CN113567961A

CN113567961A - Laser radar state detection device, laser radar, and state detection method

Info

Publication number: CN113567961A
Application number: CN202010276244.8A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 赵鑫; 向少卿; 于庆国; 毕云天; 杨松; 王力威
Original assignee: Hesai Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Hesai Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-04-09
Filing date: 2020-04-09
Publication date: 2021-10-29

Abstract

The invention provides a state detection device for a laser radar, comprising: a fault diagnosis unit configured to perform fault diagnosis on a component of the laser radar and output a fault diagnosis signal when it is diagnosed that a fault exists; a diagnostic management unit in communication with the fault diagnostic unit to receive the fault diagnostic signal and configured to determine a status of the lidar based on the fault diagnostic signal. The invention also provides a laser radar and a state detection method of the laser radar.

Description

Laser radar state detection device, laser radar, and state detection method

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of photoelectric technologies, and in particular, to a state detection device for a laser radar, a laser radar including the same, and a state detection method for a laser radar.

Background

LiDAR is a general name of laser active detection sensor equipment, and the working principle of the LiDAR is roughly as follows: laser radar's transmitter launches a bundle of laser, and after laser beam met the object, through diffuse reflection, returned to laser receiver, radar module multiplies the velocity of light according to the time interval of sending and received signal, divides by 2 again, can calculate the distance of transmitter and object. There are generally a single line laser radar, a 4-line laser radar, an 8/16/32/64-line laser radar, and the like, depending on how many laser beams the laser radar emits. One or more laser beams are emitted along different angles in the vertical direction and scanned in the horizontal direction to realize the detection of the three-dimensional profile of the target area. The multiple measurement channels (lines) correspond to the scanning planes at multiple tilt angles, so that the more laser line beams are emitted in the vertical field, the higher the angular resolution in the vertical direction, and the greater the density of the laser point cloud.

The whole laser radar product comprises optical, mechanical and electronic components and a software algorithm part. These may be faulty parts. When the laser radar has a fault, the cause of the fault is usually difficult to judge, and there may be a fault of the device itself (for example, some electrical component is burned out under high pressure) and a matching offset between the devices (for example, at high temperature, the component a and the component b deform and thus cannot be locked any more). In the prior art, a laser radar is used as an unmanned eye and a sensor for active real-time detection, and if whether the laser radar has a fault or works normally cannot be found and confirmed in time, a vehicle cannot be controlled to perform corresponding running operation to cope with possible faults or abnormalities, so that many potential safety hazards exist. In addition, after the fault of the laser radar is found, the laser radar needs to be dismantled or detected to check possible fault reasons one by one. The detection process is complicated, and time and labor are wasted.

The statements in this background section merely represent techniques known to the public and are not, of course, representative of the prior art.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of at least one problem of the prior art, the present invention provides a state detection apparatus usable with a lidar, a lidar including the same, and a state detection method of the lidar.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a state detection apparatus usable with a laser radar, including:

a fault diagnosis unit configured to perform fault diagnosis on a component of the laser radar and output a fault diagnosis signal when it is diagnosed that a fault exists;

a diagnostic management unit in communication with the fault diagnostic unit to receive the fault diagnostic signal and configured to determine a status of the lidar based on the fault diagnostic signal.

The invention also relates to a lidar comprising: the state detection device as described above.

The invention also relates to a state detection method of the laser radar, which comprises the following steps:

performing fault diagnosis on a component of the laser radar through a fault diagnosis unit, and outputting a fault diagnosis signal when the existence of a fault is diagnosed; and

and receiving the fault diagnosis signal through a diagnosis management unit, and determining the state of the laser radar according to the fault diagnosis signal.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the disclosure, illustrate embodiments of the disclosure and together with the description serve to explain the disclosure and are not to limit the disclosure. In the drawings:

FIG. 1A shows a schematic diagram of a condition detection device according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 1B shows a schematic diagram of a condition detection device according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 1C shows a schematic diagram of a lidar according to one embodiment of the present invention having the state detection apparatus shown in FIG. 1A integrated therein;

FIG. 2A illustrates a plurality of states of a lidar in accordance with one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2B illustrates a plurality of states of a lidar in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2C illustrates the operation of the lidar power supply when switched to shutdown in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates an initialization phase of a lidar in accordance with one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates an interaction of an upper tray and a lower tray according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 shows a schematic diagram of a lidar in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 illustrates a state detection method according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 7 shows an example of a lidar;

fig. 8 shows a schematic structural view of the interior of the laser radar;

FIG. 9 shows a schematic diagram of a transmitting unit of a lidar in accordance with one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 10 shows a schematic diagram of a detection circuit according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 11 shows an arrangement of photodetectors according to another embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 12 shows a detection method of a transmitting unit of a lidar according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 shows a schematic diagram of a lidar transmitting end assembly according to an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 14 shows a schematic diagram of a preferred circuit configuration of a laser radar transmitting end assembly according to FIG. 1;

FIG. 15 illustrates a fault diagnosis method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

16A-16E illustrate preset waveforms for various faults, respectively, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 17 shows a lidar transmitting end assembly according to an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 18 shows a lidar in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 19 shows an exploded view of a receiving unit of a lidar in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 20 shows a schematic diagram of an LED light source according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 21 shows a schematic test diagram according to one embodiment of the invention; and

fig. 22 shows a control method of the laser radar according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 23 shows a schematic diagram of a lidar receiving end assembly;

