CN111077528A

CN111077528A - Laser emission assembly, multi-line laser radar, control method, control system and electronic equipment

Info

Publication number: CN111077528A
Application number: CN201811221532.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 章炳刚; 刘莎莎; 洪玉芳; 钱仁瑞; 李锋
Original assignee: Zhejiang Sunny Optical Intelligent Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Zhejiang Sunny Optical Intelligent Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2018-10-19
Filing date: 2018-10-19
Publication date: 2020-04-28

Abstract

The invention discloses a laser emission assembly, a multi-line laser radar, a control method, a control system and electronic equipment of the multi-line laser radar. The laser emission assembly is used for providing a plurality of laser beams for the multi-line laser radar and comprises at least one laser emission plate and at least one group of laser emission units. Each group of the laser emitting units is fixedly arranged on the corresponding laser emitting plate, and each laser emitting unit is used for emitting one beam of the laser. The vertical spacing of any adjacent laser emitting units is smaller than the actual spacing between the adjacent laser emitting units.

Description

Laser emission assembly, multi-line laser radar, control method, control system and electronic equipment

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of laser radars, in particular to a laser emitting assembly, a multi-line laser radar, a control method, a control system and electronic equipment of the multi-line laser radar.

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 received laser echoes (namely, echo signals) reflected or scattered from the target are 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, commercially available lidar generally includes mechanical multiline lidar and solid state lidar. Since the technology of solid-state lidar is not mature, multiline lidar is still the mainstream in the market among unmanned technology. As is well known, a multi-line lidar, a commonly used vehicle-mounted lidar, is generally configured to scan a plurality of lines by rotating a motor through distribution of a plurality of laser transmitters in a vertical direction. Theoretically, the more and denser the wire bundles of the multi-line laser radar in the vertical direction are, the higher the vertical resolution of the multi-line laser radar is, and the description of the surrounding environment is more sufficient.

However, the multiple laser transmitter plates of the existing multiline lidar are generally stacked together, so that the number of stacked laser transmitter plates in a unit range directly determines the number of lines of laser light transmitted in the unit range, i.e., the number of stacked laser transmitters is an important factor affecting the vertical resolution of the multiline lidar. Since the transmitting circuit devices of the laser transmitters are generally complex and have large volumes, enough laser transmitters cannot be stacked in a small range, so that the distance between two adjacent laser transmitters in the vertical direction is large, which directly results in low vertical resolution of the multi-line laser radar.

Disclosure of Invention

An object of the present invention is to provide a laser transmitter assembly and a multiline lidar and a control method and a control system and electronic device thereof, which can improve the vertical resolution of the multiline lidar.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a laser transmitter assembly and a multiline lidar and a control method and a control system and electronic device thereof, which can greatly improve the vertical resolution of the multiline lidar without increasing the volume of the multiline lidar. In other words, the multiline lidar is capable of increasing its vertical resolution in a smaller volume.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a laser emitting assembly, a multi-line lidar, a control method, a control system and an electronic device thereof, wherein, in an embodiment of the present invention, a vertical distance between two adjacent laser emitting units in the laser emitting assembly is reduced, so as to solve a problem that the laser emitting units cannot be densely arranged due to an excessively large volume, thereby improving a vertical resolution of the multi-line lidar.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a laser transmitter assembly and a multiline lidar and a control method and a control system and electronic device thereof, wherein, in an embodiment of the present invention, laser transmitter boards of the laser transmitter assembly are arranged obliquely to reduce a vertical pitch between adjacent laser transmitter units.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a laser transmitter assembly and a multiline lidar and a control method and a control system and an electronic device thereof, wherein, in an embodiment of the present invention, a plurality of laser transmitter boards of the laser transmitter assembly are vertically arranged, and the laser transmitter units disposed on different laser transmitter boards are staggered with each other to reduce a pitch of adjacent laser transmitter units in a vertical direction.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a laser emitting assembly and a multiline lidar, and a control method and a control system thereof, and an electronic device, wherein in an embodiment of the present invention, the multiline lidar is capable of solving a problem of light interference caused by simultaneous emission of laser light by adjacent laser emitting units.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a laser transmitter assembly and a multiline lidar and a control method and a control system and electronic device thereof, wherein in an embodiment of the present invention, the multiline lidar is capable of effectively completing all laser transmissions within a limited time to reduce the detection time of the multiline lidar.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a laser transmitter assembly and a multiline lidar and a control method and a control system and electronic device thereof, wherein, in an embodiment of the present invention, a plurality of laser transmitter boards of the laser transmitter assembly are arranged in a non-parallel manner to reduce distortion generated when the multiline lidar detects a target.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a laser emitting assembly and a multiline lidar, and a control method, a control system and an electronic device thereof, wherein, in an embodiment of the present invention, each group of laser emitting units of the laser emitting assembly are disposed on the laser emitting plate in a non-equidistant distribution manner, so that the multiline lidar is adapted to different environmental targets.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a laser transmitter assembly and multiline lidar and control method and system and electronics therefor, wherein expensive materials or complex structures are not required in the present invention in order to achieve the above objects. Therefore, the present invention successfully and effectively provides a solution to not only provide a simple laser emitting assembly and multiline lidar and control methods and control systems and electronic devices thereof, but also increases the practicality and reliability of the laser emitting assembly and multiline lidar and control methods and control systems and electronic devices thereof.

