Device and method for three-dimensional laser imaging with longitudinal range

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11146776-B2
Application number	US-202016990080-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 11, 2020
Priority date	Aug 22, 2019
Publication date	Oct 12, 2021
Grant date	Oct 12, 2021

Abstract

The present invention relates to a device and method for 3D laser imaging with a longitudinal range. An optical sensor array detects a 3D image of a target through a delay difference of laser transmission between pixels. During detection, two or more identical laser pulses are sequentially emitted to the target. Each time when a pulse is emitted, a gray image of the target is formed, and multiple pulses form multiple images. By controlling a shutter, the laser pulse returned in each imaging is truncated to varying degrees, and several charge coupled device (CCD) images with different exposures are obtained. A time-varying gray curve of each pixel is extracted, and a waveform of the corresponding laser pulse is restored. A position of a pulse peak of each pixel on a time coordinate is determined to obtain the distribution of the laser delay difference between the pixels, thereby realizing 3D imaging.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A device for three-dimensional (3D) laser imaging with a longitudinal range, comprising at least: a pulse laser ( 1 ), a laser beam splitter ( 2 ), a laser emitting lens ( 3 ), a photodetector ( 4 ), an image processing unit (IPU) ( 5 ), a shutter control module (SCM) ( 6 ), an imaging lens ( 7 ), an optical filter ( 8 ), an electronically controlled shutter ( 9 ) and an optical sensor array ( 10 ), wherein the pulse laser ( 1 ), the laser beam splitter ( 2 ), the laser emitting lens ( 3 ), the photodetector ( 4 ), the IPU ( 5 ), the SCM ( 6 ), the imaging lens ( 7 ), the optical filter ( 8 ), the electronically controlled shutter ( 9 ) and the optical sensor array ( 10 ) are fixed in a housing; the pulse laser ( 1 ) and the imaging lens ( 7 ) are aligned with the imaging target ( 11 ), and the pulse laser ( 1 ) emits a first laser pulse to the imaging target ( 11 ) via the laser emitting lens ( 3 ); a region of the imaging target ( 11 ) closest to the imaging lens ( 7 ) reflects a part of light back to the imaging lens ( 7 ), and this part of light is imaged onto a plane of the optical sensor array ( 10 ) by the imaging lens ( 7 ) and the electronically controlled shutter ( 9 ); the IPU ( 5 ) controls the electronically controlled shutter ( 9 ) to shut off via the SCM ( 6 ), and the IPU ( 5 ) stores a first image of the region of the imaging target ( 11 ) closest to the imaging lens ( 7 );
the pulse laser ( 1 ) emits a second laser pulse to the imaging target ( 11 ) via the laser emitting lens ( 3 ); a region of the imaging target ( 11 ) closer to the imaging lens ( 7 ) reflects a part of light back to the imaging lens ( 7 ), and this part of light is imaged onto the plane of the optical sensor array ( 10 ) by the imaging lens ( 7 ) and the electronically controlled shutter ( 9 ); the IPU ( 5 ) controls the electronically controlled shutter ( 9 ) to shut off via the SCM ( 6 ), and the IPU ( 5 ) stores a second image of the region of the imaging target ( 11 ) closer to the imaging lens ( 7 );
the pulse laser ( 1 ) emits an N-th laser pulse to the imaging target ( 11 ) via the laser emitting lens ( 3 ); a region of the imaging target ( 11 ) farther to the imaging lens ( 7 ) reflects a part of light back to the imaging lens ( 7 ), and this part of light is imaged onto the plane of the optical sensor array ( 10 ) by the imaging lens ( 7 ) and the electronically controlled shutter ( 9 ); the IPU ( 5 ) controls the electronically controlled shutter ( 9 ) to shut off via the SCM ( 6 ), and the IPU ( 5 ) stores an N-th image of the region of the imaging target ( 11 ) farther to the imaging lens ( 7 );
the pulse laser ( 1 ) emits an (N+1)-th laser pulse to the imaging target ( 11 ) via the laser emitting lens ( 3 ); a region of the imaging target ( 11 ) farthest to the imaging lens ( 7 ) reflects a part of light back to the imaging lens ( 7 ), and this part of light is imaged onto the plane of the optical sensor array ( 10 ) by the imaging lens ( 7 ) and the electronically controlled shutter ( 9 ); the IPU ( 5 ) controls the electronically controlled shutter ( 9 ) to shut off via the SCM ( 6 ), and the IPU ( 5 ) stores an (N+1)-th image of the region of the imaging target ( 11 ) farthest to the imaging lens ( 7 );
the IPU ( 5 ) processes the stored images of different ranges to output an image of the imaging target ( 11 ) covering different regions of longitudinal ranges.

