CN212301861U

CN212301861U - Multi-line laser radar device

Info

Publication number: CN212301861U
Application number: CN201921805819.XU
Authority: CN
Inventors: 潘锋; 章炳刚; 李斌; 鲁丁
Original assignee: Zhejiang Sunny Optical Intelligent Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Zhejiang Sunny Optical Intelligent Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-10-24
Filing date: 2019-10-24
Publication date: 2021-01-05
Anticipated expiration: 2029-10-24

Abstract

The multiline laser radar device comprises a rotating assembly, a transmitting assembly and a receiving assembly. The rotating assembly comprises a base, a rotating platform and a driving mechanism. The rotating platform is rotatably mounted to the base. The drive mechanism is configured to drive the rotation platform to rotate relative to the base about a rotation axis. The transmitting component is arranged on the rotating platform and is driven by the rotating platform to rotate around the rotating shaft, wherein the transmitting component comprises at least one laser transmitter and a light splitter, and the laser transmitter is used for transmitting a laser beam. The beam splitter is used for splitting the laser beam to generate a group of laser split beams. The receiving assembly is arranged on the rotating platform and is driven by the rotating platform to rotate around the rotating shaft, wherein the receiving assembly comprises a group of laser receivers, and the laser receivers are in one-to-one correspondence with the laser sub-beams and are used for receiving reflected or scattered laser echoes.

Description

Multi-line laser radar device

Technical Field

The utility model relates to a radar technology field especially relates to a multi-line laser radar device.

Background

The laser radar is a radar system for detecting characteristic quantities such as position, speed and the like of a target in a mode of emitting laser beams, and the working principle of the radar system is that the laser beams (namely, emission signals) are emitted to the target firstly, then laser echoes (namely, echo signals) reflected or scattered from the target are received and compared with the emission signals, and after appropriate processing is carried out, relevant information of the target, such as parameters of target distance, direction, height, speed, posture, even shape and the like, can be obtained.

Currently, an on-board assistance system or an unmanned autonomous vehicle needs to sense the environment around the vehicle at any time to obtain information on roads, vehicle attitude, and other obstacles for guiding and controlling the steering and speed of the vehicle. In general, a vehicle-mounted auxiliary system or an unmanned vehicle detects the surrounding environment of the vehicle by using a multi-line laser radar, so that the laser radar of the type has a very important role in the unmanned vehicle. As the name suggests, the multi-line laser radar forms the scanning of a plurality of laser beams through the distribution of a plurality of laser transmitters in the vertical direction and the rotation of a motor; meanwhile, the reflected or scattered back echo line beams are received by the laser receivers corresponding to the laser transmitters one by one, so that the purpose of detecting related information is achieved. Theoretically, the more and denser the wire bundles of the multi-line laser radar are, the more sufficient the description of the surrounding environment is, and the requirement of an algorithm can be reduced.

However, since the number of strands of an existing multiline lidar depends on the number of laser transmitters (i.e., one laser strand is generated per laser transmitter), the more strands of the multiline lidar, the greater the number of laser transmitters and laser receivers required, and thus the higher the cost of the multiline lidar. In addition, each laser receiver of the multi-line laser radar needs to be accurately aligned with the corresponding laser transmitter through complicated optical path adjustment, so that the requirement on the attachment precision of each laser receiver on the PCB is high, and the cost of the multi-line laser radar is further increased.

Furthermore, existing multiline lidar systems are typically mounted on the roof of the vehicle for 360 ° long range scanning. However, the installation position of the laser radar is high, and the detection direction of the laser radar is limited by the vehicle, so that certain blind areas inevitably exist around the vehicle, and huge hidden dangers are brought to safe driving.

SUMMERY OF THE UTILITY MODEL

An object of the utility model is to provide a multi-thread laser radar device, its cost that can practice thrift laser radar.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a multiline laser radar device, in an embodiment of the present invention, the multiline laser radar system can generate a greater number of laser beams through a smaller number of laser transmitters, which helps to reduce the cost of the multiline laser radar system.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a multiline laser radar device, in an embodiment of the present invention, the multiline laser radar system adopts the beam splitter beam splitting technology, breaks away from the restriction of one-to-one correspondence between laser emitter and laser beam, and helps to reduce the number of laser emitters required to be used.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a multi-line laser radar device, in an embodiment of the present invention, the multi-line laser radar system can provide a larger field angle to the full-angle coverage detection of the installation side is realized, the blind area that the multi-line laser radar that helps compensate the roof exists is located.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a multiline lidar device, in an embodiment of the present invention, the multiline lidar system is easy to reduce the field angle to realize the directional detection of high density.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a multi-line laser radar device, in an embodiment of the present invention, the multi-line laser radar system can increase the energy of the laser beam, so as to promote the detection distance of the multi-line laser radar system.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a multiline lidar device, in an embodiment of the present invention, the multiline lidar system can use the laser receivers arranged in an array, and the attaching precision of a single laser receiver may not be considered, which helps to simplify the calibration process of the system optical path.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a multiline lidar device, in an embodiment of the present invention, the spherical housing of the multiline lidar device can filter other light except for the target band, which helps to suppress the interference of the ambient light.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a multiline laser radar device, in an embodiment of the present invention, the laser receiving component of the multiline laser radar device can further filter the light outside the target band, so as to further suppress the interference of the ambient light.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a multi-line laser radar device, in an embodiment of the present invention, the multi-line laser radar device is suitable for being installed on the side of the vehicle body to sweep the blind area existing on the side of the vehicle body.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a multiline lidar device, wherein, in order to achieve the above object, the present invention does not require expensive materials or complex structures. Therefore, the utility model discloses succeed in and provide a solution effectively, not only provide a simple multi-line laser radar device, still increased simultaneously multi-line laser radar device's practicality and reliability.

