WO2022198386A1 - Laser ranging apparatus, laser ranging method and movable platform - Google Patents

Abstract

A laser ranging apparatus (100), a laser ranging method, and a movable platform, the laser ranging apparatus (100) comprising: a transmitting circuit (110), comprising a laser array, the laser array comprising a plurality of transmitting units; an optical system (150), used for projecting laser pulses transmitted by each transmitting unit to a corresponding field of view area, each field of view area comprising at least two sub field of view areas; a receiving circuit (120), comprising a plurality of receiving units, and being used for receiving return light pulses belonging to at least two sub field of view areas amongst the different field of view areas, and converting same into electrical signals; a control circuit (130), used for controlling, on the basis of a preset code division multiple access coding rule, a specific number of transmitting units to turn on in each time window to transmit laser pulses; and a computation circuit (140), used for decoding the electrical signals outputted by the receiving units to obtain electrical signals corresponding to different field of view areas, and thereby obtain depth information of a measured object in the different field of view areas. The present laser ranging apparatus can implement multiple access coding of laser pulse signals without the need for a mechanical code disc.

Description

Laser ranging device, laser ranging method and movable platform

manual

technical field

Embodiments of the present invention relate to the technical field of ranging, and more particularly, to a laser ranging device, a laser ranging method, and a movable platform.

Background technique

At present, the lidar used for 3D modeling is mainly divided into two categories, namely scanning lidar and non-scanning lidar. The scanning lidar drives the transmitting unit or the transmitting and receiving units to rotate synchronously through mechanical rotating parts, so as to realize the acquisition of three-dimensional information. The non-scanning lidar directly obtains the depth information corresponding to the field of view through each pixel of the focal plane array, and realizes the detection of objects in the field of view.

Compared with scanning lidar, non-scanning lidar has no mechanical rotating parts, and has higher lifespan and stability. However, due to the limitations of the fabrication process, it is generally difficult to fabricate large-scale arrays of sensor chips using focal plane arrays for signal reception. The limited receiving arrays severely limit the acquisition of high-resolution three-dimensional information.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A series of concepts in simplified form have been introduced in the Summary section, which are described in further detail in the Detailed Description section. The Summary of the Invention section of the present invention is not intended to attempt to limit the key features and essential technical features of the claimed technical solution, nor is it intended to attempt to determine the protection scope of the claimed technical solution.

In view of the deficiencies of the prior art, the first aspect of the embodiments of the present invention provides a laser ranging device, including a transmitting circuit, a receiving circuit, a control circuit, an arithmetic circuit, and an optical system, wherein:

The transmitting circuit includes a laser array composed of a plurality of lasers, the laser array includes a plurality of transmitting units, and each of the transmitting units includes at least one laser that is turned on synchronously; the optical system is used to convert each of the transmitting units. The laser pulses emitted by the unit are projected onto the corresponding field of view areas, and each of the field of view areas includes at least two sub-field areas;

The receiving circuit includes a photoelectric converter array composed of a plurality of photoelectric converters, the photoelectric converter array includes a plurality of receiving units, each of the receiving units includes at least one photoelectric converter that is turned on synchronously, each of the The receiving unit is used to receive the return light pulses of at least two sub-field of view areas belonging to different field of view areas, and convert them into electrical signals; the optical system is also used to receive the return light pulses of the at least two sub-field of view areas converge to the receiving units corresponding to the at least two sub-field areas;

The control circuit is configured to control a specific number of the emission units to be turned on to emit laser pulses in each time window according to a preset code division multiple access coding rule;

The arithmetic circuit is used to decode the electrical signal output by the receiving unit according to the decoding rule corresponding to the code division multiple access coding rule, so as to obtain electrical signals corresponding to different sub-field areas, and The electrical signal corresponding to the area obtains the depth information of the measured object in different sub-field areas.

A second aspect of the embodiments of the present invention provides a laser ranging method, where the laser ranging method includes:

According to a preset code division multiple access coding rule, a specific number of emitting units in a laser array composed of multiple lasers are controlled to be turned on to emit laser pulses in each time window, wherein each of the emitting units includes a synchronous turn-on At least one laser, the laser pulses emitted by each of the transmitting units are projected to the corresponding field of view area through the optical system, and each of the field of view areas includes at least two sub-field areas;

Each receiving unit receives the returning light pulses belonging to at least two sub-field areas of different field of view areas, and converts them into electrical signals, wherein the receiving unit includes a photoelectric converter array composed of a plurality of photoelectric converters At least one photoelectric converter that is turned on synchronously in the middle, the returning light pulses of the at least two sub-field of view areas are converged to the receiving unit corresponding to the at least two sub-field of view areas through the optical system;

The electrical signals output by the receiving unit are decoded according to the decoding rules corresponding to the code division multiple access coding rules to obtain electrical signals corresponding to different sub-view areas, and obtained according to the electrical signals corresponding to different sub-view areas Depth information of the measured object in different sub-field areas.

A third aspect of the embodiments of the present invention provides a movable platform, the movable platform includes the above-mentioned laser ranging device and a movable platform body, and the laser ranging device is arranged on the movable platform body .

The laser ranging device, the laser ranging method and the movable platform according to the embodiments of the present invention can realize the multiple-access encoding of the laser pulse signal without the need of a mechanical code disc, thereby improving the life and stability of the laser ranging device.

Description of drawings

In order to illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention more clearly, the following briefly introduces the accompanying drawings that need to be used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art. Obviously, the drawings in the following description are only some of the present invention. In the embodiments, for those of ordinary skill in the art, other drawings can also be obtained according to these drawings without creative labor.

1 is a schematic frame diagram of a laser ranging device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

2 is a schematic diagram of a code division multiple access coding principle according to an embodiment of the present invention;

3 is a schematic diagram of a line array of transmitting units according to an embodiment of the present invention;

4 is a schematic diagram of a receiving unit area array corresponding to the transmitting unit linear array of FIG. 2 according to an embodiment of the present invention;

5 is a schematic diagram of an area array of transmitting units according to an embodiment of the present invention;

6 is a schematic diagram of a receiving unit area array corresponding to the transmitting unit area array of FIG. 5 according to an embodiment of the present invention;

7 is a schematic diagram of adjusting the division of a receiving unit according to an embodiment of the present invention;

8 is a schematic diagram of adjusting the division of a receiving unit according to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a schematic flowchart of a laser ranging method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed ways

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention more apparent, exemplary embodiments according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Obviously, the described embodiments are only some of the embodiments of the present invention, not all of the embodiments of the present invention, and it should be understood that the present invention is not limited by the example embodiments described herein. Based on the embodiments of the present invention described in the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art without creative efforts shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a more thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without one or more of these details. In other instances, some technical features known in the art have not been described in order to avoid obscuring the present invention.