To achieve at least one of the above objects and other objects and advantages, the present invention provides a laser transmitter assembly for providing a plurality of laser beams for a multiline lidar, comprising:

at least one laser emitting plate; and

and each group of laser emission units is fixedly arranged on the corresponding laser emission plate and is used for emitting a beam of laser, wherein the vertical distance between any two adjacent laser emission units is smaller than the actual distance between the two adjacent laser emission units.

In some embodiments of the present invention, each of the laser emitting units is configured to emit the laser light in a horizontal direction.

In some embodiments of the present invention, each of the laser emission panels is disposed obliquely so that the vertical pitch of two adjacent laser emission units on the same laser emission panel is smaller than the actual pitch of the adjacent laser emission units.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the at least one laser emission panel includes at least two laser emission panels, and the laser emission units on different laser emission panels are staggered from each other so that all the laser emission units are located on different horizontal planes, respectively.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the at least one laser emission panel includes at least two laser emission panels, wherein each of the laser emission panels is vertically disposed, and the laser emission units on different laser emission panels are staggered from each other so that all the laser emission units are respectively located on different horizontal planes.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the adjacent laser emission plates are parallel to each other.

In some embodiments of the present invention, a preset angle is formed between adjacent laser emission plates, wherein the preset angle is an acute angle, and sides of the laser emission plates adjacent to the laser emission unit are gathered together.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the preset angle is designed according to a horizontal distance between adjacent laser emitting panels and a target distance of an environmental target.

In some embodiments of the present invention, each group of the laser emitting units is equally spaced apart from the corresponding laser emitting panel.

In some embodiments of the present invention, each group of the laser emitting units is disposed on the corresponding laser emitting panel in a sparse-dense distribution manner.

In some embodiments of the present invention, each group of the laser emitting units is disposed on the corresponding laser emitting panel in a distribution manner that the middle is dense and the two ends are sparse.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is also provided a multiline lidar comprising:

the laser emitting assembly of any of the above; and

and the laser receiving assembly comprises at least one group of laser receiving units which are respectively used for receiving laser echoes corresponding to the laser emitted by each laser emitting unit of the laser emitting assembly.

In some embodiments of the invention, the multiline lidar further includes a lens assembly, wherein the optical assembly is provided with a laser emission path and an echo receiving path, wherein the laser emission assembly is correspondingly disposed in the laser emission path for emitting the set of laser light along the laser reflection path to collimate the set of laser light by the lens assembly, and wherein the laser receiving assembly is correspondingly disposed in the echo receiving path for receiving the set of laser echoes along the echo receiving path to focus the set of laser echoes by the lens assembly.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the laser emission assembly is provided with an emission reference plane, wherein the emission reference plane coincides with the focal plane of the lens assembly, and the emission end face of each laser emission unit is located on the emission reference plane of the laser emission assembly.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is also provided a control system for controlling a multiline lidar comprising:

the area dividing module is used for dividing at least two selected areas on a transmitting reference surface of a laser transmitting assembly of the multi-line laser radar, wherein each selected area comprises at least two rows of laser transmitting units;

a cyclic selection module, configured to cyclically select the laser emitting units in all the selection areas at the same time, where only one laser emitting unit is selected in the same selection area at a time, and two laser emitting units simultaneously selected in any adjacent selection areas are not located at the intersection of the adjacent selection areas at the same time; and

and the control module is used for controlling the simultaneously selected laser emission units to simultaneously emit laser after the laser emission units are selected each time until all the laser emission units emit laser.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the area dividing module is configured to divide the at least two selected areas having the same number of the laser emitting units on the emitting reference plane of the laser emitting assembly.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the laser emitting units simultaneously selected by the cyclic selection module each time are respectively located in the same row in the corresponding selected area.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the laser emitting units simultaneously selected by the cyclic selection module at each time are located on different laser emitting panels in the laser emitting assembly.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is also provided a control method for controlling a multiline lidar, including the steps of:

dividing at least two selection areas on a transmitting reference surface of a laser transmitting assembly of the multi-line laser radar, wherein each selection area comprises at least two rows of laser transmitting units;

selecting the laser emission units in all the selected areas in a circulating mode at the same time, wherein only one laser emission unit is selected in the same selected area at a time, and the laser emission units selected in any adjacent selected areas at the same time are not located at the junction of the adjacent selected areas at the same time; and

after the laser emission units are selected each time, the laser emission units selected at the same time are controlled to emit laser at the same time until all the laser emission units emit laser.

In some embodiments of the present invention, on the emission reference plane of the laser emission assembly of the multiline lidar, at least two selected areas are divided, wherein in the step of including at least two rows of laser emission units in each selected area:

each of the selected areas includes the same number of the laser emitting units.

