Laser scanner

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2024310525-A1
Application number	US-202418671823-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	May 22, 2024
Priority date	Nov 10, 2016
Publication date	Sep 19, 2024
Grant date	—

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 10 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

1 . A laser scanner for optical measurement of an environment, comprising
an optical distance measuring device for detecting distance measurement data comprising 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 base, a support, which is rotationally fixed on the base about a support axis of rotation, in particular a slow axis of rotation, 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 substantially orthogonal to the support axis of rotation, in particular a fast axis of rotation, and a first angle encoder for recording first angle data with respect to a rotation of the support about the support axis of rotation, and a second angle encoder for recording second 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 first and second angle data, hereafter designated as measurement data, are detected during 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 support about the support axis of rotation, 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,
wherein
the laser scanner comprises a status indicator for an indication of a device status, in particular for the indication of a status of the measurement process,
the status indicator is arranged on the support, which means it co-rotates when the support rotates about the support axis of rotation,
the status indicator is designed in such a way that it appears substantially identical around its circumference with respect to the support axis of rotation in all azimuthal directions,
so that irrespective of a rotational position of the support about the support axis of rotation, for a user of the laser scanner the same information provided by the status indicator is visible and readable from all horizontal user perspectives.

2 . The laser scanner according to claim 1 , wherein the status indicator is implemented by means of individual lamps, which are arranged adjacent to each other with a substantially identical elevation around the full circumference of the support.

3 . The laser scanner according to claim 1 , wherein the status indicator is implemented by means of continuous and interruption-free lighting means, which substantially completely surround the support and the support axis of rotation, in particular wherein the lighting means are implemented as an LED ring.

4 . The laser scanner according to claim 1 , wherein the status indicator is designed by means of a fiber-optic ring with at least one coupling input for light, in particular by means of two or four coupling inputs, wherein with increasing distance from the coupling input position along the fiber-optic ring the ratio of radiation, namely the radial light extraction, to transmission of the light along the fiber-optic ring increases.

5 . The laser scanner according to claim 1 , wherein the status indicator is designed in such a way that the device status is disclosed to a user by means of a visual coding, in particular by means of a defined color coding of the status indicator and/or by means of a defined flash coding of the status indicator.

6 . 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.

7 . 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.

8 . 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.

9 . 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.

10 . The measurement system according to claim 9 , 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
a transmission of the measurement data from the laser scanner to the computing device takes place wirelessly,
the transmission of the measurement data is carried out during the measurement process by means of a data streaming of parts of the measurement data which is started simultaneously with respect to the start of the measurement process, or at least almost simultaneously, an at least initial processing of the parts of the measurement data in terms of a linking of the surface sensor data with the distance measurement data and the first and second angle data takes place during the measurement process, and displaying of portions of the processed measurement data takes place during the measurement process and is progressively updated based on the processed measurement data, wherein a display being integrated in the computing device is provided for the displaying.

11 . The measuring system as claimed in claim 10 , wherein
by means of a virtual 360-degree rotation of the beam steering unit about the beam axis of rotation a scanning plane of the distance measurement radiation is defined, and the camera is arranged and oriented on the support in such a way that its azimuthal viewing direction and the azimuthal orientation of the scanning plane are different, which means that a virtual backwards extension of the optical axis of the camera cuts the scanning plane at a defined cutting angle, in particular wherein the cutting angle is at least 45 degrees, specif

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