is 0.0175m.

[0193] From the above comparison, it is clear that adopting the method of one-dimensional scanning with multiple beamlines can more effectively reduce the motion distortion that exists during laser radar measurement.

[0194] In view of the above, the present invention adopts a rotating mirror laser radar that uses one-dimensional scanning without frame stitching, and generates the point cloud information obtained from each mirror surface of the rotating mirror laser radar as a complete point cloud in one frame, thereby completing the scanning of the entire field of view, significantly suppressing the motion blur effect that exists during laser radar measurement, and significantly reducing the object shape distortion caused by moving objects during measurement, thereby improving the measurement accuracy of the laser radar.

[0195] The above examples are merely illustrative of the principles and effects of the present application, and are not intended to limit the present application. Anyone skilled in the art may modify or change the above examples without departing from the spirit and scope of the present application. Therefore, any equivalent modifications or changes made by a person of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit and technical ideas disclosed in the present application shall be included in the scope of the claims of the present application.

Claims

1. Windows and an optical transmitting end configured to output a transmission signal, the optical transmitting end including an optical transmitter array, the optical transmitter array including N columns of optical transmitters separated into N groups of optical transmitters arranged in columns and rows, each column of the N columns of optical transmitters extending in the vertical direction and including a plurality of optical transmitters, N>1, the groups in adjacent columns being alternately arranged along the column direction, and the groups in adjacent rows being alternately arranged along the row direction; an optical detection end configured to detect an echo signal reflected by an obstacle of the transmission signal, the optical detection end including an optical detector array, the optical detector array including M rows of optical detectors passing each other in the vertical direction, each row of the M rows of optical detectors extending in the vertical direction, M>1, the optical transmitter array and the optical detector array forming a plurality of detection channels to scan a field of view in the vertical direction, each detection channel including at least one row of optical transmitters and at least one optical detector, each detection channel corresponding to one field of view in the vertical direction; an optical signal redirecting assembly configured to deflect the transmit signal from the optical transmitting end to a window of an optical detection device to scan a horizontal field of view, and redirect the echo signal to transmit the echo signal to the optical detection end; the optical signal redirecting assembly includes a first reflector and a second rotating reflector, the first reflector is configured to reflect the transmission signal toward the second rotating reflector, and the second rotating reflector is configured to reflect the transmission signal toward the window, the first reflector is configured to prevent transmission of the echo signal from the window toward the optical detection end via the second rotating reflector, and the optical signal redirecting assembly further includes a gap around the first reflector that allows the echo signal to reach the optical detection end from the window via the second rotating reflector, the optical path of the transmit signal and the optical path of the echo signal overlap at least between the window and the first reflector of the optical signal redirecting assembly; the N rows of optical transmitters include first and second rows of optical transmitters, the top optical transmitter of the first row being lower than the top optical transmitter of the second row and higher than the optical transmitter immediately below the top optical transmitter of the second row; An optical detection device, characterized in that a gap between the topmost optical transmitter in the second row and the optical transmitter one position below the topmost optical transmitter in the second row is closed by the topmost optical transmitter in the first row when viewed in the horizontal direction.

2. 2. The optical detection device of claim 1, wherein the optical transmitters in the optical transmitter array are vertical cavity surface emitting lasers, and a microlens array is provided for collimating the transmitted signals.

3. 3. The optical detection device according to claim 2, wherein each of the optical transmitters includes a plurality of light emitting units, and the microlens units and the light emitting units in the microlens array are arranged in one-to-one correspondence and shape-matching manner.

4. 3. The optical detection device of claim 2, wherein the microlens array is provided separately from the optical transmitter or is imprinted on the light emitting surface of the optical transmitter.

5. 3. The optical detection device of claim 2, wherein the optical transmitter is a back-illuminated semiconductor structure, and the microlens array is imprinted on a surface of a substrate of the semiconductor structure.

6. The optical detection device of claim 2, characterized in that in a single signal transmission process from transmitting the transmitted signal to detecting the corresponding echo signal, each of the activated optical transmitters in the optical transmitter array cooperates with each of the activated optical detectors in the optical detector array to form a plurality of optical signal transmission detection channels in an active state, the optical transmitter array includes a plurality of optical transmitter groups and / or the optical detector array includes a plurality of optical detector groups, and each of the activated optical transmitters belongs to a different optical transmitter group and / or each of the activated optical detectors belongs to a different optical detector group.