In some embodiments of the present invention, in the step of cyclically selecting the laser emitting units in all the selected areas at the same time, wherein only one laser emitting unit is selected in the same selected area at a time, and the simultaneously selected laser emitting units in any adjacent selected areas are not located at the intersections of the adjacent selected areas at the same time:

the laser emission units selected simultaneously each time are respectively positioned in the same row in the corresponding selected area.

the laser emission units selected at the same time each time are located on different laser emission plates in the laser emission assembly.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the present invention also provides an electronic device, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory having stored therein program instructions, wherein the program instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform any of the control methods described above.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is also provided a readable storage medium, wherein the readable storage medium has stored thereon program instructions operable to perform any of the above-mentioned control methods when the program instructions are executed by a computing device.

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 claims.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a multiline lidar according to a first preferred embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a laser emitting assembly of the multiline lidar according to the first preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of the laser emitting assembly according to the first preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 4A and 4B show a variant of the laser transmitter assembly according to the above-described first preferred embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a multiline lidar according to a second preferred embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a laser transmitter assembly of the multiline lidar according to the second preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 7A and 7B are schematic views of the laser transmitter assembly according to the second preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 8A to 8C show a first variant of the laser transmitter assembly according to the second preferred embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 9 shows a second variant of the laser emitting assembly according to the above-described second preferred embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 10 shows a third variant of the laser emitting assembly according to the above-described second preferred embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a control method according to the second preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 12 is a schematic diagram illustrating the control method according to the second preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of a control system according to the second preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 14 is a block diagram of an electronic device according to the second preferred embodiment of the invention.

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 an orientation or positional relationship indicated in the drawings for ease of description and simplicity of description, and do not indicate or imply that the referenced devices or components must be constructed and operated in a particular orientation and thus are not to be considered limiting.

In the present invention, the terms "a" and "an" in the claims and the description should be understood as meaning "one or more", that is, one element may be one in number in one embodiment, and the element may be more than one in number in another embodiment. The terms "a" and "an" should not be construed as limiting the number unless the number of such elements is explicitly recited as one in the present disclosure, but rather the terms "a" and "an" should not be construed as being limited to only one of the number.

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" are to 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 meanings of the above terms in the present invention can be understood by those skilled in the art according to specific situations.

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.

Schematic device

As a commonly used vehicle-mounted laser radar, the multiline laser radar has been widely used. However, with the rapid development of the unmanned technology, the application of the existing multiline laser radar to the unmanned vehicle is greatly limited due to the problems of low resolution, large volume and the like. Therefore, there is a high-resolution and small-volume multiline lidar in the market.

With reference to figures 1 to 3 of the accompanying drawings, the multiline lidar according to a first preferred embodiment of the present invention is illustrated. According to the first preferred embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 1 and 2, the multiline lidar 10 includes a laser transmitter assembly 11 and a laser receiver assembly 12, wherein the laser transmitter assembly 11 includes at least one laser transmitter board 111 and at least one set of laser transmitter units 112. Each set of the laser emitting units 112 is fixedly arranged on the corresponding laser emitting plate 111, and each laser emitting unit 112 is used for emitting laser, wherein the distance between any two adjacent laser emitting units 112 in the vertical direction (i.e. the vertical distance h) is smaller than the physical distance between two adjacent laser emitting units 112 on the same laser emitting plate 111 (i.e. the actual distance s). The laser receiving assembly 12 includes at least one set of laser receiving units 121, wherein each laser receiving unit 121 is configured to receive a laser echo corresponding to the laser light emitted by the corresponding laser emitting unit 112.

Preferably, as shown in fig. 3, each of the laser emitting units 112 is configured to emit the laser light in a horizontal direction.

As will be understood by those skilled in the art, the laser light is also referred to as a transmission signal, and the laser echo is a light signal reflected or scattered back by the laser light transmitted by the laser transmission unit 112 through an environmental target, also referred to as an echo signal. In this way, the multiline lidar 10 is able to compare the transmitted signal with the received echo signal and, after appropriate processing, obtain information about the environmental target.

It is noted that, as shown in fig. 2 and 3, since the vertical spacing h between the adjacent laser emitting units 112 is smaller than the actual spacing s between the adjacent laser emitting units 112, the laser beams emitted by the laser emitting assembly 11 are more densely concentrated in the vertical direction, thereby improving the vertical resolution of the multiline lidar 10. In other words, since the pitch of the adjacent laser emitting units 112 in the vertical direction is reduced so that the number of laser beams emitted by the laser emitting units 112 per unit vertical length becomes larger, the vertical resolution of the multiline lidar 10 can be improved. Furthermore, since the pitch of the adjacent laser transmitter units 112 in the vertical direction is reduced, so that the height of the laser transmitter assembly 11 in the vertical direction is reduced, the overall height of the multiline lidar 10 will also be reduced to reduce the volume of the multiline lidar 10.

According to the first preferred embodiment of the present invention, the at least one laser emission plate 112 of the laser emission assembly 11 is disposed obliquely, so that the vertical spacing h between any adjacent laser emission units 112 on the same laser emission plate 112 is smaller than the actual spacing s between the adjacent laser emission units 112, i.e. all the laser emission units 112 are respectively located on different horizontal planes, thereby achieving the purpose of reducing the spacing of the laser emission units 112 in the vertical direction, so as to improve the vertical resolution of the multiline lidar 10. It is understood that the laser emitting unit 112 may be, but is not limited to being, implemented as a laser emitting tube for emitting a laser beam; the laser emitting panel 111 may be, but is not limited to be, implemented as a circuit board, wherein a plurality of laser emitting tubes are fixedly mounted on the circuit board, so that the plurality of laser emitting tubes and the circuit board are integrated together to form an integrated structure, which helps to simplify the assembly process of the laser emitting assembly 11.