It should be understood that the present invention may be embodied in different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the singular forms "a," "an," and "the/the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. It should also be understood that the terms "compose" and/or "include", when used in this specification, identify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements and/or components, but do not exclude one or more other The presence or addition of features, integers, steps, operations, elements, parts and/or groups. As used herein, the term "and/or" includes any and all combinations of the associated listed items.

For a thorough understanding of the present invention, detailed structures will be presented in the following description in order to explain the technical solutions proposed by the present invention. Alternative embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below, however, the invention is capable of other embodiments in addition to these detailed descriptions.

Hereinafter, a laser ranging device 100 according to an embodiment of the present application will be described first with reference to FIG. 1 . In one embodiment, the laser ranging device 100 is used to sense external environmental information, such as distance information, orientation information, reflection intensity information, speed information, and the like of an environmental target. The laser ranging device 100 can detect the distance from the object to be measured to the laser ranging device 100 by the time of light propagation between the laser ranging device and the detected object, that is, Time-of-Flight (TOF).

As shown in FIG. 1 , the laser ranging device 100 may include a transmitting circuit 110 , a receiving circuit 120 , a control circuit 130 , an arithmetic circuit 140 and an optical system 150 .

Specifically, the transmitting circuit 110 includes a laser array composed of a plurality of lasers, the laser array includes a plurality of transmitting units, and each transmitting unit includes at least one laser that is synchronously turned on. The optical system 150 is used for projecting the laser pulses emitted by each transmitting unit to the corresponding field of view areas, and each field of view area includes at least two sub-field areas.

The receiving circuit 120 includes a photoelectric converter array composed of a plurality of photoelectric converters. The photoelectric converter array includes a plurality of receiving units. Each receiving unit includes at least one photoelectric converter that is turned on synchronously. Return light pulses of at least two sub-field areas of the field of view and convert them into electrical signals. The optical system 150 is also used for converging the returning light pulses of the at least two sub-field areas to the receiving units corresponding to the at least two sub-field areas.

The control circuit 130 is configured to control a specific number of transmitting units to be turned on in each time window to transmit laser pulses according to a preset code division multiple access coding rule. The control circuit 130 can also control other circuits, for example, can control the working time of each circuit and/or set parameters for each circuit.

The arithmetic circuit 140 is configured to decode the electrical signal output by the receiving unit according to the decoding rule corresponding to the code division multiple access coding rule, so as to obtain electrical signals corresponding to different sub-field areas, and to obtain electrical signals corresponding to different sub-field areas according to the corresponding electrical signals. Obtain the depth information of the measured object in different sub-field areas.

According to the laser ranging device 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention, the control circuit 130 controls a specific number of transmitting units to be turned on according to the preset code division multiple access coding rule in each time window, and the laser pulse signal can be realized without a mechanical code disc. The multiple-access encoding of the system does not need to introduce additional rotating parts, and has high life and stability.

The principle of multiple access coding is to use optical coding to encode the outgoing light of different sub-field of view areas in the field of view respectively, and the return light pulse signals of multiple different sub-field of view areas are received by the same receiving unit; The address refers to the multiple-access encoding realized by the correlation of the code sequence. Referring to FIG. 2 , the code division multiple access coding principle of the embodiment of the present invention will be described by taking the 4-bit coding of the laser pulse signal and the use of 4 receiving units for receiving as an example.

Referring to FIG. 2 , wherein S ₁ , S ₂ , S ₃ and S ₄ represent different field of view areas, corresponding to the transmitting units 111 , 112 , 113 and 114 respectively; the coding elements of each field of view area are arranged in the time dimension, code "1" indicates that the field of view area is illuminated at the current moment, that is, the emission unit corresponding to the field of view area is turned on to emit laser pulse signals to the sub-field of view area, and the code "0" indicates that the field of view area is not illuminated at the current moment. Illumination; the on-off of each transmitting unit is controlled by the control circuit 130 . For example, the coding elements of the four field of view areas at the first moment are all "1", indicating that the four field of view areas are all illuminated at the moment. _At the _second moment, the coding elements of the field of view regions S1 and S3 are ₁ , and the coding elements _of the field of view regions S2 and S4 are ₀ , indicating that the field _of view regions S1 and S3 are illuminated, while the field _of view region S2 is illuminated. And the S ₄ is not illuminated.

The field of view areas S ₁ , S ₂ , S ₃ and S ₄ respectively include four sub-field areas, that is, the field of view area S ₁ includes the sub-field areas A ₁ , B ₁ , C ₁ and D ₁ , and the field of view area S ₂ The sub-field areas A ₂ , B ₂ , C ₂ and D ₂ are included, and so on. Each sub-field area corresponds to a receiving unit, that is, the return light pulse signal in each field of view area can be simultaneously received by four receiving units (ie, receiving units 121, 122, 123 and 124). Simultaneously receive the return light pulse signals of 4 sub-field areas. For example, for the receiving unit 121 in FIG. 2 , it can simultaneously receive the superimposed signal of the return light pulse signals returned by the four sub-field areas A ₁ , A ₂ , A ₃ and A ₄ , correspondingly, 122 , 123 , and 124 also The return light pulse signals returned by 4 different sub-field of view areas are simultaneously received, and the return-light pulse signals of each sub-field of view area are obtained by subsequent decoding. That is to say, the return light pulse signal returned by the measured object in each field of view area can be divided into 4 pixels for reception, and 4 × 4 pixel imaging can be achieved through the above method through 4 receiving units.

Taking the receiving unit 121 as an example, what it receives at the first moment is the superimposed signals of the sub-field areas A ₁ , A ₂ , A ₃ and A ₄ , and what it receives at the second moment is the sub-field areas A1 and A3 The superimposed signals of the sub-field of view areas A ₁ and A ₂ are received at the third moment, and the superimposed signals of the sub-field of view areas A ₁ and A ₄ are received at the fourth moment. For the return light pulse signal received by the receiving unit 121, the arithmetic circuit 140 can decode it according to the decoding rule corresponding to the code division multiple access coding rule, namely:

Among them, t ₂ represents the time information of the sub-field of view area A ₂ , p(t-t 2 ) is a function of calculating the peak position, and a ₂ represents the signal strength of the sub-field of view area A ₂ . In the above manner, the information of the return light pulse signals corresponding to the four different sub-field areas corresponding to the receiving unit 121 can be decoded respectively. In the same way, according to the signals received by the receiving units 122, 123 and 124, the information of the return light pulse signals of the four different sub-field areas can also be decoded respectively, and then the depth information of 16 pixels can be obtained through the four receiving units. .