FIG. 24 illustrates a fault diagnosis method that may be used at the receiving end of a lidar in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 25 shows a schematic diagram of a test being performed according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 26 shows waveforms of a test signal and waveforms of an output signal according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 27 illustrates one embodiment of a lidar receiving end;

FIG. 28 shows a lidar receiving end assembly according to an embodiment of the invention; and

fig. 29 shows a lidar receiving end assembly according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 30 illustrates a point cloud rationality diagnostic method that may be used with a lidar in accordance with one embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 31 illustrates a lidar in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 32 illustrates a power anomaly monitoring system for a LIDAR in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 33 illustrates a LIDAR system according to one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 34 illustrates a power anomaly monitoring method for a LIDAR in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 35 illustrates a prior art codewheel;

FIG. 36 shows a schematic view of a code wheel according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 37 shows a pulse schematic for a first zero degree position;

FIG. 38 shows a pulse schematic for a second zero degree position;

FIG. 39 shows a schematic view of a code wheel according to another embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 40 shows a schematic view of an electro-optical encoding apparatus according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 41 shows a schematic view of an optoelectronic encoding device according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 42 shows a schematic diagram of a lidar in accordance with an embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 43 illustrates a method of angular orientation using the code wheel of the present invention.

Detailed Description

In the following, only certain exemplary embodiments are briefly described. As those skilled in the art will recognize, the described embodiments may be modified in various different ways, all without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention. Accordingly, the drawings and description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature, and not as restrictive.

In the description of the present invention, it is to be understood that the terms "center", "longitudinal", "lateral", "length", "width", "thickness", "upper", "lower", "front", "rear", "left", "right", "vertical", "horizontal", "top", "bottom", "inner", "outer", "clockwise", "counterclockwise", and the like, indicate orientations and positional relationships based on those shown in the drawings, and are used only for convenience of description and simplicity of description, and do not indicate or imply that the device or element being referred to must have a particular orientation, be constructed and operated in a particular orientation, and thus, should not be considered as limiting the present invention. Furthermore, the terms "first", "second" and "first" are used for descriptive purposes only and are not to be construed as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of technical features indicated. Thus, features defined as "first", "second", may explicitly or implicitly include one or more of the described features. In the description of the present invention, "a plurality" means two or more unless specifically defined otherwise.

In the description of the present invention, it should be noted that unless otherwise explicitly stated or limited, the terms "mounted," "connected," and "connected" are to be construed broadly, e.g., as meaning either a fixed connection, a removable connection, or an integral connection, either mechanically, electrically, or in communication with each other; either directly or indirectly through intervening media, either internally or in any other relationship. 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 present invention, unless otherwise expressly stated or limited, "above" or "below" a first feature means that the first and second features are in direct contact, or that the first and second features are not in direct contact but are in contact with each other via another feature therebetween. Also, the first feature being "on," "above" and "over" the second feature includes the first feature being directly on and obliquely above the second feature, or merely indicating that the first feature is at a higher level than the second feature. A first feature being "under," "below," and "beneath" a second feature includes the first feature being directly above and obliquely above the second feature, or simply meaning that the first feature is at a lesser level than the second feature.

The following disclosure provides many different embodiments or examples for implementing different features of the invention. To simplify the disclosure of the present invention, the components and arrangements of specific examples are described below. Of course, they are merely examples and are not intended to limit the present invention. Furthermore, the present invention may repeat reference numerals and/or letters in the various examples, such repetition is for the purpose of simplicity and clarity and does not in itself dictate a relationship between the various embodiments and/or configurations discussed. In addition, the present invention provides examples of various specific processes and materials, but one of ordinary skill in the art may recognize applications of other processes and/or uses of other materials.

The preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, and it will be understood that they are described herein for the purpose of illustration and explanation and not limitation.

Fig. 1A shows a state detection apparatus 10 usable with a laser radar according to an embodiment of the present invention, including a fault diagnosis unit and a diagnosis management unit. Wherein the failure diagnosis unit is configured to perform failure diagnosis on a component of the laser radar and output a failure diagnosis signal when it is diagnosed that a failure exists. The diagnostic management unit is in communication with the fault diagnosis unit to receive the fault diagnosis signal and is configured to determine a status of the lidar based on the fault diagnosis signal. The components of the laser radar include, but are not limited to, a transmitting unit, a receiving unit, a point cloud generating unit, a motor, a power supply, an encoder, a communication component and the like of the laser radar. The fault diagnosis unit can monitor the state of one or more components, when abnormality is found, a diagnosis signal S is output to the diagnosis management unit, and the diagnosis management unit determines the state of the laser radar according to the fault diagnosis signal.

The lidar integrates a plurality of electronic, mechanical and optical devices, and is classified in terms of functions, including a power supply module, a control unit (such as an upper chamber plate and a lower chamber plate), a transmitting unit, a receiving unit, a storage unit, a communication unit and other functional modules. The invention is additionally provided with a fault diagnosis unit and a diagnosis management unit. Each functional module of the lidar may include, for example, a controller (e.g., an integrated circuit board) and a controlled device, with the controller causing the controlled device to perform a predetermined function. For one or more of the functional modules (or for each functional module), a corresponding fault diagnosis unit is provided to perform fault diagnosis of the functional module. Those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that the fault diagnosis unit may be separate from the controller or integrated into the controller as long as the preset diagnosis function can be performed. Through the whole framework, corresponding fault diagnosis units can be synchronously added along with the expansion of the functional modules of the laser radar, so that synchronous expansion is realized.