In order to realize above-mentioned at least a utility model purpose or other purposes and advantages, the utility model provides a multi-line laser radar system, include:

a rotation unit, wherein the rotation unit has a rotation axis;

a transmitting unit, wherein the transmitting unit is provided to the rotating unit for rotating around the rotating shaft by the driving of the rotating unit, wherein the transmitting unit comprises:

at least one laser emitting module for emitting a laser beam; and

the light splitting module is arranged on a transmitting path of the laser transmitting module and is used for splitting the laser beam to generate a group of laser split beams; and

a receiving unit, wherein the receiving unit is disposed at the rotating unit for rotating around the rotating shaft by the driving of the rotating unit, wherein the receiving unit comprises:

and the laser receiving modules correspond to the laser sub-beams one to one and are used for receiving the reflected or scattered laser echoes.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the number of laser emitting modules is less than the number of laser receiving modules.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the transmitting unit further includes a transmitting lens module, wherein the transmitting lens module is disposed between the laser transmitting module and the splitting module, and is used for processing the laser beam transmitted by the laser transmitting module to form a laser combined beam, wherein the splitting module is used for splitting the laser combined beam into the laser split beams with a predetermined number.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the emission lens module is a collimating lens set for collimating the laser beam to obtain the laser combined beam formed by combining a plurality of sub-beams; the light splitting module is a Dammann grating and is used for diffracting the laser combined beam into a plurality of laser split beams.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the emitting lens module is a shaping lens set for shaping the laser beam to obtain the laser combined beam with a linear structure; the light splitting module is an array lens group and is used for collimating the laser combined beam into a plurality of independent laser split beams.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the receiving unit further includes a receiving lens module, wherein the receiving lens module is correspondingly disposed in the receiving path of the laser receiving module, and is used for focusing the laser echo, so as to focus every laser echo to the corresponding laser receiving module.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the receiving unit further comprises a light turning module, wherein the light turning module is correspondingly disposed between the laser receiving module and the receiving lens module for changing the propagation direction of the laser echo, so that the laser echo passing through the receiving lens module is propagated to the laser receiving module in a turning manner.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the light turning module is a reflector for reflecting the laser echo passing through the receiving lens module to the laser receiving module.

According to the utility model discloses an on the other hand, the utility model also provides a multi-line laser radar device, include:

a rotating assembly, wherein the rotating assembly has an axis of rotation, and the rotating assembly comprises:

a base;

a rotating platform, wherein the rotating platform is rotatably mounted to the base; and

a drive mechanism, wherein the drive mechanism is configured to drive the rotation platform to rotate relative to the base about the rotation axis;

a transmitting assembly, wherein the transmitting assembly is disposed on the rotary platform and is configured to rotate around the rotating shaft under the driving of the rotary platform, and the transmitting assembly comprises:

at least one laser emitter for emitting a laser beam; and

the optical splitter is arranged in the emission path of the laser emitter and is used for splitting the laser beam to generate a group of laser split beams; and

a receiving assembly, wherein the receiving assembly is disposed on the rotary platform and is configured to rotate around the rotation axis under the driving of the rotary platform, and the receiving assembly comprises:

and the laser receivers correspond to the laser sub-beams one to one and are used for receiving the reflected or scattered back laser echoes.

In some embodiments of the present invention, an included angle between a transmission path of the laser transmitter of the transmission assembly and the rotation axis of the rotation assembly is an acute angle.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the laser beam split formed by splitting the light by the beam splitter is distributed in an area having an included angle of 90 ° with the rotation axis.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the emission assembly further includes an emission lens set, wherein the emission lens set is disposed between the laser emitter and the beam splitter for processing the laser beam emitted by the laser emitter to form a laser combined beam, wherein the beam splitter is configured to split the laser combined beam into the laser divided beams with a predetermined number.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the emission lens group is a collimating lens group or a shaping lens group.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the beam splitter is a dammann grating or an array lens group.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the receiving assembly further includes a receiving lens set, wherein the receiving lens set is correspondingly disposed on the receiving path of the laser receiver, and is configured to focus the laser echo for every time the laser echo is focused to the corresponding laser receiver.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the receiving assembly further comprises a light turning element, wherein the light turning element is correspondingly disposed between the laser receiver and the receiving lens set for changing the propagation direction of the laser echo, so that the laser echo passing through the receiving lens set is propagated to the laser receiver in a turning manner.

In some embodiments of the invention, the light redirecting element is a mirror or a prism.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the multiline lidar device further includes a top cover assembly, wherein the top cover assembly is correspondingly disposed on the base of the rotating assembly, so as to form a receiving space between the top cover assembly and the base, for receiving and protecting the transmitting assembly and the receiving assembly.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the cap assembly includes a hemispherical window, wherein the hemispherical window is disposed to be in a transmission path of the laser transmitter and a reception path of the laser receiver, so that the laser beam and the laser echo can pass through the hemispherical window.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the hemispherical window is made of a light filtering material for filtering light outside the target wavelength band.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the top cap assembly further comprises a sealing ring, wherein the sealing ring is disposed at a junction of the hemispherical window and the base, so that the receiving space serves as a sealed space.