If a mechanical encoder is used for optical encoding, the beam cross-section needs to be divided into multiple sections, and the beam section is selectively shielded by the code track composed of the light-transmitting part and the opaque part, so as to realize the encoding, thus causing extra energy consumption. In contrast, the laser ranging device 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention realizes multiple-access encoding by controlling the opening and closing of the transmitting units, which facilitates the adjustment of the multiple-access encoding rules, and directly disables certain transmitting units so that the corresponding field of view area is not It is illuminated and does not need to be occluded after emission, thus reducing energy consumption.

In addition, due to the limited total power, the transmitting circuit 110 is divided into multiple transmitting units that are turned on in different time windows, and the power can also be distributed to one or more lasers in each transmitting unit, thereby improving the unit field of view. The optical power density is beneficial to increase the ratio of signal light in the photons incident on the receiving circuit 120 , improve the signal-to-noise ratio, and improve the range of the laser ranging device 100 under strong background light conditions.

Each firing unit may include one or at least two lasers. When each emitting unit includes at least two lasers, at least two lasers belonging to the same emitting unit are turned on synchronously, and project laser pulses to the same field of view area, so as to improve the optical power density. Exemplarily, referring to FIG. 3 , a plurality of transmitting units L ₁ , L ₂ . . . L _n may be arranged in one dimension to form a linear array of transmitting units. At this time, the laser array can be realized as a laser line array formed by a one-dimensional arrangement of multiple lasers; alternatively, the laser array can also be realized as a laser area array formed by a two-dimensional array of multiple lasers, and divided into multiple emitters in a one-dimensional manner Units, for example, each row of lasers constitutes a firing unit, and a plurality of firing units are arranged in a column. Exemplarily, each laser may constitute a firing unit. When a plurality of emission units are arranged one-dimensionally, the plurality of field of view areas S ₁ , S ₂ , . . . _Sn corresponding to the emission units are also arranged in one dimension correspondingly. The return light pulse signals returned by the multiple fields of view are received by the receiving circuit 120 , see FIG. 4 . If there is a one-to-one correspondence between the field of view areas and the receiving units, the N receiving units can only realize the imaging of N pixels, and in the manner shown in Figure 3 and Figure 4, each receiving unit can receive N sub-field of view areas. The light pulse signal is returned to realize the imaging of N pixels, so that the overall number of pixels is expanded to N ^2. Therefore, by the methods shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, N times magnification of the imaging resolution can be achieved.

A plurality of transmitting units can also be arranged two-dimensionally to form an area array of transmitting units, see FIG. 5 . When a plurality of emitting units are arranged two-dimensionally, the laser array can be implemented as a laser area array formed by a two-dimensional arrangement of multiple lasers, and similarly, each laser can constitute a emitting unit. When the emitting units are arranged in an area array, the multiple field of view areas are correspondingly divided into a two-dimensional matrix form. The return light pulse signals returned by the two-dimensionally arranged multiple field of view areas are received by the receiving circuit 120 , see FIG. 6 . If there is a one-to-one correspondence between the field of view areas and the receiving units, the N receiving units can only achieve imaging of N pixels, and as shown in Figure 5 and Figure 6, since the transmitting units are arranged in an N×N array, the viewing The field area is also arranged in an N×N array, so each receiving unit can receive the return light pulse signals of N×N sub-field areas, so as to realize the imaging of N×N pixels, so that the overall number of pixels can be expanded to N ³ , so through the methods shown in Fig. 5 and Fig. 6, N ² times magnification of the imaging resolution can be achieved.

Exemplarily, since the laser ranging device 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention implements optical coding by controlling the on-off of the transmitting units through the control circuit 130, the number and arrangement of the transmitting units can be adjusted in real time as required during operation. Exemplarily, the number of synchronously turning on the lasers in each emitting unit is determined according to the number of sub-field areas in the field of view area. The more the number of sub-regions in the field of view area, that is, the more the number of receiving units that receive the return light pulse signal of the field of view area, the more the number of lasers that are synchronously turned on in the transmitting unit, so as to ensure that the return to each The optical power density of the returning optical pulse signal of the receiving unit.

In one embodiment, the laser employed by the transmit circuit 110 may include a semiconductor laser. Semiconductor laser is a laser manufactured by semiconductor manufacturing technology, which has the characteristics of small size, light weight, low power consumption, high reliability and long life. Other types of lasers, such as gas lasers, solid-state lasers, etc., can also be used for the laser.

Further, the laser in the transmitting circuit 110 can be a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (Vertical-cavity Surface-emitting Laser, VCSEL) in a semiconductor laser. VCSEL emits laser light from the surface of the vertical substrate. Since VCSEL is a surface emitting laser, it is easier to form laser arrays at the wafer level than edge emitting lasers. Scale manufacturing and reduce costs. Since the resolution of the laser ranging device 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention is related to the density of the field of view area, using VCSEL is beneficial to increase the division granularity of the field of view area and improve the resolution.

On the other hand, the divergence angle of the laser beam emitted by the VCSEL is small, and the light spot is similar to a circle, which has low requirements on the optical system and is conducive to improving the uniformity of the beam. Compared with the elliptical light spot, the deviation is small, which can avoid The problem that part of the field of view is not covered makes it easier to implement optical coding. The driving method of VCSEL is simpler, and it adopts the on-chip integration method, which can realize on-chip wiring. Since the laser ranging device 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention needs to control each transmitting unit separately, the use of VCSEL can make it possible to control the wiring of different transmitting units. It is simpler; and the threshold current of the VCSEL is low, the driving is easier, and it is convenient to quickly control the on-off of the VCSEL to realize optical coding. Also, VCSELs are more stable in terms of performance. For example, VCSELs are less sensitive to temperature changes.

In addition to VCSELs, edge-emitting lasers (EELs) can also be used as lasers. When EELs are used, the laser array can be realized as an EEL linear array composed of a one-dimensional arrangement of multiple EELs; or, the laser array can also be realized It is a two-dimensional area array formed by closely arranging multiple EEL line arrays.

Optionally, the laser can also be a horizontal cavity surface emitting laser (Horizontal Cavity Surface-emitting Laser, HCSEL). HCSEL combines the high power output of EEL and the advantages of VCSEL that are more suitable for mass production, and can simultaneously meet the requirements of laser ranging devices for laser light sources for high peak power, small spectral temperature drift, and long laser wavelength bands, thereby achieving longer. 3D sensing distance, higher signal-to-noise ratio and eye safety protection.

