Distributed LIDAR systems and methods thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11567209-B2
Application number	US-201916255329-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 23, 2019
Priority date	Jan 23, 2018
Publication date	Jan 31, 2023
Grant date	Jan 31, 2023

Abstract

A LIDAR system, comprising: (a) a plurality of anchored LIDAR sensing units, each anchored LIDAR sensing unit comprising at least: (i) a housing; (ii) at least one detector, mounted in the housing, configured to detect light signals arriving from objects in a field of view of the anchored LIDAR sensing unit; and (iii) a communication unit, configured to output detection information which is based on outputs of the at least one detector and which is indicative of existence of the objects; and (b) at least one integratory processing unit, configured to receive the detection information from two or more of the plurality of anchored LIDAR sensing units, and to process the received detection information to provide a three dimensional model of a scene which is larger than any of the field of views of the independent anchored LIDAR sensing units.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A LIDAR system, the LIDAR system comprising:
a plurality of anchored LIDAR sensing units, each anchored LIDAR sensing unit comprising at least:
a housing;
at least one detector, mounted in the housing, configured to detect light signals arriving from objects in a field of view of the anchored LIDAR sensing units; and
a communication unit, configured to output detection information which is based on outputs of the at least one detector and which is indicative of existence of the objects; and

at least one integratory processing unit, configured to receive the detection information from two or more of the plurality of anchored LIDAR sensing units, and to process the received detection information to provide a three dimensional (3D) model of a scene which is larger than any of the fields of view of each one of the anchored LIDAR sensing units,
wherein at least one of the plurality of anchored LIDAR sensing units further comprises at least one sensor, and the LIDAR system further comprises at least one processor configured to determine operational parameters for at least one of the plurality of anchored LIDAR sensing units based on detection information of the at least one sensor.

2. The LIDAR system of claim 1 , wherein two or more of the plurality of anchored LIDAR sensing units are mounted at a height of at least 3 meters above ground level.

3. The LIDAR system of claim 1 , further comprising a regional communication unit configured to obtain at least a part of the 3D model and to wirelessly transmit 3D data indicative of at least a portion of the 3D model to a vehicle.

4. The LIDAR system of claim 3 , wherein the at least one integratory processing unit is configured to:
wirelessly transmit to a first vehicle, based on a first request received from the first vehicle, first 3D data pertaining to a spatial area at a first time; and
wirelessly transmit to a second vehicle, based on a second request received from the second vehicle, second 3D data pertaining to the spatial area at the first time, wherein the first 3D data and the second 3D data comprise 3D data in different levels of details.

5. The LIDAR system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the plurality of anchored LIDAR sensing units further comprises a processor, configured to process the light signals to determine existence of objects in the field of view of the LIDAR sensing unit.

6. The LIDAR system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one integratory processing unit is anchored to a stationary object.

7. The LIDAR system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one sensor is selected from a group consisting of: a camera, a RADAR, and an ultrasound detector.

8. The LIDAR system of claim 1 , wherein the operational parameters for the at least one of the plurality of anchored LIDAR sensing units include at least one of a number of pulses, a region of interest, an illumination level, or a scanning rate.

9. The LIDAR system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one integratory processing unit is further configured to: receive sensor detection information from at least one anchored sensor selected from a group consisting of: a camera, a RADAR, and an ultrasound detector; and process the sensor detection information of the at least one anchored sensor together with the received detection information to provide a three dimensional (3D) model of a scene which is larger than any of the fields of view of the anchored LIDAR sensing units.

10. The LIDAR system of claim 1 , wherein a distance between a first anchored LIDAR sensing unit of the plurality of anchored LIDAR sensing units and a second anchored LIDAR sensing unit of the plurality of anchored LIDAR sensing units exceeds a first detection range of the first anchored LIDAR sensing unit and a second detection range of the second anchored LIDAR sensing unit.

11. The LIDAR system of claim 1 , wherein a distance between a first anchored LIDAR sensing unit of the plurality of anchored LIDAR sensing units and at least one integratory processing unit exceeds a first detection range of the first anchored LIDAR sensing unit.

12. The LIDAR system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one integratory processing unit is configured to:
receive from multiple anchored LIDAR sensing units of the plurality of anchored LIDAR sensing units detection information pertaining to a common spatial area comprised in the fields of view of the multiple anchored LIDAR sensing units; and
process the received detection information to provide a 3D model of the common spatial area which comprises 3D information of opposing sides of an object in the common spatial area, wherein none of the multiple anchored LIDAR sensing units detects all of the opposing sides.

13. The LIDAR system of claim 1 , comprising a synchronization controller which is configured to instruct a first anchored LIDAR sensing unit of the plurality of anchored LIDAR sensing units to modify its light emission scheme so as to prevent interferences by the first anchored LIDAR sensing unit to a second anchored LIDAR sensing unit of the plurality of anchored LIDAR sensing units.

14. The LIDAR system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one integratory processing unit is configured to instruct a driving decision of a vehicle in the scene based on the 3D model.

15. A method for LIDAR processing in a distributed LIDAR system, the method comprising:
receiving detection information from a plurality of anchored LIDAR sensing units, each of the anchored LIDAR units of the plurality of anchored LIDAR sensing units covering a different field of view;
processing the received detection information to provide a 3D model of a scene which is larger than any of the fields of view of the anchored LIDAR sensing units;
preparing different 3D data to send to different recipients;
sending different 3D data of the scene to different recipients;
determining operational parameters for at least one of the plurality of anchored LIDAR sensing units based on detection information of at least one sensor.

16. An integratory LIDAR system, the integratory LIDAR system comprising:
a communication module for receiving detection information from a plurality of anchored LIDAR sensing units; and
a processor configured to process the detection information received from the plurality of anchored LIDAR sensing units to provide a 3D model of a scene which is larger than any of the fields of view of the anchored LIDAR sensing units, and to determine operational parameters for at least one of the plurality of anchored LIDAR sensing units based on detection information of at least one sensor.

Assignees

• Innoviz Tech Ltd

Inventors

• Steinberg Amit
• Gan Alon

Classifications

• G01S17/86

  Combinations of lidar systems with systems other than lidar, radar or sonar, e.g. with direction finders · CPC title

• G01S17/04

  Systems determining the presence of a target · CPC title

• G01S17/93 Primary

  for anti-collision purposes · CPC title

• G01S17/89

  for mapping or imaging · CPC title

• G01S7/483

  Details of pulse systems · CPC title