According to the utility model discloses an on the other hand, the utility model also provides a detection method of multi-thread laser radar system, including the step:

emitting a laser beam by at least one laser emitting module;

performing light splitting processing on the laser beam by a light splitting module to generate a group of laser split beams; and

by means of a group of laser receiving modules, after the laser sub-beams are reflected or scattered back by a target to form laser echoes, the laser echoes are received, and detection information in a certain direction is obtained by comparing and processing the laser echoes and the laser beams, wherein the laser receiving modules correspond to the laser sub-beams one to one.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the method for detecting a multiline lidar system further includes:

and synchronously rotating the laser emitting module, the light splitting module and the laser receiving module so as to enable each laser split beam to scan rotationally and obtain detection information in different directions.

Further objects and advantages of the invention will be fully apparent from the ensuing description and drawings.

These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the following detailed description, the accompanying drawings and the appended claims.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a system diagram of a multiline lidar system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 2 shows a schematic view of the multiline lidar system according to the above-described embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 3 shows a schematic optical path diagram of the transmitting unit of the multiline lidar system according to the above-described embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 3A shows a first variant implementation of the emitter unit according to the above-described embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 3B shows a second variant implementation of the emitter unit according to the above-described embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 4 shows a schematic optical path diagram of the receiving unit of the multiline lidar system according to the above-described embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 5 is a schematic perspective view of a multiline lidar apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 6 shows a schematic cross-sectional view of the multiline lidar device according to the above-described embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a detection of a multiline lidar system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 8 is a schematic flow chart of a detection method of a multiline lidar system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

The following description is presented to disclose the invention so as to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the invention. The preferred embodiments in the following description are given by way of example only, and other obvious variations will occur to those skilled in the art. The basic principles of the invention, as defined in the following description, may be applied to other embodiments, variations, modifications, equivalents and other technical solutions without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that in the present disclosure, the terms "longitudinal," "lateral," "upper," "lower," "front," "rear," "left," "right," "vertical," "horizontal," "top," "bottom," "inner," "outer," and the like are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation, as the terms are used in the description to indicate that the referenced device or element must have the specified orientation, be constructed and operated in the specified orientation, and not for the purposes of limitation.

In the present application, the terms "a" and "an" in the claims and the description should be understood as meaning "one or more", that is, one element or a plurality of elements may be included in one embodiment or a plurality of elements may be included in another embodiment. The terms "a" and "an" and "the" and similar referents are to be construed to mean that the elements are limited to only one element or group, unless otherwise indicated in the disclosure.

In the description of the present invention, it is to be understood that the terms "first," "second," and the like are used for descriptive purposes only and are not to be construed as indicating or implying relative importance. In the description of the present invention, it should be noted that, unless explicitly stated or limited otherwise, the terms "connected" and "connected" should be interpreted broadly, and may be, for example, fixedly connected, detachably connected, or integrally connected; can be mechanically or electrically connected; they may be directly connected or indirectly connected through an intermediate. The specific meaning of the above terms in the present invention can be understood according to specific situations by those skilled in the art.

In the description herein, references to the description of the term "one embodiment," "some embodiments," "an example," "a specific example," or "some examples," etc., mean that a particular feature, structure, material, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment or example is included in at least one embodiment or example of the invention. In this specification, the schematic representations of the terms used above are not necessarily intended to refer to the same embodiment or example. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, materials, or characteristics described may be combined in any suitable manner in any one or more embodiments or examples. Furthermore, various embodiments or examples and features of different embodiments or examples described in this specification can be combined and combined by one skilled in the art without contradiction.

Illustrative System

Referring to fig. 1-4 of the drawings, a multiline lidar system according to an embodiment of the present invention is illustrated. Specifically, as shown in fig. 1 and 2, the multiline lidar system 10 includes a rotating unit 11, a transmitting unit 12, and a receiving unit 13, wherein the rotating unit 11 has a rotating axis, and the transmitting unit 12 and the receiving unit 13 are disposed on the rotating unit 11, wherein the transmitting unit 12 and the receiving unit 13 are configured to rotate around the rotating axis under the driving of the rotating unit 11.

More specifically, as shown in fig. 2 and fig. 3, the emitting unit 12 includes at least one laser emitting module 121 and a light splitting module 122, where each laser emitting module 121 is configured to emit a laser beam, and the light splitting module 122 is correspondingly disposed in an emitting path of the laser emitting module 121 and configured to split the laser beam to generate a set of laser split beams. The receiving unit 13 includes a set of laser receiving modules 131, wherein the laser receiving modules 131 correspond to the laser sub-beams one to one, and are configured to receive reflected or scattered laser echoes. It is understood that when the laser sub-beams propagate to the target object, the target object will reflect or scatter the laser sub-beams, so that the corresponding laser receiving modules 131 receive the reflected or scattered laser echoes, that is, each of the laser echoes corresponds to a corresponding laser sub-beam, and the laser receiving modules 131 correspond to the laser echoes, so that the laser receiving modules 131 correspond to the laser sub-beams.