Exemplarily, one or more lasers that emit synchronously in the same emitting unit are connected to the same driver, and are driven by the same driver to emit synchronously. The driver for driving the one or more lasers of each emitting unit to emit light synchronously may be packaged in the same package module with the one or more lasers of the corresponding emitting unit. In other embodiments, the control circuit 130 can also directly control the on-off of each laser without using a driver for driving.

In one example, the control circuit 130 may include a transmit control circuit and a receive control circuit. The emission control circuit can send a drive signal to the driver of the emission circuit 110, so that the driver can drive the corresponding emission unit to emit light, and can make the driver control parameters such as the emission power of the laser, the wavelength of the emitted laser, and the emission direction according to the received driving signal. at least one of them is controlled. The receiving control circuit is used to control the receiving unit whose current time window is opened. The emission control circuit and the reception control circuit are coupled to each other. When the emission control circuit controls the emission unit to emit laser pulses, the reception control circuit is notified to control the corresponding reception unit to be turned on synchronously.

The receiving circuit 120 includes a photoelectric converter array, and the photoelectric converter array includes a plurality of photoelectric converters for converting the received return light pulse signal into an electrical signal. The return light pulse signals returned by each field of view area can fall into different parts of the photoelectric converter array and be received by the corresponding photoelectric converters. Each photoelectric converter can perform photoelectric conversion on the received light signal, so as to indicate the distance information of the measured object in the corresponding field of view area. As described above, each field of view area includes a plurality of sub-field of view areas, and each receiving unit corresponds to at least two sub-field of view areas belonging to different field of view areas, so that it receives at least two sub-field of view areas within the same time window The returned light pulse signal is subsequently decoded to obtain the return light pulse signal of at least two sub-field of view areas, so that the resolution can be improved under the condition of limited receiving array scale.

Each receiving unit may include one photoelectric converter, or may include multiple photoelectric converters. When each receiving unit includes a plurality of photoelectric converters, the plurality of photoelectric converters belonging to the same receiving unit are turned on synchronously and perform pixel combination, thereby outputting an electrical signal. The number of photoelectric converters included in different receiving units may be the same or different, and may be specifically set according to the size of the sub-field of view area corresponding to each receiving unit. The larger the sub-field of view area, the greater the number of electrical converters included in the receiving unit. A plurality of photoelectric converters can be arranged into receiving units of different shapes, and the shapes of different receiving units can be the same or different, and can be set according to the shape of the sub-field of view area corresponding to each receiving unit. For example, for a receiving unit composed of four photoelectric converters, the four photoelectric converters can be arranged in a 1×4 array or a 2×2 array according to the shape of the sub-field of view. The plurality of receiving units may be arranged in a one-dimensional array, or may be arranged in a two-dimensional array. In addition, the photoelectric converters in each receiving unit can also be arranged in a one-dimensional array or a two-dimensional array. In one embodiment, each receiving unit includes only one photoelectric converter, and the sub-field areas in the same field of view area correspond to the receiving units one-to-one. In other words, the return light pulse signal of each sub-field of view area is received by one photoelectric converter, thereby achieving higher resolution with limited photoelectric converters. In other embodiments, each receiving unit may also include at least two photoelectric converters, so as to receive more return light pulse signals and improve the signal-to-noise ratio.

In one embodiment, at least two sub-field of view areas corresponding to each receiving unit are adjacent to each other, so that the return light pulse signals of the at least two sub-field of view areas can be more easily converged to the same receiving unit. When at least two sub-field of view areas corresponding to the same receiving unit are adjacent, the at least two sub-field of view areas corresponding to the same receiving unit may be arranged in one-dimensional arrangement or two-dimensional arrangement. Optionally, in other embodiments, the at least two sub-field of view areas corresponding to the same receiving unit may not be adjacent, and the return light pulse signals of the non-adjacent at least two sub-field of view areas may be converted by means of, for example, optical fibers. aggregated to the same receiving unit.

Exemplarily, the photoelectric converter used in the receiving circuit may use an avalanche photodiode (Avalanche Photon Diode, APD). APD is a high-sensitivity photodetector with an internal gain mechanism and fast rise time, which can operate under high reverse voltage, and is suitable for long-distance applications with high-intensity ambient light and direct flight time calculation. In addition, the high dynamic range of APD makes it suitable for object detection, optical distance measurement, remote sensing, scanning, etc., so it is suitable for laser ranging devices. According to different base semiconductor materials, APD can use Si APD, Ge APD, InGaAs APD, HgCdTe APD, etc., which can be selected according to the requirements of human eye safety and high-power laser. When an APD is used, the photoelectric converter array is implemented as an APD array composed of multiple APDs, and the multiple APDs can be arranged as an APD line array or an APD area array.

In addition to the APD, the photoelectric converter may also employ at least one of a Single Photon Avalanche Diode (SPAD) and a Silicon Photomultiplier (SiPM). Among them, SPAD works in Geiger mode, which can theoretically realize single-photon detection with higher detection sensitivity. SiPM is composed of multiple SPADs with quenching resistors in parallel. Each unit is independent of each other. The final output signal is the superposition of multiple pixel output signals. SiPM can solve the problem that a single SPAD cannot measure multiple photons at the same time.

Exemplarily, the photoelectric converter array can be interconnected with the signal processing chip at the pixel level. The returning light pulses returned by the measured objects in different fields of view are collected by the optical system to different positions on the photosensitive surface of the photoelectric converter array, and photoelectric conversion is performed by the receiving units at the corresponding positions in the photoelectric converter array to generate electrical signals. , and hand it over to the signal processing chip for subsequent signal processing.

As an example, the signal processing chip may include a time counting type CMOS readout circuit chip (ROIC) and other signal processing chips, and the photoelectric converter array and the signal processing chip may be integrated through Z-stacking technology or vertically interconnected detector array technology. Exemplarily, the ROIC adopts a silicon CMOS application-specific integrated circuit, which is mainly composed of modules such as a preamplifier circuit, a main amplifier, a comparator, and a high-precision timing circuit.

In some embodiments, all the receiving units are turned on in each time window to receive the optical pulse signal; in other embodiments, the transmitting unit and the receiving unit may also work in a time-sharing manner. Specifically, a plurality of transmitting units and a plurality of receiving units can be turned on in different time windows respectively, that is, a specific transmitting unit in each time window emits a laser pulse signal, and some receiving units are turned on to receive the return light condensed thereon pulse, the rest of the receiver units are turned off. Using the time-sharing and partitioning working mode can reduce the total power consumption of the laser ranging device 100, reduce the heat dissipation requirement of the photoelectric converter array, and also reduce the design difficulty of the switching circuit.

