Laser scanner

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12241982-B2
Application number	US-202318201669-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 24, 2023
Priority date	Nov 10, 2016
Publication date	Mar 4, 2025
Grant date	Mar 4, 2025

Abstract

A laser scanner and a system with a laser scanner for measuring an environment. The laser scanner includes an optical distance measuring device, a support, a beam steering unit rotatably fixed to the support which rotates around a beam axis of rotation. The beam steering unit includes a mirrored surface which deflects radiation used in the optical distance measurement and an angle encoder for recording angle data. The optical distance measurement is performed by a progressive rotation of the beam steering unit about the beam axis of rotation and the continuous emission of a distance measurement radiation, the emission being made through an outlet area arranged in the direction of the mirrored surface on the support, the receiving optics for receiving radiation are arranged on the support, and wherein the outlet area has a lateral offset with respect to the optical axis of the receiving optics.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A laser scanner for optical measurement of an environment, comprising
an optical distance measuring device for detecting distance measurement data, having
a transmitter unit for emitting a distance measurement radiation and
a receiver unit for receiving returning parts of the distance measurement radiation,

a support,
a beam steering unit for the distance measurement radiation, which is fixed to the support such that it can rotate about a beam axis of rotation, in particular a fast axis of rotation, and
an angle encoder for recording angle data with respect to a rotation of the beam steering unit about the beam axis of rotation,

wherein the distance measurement data and the angle data, hereafter designated as measurement data, are recorded as part of a measurement process, which comprises a scanning sensing by means of the distance measuring device with
a defined progressive, in particular continuous, rotation of the beam steering unit about the beam axis of rotation and
a continuous emission of the distance measurement radiation and a continuous reception of returning parts of the distance measurement radiation,
the laser scanner has only a single, integrated control element,
the control element has only a single active and a single inactive state, and can be switched by way of an external action in order to occupy the active or inactive state,
a set of defined measurement programs and/or actions of the laser scanner is stored, and
individual measurement programs and/or actions from the set of defined measurement programs and/or actions are triggered based on at least one element from the following group:
change of state of the control element from the inactive to the active state,
change of state of the control element from the active to the inactive state,
switching of the control element by means of a persistent external action during a defined time interval,
a coded sequence of state changes of the control element between the active and inactive state, and
a coded sequence of temporally persistent external actions on the control element over defined time intervals.

2. The laser scanner as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the set of defined measurement programs and/or actions of the laser scanner comprises activating the laser scanner, as well as at least one element from the following group:
deactivation of the laser scanner,
starting the measurement process,
interruption of the measurement process,
aborting the measurement process, and
restarting the measurement process.

3. The laser scanner as claimed in claim 2 , wherein a set of different settings for the measurement process is stored and/or can be defined and the set of defined measurement programs and/or actions of the laser scanner unit also comprises at least one element of the following group:
adjusting a setting from the set of settings for the measurement process,
starting the measurement process with a setting from the set of settings for the measurement process, and
restoring a default setting of the laser scanner, in particular a default startup configuration of the laser scanner.

4. The laser scanner as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the coded sequence of state changes of the control element is defined by a definite number of state changes during a defined time interval between the active and inactive state.

5. The laser scanner as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the coded sequence of temporally persistent external actions is defined by one or more differently defined time intervals for maintaining the external action.

6. The laser scanner as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the control element is arranged on the support.

7. The laser scanner according to claim 6 , wherein,
the laser scanner further comprises at least one color camera for recording image data, wherein the camera defines an optical axis of the camera and a viewing direction of the camera along the optical axis,
the support is implemented by means of a skeletal structure,
the support comprises a cover carried by the skeletal structure and detachable therefrom as a shell element,
the camera is secured to the shell element and carried by the shell element, and
the control element is arranged on the shell element.

8. The laser scanner according to claim 6 , wherein the control element is a single button.

9. The laser scanner as claimed in claim 1 , wherein,
the support is fixed on a base of the laser scanner in a manner rotationally about a support axis of rotation, in particular a slow axis of rotation,
the laser scanner comprises a further angle encoder for recording further angle data with respect to a rotation of the support about the support axis of rotation, and
the laser scanner is configured such that the scanning sensing of the measurement process further comprises a defined progressive, in particular continuous, rotation of the support about the support axis of rotation, and that the further angle data, forming part the measurement data, is also recorded in the course of the measurement process.

10. The laser scanner according to claim 1 , wherein with respect to a rotation of the support about the support axis of rotation the base is designed exclusively as passive element, in the sense that all active electronics required for the motorization of the rotation around the support axis of rotation is arranged exclusively in the support and co-rotates with the support around the axis of rotation of the support.

11. The laser scanner according to claim 1 , wherein each of the following components is arranged entirely in the support and co-rotates with the support about the support axis of rotation:
an active drive element for the rotation of the support about the support axis of rotation, in particular a rotary motor with a drive shaft coupled to the motor or an electrical coil element for a radial interaction with respect to the support axis of rotation between the electrical coil element and a passive magnetic element in the base, and
a power supply unit for the active drive element.

12. The laser scanner according to claim 1 , wherein during the measurement process the beam steering unit rotates about the beam axis of rotation with a rotation speed of at least 50 Hz, in particular of at least 100 Hz, and/or
during the measurement process the base rotates about the support axis of rotation with a rotation speed of at least 0.01 Hz, in particular of at least 0.02 Hz.

13. A measurement system for optical measurement and for imaging an environment, having
a laser scanner according to claim 1 ,
a processing unit for processing portions of the measurement data into processed measurement data, and
a display for displaying portions of the processed measurement data, which represent at least a partial region of the environment,

wherein
the laser scanner further comprises at least one color camera for recording image data, wherein the camera defines an optical axis of the camera and a viewing direction of the camera along the optical axis, and
the laser scanner is configured such that the measurement process further comprises performing multiple readings of image data with the camera with respect to different viewing directions of the camera, and that the read image data, forming part of the measurement data, are also recorded in the course of the measurement process.

14. The measurement system according to claim 13 , wherein
the processing unit is arranged on a computing device, built as a tablet, separate to the laser scanner, and
the laser scanner and the computing device are configured in such a way that

Assignees

• Leica Geosystems Ag

Inventors

• Mark Simon
• Bereuter Klaus
• Müller Benjamin
• Steffen Roman
• Böckem Burkhard
• Dold Jürgen
• Scheja Jochen
• Heinzle Lukas
• Dumoulin Charles Leopold Elisabeth

Classifications

• G01S7/4814

  of transmitters alone · CPC title

• G01S7/4811

  common to transmitter and receiver · CPC title

• G01B11/024

  by means of diode-array scanning · CPC title

• G06T2207/10028

  Range image; Depth image; 3D point clouds · CPC title

• G06T11/00

  Two-dimensional [2D] image generation · CPC title