It should be noted that, just as the splitting module 122 of the multiline lidar system 10 can split one laser beam into a plurality of laser split beams, the multiline lidar system 10 can get rid of the limitation that there must be one-to-one correspondence between laser transmitters and laser receivers in the existing multiline lidar system, so that the multiline lidar system 10 can reduce the number of required laser transmitters (i.e., the laser transmitting modules 121) while keeping the number of scanning beams (i.e., laser split beams) unchanged or increased, which helps to reduce the cost of the multiline lidar system 10. In other words, the multi-line lidar system 10 of the present invention uses less laser emitting modules 121 (i.e. the number of laser emitting modules 121 is less than the number of laser receiving modules 131), even only one laser emitting module 121, to realize the multi-line scanning detection of the multi-line lidar system 10. In addition, the receiving unit 13 of the multi-line lidar system 10 may also adopt laser receiving modules 131 arranged in an array, without considering the attaching accuracy of a single laser receiving module 131, which is helpful to simplify the optical calibration process and reduce the calibration cost.

Preferably, the number of the laser emitting modules 121 is less than the number of the laser receiving modules 131. For example, as shown in fig. 3, the number of the laser emission modules 121 in the emission unit 12 of the multiline lidar system 10 is one, the splitting module 122 can split one laser beam into sixteen laser split beams, and the number of the laser reception modules 131 is sixteen, so that the multiline lidar system 10 can perform sixteen line scanning detection.

Further, as shown in fig. 1 and 2, the transmitting unit 12 of the multiline lidar system 10 further includes a transmitting lens module 123, wherein the transmitting lens module 123 is disposed between the laser transmitting module 121 and the light splitting module 122, and is configured to process the laser beam transmitted by the laser transmitting module 121 to form a laser combined beam and transmit the laser combined beam to the light splitting module 122; wherein the light splitting module 122 is configured to split the laser combined beam to generate a predetermined number of the laser split beams.

Preferably, the beam splitting module 122 may be, but is not limited to, configured to split one laser beam into a plurality of laser sub-beams by diffraction or collimation. Accordingly, the transmitting lens module 123 can, but is not limited to, collimate or shape the laser beam, so that the laser beam can meet the splitting requirement of the splitting module 122.

Illustratively, as shown in fig. 3, the splitting module 122 of the transmitting unit 12 may be, but is not limited to being, implemented as a dammann grating 1221 to split one of the laser combined beams into a plurality of the laser split beams by diffraction of the dammann grating 1221. Accordingly, the emission lens module 123 may be, but is not limited to, implemented as a collimating lens group 1231, wherein the collimating lens 1231 can collimate the laser beam to obtain the laser combined beam combined by a plurality of sub-beams so as to be diffracted into the plurality of laser sub-beams by the dammann grating 1221.

It should be noted that, as shown in fig. 3A, in the first modified embodiment of the emitting unit 12 of the present invention, the light splitting module 122 can also be implemented, but not limited to, as an array lens set 1222, so as to split one laser combined beam into a plurality of laser sub-beams through the collimation of the array lens set 1222. Accordingly, the emission lens module 123 can be, but is not limited to, implemented as a shaping lens 1232, wherein the shaping lens assembly 1231 can shape the laser beam to obtain the laser combined beam (i.e., laser line) with a linear structure, so as to be collimated by the array lens 1222 into a plurality of independent laser sub-beams, thereby realizing the light splitting process of the laser beam.

It should be noted that, although the transmitting unit 12 shown in fig. 3 and 3A only includes one laser emitting module 121, in order to enhance the detection capability of the multiline lidar system 10 (i.e., enhance the light intensity of the laser sub-beams), the transmitting unit 12 of the present invention may further include two or more laser emitting modules 121, wherein all the laser emitting modules 121 are densely arranged to form one laser emitting module with stronger optical power.

Exemplarily, as shown in fig. 3B, in a second variant embodiment of the emission unit 12 of the present invention, the emission unit 12 includes three laser emission modules 121, wherein all of the laser emission modules 121 are densely arranged, and all of the laser emission modules 121 emit three laser beams; the emitting lens module 123 is configured to combine the three laser beams into one laser combined beam, and enable the laser combined beam to propagate to the light splitting module 122, so as to split one laser beam into sixteen laser split beams through the light splitting module 122. It can be understood that the laser emission power of the emission unit 12 including three laser emission modules 121 is larger than that of the emission unit 12 including a single laser emission module 121, so as to meet the requirement of larger detection capability. For example, if the emission power of each of the laser emission modules 121 is 120W, the total emission power of the emission unit 12 including the single laser emission module 121 is 120W, and accordingly the optical power of each of the laser sub-beams is about 7.5W (the optical power of each of the laser sub-beams is substantially equal to the ratio between the total emission power of the emission unit 12 and the number of the laser sub-beams); however, in this variant the total emission power of the emission unit 12 is 360W, and accordingly the optical power per laser sub-beam is about 22.5W, which is a sufficient increase of three times.

In the above embodiment according to the present invention, as shown in fig. 1 and fig. 2, the receiving unit 13 of the multiline lidar system 10 further includes a receiving lens module 132, wherein the receiving lens module 132 is correspondingly disposed in the receiving path of the laser receiving module 131, and is configured to process the reflected or scattered laser echo and make the laser echo propagate to the corresponding laser receiving module 131. In other words, the receiving lens module 132 of the receiving unit 13 is used for performing focusing/collimating processing on the laser echoes to focus each laser echo to the corresponding laser receiving module 132.

It should be noted that, since the back focal length of the receiving lens module 132 of the receiving unit 13 is usually larger, and the laser receiving module 131 needs to be located at the corresponding back focal length of the receiving lens module 132, the linear distance between the laser receiving module 131 and the receiving lens module 132 is equal to the back focal length of the receiving lens module 132, which results in a lower space utilization and a larger volume of the multi-line lidar system 10.