The fault detection device can independently operate independently of other functional modules of the laser radar, and determines the diagnosis time and period according to the specific situation of the diagnosed object. When the laser radar is started, if the diagnosis system is not normally started, a corresponding indication signal can be timely output to the perception system. In addition, the state monitoring device of the invention has convenient applicability and can be added to the existing laser radar as an independent system.

Fig. 1B and 1C show a state detection device 10 according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the state detection device 10 being installed in the laser radar 1, for example, and being used to detect the operating state of the laser radar 1. The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings.

The laser radar 1 includes an upper chamber plate 11 and a lower chamber plate 13, where the upper chamber plate 11 and the lower chamber plate 13 may be, for example, circuit boards, the upper chamber plate 11 may specifically be implemented by using an FPGA, and the lower chamber plate 13 may specifically be implemented by using a part of the FPGA and a part of a CPU core (e.g., a microprocessor or a microcontroller). Or alternatively, the upper chamber plate 11 and the lower chamber plate 13 may be implemented by a DSP or an FPGA with a CPU. As the brain of the lidar, the upper chamber plate 11 and the lower chamber plate 13 may be connected to various optical, electronic and mechanical components of the lidar, providing corresponding circuit connection control and/or mechanical support thereto. In the case of the laser radar, the upper deck 11 may be mounted above the lower deck 13 relatively. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the transmitting unit, the receiving unit, and the point cloud generating unit of the lidar may be connected to the upper deck 11, for example, may be carried on an upper surface or a lower surface of the upper deck 11. The transmitting unit comprises one or more lasers, a laser driving circuit, a lens and other optical components and is configured to transmit a detection laser beam to the outside of the laser radar; the receiving unit comprises a photoelectric detector such as APD, SiPM, SPAD and the like, and is used for receiving the echo of the detection laser beam reflected on the target object and converting the echo into an electric signal; the point cloud generating unit is configured to calculate the flight time of the detection laser beam according to the electrical signal, so as to obtain related information such as the distance and reflectivity of the target object, and generate point cloud data of the laser radar, which will be described in detail below. The motor, power supply, encoder and communication components of the lidar may be connected to the lower deck 13 of the lidar 1. Taking the mechanical lidar as an example, it usually comprises an opto-mechanical rotor (in which a transmitting unit and a receiving unit are usually located for transmitting a detection laser beam in different directions and receiving echoes). The motor provides the power required for the rotation of the opto-mechanical rotor of the lidar so that the opto-mechanical rotor can rotate at a preset rotational speed, for example at 10Hz or 20 Hz. The lidar is typically not provided with a separate power supply inside, but rather is supplied with power input from outside, for example from an onboard power supply. The power supply module of the lidar generally includes a voltage boost circuit for boosting an input voltage (typically 5V or 15V) to an operating voltage (e.g., 60V) required by the lidar, and a power management module for distributing electrical energy to various components on the lidar that require power supply. The encoder and the code disc are generally used for performing encoding measurement on the rotation of the opto-mechanical rotor of the laser radar, so as to obtain the rotation speed and the current angular orientation of the opto-mechanical rotor of the laser radar. The communication component is used for communication between the fixed component and the rotating component in the laser radar and communication between the laser radar and an external perception system.

As shown in fig. 1B, the state detection apparatus 10 includes a first failure diagnosis Unit FDU 111(Fault diagnosis Unit), a second failure diagnosis Unit FDU 131, and a diagnosis Management Unit DMU 132 (diagnosis Management Unit). Wherein the first fault diagnosis unit FDU 111 is configured to perform fault diagnosis on the components of the laser radar 1 mounted on or connected to the upper deck 11, and to output a first fault diagnosis signal S1 when it is diagnosed that a fault exists; the second fault diagnosis unit FDU 131 is configured to perform fault diagnosis on the components of the laser radar mounted on or connected to the lower deck 13, and to output a second fault diagnosis signal S2 when it is diagnosed that a fault exists. Those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that the first and second fault diagnostic signals S1 and S2 may include one or more of a fault type, a fault component name or number, specific fault information, and the like. The diagnostic management unit DMU 132 communicates with the first and second fault

diagnosis units FDU

111 and 131 to receive the first and second fault diagnosis signals S1 and S2 and is configured to determine a state of the lidar based on the first and second fault diagnosis signals S1 and S2. In a specific implementation, based on the consideration of engineering implementation, in order to preferentially transmit the point cloud data, after the first failure diagnosis signal S1 is generated, it may be temporarily stored in the random access memory disposed on the upper bin 11, and a certain time may be selected to be transmitted to the random access memory of the lower bin 13 through wireless communication, while after the second failure diagnosis signal S2 is generated, it may be stored in the random access memory, and a sensing system or a diagnosis device external to the lidar may acquire all or part of the failure storage data by requesting, which will be described in detail below.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the diagnostic management unit DMU 132 is coupled to the point Cloud generating unit PCO 112 and is configured to receive, when receiving the first failure diagnosis signal S1, the point Cloud data (D _ Cloud) corresponding to the first failure diagnosis signal, i.e. to transmit the point Cloud data at the moment of failure to the diagnostic management unit. For example, when one or two of the lasers or detectors fails, the point cloud data corresponding to the laser or detector will be erroneous data, and can be subsequently rejected according to the requirements.