Illustratively, as shown in fig. 2 and 3, the laser emitting assembly 11 includes one laser emitting plate 111 and six laser emitting units 112, wherein the laser emitting units 112 are equally spaced on the laser emitting plate 111, wherein the laser emitting plates 111 are obliquely disposed such that the actual spacing s of any adjacent laser emitting units 112 is greater than the vertical spacing h of the adjacent laser emitting units 112, thereby improving the vertical resolution of the multiline lidar 10.

According to the first preferred embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 1, the multiline lidar 10 further includes a lens assembly 13, wherein the lens assembly 13 is provided with a laser emitting path 1301 and an echo receiving path 1302, and the laser emitting assembly 11 is configured to emit a set of laser light along the laser emitting path 1301 so as to collimate the set of laser light through the lens assembly 13. Wherein the laser receiving assembly 12 is correspondingly disposed on the echo receiving path 1302, for receiving the set of laser echoes along the echo receiving path 1302 to focus the set of laser echoes through the lens assembly 13. The multiline lidar 10 is thus capable of detecting environmental targets based on the set of lasers and the set of laser echoes.

It should be noted that, as shown in fig. 2 and fig. 3, the laser emission assembly 11 has an emission reference plane 110, wherein all emission end surfaces of the laser emission units 112 are located on the emission reference plane 110 of the laser emission assembly 11, so that all laser light is emitted from the emission reference plane 110 of the laser emission assembly 11, which helps to ensure that all emission end surfaces of the laser emission units 112 are located in the focal plane of the lens assembly 13, so as to improve the effect of the lens assembly 13 on collimating the laser light emitted by the laser emission units 112 as much as possible. In other words, when the emission reference plane 110 of the laser emission assembly 11 coincides with the focal plane of the lens assembly 13, all the emission end faces of the laser emission units 112 are located at the focal plane of the lens assembly 13, so as to enhance the collimation effect of the lens assembly 13.

It will be appreciated that the multiline lidar 10 may be mounted to a rotation device (not shown) to rotate the multiline lidar 10 by the rotation device such that the multiline lidar 10 scans 360 degrees to obtain ambient environmental information.

Fig. 4A and 4B show a modified embodiment of the laser emitting assembly 11 according to the first preferred embodiment of the present invention, wherein the laser emitting assembly 11 includes two laser emitting panels 111 and twelve laser emitting units 112, wherein the twelve laser emitting units 112 are divided into two groups, and each group of the laser emitting units 112 is respectively disposed on the corresponding laser emitting panel 111 at equal intervals. The two laser emitting panels 111 are parallel to each other and are obliquely arranged such that the vertical distance h between any adjacent laser emitting units 112 is smaller than the actual distance s between any adjacent laser emitting units 112 on the same laser emitting panel 111. Further, the two laser emission plates 111 are stacked obliquely together, and the laser emission units 112 on different laser emission plates 111 are staggered from each other so that any two of the laser emission units 112 of twelve laser emission units 112 are located on different horizontal planes, thereby further reducing the pitch s in the vertical direction of the adjacent laser emission units 112 to further improve the vertical resolution of the multiline lidar 10.

Referring to fig. 5 to 7B, a multiline laser radar 10A according to a second preferred embodiment of the present invention is illustrated. As shown in fig. 5 and 6, the multiline lidar 10A according to the second preferred embodiment of the present invention differs from the first preferred embodiment of the present invention in that: the laser emitting assembly 11A includes at least two laser emitting panels 111A and at least two groups of laser emitting units 112A, wherein each group of the laser emitting units 112A is fixedly disposed on the corresponding laser emitting panel 111A, and each group of the laser emitting panels 111A is vertically disposed side by side, so that each group of the laser emitting units 112A is on the same vertical plane, wherein the laser emitting units 112A on different laser emitting panels 111A are staggered with each other, so that a vertical distance h between any adjacent laser emitting units 112A is smaller than an actual distance s between adjacent laser emitting units 112A in the same laser emitting panel 111A. In other words, since each of the laser emitting panels 111A is vertically disposed and the laser emitting units 112A on different laser emitting panels 111A are staggered from each other, all the laser emitting units 112A in the laser emitting assembly 11A are not on the same horizontal plane, so as to increase the density of the laser light emitted by the laser emitting assembly 11A in the vertical direction, thereby improving the vertical resolution of the multiline lidar 10A.