In order to solve the above problem, as shown in fig. 1 and fig. 2, the receiving unit 13 of the multiline lidar system 10 further includes a light turning module 133, wherein the light turning module 133 is correspondingly disposed between the laser receiving module 131 and the receiving lens module 132 for changing the propagation direction of the laser echo, so that the laser echo passing through the receiving lens module 132 can be propagated to the laser receiving module 131 in a turning manner. In this way, under the condition that the back focal length of the receiving lens module 132 is not changed, the linear distance between the laser receiving module 131 and the receiving lens module 132 is shortened, so as to facilitate the reasonable arrangement of the positions of the receiving components in the multi-line lidar system 10, and further reduce the volume of the multi-line lidar system 10. Of course, in other examples of the present invention, a light turning module may be disposed between the laser emitting module 121 and the light splitting module 122 to shorten the straight-line distance between the laser emitting module 121 and the light splitting module 122, so as to further reduce the size of the multi-line lidar system 10.

Preferably, the light diverting module 133 of the receiving unit 13 may be, but is not limited to, used for changing the propagation direction of the laser echo by means of reflection or refraction so as to divert the laser echo passing through the receiving lens module 132 to propagate to the laser receiving module 131. Illustratively, as shown in fig. 4, the light diverting module 133 may be, but is not limited to being, implemented as a mirror 1331, to divert the laser echo passing through the receiving lens module 132 to propagate to the laser receiving module 131 through the reflection of the mirror 1331, that is, the mirror 1331 is used to reflect the laser echo passing through the receiving lens module 132 to the laser receiving module 131. Of course, in other examples of the present invention, the light turning module 133 may also be implemented as a prism to turn and propagate the laser echo passing through the receiving lens module 132 to the laser receiving module 131 through refraction or total reflection of the prism.

It is worth mentioning that, as shown in fig. 1, according to the above-mentioned embodiment of the present invention, the rotating unit 11 of the multiline lidar system 10 includes a base module 111, a driving module 112 and a platform module 113, wherein the base module 111 is adapted to be fixedly mounted on other objects such as vehicles, and the transmitting unit 12 and the receiving unit 13 are adapted to be fixedly mounted on the platform module 113, wherein the driving module 112 is disposed between the base module 111 and the platform module 113 for driving the platform module 113 to rotate relative to the base module 111 so as to drive the transmitting unit 12 and the receiving unit 13 to rotate around the rotating shaft via the platform module 113. In other words, the platform module 113 is rotatably disposed on the base module 111, so that under the driving of the driving module 112, the platform module 113 rotates relative to the base module 111 and around the rotation axis, and further drives the transmitting unit 12 and the receiving unit 13 to rotate around the rotation axis, thereby implementing 360 ° scanning detection of the multiline lidar system 10. It is understood that the driving module 112 may be, but is not limited to be, implemented as an electric motor to drive the platform module 113 to rotate around the rotation axis by the electric motor.

Furthermore, as shown in fig. 1, the multiline lidar system 10 further includes an auxiliary unit 14 for assisting the operations of the rotation unit 11, the transmission unit 12, and the reception unit 13 to enable the multiline lidar system 10 to perform scanning and probing operations. Specifically, as shown in fig. 1, the auxiliary unit 14 may include a power module 141, a transmission module 142, and a control module 143, wherein the power module 141 is configured to provide power for the rotating unit 11, the transmitting unit 12, and the receiving unit 13; wherein the transmission module 142 is used for transmitting data between the control module 143 and the rotating unit 11, the transmitting unit 12 and the receiving unit 13; wherein the control module 143 is configured to control the rotation unit 11, the transmitting unit 12 and the receiving unit 13 to operate.

It is noted that the power supply module 141 may be, but is not limited to be, implemented as a wireless charging module to wirelessly supply power to the rotating unit 11, the transmitting unit 12, and the receiving unit 13. The control module 143 may include, but is not limited to, a power main board provided to the base module 111 and a control main board provided to the platform module 113, wherein the control main board is adapted to be communicatively connected to the transmitting unit 12 and the receiving unit 13, and the power main board is adapted to be communicatively connected to the rotating unit 11 and an external device; the transmission module 142 is used for transmitting data between the power main board and the control main board. For example, the transmission module 142 may be, but is not limited to being, implemented as a slip ring to transmit data bidirectionally between the power main board and the control main board by wire. Of course, in other examples of the present invention, the transmission module 142 may also be implemented as an optical communication component to transmit data between the power main board and the control main board in a wireless manner in a bidirectional manner.

Further, as shown in fig. 1, the auxiliary unit 14 of the multiline lidar system 10 may further include an angle encoding module 144 for obtaining rotation angle data of the platform module 113. For example, the angle encoder module 144 may be, but is not limited to being, implemented as an optical encoder assembly, including an optical encoder disc and an optical encoder chip, wherein the optical encoder disc is in a ring-shaped structure and is coaxially disposed on the base module 111 with the rotation axis as the axis, wherein the optical encoder chip is correspondingly mounted on the platform module 113, wherein when the platform module 113 rotates around the rotation axis, the optical encoder chip is driven to scan 360 degrees along the optical encoder disc to obtain the rotation angle data of the platform module 113.

Schematic device

Referring to fig. 5 to 7 of the drawings, a multiline lidar apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is illustrated. Specifically, as shown in fig. 5 and 6, the multiline lidar device 20 includes a rotating assembly 21, a transmitting assembly 22 and a receiving assembly 23, wherein the rotating assembly 21 has a rotating axis 210, and the transmitting assembly 22 and the receiving assembly 23 are correspondingly disposed on the rotating assembly 21, wherein the transmitting assembly 22 and the receiving assembly 23 are configured to rotate around the rotating axis 210 under the driving of the rotating assembly 21.