7. The optical detection device according to claim 6, characterized in that each optical transmitter in each optical transmitter group and / or each optical detector in each optical detector group is activated in sequence in several signal transmission processes.

8. 8. The optical detection device according to claim 7, wherein the optical detection device performs a long-distance measurement operation in a predetermined number of transmission processes, and then performs a short-distance measurement operation in the next signal transmission process.

9. 9. The optical detection device of claim 8, wherein the optical transmitter array has a first number of optical transmitters in a central region in the vertical direction that are activated during a long-distance measurement operation and a second number of optical transmitters that are activated during a short-distance measurement operation, the first number being greater than the second number.

10. The optical detection device of claim 8, wherein there are a plurality of detection distances corresponding to the long distance measurement operation, and the closer the position of the activated optical transmitter in the optical transmitter array is to the center, the farther the corresponding expected detection distance is.

11. 9. The optical detection device according to claim 8, wherein the signal characteristics of the optical signals transmitted in each detection channel operating in the same signal transmission process are different.

12. 12. The optical detection device of claim 11, wherein the transmitted signal comprises one or more pulsed signals, and the signal characteristic dimensions comprise a combination of one or more of wavelength, pulse width, pulse number, pulse peak, and pulse time interval.

13. 2. The optical detection device of claim 1, wherein said optical transmitter array and said optical detector array are configured together to achieve a number of beamlines of 32 or more.

14. 2. The optical detection device of claim 1, wherein said second rotating mirror has an axis of rotation.

15. 15. The optical detection device according to claim 14, wherein the first reflector includes a first region for outputting the transmission signal to the second rotating reflector, and a second region for transmitting echo signals other than those in the first region.

16. 16. The optical detection device according to claim 15, further comprising a light blocking member provided in a propagation path of the transmission signal passing through the first reflector.

17. 15. The optical detection device according to claim 14, wherein at least a part of an end surface of the first reflector away from the second rotating reflector is configured as a first reflecting surface, and the first reflecting surface and an axis of a first optical path portion to the first reflecting mirror in the optical path of the transmitted signal are set to form a first predetermined included angle in order to divert the optical signal transmitted from the first optical path portion from the optical path of the received signal, and / or, at least a part of an end surface of the first reflector away from the second rotating reflecting mirror is configured as a second reflecting surface, and the second reflecting surface and an axis of a second optical path portion from the first reflecting mirror in the optical path of the received signal are set to form a second predetermined included angle in order to divert the optical signal transmitted from the second optical path portion from the optical path of the transmitted signal.

18. 15. The optical detection device according to claim 14, wherein an end face of the first reflector close to the second rotating reflector is parallel to an axial direction of an optical path portion of the optical path of the received signal from the second rotating reflector to the first reflector.

19. 15. The optical detection device of claim 14, wherein the second rotating mirror includes two or more reflective surfaces.

20. 15. The optical detection device according to claim 14, wherein the first reflector is enclosed in a first bushing body extending along the optical path of the transmission signal toward the optical transmitting end.

21. 15. The optical detection device according to claim 14, further comprising a transmitting / receiving lens disposed between the second rotating reflector and the first reflector, for focusing the echo signal from the second rotating reflector side and then transmitting it to the gap, and for passing the transmission signal from the first reflector side.

22. the optical transmitting end corresponds to one end of a second bushing body, the second bushing body extends along an optical path of the transmitting signal to the first reflector, and the other end forms an optical output port; And / or the optical detection device according to claim 14, characterized in that the optical detection end corresponds to one end of a third bushing body, the third bushing body extends to the first reflector along the optical path of the received signal, and forms an optical input port at the other end.

23. 15. The optical detection device according to claim 14, further comprising a second lens disposed in an optical path of a received signal between said optical detection end and said first reflector.

24. 24. The optical detection device of claim 23, wherein the second lens is arranged to stand in a direction that forms a predetermined deflection angle with respect to a vertical direction of the optical detection device in order to deflect light incident from an edge viewing angle until it deviates from the optical detection array.

25. 15. The optical detection device of claim 14, further comprising a control module for compensating and processing echo signals received on optical transmission detection channels corresponding to corresponding viewing angles away from the second rotating reflector.

26. 2. The optical detection device according to claim 1, which is a forward-facing laser radar, and M=N>32.

27. A vehicle comprising an optical detection device according to any one of claims 1 to 26.

28. 28. The vehicle of claim 27, wherein the vehicle is a car and the light detection device is a forward-facing laser radar mounted on the front of the vehicle.

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