In some embodiments, during the operation of the laser ranging device 100, the division of the receiving unit may be adjusted by the control circuit 130 according to actual needs. Exemplarily, the control circuit 130 may adjust the number of receiving units according to the signal-to-noise ratio of the return light pulse signal. Since the receiving unit includes fewer photoelectric converters, the ratio of the effective return light pulse signal received by each receiving unit is less. Therefore, the control circuit 130 can appropriately increase the signal-to-noise ratio of the return light pulse signal when the signal-to-noise ratio of the return light pulse signal is too low. The number of photoelectric converters included in each receiving unit improves the signal-to-noise ratio at the expense of appropriately reducing the resolution. Specifically, when the signal-to-noise ratio of the return light pulse signal is lower than the preset threshold, the control circuit 130 may control at least two adjacent receiving units within a predetermined range to perform pixel combination, so that the operation circuit 140 combines the adjacent at least two receiving units. The electrical signals of the two receiving units are superimposed. Referring to FIG. 7 , the control circuit 130 may control the four adjacent receiving units 121 , 122 , 123 and 124 to perform pixel combination to form a new receiving unit 121 ′. In the above manner, multiple photoelectric converters originally belonging to two different receiving units are re-divided to belong to the same receiving unit, which increases the area of the receiving unit, thereby increasing the ratio of effective return light pulse signals. Such a dynamic adjustment method is beneficial to achieve a dynamic balance between the resolution and the signal-to-noise ratio of the laser ranging device 100 .

As another implementation manner of adjusting the number of receiving units according to the signal-to-noise ratio, when the signal-to-noise ratio of the return light pulse signal is lower than a preset threshold, the control circuit 130 can control some of the receiving units to turn off, and control each of the remaining receiving units The number of sub-field areas corresponding to the unit is increased to receive the return light pulses of at least two sub-field areas belonging to different field areas. 8, taking the receiving units 121, 122, 123 and 124 as examples, the control circuit 130 can control the receiving unit 122 and the receiving unit 123 to turn off, and control the receiving unit 121 to receive the return light pulse signal originally received by the receiving unit 122, and The receiving unit 124 is controlled to receive the return light pulse signal originally received by the receiving unit 123 . In this way, the optical system 150 can adjust the receiving unit corresponding to a specific sub-field of view area, and adjust multiple sub-field-of-view areas originally corresponding to different receiving units to correspond to the same receiving unit, which also enables the receiving unit to receive more sub-fields of view. area of the return light pulse signal, thereby improving the signal-to-noise ratio.

In the above dynamic adjustment scheme, the control circuit 130 can adjust the division of the receiving unit according to the signal-to-noise ratio of the return light pulse signal received by the entire receiving circuit. For example, when the signal-to-noise ratio of the return light pulse signal received by the entire receiving circuit is When the ratio is lower than the preset threshold, the entire photoelectric converter array is re-divided, the number of photoelectric converters included in each receiving unit is increased, or the number of sub-field areas corresponding to each receiving unit is increased. The control circuit 130 may also adjust the number of photoelectric converters included in the control circuit 130 according to the signal-to-noise ratio of the return light pulse signal received by some of the receiving units. For example, if the signal-to-noise ratio of the return light pulse signal received by the receiving unit in a certain area is lower than the preset threshold, the photoelectric converter array in the area is re-divided, and the The number of photoelectric converters, or increase the number of sub-field areas corresponding to each receiving unit in this area. The control circuit 130 may also adjust the number of photoelectric converters included in each receiving unit according to the signal-to-noise ratio of the return light pulse signal received by each receiving unit.

The optical system 150 is used for projecting the laser pulses emitted by each transmitting unit to the corresponding field of view areas, and for converging the returning light pulses from at least two sub-field areas to the corresponding receiving units. The laser ranging device 100 in the embodiment of the present invention can be implemented as a solid-state laser radar, which detects objects in a manner similar to photography, does not require mechanical rotating parts, and has higher lifespan and stability. The optical system 150 may specifically include a transmitting optical system and a receiving optical system. The transmitting optical system is used to scatter the laser pulses emitted by each transmitting unit to the corresponding sub-field of view areas, and the receiving optical system is used to return the return of each sub-field of view area. The light pulses are converged to the corresponding receiving unit.

Therein, the emission optical system may comprise one or more optical elements, such as one or more lenses. Exemplarily, the emission optical system may include an optical diffusion sheet or a cylindrical lens group. Wherein, the optical scattering sheet can be a micro-optical scattering body structure processed on the surface of the glass material by using the micro-nano optical manufacturing technology, so as to obtain the required light field distribution after the incident light passes through the scattering body. When a cylindrical lens group is used, a cylindrical lens group can be introduced in the laser packaging process to adjust the divergence angles of the fast and slow axes of the laser respectively to make it meet the light exit angle required by the required field of view. The cross-sectional shape of the cylindrical lens group includes, but is not limited to, a circle, an ellipse, a triangle, a rectangle, a trapezoid, and the like.

In one embodiment, each emitting unit corresponds to a different optical element in the emitting optical system, for example, a diffusing sheet or a cylindrical lens group is arranged in front of each emitting unit, and through different optical elements, the laser light emitted by different emitting units is diffused to their respective fields of view. In other embodiments, multiple emitting units can also share a set of optical elements, for example, share an optical diffuser, and adjust the directions of the fast and slow axes of the laser to meet the requirements for the field of view in the horizontal and vertical directions .

The emission unit and emission optical system can have various spatial arrangements. For example, a plurality of transmitting units may be integrally arranged, and when an integral setting is adopted, a plurality of transmitting units may be packaged in one packaging module, thereby reducing the number of packaging modules. As another implementation manner, a plurality of transmitting units can also be dispersedly arranged. Dispersing a plurality of transmitting units can improve space utilization and meet the requirements of miniaturization of laser ranging devices. Further, when multiple emitting units are dispersedly arranged, multiple emitting units may also be arranged at each location, in this case, multiple emitting units arranged at the same location may also be packaged in the same packaging structure.

In one embodiment, the receive optical system may comprise optical fibers. The returning light pulse signals of at least two sub-field of view regions corresponding to the same receiving unit can be bundled and transmitted to the receiving unit by means of optical fiber bundling.

In another embodiment, the receiving optical system may include a lens group disposed on one side of the photosensor array. According to the environmental conditions of use, the lens group can be designed to be composed of a single lens or multiple lenses, and the lens surface type is spherical, aspherical, or a combination of spherical and aspherical surfaces. Exemplarily, the lens group structure can be designed with sufficient athermalization to compensate for the influence of temperature drift on imaging.