Specifically, as shown in fig. 5, the emitting assembly 22 includes at least one laser emitter 221 and a beam splitter 222, wherein each laser emitter 221 is configured to emit a laser beam, and the beam splitter 222 is correspondingly disposed in an emitting path of the laser emitter 221 and configured to split the laser beam to generate a plurality of laser sub-beams. The receiving assembly 23 includes a plurality of laser receivers 231, wherein the laser receivers 231 correspond to the laser sub-beams one to one, and are configured to receive the reflected or scattered laser echoes. It is noted that the beam splitter 222 may be implemented as, but not limited to, a dammann grating or an array lens group.

Further, as shown in fig. 5, the transmitting assembly 22 of the multiline lidar device 20 further includes a transmitting lens set 223, wherein the transmitting lens set 223 is disposed between the laser transmitter 221 and the beam splitter 222, and is configured to process the laser beams transmitted by the laser transmitter 221 to form a laser combined beam and transmit the laser combined beam to the beam splitter 222; wherein the beam splitter 222 is configured to split the laser combined beam to generate a predetermined number of the laser sub-beams.

It should be noted that an included angle between the emission path of the laser emitter 221 of the emission assembly 22 and the rotation axis 210 of the rotation assembly 21 is an acute angle, so that the laser beam emitted by the laser emitter 221 is in an area forming an included angle of 180 ° with the rotation axis 110.

Preferably, the emission path of the laser emitter 221 of the emission assembly 22 is 45 ° to the rotation axis 210 of the rotation assembly 21, which helps to ensure that the laser sub-beams split by the beam splitter 222 are distributed in a region forming an angle of 90 ° with the rotation axis 210, that is, in a region between the rotation axis 210 and a plane perpendicular to the rotation axis 210 (i.e., the vertical field angle of the multiline lidar device 20 is 90 °). When the multiline lidar system 20 is in operation, each of the laser sub-beams will be scanned rotationally about the rotational axis 210, forming a conical scan region centered about the rotational axis 210. It can be understood that, since the beam splitter 222 can split one laser beam into the laser split beams with different angles, the vertical field angle (i.e. the detection angle perpendicular to the rotation plane) of the multiline lidar device 20 according to the present invention can be increased, that is, the detection area of the multiline lidar device 20 can be enlarged, which helps to eliminate the detection blind area of the existing roof lidar. Of course, in other examples of the present invention, the laser sub-beams split by the beam splitter 222 may be distributed in a region with an angle of 120 ° with the rotation axis 210 (i.e. the vertical field angle of the multi-line lidar device 20 is 120 °), or even a region with a larger angle, depending on the structural design of the beam splitter 222.

In particular, when there are one laser sub-beam propagating along the rotation axis 210 and one laser sub-beam propagating perpendicular to the rotation axis 210 in the laser sub-beam split formed by the beam splitter 222, the multiline lidar device 20 can realize the full-angle coverage scan detection of the installation side (i.e., the full-angle coverage scan detection of 180 ° by 180 °).

More preferably, the laser sub-beams split by the beam splitter 222 are uniformly distributed in a region having an angle of 90 ° with the rotation axis 210, that is, the angles between any two adjacent laser sub-beams in the same plane are equal. Illustratively, as shown in fig. 7, when sixteen laser sub-beams are formed by splitting the light through the beam splitter 222, the included angle between two adjacent laser sub-beams is 5.625 °. Thus, when the multi-line laser radar device 20 works, sixteen laser sub-beams simultaneously rotate around the rotating shaft 210 by 360 degrees, and the scanning areas of all the laser sub-beams are coaxial conical areas with different diameters, so that the mounting side can scan 180 degrees by 180 degrees at all angles, and the problem of the scanning blind area of the existing roof multi-line laser radar is solved.

It should be noted that the number of the laser sub-beams and the included angle between two adjacent laser sub-beams are determined by the beam splitter 222, so that the beam splitter 222 can be designed as required to obtain the required number and included angle of the laser sub-beams. For example, in other examples of the present invention, the included angle between the laser beams split and formed by the beam splitter 222 is small, so as to perform high-density directional detection.

Most preferably, as shown in fig. 5, the laser transmitter 221, the beam splitter 222, and the transmitting lens group 223 are packaged together to form the transmitting assembly 22 having a separate structure, so as to facilitate mounting of the transmitting assembly 22 to the rotating assembly 21, which helps to simplify the assembly process of the multiline lidar device 20 and reduce the assembly cost.

In the above embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 5, the receiving assembly 23 of the multiline lidar device 20 includes a set of laser receiver 231 and a receiving lens assembly 232, wherein the receiving lens assembly 232 is correspondingly disposed on the receiving path of the laser receiver 231 for processing the reflected or scattered laser echo and making the laser echo propagate to the corresponding laser receiver 231. It is understood that the receiving lens group 232 of the receiving assembly 23 is used for performing focusing/collimating processing on the laser echoes to focus each of the laser echoes to the corresponding laser receiver 231.