The diagnosis system can correspondingly detect the radar system according to the working state of the radar. The content, manner, parameters and algorithm of diagnosis can be adjusted according to the working state. According to an embodiment of the invention, as shown in fig. 2A, the states of the lidar include: initialization state, normal state, degraded state, shutdown state. And in the initialization state, the laser radar performs self-checking operation and motor starting operation. The lidar is typically in said initialisation phase when the lidar has just been powered up and the motor has not yet reached a base speed (e.g. one or more rotational speeds of the opto-mechanical rotor in normal operation of the lidar, which may be in frequency units, e.g. 10Hz or 20 Hz); or in the normal working process of the laser radar, the laser radar can be initiatively triggered to be initialized again, or the laser radar is enabled to be in the initialized state again according to the received external request, and self-checking operation and motor starting operation are carried out. In addition, the self-checking operation may be initiated or triggered in various ways, for example, the self-checking may be triggered by an external sensing system (except for the lidar itself), and specifically, the lidar self-checking may be requested by sending an external signal; additionally or alternatively, the self-test may also be triggered internally (by the LiDAR itself), i.e., when the LiDAR meets certain conditions (e.g., at certain intervals or when the LiDAR is in a certain operating state); for another example, a maintenance self-check, i.e., a self-check performed by a diagnostic tool (device/program) during the laser radar after-sales process. The content of the self-test may include, but is not limited to, one or more combinations of the following diagnoses: the method comprises the steps of transmitting end fault diagnosis, receiving end fault diagnosis, voltage state diagnosis (which can comprise high voltage and/or low voltage), communication state diagnosis (comprising communication between an internal upper chamber plate and a lower chamber plate and/or communication between a laser radar and an external sensing system), clock state diagnosis, point cloud rationality judgment, power supply abnormity detection, control chip diagnosis, state diagnosis of a motor or other rotating parts and fault diagnosis of optical/mechanical parts.

In addition, it is understood by those skilled in the art that the self-test operation may also be independent of the initialization state, and constitute a self-test state alone. In this case, the states of the lidar would include: initialization state, self-checking state, normal state, degradation state and shutdown state.

And the normal state indicates that the laser radar is in a normal working state, the fault of the part of the laser radar is not detected, and the laser radar runs in a highest performance or preset performance mode. In the normal state, the first fault diagnosis unit FDU 111 and the second fault diagnosis unit FDU 131 may perform periodic fault detection on components of the laser radar, where the periodic fault detection is a device state diagnosis operation performed at a fixed time interval, and at this time, the laser radar is in a normal working state, and an execution process of the periodic fault detection operation does not affect normal working of the radar, such as output of a radar point cloud and rotation of a motor. Specifically, the content of the periodic fault detection may include, but is not limited to, one or more combinations of the following diagnostics: the method comprises the steps of transmitting end fault diagnosis, receiving end fault diagnosis, voltage state diagnosis (which can comprise high voltage and/or low voltage), communication state diagnosis (comprising communication between an upper bin plate and a lower bin plate inside and/or communication between a laser radar and an external sensing system), clock state diagnosis, point cloud rationality judgment, power supply abnormity detection, detection of whether a photoelectric detector works normally by adopting an additionally-arranged LED (light emitting diode), detection of whether a laser works normally by adopting an additionally-arranged photoelectric detector, control chip diagnosis, state diagnosis of a motor or other rotating parts and fault diagnosis of optical/mechanical parts.

The degradation state generally indicates that the lidar overall machine is still operating and that some performance or parameter has degraded, but is still within an acceptable range. In the degraded state, the first and second fault