Illustratively, as shown in fig. 6 and 7B, the laser emission assembly 11A includes three laser emission plates 111A and three groups of laser emission units 112A, wherein the three laser emission plates 111A are vertically arranged side by side, wherein each group of the laser emission units 112A includes six laser emission units 112A, and each group of the laser emission units 112A is equally spaced from the corresponding laser emission plate 112A, such that a physical distance between the laser emission units 112A adjacent to the same laser emission plate 111A is the actual spacing s, wherein each of the laser emission plates 111A is vertically arranged, and the laser emission units 112A on different laser emission plates 111A are staggered from each other, such that a spacing of the laser emission units 112A adjacent to different laser emission plates 111A in a vertical direction is the vertical spacing h, and the actual spacing s is three times the vertical spacing h, enabling the vertical resolution of the multiline lidar 10A to be improved by three times without also increasing the overall height of the multiline lidar 10A.

In other words, the laser emission units 112A on the laser emission plate 111A located in the middle and the laser emission plate 111A located on the right trisect the physical distance between the adjacent laser emission units 112A on the laser emission plate 111A located on the left, so that the vertical pitch h of any adjacent laser emission units 112A on different laser emission plates 111A is equal to one third of the actual pitch s, thereby improving the vertical resolution of the multiline lidar 10A by three times.

Further, in the second preferred embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 7A, a preset included angle θ is formed between adjacent laser reflection plates 111A in the laser emitting assembly 11A, wherein the preset included angle θ is an acute angle, so that the sides of the laser emitting plates 111A adjacent to the laser emitting unit 112A converge together, so as to reduce distortion generated when the multi-line lidar 10 detects a target as much as possible, and ensure that the multi-line lidar 10 has high detection accuracy. In other words, the laser emitting assembly 11A arranges the at least two laser emitting panels 111A in a non-parallel arrangement, and a side of the laser emitting assembly 11A adjacent to the laser emitting unit 112A converges toward the middle, so as to reduce distortion generated by the multiline lidar 10A when detecting an object as much as possible.

Particularly, as shown in fig. 6, the laser emitting assembly 11A is provided with an emitting reference plane 110A coinciding with a focal plane of the lens assembly 13, wherein an emitting end surface of the laser emitting unit 112A on the laser emitting plate 111A located at the middle is located on the emitting reference plane 110A of the laser emitting assembly 11A, so that emitting ends of the laser emitting plates 111A at two sides converge towards the middle, which can effectively reduce distortion generated when the multi-line laser radar 10 detects an environmental target and improve a collimation effect of the lens assembly 13 on laser emitted by the laser emitting unit 112A.

Preferably, as shown in fig. 7A and 7B, the preset included angle θ between the adjacent laser reflection plates 111A in the laser emission assembly 11A is designed according to the detection distance of the multiline lidar 10, so that spots formed at the detection distance by the laser emitted from the laser emission unit 112A on the adjacent laser reflection plates 111A are on the same vertical line, so as to minimize distortion generated when the multiline lidar 10 detects an object. In other words, the preset included angle θ is designed according to the distance between the emitting end surface of the laser emitting unit 112A of the laser emitting assembly 11A of the multiline laser radar 10A and the environmental target, so that the spots formed at the environmental target by the laser emitted by all the laser emitting units 112A are on the same vertical line, thereby minimizing the distortion generated when the multiline laser radar 10 detects the environmental target.

Illustratively, as shown in fig. 7A, when a distance between the emitting end face of the laser emitting unit 112A of the laser emitting assembly 11A and an environmental target is defined as a target pitch L, and a distance between any two laser emitting units 112A on the adjacent laser emitting boards 111A in the laser emitting assembly 11A in the horizontal direction is defined as a horizontal pitch D, the tangent value of the preset included angle θ is equal to a ratio between the horizontal pitch D and the target pitch L. Of course, since the target distance L is much larger than the horizontal distance D, the preset included angle θ may be substantially equal to a ratio between the horizontal distance D and the target distance L.

Figures 8A, 8B and 8C show a first variant of the laser emitting assembly 11A according to the second preferred embodiment of the invention, wherein the at least two laser emission panels 111A of the laser emission assembly 11A are parallel to each other, which helps to ensure that the emission end faces of all the laser emission units 112A are located on the same vertical plane, to form the emission reference surface 110A of the laser emission assembly 11A, that is, all the laser emission units 112A are located on the emission reference surface 110A of the laser emission assembly 11A, which helps to ensure that the emission end surfaces of all the laser emission units 112A are located on the focal plane of the lens assembly 13, so that the lens assembly 13 has better collimation effect on the laser emitted by all the laser emitting units 112A.

Fig. 9 shows a second modified embodiment of the laser emitting assembly 11A according to the second preferred embodiment of the present invention, wherein the laser emitting units 112A in each group of the laser emitting assembly 11A are disposed at unequal intervals on the laser emitting panel 111A, so that the physical distances between the adjacent laser emitting units 112A on the same laser emitting panel 111A are not all equal, so as to accurately detect different environmental targets. It should be understood that the distribution of each set of the laser emitting units 112A on the laser emitting panel 111A may be designed according to the position, height or distance of the measured environmental target.

For example, as shown in fig. 9, each set of the laser emitting units 112A is disposed on the corresponding laser emitting plate 111A in a sparse-dense-bottom distribution manner, so that the lower resolution (i.e., the vertical resolution of the lower half) of the multiline lidar 10A is greater than the upper resolution (i.e., the vertical resolution of the upper half) of the multiline lidar 10A, which facilitates accurate detection of an environmental target with a low height.