Further, as shown in fig. 5 and fig. 6, the receiving assembly 23 of the multi-line lidar device 20 of the present invention further includes a light turning element 233, wherein the light turning element 233 is correspondingly disposed between the laser receiver 231 and the receiving lens assembly 232 for changing the propagation direction of the laser echo, so that the laser echo passing through the receiving lens assembly 232 can be propagated to the laser receiver 231 in a turning manner. In this way, under the condition that the back focal length of the receiving lens group 232 is not changed, the linear distance between the laser receiver 231 and the receiving lens group 232 is shortened, so that the positions of the receiving components in the multi-line laser radar device 20 are reasonably arranged, and the size of the multi-line laser radar device 20 is further reduced. Of course, in other examples of the present invention, a light turning module may be disposed between the laser transmitter 221 and the beam splitter 222 to shorten the linear distance between the laser transmitter 221 and the beam splitter 222, so as to further reduce the size of the multiline lidar device 20.

Preferably, as shown in fig. 5 and 6, the light diverting element 233 of the receiving assembly 23 may be, but is not limited to, implemented as a mirror 2331 to divert the laser echo passing through the receiving lens group 232 to propagate to the corresponding laser receiver 231 by reflection of the mirror 2331. Of course, in other examples of the present invention, the light turning element 233 may also be implemented as a prism to turn the laser echo passing through the receiving lens group 232 to propagate to the laser receiver 231 through refraction or total reflection of the prism.

According to the above embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 6, the rotating assembly 21 of the multiline lidar device 20 includes a base 211, a driving mechanism 212 and a rotating platform 213, wherein the rotating platform 213 is rotatably mounted on the base 211, and the transmitting assembly 22 and the receiving assembly 23 are fixedly mounted on the rotating platform 213, wherein the driving mechanism 212 is configured to drive the rotating platform 213 to rotate relative to the base 211, so that the rotating platform 213 drives the transmitting assembly 22 and the receiving assembly 23 to rotate around the rotating shaft 210, thereby realizing 360 ° scanning detection of the multiline lidar device 20. It is noted that the rotation axis 210 of the rotating assembly 21 preferably passes through the center of the rotating platform 213, so as to ensure the structural and operational stability of the multiline lidar device 20.

Further, as shown in fig. 5 and 6, the rotating assembly 21 of the multiline lidar device 20 may further include a bracket 214, wherein the transmitting assembly 21 and the receiving assembly 22 are fixedly mounted to the rotating platform 213 through the bracket 214, so that the rotating platform 213 of the rotating assembly 21 can rotate the transmitting assembly 21 and the receiving assembly 22 around the rotating shaft 210.

Further, as shown in fig. 6, the driving mechanism 212 of the rotating assembly 21 may include a stator 2121 and a rotor 2122, wherein the stator 2121 is disposed on the base 211, and the rotor 2122 is correspondingly disposed on the rotating platform 213, so that the rotor 2122 is driven by the stator 2121 to rotate around the rotating shaft 210. At the same time, the rotary platform 213 is rotated about the rotary shaft 210 by the rotor 2122.

It is worth mentioning that, as shown in fig. 5 and 6, the multiline lidar device 20 further includes a cover assembly 24, wherein the cover assembly 24 is correspondingly disposed on the base 211 of the rotating assembly 21 to form a receiving space 240 between the cover assembly 24 and the base 211, so as to receive and protect the rotating platform 213 and the driving mechanism 212 of the rotating assembly 21 and the transmitting assembly 22 and the receiving assembly 23 mounted on the rotating platform 213, and also prevent external objects from affecting the rotation of the rotating platform 213.

Preferably, as shown in fig. 6, the cover assembly 24 includes a hemispherical window 241, wherein the hemispherical window 241 is disposed in a transmitting path of the laser transmitter 221 and a receiving path of the laser receiver 231, so that the laser beam transmitted through the transmitting assembly 22 can pass through the hemispherical window 241, and the reflected or scattered laser echo can pass through the hemispherical window 241 to be received by the receiving assembly 23, so that the multiline lidar device 20 can sense or detect the surrounding environment through the hemispherical window 241.

More preferably, the hemispherical window 241 is made of a filter material for filtering light outside the target wavelength band, so as to allow light in the target wavelength band (i.e. the laser beam and the laser echo) and filter light outside the target wavelength band (e.g. ambient light), so as to suppress interference of light outside the target wavelength band with the multiline lidar device 20. For example, the target wavelength band may be implemented as a narrow wavelength band centered at 905nm (e.g., 890nm-920nm, etc.), that is, the hemispherical window 241 may allow light of the narrow wavelength band centered at 905nm to pass through and block light outside the narrow wavelength band centered at 905nm from passing through, thereby suppressing light outside the narrow wavelength band centered at 905nm from interfering with the multiline lidar apparatus 20. Of course, in other examples of the present invention, the hemispherical window 241 may also be made of a transparent material, such as glass, transparent plastic, transparent polymer material, etc., so as to isolate the accommodating space 240 from the external environment through the top cover assembly 24 and the base 211, and at the same time, allow light to pass through the hemispherical window 241 and be received by the receiving assembly 23, so as to ensure that the multi-line lidar device 20 can normally detect the surrounding environment.

It is noted that the laser receiver 231 may be, but is not limited to, implemented as a linear array of photosensors such as junction photodiodes, avalanche photodiodes, or linear array silicon photomultipliers. Of course, in order to protect the sensor of the laser receiver 231, the receiving assembly 23 may be sealed with a transparent protective glass for the laser receiver 231. In particular, the transparent cover glass can also be replaced by a filter for further filtering of light outside the target wavelength band.

Further, as shown in fig. 6, the cap assembly 24 may further include a sealing ring 242, wherein the sealing ring 242 is disposed at a junction of the hemispherical window 241 and the base 211, so that the accommodating space 240 is implemented as a sealed space, effectively preventing dust or water from entering the accommodating space 240.