In some embodiments, the receive optical system further includes a microlens array. The microlens array may be integrally formed with the photoelectric converter array, for example, formed by etching on the surface of the photoelectric converter array. Alternatively, the microlens array may be separately formed and glued on the surface of the photoelectric converter array. By arranging the microlens array before the photoelectric converter array, the light gathering efficiency can be improved and the optical crosstalk that may occur between different receiving units can be reduced.

Exemplarily, the receiving optical system may further include a narrow-band filter, and the pass-band of the narrow-band filter matches the working band of the receiving optical system, so as to filter out bands other than the emission band and reduce interference of natural light to ranging. The narrow-band filter can be installed at any position in the receiving optical path, and its plane is perpendicular to the optical axis of the receiving optical path. Exemplarily, the narrow-band filter can be placed close to the photoelectric converter array to reduce its aperture.

The operation circuit 140 is configured to decode the electrical signal output by the receiving unit according to the decoding rule corresponding to the code division multiple access coding rule, so as to obtain electrical signals corresponding to different sub-field regions. For example, if each receiving unit receives the return light pulse signals returned by 4 sub-field of view areas, the control circuit 130 uses 4-bit encoding, and the arithmetic circuit 140 uses the encoding orthogonality characteristic to analyze the return light received by each receiving unit according to the encoding sequence. The pulse signal is decoded to obtain the return light pulse signal corresponding to each sub-field of view area. If there are N receiving units, information of 4N pixels can be obtained.

In one embodiment, the laser ranging device 100 further includes an amplifying circuit and a sampling circuit. The amplifying circuit is used to amplify the electrical signal; exemplarily, each photoelectric converter in the photoelectric converter array is connected to an amplifying circuit, and the amplifying circuit can be arranged on a signal processing chip interconnected with the photoelectric converter array at the pixel level superior. The sampling circuit is used for sampling the amplified electrical signal and outputting the sampling signal; the operation circuit obtains the depth information of the measured object according to the operation of the sampling signal.

The sampling circuit can have at least two implementations. As an implementation manner, the sampling circuit includes a comparator and a time measurement circuit. The electrical signal amplified by the amplifier circuit enters the time measurement circuit through the comparator, and the time measurement circuit measures the time difference between the transmission and reception of the laser pulse sequence. Wherein, the time measurement circuit may be a time-to-data converter (Time-to-Data Converter, TDC). The TDC can be an independent TDC chip, or a TDC circuit that implements time measurement based on the internal delay chain of programmable devices such as field programmable gate arrays or complex programmable logic devices, or a circuit that uses a high-frequency clock to implement time measurement The circuit structure of time measurement is realized by structure or counting method.

Exemplarily, the first input terminal of the comparator is used for receiving an electrical signal input from the amplifying circuit, the second input terminal is used for receiving a preset threshold value, and a comparison operation is performed between the electrical signal input to the comparator and the preset threshold value. The output signal of the comparator is connected to the TDC, and the TDC can measure the time information of the output signal edge of the comparator. The measured time is based on the laser emission signal as a reference, that is, the time difference between the laser signal transmission and reception can be measured.

As another implementation manner, the sampling circuit includes an analog-to-digital converter (Analog-to-Digital Converter, ADC). After the analog signal input to the sampling circuit is converted by the ADC, the digital signal can be output to the operation circuit. Likewise, the ADC can be a separate ADC chip.

The arithmetic circuit 140 can calculate the depth information of the object to be measured according to the time difference from the transmission to the reception of the laser pulse signal and the transmission rate of the laser, and at the same time, it can also obtain the angle information of the object to be measured according to the position of each receiving unit, and then solve it. After obtaining the three-dimensional information of the measured object, the operation circuit 140 can also generate a point cloud image according to the calculated information, which is not limited here. The distance and orientation detected by the laser ranging device 100 can be used for remote sensing, obstacle avoidance, mapping, modeling, navigation, and the like.

To sum up, the laser ranging device 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention can realize the multiple-access encoding of the laser pulse signal without the need of a mechanical encoder, which improves the life and stability of the laser ranging device.

Another aspect of the embodiments of the present invention provides a laser ranging method, and the laser ranging method can be implemented by the above-mentioned laser ranging device 100 . Referring to FIG. 9 , a laser ranging method 900 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes the following steps:

In step S910, according to a preset code division multiple access coding rule, control a specific number of emitting units in a laser array composed of a plurality of lasers to be turned on in each time window to emit laser pulses, wherein each of the emitting units The unit includes at least one laser that is turned on synchronously, and the laser pulses emitted by each of the emitting units are projected to a corresponding field of view area through an optical system, and each of the field of view areas includes at least two sub-field areas;

In step S920, each receiving unit receives the return light pulses belonging to at least two sub-field of view areas belonging to different field of view areas, and converts them into electrical signals, wherein the receiving unit includes a plurality of photoelectric converters. At least one photoelectric converter in the photoelectric converter array that is turned on synchronously, the returning light pulses of the at least two sub-field of view areas are collected by the optical system to the receiving unit corresponding to the at least two sub-field of view areas;

In step S930, the electrical signal output by the receiving unit is decoded according to the decoding rule corresponding to the code division multiple access coding rule, so as to obtain electrical signals corresponding to different sub-field areas, and The depth information of the measured object in different sub-field areas can be obtained by the electrical signal of .

In one embodiment, the laser includes at least one of the following: a vertical cavity surface emitting laser, an edge emitting laser, and a horizontal cavity surface emitting laser. The laser array may include an area array composed of a plurality of lasers; the laser array may also include a line array composed of a plurality of lasers.

In one embodiment, the photoelectric converter includes at least one of the following: avalanche photodiodes, single electron avalanche diodes, silicon photomultipliers. The photoelectric converter array includes an area array composed of a plurality of photoelectric converters; the photoelectric converter array may also include a line array composed of a plurality of photoelectric converters.

In one embodiment, at least two sub-field areas corresponding to the receiving unit are adjacent or not adjacent.

In one embodiment, when at least two sub-field of view areas corresponding to each receiving unit are adjacent, the at least two sub-field of view areas corresponding to the same receiving unit are in a one-dimensional arrangement or a two-dimensional arrangement.

In one embodiment, each receiving unit includes a photoelectric converter, and the sub-field areas in the same field of view area correspond to the receiving units one-to-one.

In one embodiment, the control circuit is further configured to adjust the number of receiving units according to the signal-to-noise ratio of the return light pulse signal.