diagnosis units FDU

111, 131 periodically detect faults of the lidar and record at least part of the data of the lidar, e.g. the status of the faulty component may be continuously monitored and recorded. In the shutdown state, the lidar is powered off and out of service, and at least part of the data of the lidar is recorded, such as information about a component that has failed severely when shutdown occurs due to insufficient or forced power down. It is also preferable that a Delay time of a certain duration is set before the laser radar stops working in power-off as shown in fig. 2B, and corresponding operations are performed within the Delay time, for example, the vehicle may start other sensors such as a camera, or remind an operator that the laser radar is about to stop working in power-off, and ask the operator to take over and control the vehicle in time, as shown in Delay-2 in fig. 2B. Similarly, a Delay time of a certain duration may be set before the lidar enters the degraded state to operate with reduced performance or parameters, as shown in Delay-1 in fig. 2B, during which time corresponding operations may be performed, such as the vehicle may activate other sensors such as a camera, or alert an operator that the lidar is about to enter the degraded state, and the operator may choose to take over and control the vehicle.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the diagnosis system can classify common faults of the laser radar in advance into primary faults and secondary faults according to the severity and the consequences thereof, and can give different processing options for different types of faults. For example, for some faults with lower influence, when the faults occur, the whole laser radar can still work, the performance/parameter is attenuated to a certain degree, but the attenuation is still within an acceptable range, the faults can be classified as primary faults, and correspondingly, the laser radar is in the degradation state. According to one non-limiting embodiment of the present invention, the primary fault includes, but is not limited to, the following types of faults. For a multi-line laser radar (such as 64 lines) where a small number of lasers and/or receivers do not work properly, for example where 4 lasers and/or receivers do not, the remaining 60 lasers and receivers of the laser radar can still work properly, only that the density and number of the point clouds it generates is reduced, but still within an acceptable range. For some faults with higher influence, when the faults occur, the laser radar is either out of operation or the attenuation condition of the performance/parameter exceeds an acceptable range, the faults can be classified as secondary faults, and correspondingly, the laser radar is in the shutdown state. When a secondary fault occurs, the laser radar needs to be powered down to be shut down, and meanwhile, relevant data including but not limited to various technical parameters of the laser radar at the time are recorded when the laser radar fails. According to one non-limiting embodiment of the present invention, secondary faults such as a motor start failure (e.g., no start at all, or a rotational speed after start-up not reaching a base speed) during the laser radar initialization stage, or a substantial portion of lasers and/or receivers (e.g., 10, 20, or more lasers or receivers) in the multi-line laser radar may not work properly, etc.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the first fault diagnostic unit FDU 111 may perform the following diagnostic test procedures: fault diagnosis of a transmitting terminal; fault diagnosis of a receiving end; detecting a photoelectric detector by adopting an additionally arranged LED; and detecting the light source by adopting an additionally arranged photoelectric detector. The second fault diagnostic unit FDU 131 may perform the following diagnostic test procedures: judging the rationality of the point cloud; detecting power supply abnormality; and (4) detecting the abnormality of the motor. According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the transmitting unit and the receiving unit of the lidar are carried by the upper bulkhead 11 or connected to the upper bulkhead 11, so that the first fault diagnosis unit FDU 111 is configured to perform the transmitting end fault diagnosis, the receiving end fault diagnosis, the LED-added detector diagnosis, and the photodetector-added light source diagnosis; the power supply of the lidar is carried by the lower bulkhead 13 or is connected to the lower bulkhead 13, so the second fault diagnosis unit FDU 131 is configured to perform the power supply anomaly detection and the point cloud rationality determination. The specific flow of each diagnostic process will be described in detail below.

As shown in fig. 2A, when the first fault diagnosis unit FDU 111 or the second fault diagnosis unit 131 detects a primary fault, the diagnosis management unit DMU 132 switches the state of the lidar to a degraded state; when the first fault diagnosis unit FDU 111 or the second fault diagnosis unit 131 detects a secondary fault, the diagnosis management unit DMU 132 switches the state of the lidar to a shutdown state. According to the embodiment of the invention, when the laser radar is switched to the shutdown state, the laser radar can close the communication function between the upper bin and the lower bin of the laser, can also close the power supply of the upper bin of the laser, and can also close the communication function and the power supply of the upper bin plate. By cutting off the power supply of the laser radar in the upper bin, the laser can be ensured to stop emitting light, and the safety problem of human eyes is avoided. The power supply of the upper bin can be directly supplied from the outside or the power supply of the upper bin can be directly supplied by the aid of the driving chip of the lower bin of the laser radar, and when the power supply of the upper bin is cut off, a power supply link between the driving chip and the upper bin plate can be cut off, and an external power supply circuit can also be cut off. By closing the communication function between the upper bin and the lower bin, the point cloud transmission can be stopped.

As shown in fig. 2C, according to the embodiment of the present invention, when the communication driver chip is switched to the shutdown state, the power supply to the communication driver chip is turned off, so as to turn off the communication function, and in addition, the power supply to the upper deck is also turned off. The power supply of the upper chamber plate can come from the lower chamber plate, or can be directly from the external power supply. The power supply for the laser can be cut off by closing the power supply for the upper bin plate, so that the safety problem of human eyes caused by the fact that the laser does not emit light is guaranteed.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, in the degraded state, when the first and second failure

diagnosis units FDU

111 and 131 do not detect a failure, the diagnosis management unit DMU 132 switches the state of the lidar from the degraded state back to the normal state. In some cases, some faults may be erroneously detected by the first fault diagnosis unit FDU 111 and the second fault diagnosis unit 131, or some faults may be automatically eliminated after a certain period of time, so that the state of the lidar may be switched back to the normal state if no fault is detected after a certain period of time. For example, when one of the detectors of the lidar is detected to be unable to output a normal electrical signal, it may cause the state of the lidar to be switched to a degraded state. In practice there is the possibility that the detector will not fail, simply failing to output a normal signal due to problems with ambient light. Then the ambient light becomes normal in the next cycle of detection and the detector will exhibit the ability to function properly, eliminating the fault condition. In this case, the state of the laser radar can be switched back to the normal state.