In this example of the laser transmitter assembly 11A shown in fig. 9, each set of the laser transmitter units 112A is disposed on the corresponding laser transmitter panel 111A in a sparse-to-dense distribution, whereas in the third variant of the laser transmitter assembly 11A shown in fig. 10, each set of the laser transmitter units 112A is disposed on the corresponding laser transmitter panel 111A in a dense-to-sparse-to-dense distribution, so that the middle resolution (i.e., the vertical resolution of the middle portion) of the multiline lidar 10A is greater than the two-end resolution (i.e., the vertical resolution of the two-end portions) of the multiline lidar 10A, facilitating accurate detection of an environmental target of moderate height. Of course, in some other embodiments of the present invention, each group of the laser emitting units 112A may also be disposed on the laser emitting plate 111A in other non-equidistant distribution manners to adapt to corresponding environmental targets, which is not described herein again.

It should be noted that, in the second preferred embodiment of the present invention, except for the above-mentioned structure, the other structures of the multiline lidar 10A are the same as the structure of the multiline lidar 10 according to the first preferred embodiment of the present invention, and the multiline lidar 10A also has similar or identical modified embodiments to the various modified embodiments of the multiline lidar 10 according to the first preferred embodiment, and therefore, the details thereof are not repeated herein.

Illustrative method

It is worth mentioning that, since the vertical distance h between the adjacent laser emission units 112A in the laser emission assembly 11A of the multiline lidar 10A is small, when the adjacent laser emission units 112A emit laser light simultaneously, a problem of laser light mutual interference is caused to affect the detection accuracy of the multiline lidar 10A. However, if all the laser emitting units 112A emit laser light in sequence, it will take a long time to complete the detection, which greatly affects the detection efficiency of the multiline lidar 10A.

Therefore, as shown in fig. 11 and 12, the second preferred embodiment of the present invention further provides a method for controlling a multiline lidar 10A, including the steps of:

s210: dividing at least two selection areas 1101A on a transmitting reference surface 110A of a laser transmitting assembly 11A of the multi-line laser radar 10A, wherein each selection area 1101A comprises at least two rows of the laser transmitting units 112A;

s220: selecting the laser emitting units 112A cyclically in all the selection areas 1101A at the same time, wherein only one laser emitting unit 112A is selected in the same selection area 1101A at a time, and two laser emitting units 112A simultaneously selected in any adjacent selection areas 1101A are not located at the intersection of the adjacent selection areas 1101A at the same time; and

s230: after selecting the laser emitting units 112A each time, controlling the simultaneously selected laser emitting units 112A to emit laser light simultaneously until all the laser emitting units 112A emit laser light.

Further, in the step S210, the at least two selected areas 1101A include the same number of the laser emitting units 112A. Of course, if different numbers of the laser emitting units 112A are included in each of the selection areas 1101A, once all the laser emitting units 112A in any one of the selection areas 1101A emit laser light, the selection area is determined to be a to-be-selected area, so that when the step S220 is executed again, the to-be-selected area is skipped.

It is to be noted that, in the step S220, the simultaneously selected laser emitting units 112A are respectively located in the same row in the corresponding selection area 1101A, so that the physical distances between the simultaneously selected laser emitting units 112A are equal, thereby avoiding that the physical distances between some of the simultaneously selected laser emitting units 112A are smaller due to irregular selection positions.

Further, in the step S220, the simultaneously selected laser emitting units 112A are located on different laser emitting panels 111A in the laser emitting assembly 11A to further increase the physical distance between the simultaneously selected laser emitting units 112A.

Exemplarily, as shown in fig. 12, in the second preferred embodiment of the present invention, two selected areas 1101A are preferably divided on the emission reference plane 110A of the laser emission assembly 11A of the multiline lidar 10A, wherein each selected area 1101A includes three rows of the laser emission units 112A (nine laser emission units 112A); then, according to the serial numbers marked in fig. 12, one laser emitting unit 112A is simultaneously selected from each of the selection areas 1101A, wherein the two simultaneously selected laser emitting units 112A are respectively located in the same row in the corresponding selection area 1101A and located in different laser emitting panels 111A in the laser emitting assembly 11A; then, the laser emitting units 112A selected at the same time are controlled to emit laser light at the same time; finally, according to the serial numbers marked in fig. 12, another laser emitting unit 112A is selected again in each of the selection areas 1101A to control the selected laser emitting unit 112A to emit laser until all the laser emitting units 112A emit laser light.

Illustrative System

According to another aspect of the present invention, as shown in fig. 13, the second preferred embodiment of the present invention further provides a control system 20A for the multiline lidar 10A, which is used to reasonably control the transmitting sequence of the laser transmitting unit 112A of the laser transmitting assembly 11A of the multiline lidar 10A, so as to reduce the detection time of the multiline lidar 10A while avoiding the problem of laser interference, and to improve the detection efficiency of the multiline lidar 10A.