In one embodiment, adjusting the number of receiving units according to the signal-to-noise ratio of the return light pulse signal includes: when the signal-to-noise ratio of the return light pulse signal is lower than a preset threshold, controlling at least two adjacent ones within a predetermined range The receiving unit performs pixel combination, so that the arithmetic circuit superimposes the electrical signals of at least two adjacent receiving units.

In one embodiment, adjusting the number of receiving units according to the signal-to-noise ratio of the return light pulse signal includes: when the signal-to-noise ratio of the return light pulse signal is lower than a preset threshold, controlling part of the receiving units to turn off, and controlling the rest of each The number of sub-field areas corresponding to each receiving unit is increased, so as to receive return light pulses of at least two or more sub-field areas belonging to different field of view areas.

In one embodiment, the number of simultaneous activations of the lasers in each emitting unit is determined according to the number of sub-field areas in the field of view area.

For more details of the laser ranging method 900 , reference may be made to the description of the laser ranging device 100 above, which will not be repeated here. The laser ranging method 900 according to the embodiment of the present invention realizes the multiple-access encoding of the laser pulse signal by controlling the on-off of the transmitting unit, and the encoding method is more flexible.

An embodiment of the present invention further provides a movable platform, the movable platform includes any one of the above-mentioned laser ranging devices and a movable platform body, and the laser ranging device is mounted on the movable platform body. In some embodiments, the movable platform includes at least one of an unmanned aerial vehicle, a car, a remote control car, a robot, a camera, and a gimbal. When the movable platform is an unmanned aerial vehicle, the body of the movable platform is the fuselage of the unmanned aerial vehicle. When the movable platform is an automobile, the movable platform body is the body of the automobile. The vehicle may be an autonomous driving vehicle or a semi-autonomous driving vehicle, which is not limited herein. When the movable platform is a remote control car, the movable platform body is the body of the remote control car. When the movable platform is a robot, the movable platform body is a robot. When the movable platform is a camera, the movable platform body is the camera itself. When the movable platform is a gimbal, the movable platform body is a gimbal body.

Since the movable platform of the embodiment of the present invention adopts the laser ranging device according to the embodiment of the present invention, it also has the advantages mentioned above.

In the above embodiments, it may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware or any other combination. When implemented in software, it can be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, all or part of the processes or functions described in the embodiments of the present invention are generated. The computer may be a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, computer network, or other programmable device. The computer instructions may be stored in or transmitted from one computer readable storage medium to another computer readable storage medium, for example, the computer instructions may be downloaded from a website site, computer, server or data center Transmission to another website site, computer, server, or data center by wire (eg, coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line, DSL) or wireless (eg, infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer-readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server, data center, etc. that includes an integration of one or more available media. The usable media may be magnetic media (eg, floppy disk, hard disk, magnetic tape), optical media (eg, digital video disc (DVD)), or semiconductor media (eg, solid state disk (SSD)), etc. .

Although example embodiments have been described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings, it should be understood that the above-described example embodiments are exemplary only, and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention thereto. Various changes and modifications can be made therein by those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. All such changes and modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the invention as claimed in the appended claims.

Those of ordinary skill in the art can realize that the units and algorithm steps of each example described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented in electronic hardware, or a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether these functions are performed in hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality using different methods for each particular application, but such implementations should not be considered beyond the scope of the present invention.

In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed apparatus and method may be implemented in other manners. For example, the device embodiments described above are only illustrative. For example, the division of the units is only a logical function division. In actual implementation, there may be other division methods. For example, multiple units or components may be combined or May be integrated into another device, or some features may be omitted, or not implemented.

In the description provided herein, numerous specific details are set forth. It will be understood, however, that embodiments of the invention may be practiced without these specific details. In some instances, well-known methods, structures and techniques have not been shown in detail in order not to obscure an understanding of this description.

Similarly, it is to be understood that in the description of the exemplary embodiments of the invention, various features of the invention are sometimes grouped together , or in its description. However, this method of the invention should not be interpreted as reflecting the intention that the invention as claimed requires more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the corresponding claims reflect, the invention lies in the fact that the corresponding technical problem may be solved with less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus, the claims following the Detailed Description are hereby expressly incorporated into this Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment of this invention.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that all features disclosed in this specification (including the accompanying claims, abstract and drawings) and any method or apparatus so disclosed may be used in any combination, except that the features are mutually exclusive. Processes or units are combined. Each feature disclosed in this specification (including accompanying claims, abstract and drawings) may be replaced by alternative features serving the same, equivalent or similar purpose, unless expressly stated otherwise.

Furthermore, those skilled in the art will appreciate that although some of the embodiments described herein include certain features, but not others, included in other embodiments, that combinations of features of different embodiments are intended to be within the scope of the invention within and form different embodiments. For example, in the claims, any of the claimed embodiments may be used in any combination.

Various component embodiments of the present invention may be implemented in hardware, or in software modules running on one or more processors, or in a combination thereof. Those skilled in the art should understand that a microprocessor or a digital signal processor (DSP) may be used in practice to implement some or all of the functions of some modules according to the embodiments of the present invention. The present invention may also be implemented as apparatus programs (eg, computer programs and computer program products) for performing part or all of the methods described herein. Such a program implementing the present invention may be stored on a computer-readable medium, or may be in the form of one or more signals. Such signals may be downloaded from Internet sites, or provided on carrier signals, or in any other form.

It should be noted that the above-described embodiments illustrate rather than limit the invention, and that alternative embodiments may be devised by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the appended claims. In the claims, any reference signs placed between parentheses shall not be construed as limiting the claim. The invention can be implemented by means of hardware comprising several different elements and by means of a suitably programmed computer. In a unit claim enumerating several means, several of these means may be embodied by one and the same item of hardware. The use of the words first, second, and third, etc. do not denote any order. These words can be interpreted as names.