It should be noted that, as shown in fig. 6, the multiline lidar device 20 may further include a control main board 25 and a power main board 26, wherein the control main board 25 is disposed on the rotating platform 213 of the rotating assembly 21 to rotate with the rotating platform 213; the power main board 26 is disposed on the base 211 of the rotating assembly 21 to be relatively fixed to the base 211.

Furthermore, as shown in fig. 6, the multiline lidar apparatus 20 may further include an electrical transmission module 27 and a data transmission module 28, wherein the electrical transmission module 27 is disposed on the rotating platform 213 for supplying electrical power to the transmitting assembly 22 and the receiving assembly 23; the data transmission module 28 is disposed between the control motherboard 25 and the power supply motherboard 26, and is used for transmitting data between the control motherboard 25 and the power supply motherboard 26. It is understood that the electrical transmission module 27 may be, but is not limited to being, implemented as a wireless charger to wirelessly power the transmitting assembly 22 and the receiving assembly 23. Preferably, the electrical transmission module 27 and the data transmission module 28 are arranged inside the central hole of the rotating platform 213, so that the overall structure of the multiline lidar device 20 is more compact and stable.

In addition, the multiline lidar device 20 may further include an optical encoder assembly (not shown) including an optical encoder disc and an optical encoder chip, wherein the optical encoder disc is in a ring structure and coaxially disposed on the rotor of the driving mechanism with the rotating shaft as an axis, wherein the optical encoder chip is correspondingly mounted on the power board, and when the rotating platform rotates around the rotating shaft, the optical encoder chip is driven to scan 360 degrees along the optical encoder disc to obtain the rotation angle data of the rotating platform.

Illustrative method

As shown in fig. 8, a detection method of a multiline lidar system according to an embodiment of the present invention is illustrated. Specifically, the detection method of the multiline laser radar system comprises the following steps:

s310: emitting a laser beam by at least one laser emitting module 121;

s320: processing the laser beam by a beam splitting module 122 to generate a set of laser split beams; and

s330: by means of a set of laser receiving modules 131, after the laser sub-beams are reflected or scattered back by a target to form laser echoes, the laser echoes are received, so as to obtain detection information in a certain direction by comparing and processing the laser echoes and the laser beams, wherein the laser receiving modules 122 correspond to the laser sub-beams one to one.

It should be noted that, as shown in fig. 8, the detection method of the multiline lidar system further includes the steps of:

s340: the laser emitting module 121, the beam splitting module 122, and the laser receiving module 131 are synchronously rotated to rotationally scan each laser beam, so as to obtain the detection information in different directions.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the embodiments of the present invention as described above and shown in the drawings are given by way of example only and are not limiting of the present invention. The objects of the present invention have been fully and effectively accomplished. The functional and structural principles of the present invention have been shown and described in the embodiments without departing from the principles, embodiments of the present invention may have any deformation or modification.

Claims

1. Multiline lidar apparatus comprising:

a base;

at least one laser emitter for emitting a laser beam; and

2. The multiline lidar device of claim 1 wherein an angle between a transmit path of the laser transmitter of the transmit assembly and the axis of rotation of the rotating assembly is acute.

3. Multiline lidar device of claim 2, wherein the laser sub-beams split via the beam splitter are distributed over an area at a 90 ° angle to the axis of rotation.

4. The multiline lidar device of claim 1 wherein the transmit assembly further comprises a transmit lens assembly, wherein the transmit lens assembly is disposed between the laser transmitter and the beam splitter for processing the laser beam emitted by the laser transmitter to form a combined laser beam, wherein the beam splitter is configured to split the combined laser beam into a predetermined number of the laser sub-beams.

5. The multiline lidar device of claim 4 wherein the transmit lens group is a collimating lens group or a shaping lens group.

6. The multiline lidar device of claim 5 wherein the beam splitter is a dammann grating or an array lens group.

7. The multiline lidar device of claim 1 wherein the receiving assembly further comprises a receiving lens group, wherein the receiving lens group is correspondingly disposed in a receiving path of the laser receiver for performing focusing processing on the laser echoes to focus each of the laser echoes to the corresponding laser receiver.

8. The multiline lidar device of claim 7 wherein the receive assembly further comprises a light redirecting element, wherein the light redirecting element is disposed between the laser receiver and the receive lens assembly, respectively, for redirecting the propagation direction of the laser echo such that the laser echo passing through the receive lens assembly is redirected to the laser receiver.

9. The multiline lidar device of claim 8 wherein the light redirecting element is a mirror or a prism.

10. The multiline lidar device of any of claims 1-9, further comprising a cap assembly, wherein the cap assembly is correspondingly disposed to the base of the rotating assembly to form a receiving space between the cap assembly and the base for receiving and protecting the transmitting assembly and the receiving assembly.

11. The multiline lidar device of claim 10, wherein the cap assembly includes a hemispherical window, wherein the hemispherical window is positioned to be in a transmit path of the laser transmitter and a receive path of the laser receiver such that the laser beam and the laser echo pass through the hemispherical window.

12. The multiline lidar apparatus of claim 11 wherein the hemispherical window is formed of a filter material for filtering light outside a target wavelength band.

13. The multiline lidar device of claim 11, wherein the cap assembly further comprises a sealing ring, wherein the sealing ring is disposed at a junction of the hemispherical window and the base such that the receiving space acts as a sealed space.