As shown in fig. 3, according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the self-test operation may include, but is not limited to: self-checking a power supply and a clock of the laser radar; self-checking the upper bin plate and the lower bin plate; internal power supply self-checking; self-checking of the transmitting unit and the receiving unit; voltage diagnostics (including low voltage, high voltage); communication diagnostics (including internal, external); and (5) diagnosing the control chip. Wherein the self-checking of the power supply and the clock comprises, for example, detecting whether the power supply module of the laser radar can output a specified power supply and/or voltage and/or power, and whether the clock circuit can output stable clock pulses; the self-checking of the upper bin plate and the lower bin plate comprises the self-checking of the power supply condition of the circuit boards of the upper bin plate and the lower bin plate; the internal power supply self-check comprises that a power supply module for detecting the laser radar can supply power to each part in the laser radar, and the internal power supply self-check comprises a laser, a detector, a motor, a laser driving circuit module and the like. Self-testing of the transmitting and receiving units includes detecting whether the transmitting unit, e.g., a laser, and the receiving unit, e.g., SiPM and spad(s), are able to properly transmit a probing laser beam and receive radar returns. As will be described in detail below.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the self-test operation may be performed in the following order: self-checking of the power supply and clock of the lidar (ST-1); self-checking the lower chamber plate and the upper chamber plate (ST-2); an internal power supply self-check (ST-3); the transmitting unit and the receiving unit self-check (ST-4). Specifically, for the self-checking operation, since the power and clock alignment is the first element of the ordered operation, the power/clock may be self-checked in the first step to determine whether the power is short or short of power supply, whether the timing of the clock matches the expectation, such as the expected power voltage is 60V, the current power supply is 50V, which may be understood as a low power supply voltage, and if the power supply is 2V or even 0V, which may be understood as a short power supply. When the power supply/clock self-check of the first step confirms that no problem exists, the second step is carried out: go up storehouse board and lower storehouse board and detect, in detail, because lower storehouse board generally is the circuit board that links to each other with external power supply, lower storehouse board can influence the work of going up the storehouse board to a certain extent at least, consequently can carry out the detection of lower storehouse board earlier, treat to confirm that work is normal after, further detect last storehouse board again, when going up storehouse board also confirmed errorless back, can carry out the third step. The third step: and internal power supply self-checking, namely detecting whether the power supply of the upper bin plate and the lower bin plate to other components inside the laser radar is normal, wherein the components include but are not limited to a motor, a light source driving circuit, an echo processing circuit and the like. After the self-test result of the third step is confirmed to be normal, the fourth step can be executed. The fourth step: and detecting the functions of the transmitting terminal device and the receiving terminal device. The detection of the transmitting end device can be performed first, and then the detection of the receiving end device can be performed. The emitting device includes, but is not limited to, a light source and a light source driving circuit. The receiving end device includes, but is not limited to, a photodetector device such as APD, SPAD, SiPM, etc., a processing device of echo electric signals, etc. Of course, the above sequence is only an example, but not a limitation, and in actual operation, a person skilled in the art may adjust the steps specifically executed in the self-test operation as needed.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 4, a bidirectional parallel interaction manner or a serial interaction manner may be adopted between the upper and lower panels of the lidar. The left side of fig. 4 shows the interaction mode of the laser radar, which adopts the bidirectional parallel mode between the upper bin plate and the lower bin plate. The upper bin plate and the lower bin plate independently perform self-inspection, the upper bin plate starts self-inspection after receiving a light-emitting request of the lower bin plate, the laser emits light and detects the light, and a self-inspection result does not need to be reported to the lower bin plate independently after the self-inspection is finished. If the self-checking is successful, a handshake protocol or data indicating successful handshake is attached to the point Cloud data (D _ Cloud) sent by the upper bin plate and then the lower bin plate; otherwise, if the self-test fails or corresponding faults occur, no handshake protocol is attached to the point cloud data sent to the upper warehouse board and then to the lower warehouse board, or data indicating handshake failure is attached to the point cloud data. After the lower warehouse board receives the point cloud data, if the point cloud data does not contain a handshake protocol or contains data indicating handshake failure, the point cloud data can be judged to be wrong.

The right side of fig. 4 shows the serial interaction mode between the upper and lower panels of the lidar. After the upper warehouse board of the laser radar is subjected to self-checking, self-checking result information including information of success or failure of self-checking is sent to the lower warehouse board. And only when the self-checking is successful, the lower bin plate sends a light-emitting request to the upper bin plate, and the laser of the upper bin plate emits light and detects the light.

As shown in fig. 3, when the self-test operation is successful, the motor start operation may be performed. The motor start operation includes the start of the motor drive circuit, the start of the motor, and the start of the encoder (and code wheel). During the start-up of the encoder (and code wheel), the encoder and the code wheel are diagnosed for faults, which may be performed by the second fault diagnosis unit FDU 131, for example. According to an embodiment of the present invention, a double-zero code wheel (see the content of the fifth aspect below) is adopted in the laser radar, and diagnosis is performed on the encoder and the code wheel according to pulse information, for example, the code wheel is rotated by a certain angle, a detection pulse of the encoder is output, the detection pulse is compared with a preset template, and if the detection pulse and the preset template are matched, the encoder and the code wheel are indicated to be working normally; otherwise, indicating that the encoder and the code wheel work abnormally. The detection of the encoder (and the code disc) can be carried out in the self-checking process and the periodic detection process of the laser radar.