Claims (25)

1. A laser ranging device is characterized in that it includes a transmitting circuit, a receiving circuit, a control circuit, an arithmetic circuit and an optical system, wherein:

   The transmitting circuit includes a laser array composed of a plurality of lasers, the laser array includes a plurality of transmitting units, and each of the transmitting units includes at least one laser that is turned on synchronously; the optical system is used to convert each of the transmitting units. The laser pulses emitted by the unit are projected onto the corresponding field of view areas, and each of the field of view areas includes at least two sub-field areas;

   The receiving circuit includes a photoelectric converter array composed of a plurality of photoelectric converters, the photoelectric converter array includes a plurality of receiving units, each of the receiving units includes at least one photoelectric converter that is turned on synchronously, each of the The receiving unit is used to receive the return light pulses of at least two sub-field of view areas belonging to different field of view areas, and convert them into electrical signals; the optical system is also used to receive the return light pulses of the at least two sub-field of view areas converge to the receiving units corresponding to the at least two sub-field areas;

   The control circuit is configured to control a specific number of the emission units to be turned on to emit laser pulses in each time window according to a preset code division multiple access coding rule;

   The arithmetic circuit is used to decode the electrical signal output by the receiving unit according to the decoding rule corresponding to the code division multiple access coding rule, so as to obtain electrical signals corresponding to different sub-field areas, and The electrical signal corresponding to the area obtains the depth information of the measured object in different sub-field areas.
2. The laser ranging device according to claim 1, wherein the laser comprises at least one of the following: a vertical cavity surface emitting laser, an edge emitting laser, and a horizontal cavity surface emitting laser.
3. The laser ranging device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the laser array comprises an area array composed of a plurality of the lasers.
4. The laser ranging device according to claim 1, wherein the photoelectric converter comprises at least one of the following: an avalanche photodiode, a single electron avalanche diode, and a silicon photomultiplier.
5. The laser ranging device according to claim 1 or 4, wherein the photoelectric converter array comprises an area array composed of a plurality of the photoelectric converters.
6. The laser ranging device according to claim 1, wherein at least two sub-field areas corresponding to each of the receiving units are adjacent or non-adjacent.
7. The laser ranging device according to claim 6, wherein when at least two sub-field areas corresponding to each receiving unit are adjacent, at least two sub-field areas corresponding to the same receiving unit are one dimensional arrangement or two-dimensional arrangement.
8. The laser ranging device according to claim 1, wherein each of the receiving units includes a photoelectric converter, and the sub-field-of-view areas in the same field-of-view area are one-to-one with the receiving unit correspond.
9. The laser ranging device according to claim 8, wherein the control circuit is further configured to adjust the number of the receiving units according to the signal-to-noise ratio of the return light pulse signal.
10. The laser ranging device according to claim 9, wherein the adjusting the number of the receiving units according to the signal-to-noise ratio of the return light pulse signal comprises:

    When the signal-to-noise ratio of the return light pulse signal is lower than a preset threshold, control at least two adjacent receiving units within a predetermined range to perform pixel combination, so that the operation circuit combines the adjacent at least two adjacent receiving units The electrical signals of the receiving unit are superimposed.
11. The laser ranging device according to claim 9, wherein the adjusting the number of the receiving units according to the signal-to-noise ratio of the return light pulse signal comprises:

    When the signal-to-noise ratio of the return light pulse signal is lower than a preset threshold, the control part of the receiving units is turned off, and the number of the sub-field areas corresponding to each of the remaining receiving units is controlled to increase to receive Return light pulses belonging to at least two sub-field areas of different fields of view.
12. The laser ranging device according to claim 1, wherein the number of lasers in each of the emitting units that are simultaneously turned on is determined according to the number of sub-field areas in the field of view area.
13. A laser ranging method, characterized in that the laser ranging method comprises:

    According to a preset code division multiple access coding rule, a specific number of emitting units in a laser array composed of multiple lasers are controlled to be turned on to emit laser pulses in each time window, wherein each of the emitting units includes a synchronous turn-on At least one laser, the laser pulses emitted by each of the transmitting units are projected to the corresponding field of view area through the optical system, and each of the field of view areas includes at least two sub-field areas;

    Each receiving unit receives the returning light pulses belonging to at least two sub-field areas of different field of view areas, and converts them into electrical signals, wherein the receiving unit includes a photoelectric converter array composed of a plurality of photoelectric converters At least one photoelectric converter that is turned on synchronously in the middle, the returning light pulses of the at least two sub-field of view areas are converged to the receiving unit corresponding to the at least two sub-field of view areas through the optical system;

    The electrical signals output by the receiving unit are decoded according to the decoding rules corresponding to the code division multiple access coding rules to obtain electrical signals corresponding to different sub-view areas, and obtained according to the electrical signals corresponding to different sub-view areas Depth information of the measured object in different sub-field areas.
14. The laser ranging method according to claim 13, wherein the laser comprises at least one of the following: a vertical cavity surface emitting laser, an edge emitting laser, and a horizontal cavity surface emitting laser.
15. The laser ranging method according to claim 13 or 14, wherein the laser array comprises an area array composed of a plurality of the lasers.
16. The laser ranging method according to claim 13, wherein the photoelectric converter comprises at least one of the following: an avalanche photodiode, a single electron avalanche diode, and a silicon photomultiplier.
17. The laser ranging method according to claim 13 or 16, wherein the photoelectric converter array comprises an area array composed of a plurality of the photoelectric converters.
18. The laser ranging method according to claim 13, wherein at least two sub-field areas corresponding to each receiving unit are adjacent or non-adjacent.
19. The laser ranging method according to claim 18, wherein when at least two sub-field areas corresponding to each receiving unit are adjacent, the at least two sub-field areas corresponding to the same receiving unit are one dimensional arrangement or two-dimensional arrangement.
20. The laser ranging method according to claim 13, wherein each of the receiving units comprises a photoelectric converter, and the sub-field-of-view areas in the same field-of-view area are one-to-one with the receiving units correspond.
21. The laser ranging method according to claim 20, further comprising adjusting the number of the receiving units according to the signal-to-noise ratio of the return light pulse signal.
22. The laser ranging method according to claim 21, wherein the adjusting the number of the receiving units according to the signal-to-noise ratio of the return light pulse signal comprises:

    When the signal-to-noise ratio of the return light pulse signal is lower than a preset threshold, control at least two adjacent receiving units within a predetermined range to perform pixel combination, so that the operation circuit combines the adjacent at least two adjacent receiving units The electrical signals of the receiving unit are superimposed.
23. The laser ranging method according to claim 21, wherein the adjusting the number of the receiving units according to the signal-to-noise ratio of the return light pulse signal comprises:

    When the signal-to-noise ratio of the return light pulse signal is lower than a preset threshold, the control part of the receiving units is turned off, and the number of the sub-field areas corresponding to each of the remaining receiving units is controlled to increase to receive Return light pulses belonging to at least two or more sub-field areas of different fields of view.
24. 14. The laser ranging method according to claim 13, wherein the number of synchronously turning on the lasers in each of the emitting units is determined according to the number of sub-field areas in the field of view area.
25. A movable platform is characterized in that, comprising:

    The laser ranging device according to any one of claims 1-12;

    A movable platform body, the laser ranging device is arranged on the movable platform body.

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