2. The device for 3D laser imaging with a longitudinal range according to claim 1 , wherein the filter ( 8 ) is provided at a rear or front end of the imaging lens ( 7 ) to filter optical signals other than a wavelength of a light wave emitted by the pulse laser ( 1 ), so that only the wavelength of the light wave emitted by the pulse laser ( 1 ) is imaged.

3. The device for 3D laser imaging with a longitudinal range according to claim 1 , wherein the photodetector ( 4 ) is provided on a reflective optical path of the laser beam splitter ( 2 ), and the photodetector ( 4 ) detects a small amount of reflected light of the light emitted by the pulse laser ( 1 ) to obtain a starting time of the pulse laser ( 1 ) emitting light.

4. The device for 3D laser imaging with a longitudinal range according to claim 1 , wherein the emitting lens ( 3 ) is provided on an output optical path of the laser beam splitter ( 2 ).

5. The device for 3D laser imaging with a longitudinal range according to claim 1 , wherein the photodetector is a charge coupled device (CCD) or complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor transistor (CMOS) optical sensor.

6. A method for 3D laser imaging with a longitudinal range, comprising at least the following steps:
(1) first irradiating a target with pulsed laser, allowing the target to reflect an echo signal to a time sequence of a sensor array; controlling a camera shutter at a front end of the sensor array to shut off at an off time;
(2) controlling the camera shutter at the front end of the sensor array to shut off: shutting off the shutter when the echo signal has not completely returned to an imaging plane; truncating an echo light pulse, and obtaining a gray image formed by the truncated pulse through an optical sensor; using a sending time of the laser pulse as a zero point of a time coordinate to mark the shutter off time;
(3) setting the shutter off time to be delayed by a fixed time interval Δt after the laser irradiates the target;
(4) keeping the laser irradiation target unchanged, repeating steps (1) and (3) by accumulating Δt, acquiring a gray image each time Δt is added, and using the sending time of the laser pulse at each time of imaging as a timing zero point;
(5) arranging the images according to a time sequence of photographing, starting from a 2 nd image to subtract a gray value of each pixel of each image in a previous image from a gray value of the pixel, and obtaining a time-varying gray curve of each pixel from differences;
(6) using a waveform function F(t) of the laser pulse or a modulated waveform function F v (t) as a template to match the gray change curve of each pixel and restore a waveform of the laser pulse echo signal received by the pixel, and determining a position of a peak of the waveform on the time coordinate, wherein the zero point of the coordinate is the sending time of the laser pulse;
(7) setting a coordinate of the peak of the determined waveform of each pixel to be t 1 , t 2 , . . . , t n , respectively, and obtaining a delay difference between the pixels as Δt 1 =t 1 −t 1 =0, Δt 2 =t 2 −t 1 , . . . , Δt n =t n −t 1 , respectively; and
(8) obtaining a relative range of each target point as s 1 =0, s 2 =c*Δt 2 /2, . . . , s n =c*Δt n /2, respectively, according to the waveform peak coordinate of each pixel and the delay difference between the pixels obtained in step (7).

7. The method for 3D laser imaging with a longitudinal range according to claim 6 , wherein when the shutter off time is negligible, the original waveform function F(t) of the laser pulse is used, and when the shutter off time is not negligible, the modulated waveform function F v (t) comprising shutter modulation information is used.

8. The method for 3D laser imaging with a longitudinal range according to claim 6 , wherein the Δt is equal to τ/3−τ/5, τ being a width of the pulse laser.

Assignees

• Univ Xidian

Inventors

• Wang Shiyu
• Cai Defang
• Wu Mengyao
• Guo Zhen

Classifications

• H04N23/73

  by influencing the exposure time · CPC title

• G01S17/18 Primary

  wherein range gates are used · CPC title

• G01S17/89

  for mapping or imaging · CPC title

• G01B11/24

  for measuring contours or curvatures · CPC title

• G01S17/894

  Three-dimensional [3D] imaging with simultaneous measurement of time-of-flight at a two-dimensional [2D] array of receiver pixels, e.g. time-of-flight cameras or flash lidar · CPC title