After the motor is started and reaches a preset rotation speed, the diagnosis management unit DMU 132 switches the state of the laser radar 1 from the initialization state to the normal state. If the self-checking operation and/or the motor starting operation fails, so that the laser radar cannot work or the working performance is attenuated to an unacceptable degree (the specific situation is related to the current use scene, the unacceptable situation is that the current performance of the laser radar influences the realization of the function of the current use scene, if the laser radar is applied to an unmanned scene, if the performance of the laser radar cannot assist in safe unmanned driving, the laser radar cannot be accepted, if the laser radar is applied to a logistics trolley, if the performance of the radar does not support the correct delivery of goods to a shopper, the laser radar cannot be accepted), and the diagnosis management unit switches the state of the laser radar from an initialization state to a shutdown state; if the fault occurring in the self-checking operation is presented as a primary fault, the diagnosis management unit switches the state of the laser radar from an initialization state to a degradation state; and if the fault occurring in the self-checking operation is represented as a secondary fault, the diagnosis management unit switches the state of the laser radar from an initialization state to a shutdown state.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 5, the state detection device 10 further comprises a first cache BUFF-1, a second cache BUFF-2 and a failure memory MEM, wherein when the first failure diagnosis unit FDU 111 detects the existence of a failure, the caching of failure data to the first cache BUFF-1 is triggered; when the second fault diagnosis unit FDU 131 detects that a fault exists, it triggers the caching of fault data into the second cache BUFF-2. A failure memory MEM is coupled to said first cache BUFF-1 and may receive said failure data. The diagnostic management unit DMU 132 may receive fault data stored therein from the second cache BUFF-2 via the second fault diagnosis unit FDU 131 and optionally store the fault data in the fault memory MEM. Further alternatively, the second cache BUFF-2 may be coupled with the failure memory MEM, so that the failure data stored therein may be directly transmitted to the failure memory MEM. The first buffer BUFF-1 and the second buffer BUFF-2 may be volatile memories only for temporarily buffering the fault data during the operation of the laser radar, and the fault memory MEM is a non-volatile memory in which the fault data is still valid even if power is off. According to one embodiment of the invention, said first buffer BUFF-1 is arranged or connected to said upper deck 11, said second buffer BUFF-2 and a failure memory MEM are arranged or connected to said lower deck 13. The failure memory MEM may be various types of memory, such as but not limited to an EMMC or an EEPROM.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the diagnostic management unit DMU 132 is in communication with the failure memory MEM and can output some or all of the failure data stored in the failure memory MEM in response to an externally requested authority. For example, when an external sensing system of the vehicle sends a request to the diagnosis management unit DMU 132, the diagnosis management unit DMU 132 may retrieve part of the fault data and send it to the external sensing system. For example, when a failure analyst of the radar sends a request to the diagnosis management unit DMU 132, the diagnosis management unit DMU 132 may retrieve all the fault data and send it to the failure analyst.

In addition, when learning that the laser radar has a fault, the diagnosis management unit DMU 132 may actively send the fault information to the sensing system, for example, the fault information may be sent in the form of a fault message, or may be presented in the form of a fault. As described above, when the primary failure occurs, the diagnosis management unit DMU 132 switches the state of the lidar to the degraded state, and when the secondary failure is detected, the diagnosis management unit DMU 132 switches the state of the lidar to the shutdown state, and preferably, as shown in fig. 2B, before the above state switching is performed, a certain Delay time may be set, as shown in Delay-1 and Delay-2 in fig. 2B, and this Delay time is transmitted to the sensing system and presented to the user of the vehicle to make a process to determine the next vehicle operation, for example, the vehicle may select a sensor transition (such as switching to a camera, a millimeter wave radar, or the like), or the vehicle may select traveling to a safe area as soon as possible. In a specific implementation, the information of the interaction between the lidar and the external sensing system may include, but is not limited to: the operational state of the lidar and the transitions between states, the type of failure of the lidar, the health/confidence of each channel of the lidar, the triggering period and presentation form of these information may vary. The health degree/confidence degree of each channel of the laser radar is information for evaluating the working state of each channel of the laser radar, for example, the laser radar has 32 lines, the preset optical power of the laser of the 2 nd channel is 5w, according to an actual diagnosis result, the laser of the 2 nd channel can emit light, but the optical power is only 4w, if the health degree/confidence degree is fully divided into 10 minutes, at this time, 7 minutes can be scored, which indicates that the laser of the 2 nd channel can work, but the confidence degree is not fully divided. Alternatively, the health and confidence levels may be expressed as percentages, or the health and confidence levels may include only "normal" and "abnormal" states, which are within the scope of the present invention.

As shown in fig. 2A, when the first fault diagnosis unit FDU 111 or the second fault diagnosis unit 131 detects a primary fault, the diagnosis management unit DMU 132 switches the state of the lidar to a degraded state; when the first fault diagnosis unit FDU 111 or the second fault diagnosis unit 131 detects a secondary fault, the diagnosis management unit DMU 132 switches the state of the lidar to a shutdown state.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the status detection apparatus further comprises a point cloud rationality diagnosis unit PCR 133, for example, arranged on or connected to the lower deck 13, as shown in fig. 1C. The point Cloud rationality diagnosis unit PCR 133 is configured to receive the point Cloud data (D _ Cloud) and output result information of whether the point Cloud data is rational, and the diagnosis management unit DMU 132 communicates with the point Cloud rationality diagnosis unit PCR 133 and receives the result information of whether the point Cloud data is rational from the point Cloud rationality diagnosis unit PCR 133. The point cloud rationality diagnosis unit PCR 133 will be described in detail below.