According to the second preferred embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 13, the control system 20A includes a region dividing module 21A, a loop selecting module 22A and a control module 23A. The area dividing module 21A is configured to divide at least two selected areas 1101A on a transmitting reference plane 110A of a laser transmitting assembly 11A of the multi-line laser radar 10A, where each selected area 1101A includes at least two rows of the laser transmitting units 112A. The cyclic selection module 22A is configured to cyclically select the laser emitting units 112A in all the selection areas 1101A at the same time, wherein only one laser emitting unit 112A is selected in the same selection area 1101A at a time, and two laser emitting units 112A simultaneously selected in any adjacent selection areas 1101A are not located at the intersection of the adjacent selection areas 1101A at the same time. The control module 23A is configured to control the simultaneously selected laser emitting units 112A to emit laser light simultaneously after the laser emitting units 112A are selected each time until all the laser emitting units 112A emit laser light.

In an example of the present invention, the area dividing module 21A is configured to divide the at least two selected areas 1101A having the same number of the laser emitting units 112A on the emission reference plane 110A of the laser emitting assembly 11A of the multiline laser radar 10A.

In an example of the present invention, the laser emitting units 112A selected by the cyclic selection module 22A at the same time are respectively located in the same row in the corresponding selection area 1101A.

In an example of the present invention, the laser emitting units 112A selected by the cyclic selection module 22A at a time are located on different laser emitting panels 111A in the laser emitting assembly 11A.

Here, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the specific functions and operations of the respective units and modules in the control system 20A for the multiline lidar 10A described above have been described in detail in the control method of the multiline lidar 10A described above with reference to fig. 11, and therefore, a repetitive description thereof will be omitted.

As described above, the control system 20A according to embodiments of the present invention may be implemented in a variety of terminal devices, such as a programmable chip for the multiline lidar 10A. In one example, the control system 20A according to the embodiment of the present invention may be integrated into the terminal device as a software module and/or a hardware module. For example, the control system 20A may be a software module in an operating system of the terminal device, or may be an application developed for the terminal device; of course, the control system 20A may also be one of many hardware modules of the terminal device.

Alternatively, in another example, the control system 20A and the terminal device may be separate terminal devices, and the control system 20A may be connected to the terminal device through a wired and/or wireless network and transmit the interactive information according to an agreed data format.

Illustrative electronic device

FIG. 14 shows a block diagram schematic of an electronic device 30A according to the invention, wherein the electronic device 30A comprises one or more processors 31A and a memory 32A.

The processor 31A may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU) or other form of processing unit having data processing capabilities and/or instruction execution capabilities, and may control other components in the electronic device 30A to perform desired functions.

Memory 32A may include one or more program products that may include various forms of readable storage media, such as volatile memory and/or non-volatile memory. The volatile memory may include, for example, Random Access Memory (RAM), cache memory (cache), and/or the like. The non-volatile memory may include, for example, Read Only Memory (ROM), hard disk, flash memory, etc. One or more program instructions may be stored on the readable storage medium and executed by processor 31A to implement the control method of multiline lidar 10A of the various embodiments of the present invention described above and/or other desired functions.

Of course, for the sake of simplicity, only some of the components of the electronic device 30A related to the present invention are shown in fig. 14, and components such as a bus, an input/output interface, and the like are omitted. In addition, the electronic device 30A may include any other suitable components depending on the particular application.

Illustrative program product

In addition to the above-described methods and devices, embodiments of the invention may also be a program product comprising program instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to carry out the steps of the method of controlling a multiline lidar according to various embodiments of the invention described in the "exemplary methods" section above of this specification.

The program product may write program code for carrying out operations for embodiments of the present invention in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Java, C + + or the like and conventional procedural programming languages, such as "r" or similar programming languages. The program code may execute entirely on the user's computing device, partly on the user's device, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computing device and partly on a remote computing device, or entirely on the remote computing device or server.

Furthermore, embodiments of the present invention may also be a readable storage medium having stored thereon program instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the steps in the method of controlling a multiline lidar according to various embodiments of the present invention described in this specification.

The readable storage medium may take any combination of one or more readable media. The readable medium may be a readable signal medium or a readable storage medium. A readable storage medium may include, for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or a combination of any of the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the readable storage medium include: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable disk, a hard disk, a Random Access Memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

The basic principles of the present invention have been described above with reference to specific embodiments, but it should be noted that the advantages, effects, etc. mentioned in the present invention are only examples and are not limiting, and the advantages, effects, etc. must not be considered to be possessed by various embodiments of the present invention. Furthermore, the foregoing disclosure of specific details is for the purpose of illustration and description and is not intended to be limiting, since the invention is not limited to the specific details described above.

The block diagrams of devices, apparatuses, systems involved in the present invention are only given as illustrative examples and are not intended to require or imply that the connections, arrangements, configurations, etc. must be made in the manner shown in the block diagrams. These devices, apparatuses, devices, systems may be connected, arranged, configured in any manner, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art. Words such as "including," "comprising," "having," and the like are open-ended words that mean "including, but not limited to," and are used interchangeably therewith. The words "or" and "as used herein mean, and are used interchangeably with, the word" and/or, "unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. The word "such as" is used herein to mean, and is used interchangeably with, the phrase "such as but not limited to".

It should also be noted that in the apparatus, devices and methods of the present invention, the components or steps may be broken down and/or re-combined. These decompositions and/or recombinations are to be regarded as equivalents of the present invention.

It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the embodiments of the invention described above and shown in the drawings are given by way of example only and are not limiting of the invention. The objects of the invention have been fully and effectively accomplished. The functional and structural principles of the present invention have been shown and described in the examples, and any variations or modifications of the embodiments of the present invention may be made without departing from the principles.

Claims

1. A laser transmitter assembly for providing multiple beams of laser light for a multiline lidar comprising:

at least one laser emitting plate; and

2. The laser transmitter assembly of claim 1, wherein each of the laser transmitter units is configured to transmit the laser light in a horizontal direction.

3. The laser transmitter assembly of claim 2, wherein each of the laser transmitter boards is disposed obliquely such that the vertical interval between two adjacent laser transmitter units on the same laser transmitter board is smaller than the actual interval between the adjacent laser transmitter units.

4. The laser transmitter assembly of claim 3, wherein the at least one laser transmitter panel comprises at least two laser transmitter panels, and the laser transmitter units on different laser transmitter panels are staggered with respect to each other such that all of the laser transmitter units are located on different horizontal planes, respectively.

5. The laser transmitter assembly of claim 1, wherein the at least one laser transmitter panel comprises at least two laser transmitter panels, wherein each of the laser transmitter panels is vertically disposed, and the laser transmitter units on different laser transmitter panels are staggered with respect to each other such that all of the laser transmitter units are respectively located on different horizontal planes.

6. The laser transmitter assembly of claim 2, wherein the at least one laser transmitter panel comprises at least two laser transmitter panels, wherein each of the laser transmitter panels is vertically disposed, and the laser transmitter units on different laser transmitter panels are staggered with respect to each other such that all of the laser transmitter units are respectively located on different horizontal planes.

7. The laser emitting assembly of claim 6, wherein adjacent laser emitting panels are parallel to each other.

8. The laser transmitter assembly as claimed in claim 6, wherein adjacent laser transmitter boards have a predetermined angle therebetween, wherein the predetermined angle is an acute angle, and sides of the laser transmitter boards adjacent to the laser transmitter units are gathered together.

9. The laser transmitter assembly of claim 8, wherein the preset angle is designed according to a horizontal distance between adjacent laser transmitter boards and a target distance of an environmental target.

10. The laser transmitter assembly of any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein each set of the laser transmitter units is equally spaced from the corresponding laser transmitter board.

11. The laser transmitter assembly of any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein each group of the laser transmitter units is disposed on the corresponding laser transmitter board in a sparse-dense distribution.

12. The laser transmitter assembly as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein each group of the laser transmitter units is disposed on the corresponding laser transmitter board in a dense-middle and sparse-end distribution.

13. A multiline lidar comprising:

the laser emitting assembly of any one of claims 1 to 12; and

14. The multiline lidar of claim 13, further comprising a lens assembly, wherein the optical assembly defines a lasing path and an echo receive path, wherein the lasing assembly is correspondingly disposed in the lasing path for emitting the set of laser light along the laser reflection path to collimate the set of laser light by the lens assembly, and wherein the lasing assembly is correspondingly disposed in the echo receive path for receiving the set of laser echoes along the echo receive path to focus the set of laser echoes by the lens assembly.

15. The multiline lidar of claim 14 wherein the laser transmitter assembly defines a transmitter reference plane, wherein the transmitter reference plane is coincident with a focal plane of the lens assembly, and wherein a transmitter end face of each of the laser transmitter units is located at the transmitter reference plane of the laser transmitter assembly.

16. A control system for controlling a multiline lidar comprising:

17. The control system according to claim 16, wherein the area dividing module is configured to divide the at least two selected areas having the same number of the laser emitting units on the emission reference plane of the laser emitting assembly.

18. The control system according to claim 17, wherein the laser emitting units simultaneously selected by the cyclic selection module at each time are respectively located in the same row in the corresponding selected area.

19. The control system of claim 18, wherein the laser firing units simultaneously selected by the cyclical selection module at a time are located on different laser firing plates in the laser firing assembly.

20. A control method for controlling a multiline lidar comprising the steps of:

21. The control method according to claim 20, wherein at least two selected areas are divided on the emission reference plane of the laser emission assembly of the multiline lidar, wherein in the step of including at least two rows of laser emission units per selected area:

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the step of cyclically selecting the laser emitting units in all the selected areas simultaneously, wherein only one laser emitting unit is selected in the same selected area at a time, and the simultaneously selected laser emitting units in any adjacent selected areas are not located at the intersections of the adjacent selected areas simultaneously, comprises:

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the step of cyclically selecting the laser emitting units in all the selected areas simultaneously, wherein only one laser emitting unit is selected in the same selected area at a time, and the simultaneously selected laser emitting units in any adjacent selected areas are not located at the intersections of the adjacent selected areas simultaneously, comprises:

24. An electronic device, comprising:

a processor; and

memory in which program instructions are stored, which program instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to carry out the control method according to any one of claims 20 to 23.

25. A readable storage medium having stored thereon program instructions operable, when executed by a computing device, to perform the control method of any of claims 20-23.