The above description is made by taking a mechanical lidar having an upper chamber plate and a lower chamber plate as an example, and it is easily understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited thereto, and may be applied to other types of lidar, such as solid state lidar.

The invention also relates to a lidar comprising a state detection device as described above.

The laser radar device is characterized by further comprising an upper bin plate and a lower bin plate, wherein the upper bin plate and the lower bin plate are respectively provided with or connected with a laser radar component, and the upper bin plate and the lower bin plate are realized through an FPGA and/or a microcontroller.

The invention also provides a state detection method of the laser radar, which comprises the following steps:

Fig. 6 shows a status detection method 20 of a lidar according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, wherein the lidar includes an upper deck and a lower deck, the status detection method comprising:

at step S21: performing fault diagnosis on a component of the laser radar mounted on or connected to the upper bin plate through a first fault diagnosis unit, and outputting a first fault diagnosis signal when the existence of a fault is diagnosed;

at step S22: performing fault diagnosis on a component of the laser radar mounted on or connected to the lower bin plate through a second fault diagnosis unit, and outputting a second fault diagnosis signal when the existence of a fault is diagnosed; and

at step S23: and receiving the first fault diagnosis signal and the second fault diagnosis signal through a diagnosis management unit, and determining the state of the laser radar according to the first fault diagnosis signal and the second fault diagnosis signal.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the lidar includes a transmitting unit, a receiving unit and a point cloud generating unit, which are disposed on the upper deck, wherein the transmitting unit is configured to transmit a detection laser beam to the outside of the lidar, the receiving unit is configured to receive an echo of the detection laser beam reflected on a target and convert the echo into an electrical signal, and the point cloud generating unit is configured to generate point cloud data of the lidar according to the electrical signal, wherein the state detection method further includes: when the first fault diagnosis signal is received, point cloud data corresponding to the first fault diagnosis signal is received, namely the point cloud data at the moment of fault occurrence is transmitted to a diagnosis management unit.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the lidar includes a motor, a power supply, an encoder, and a communication part disposed on the lower deck, and the status of the lidar includes: the method comprises an initialization state, a normal state, a degradation state and a shutdown state, wherein the state detection method comprises the following steps:

in the initialization state, performing self-checking operation and motor starting operation on the laser radar;

in the normal state, carrying out periodic detection through the first fault diagnosis unit and the second fault diagnosis unit;

in the degradation state, periodically detecting through the first fault diagnosis unit and the second fault diagnosis unit, and recording at least partial data of the laser radar;

and in the shutdown state, powering off the laser radar and recording at least part of data of the laser radar.

As shown above, the fault of the lidar includes a primary fault and a secondary fault, and the state detection method further includes:

when the first fault diagnosis unit or the second fault diagnosis unit detects a primary fault, switching the state of the laser radar to a degraded state through the diagnosis management unit;

when the first fault diagnosis unit or the second fault diagnosis unit detects a secondary fault, the state of the laser radar is switched to a shutdown state through the diagnosis management unit

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the status detection method 20 further comprises: when the first and second failure diagnosis units do not detect a failure in the degradation stage, the diagnosis management unit switches the state of the lidar from a degraded state to a normal state.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the self-test operation comprises: self-checking of a power supply and a clock of the laser radar; self-checking the upper bin plate and the lower bin plate; internal power supply self-checking; the transmitting unit and the receiving unit perform self-checking, wherein the motor starting operation is performed after the self-checking operation is successful,

the state detection method further includes:

when the self-checking is successful in the initialization stage and the motor is started successfully, the state of the laser radar is switched from the initialization state to the normal state through the diagnosis management unit;

if the self-checking of the power supply and the clock fails or the self-checking of the upper bin plate and the lower bin plate fails, the state of the laser radar is switched from an initialization state to a shutdown state through the diagnosis management unit;

and if the motor starting operation fails, switching the state of the laser radar from an initialization state to a shutdown state through the diagnosis management unit.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the status detection method 20 further comprises: when the first fault diagnosis unit judges that the fault exists, the fault data is cached to a first cache;

when the second fault diagnosis unit judges that the fault exists, the fault data is cached to a second cache;

the failure data is received from the first cache and the second cache through a failure memory.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the status detection method 20 further comprises: outputting, by the diagnosis management unit, the failure data stored in the failure memory when an external request is received.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the status detection method 20 further comprises: judging whether the point cloud data is reasonable or not through a point cloud rationality diagnosis unit and outputting result information;

and receiving result information whether the point cloud data is reasonable or not from the point cloud rationality diagnosis unit through the diagnosis management unit.

Those skilled in the art will readily understand that the features described above with reference to fig. 1B-6 can also be combined and applied to the solution of fig. 1A, and will not be described again here.

In a first aspect: transmit end fault diagnosis

The inventor of the application conceives that one or more photoelectric sensors can be additionally arranged in a transmitting unit of the laser radar or electric signals of all nodes in the transmitting unit are collected to judge whether the transmitting end of the laser radar has faults or not and optionally judge which kind of faults exist in order to monitor the faults of the transmitting end of the laser radar in time. As described in detail below.

Example 1: PD (photon detection) platelet

The detection of the transmitting unit of the present embodiment may form part of the periodic fault detection and initialization self-test described above.

The inventor conceives that a photoelectric sensor for detection can be arranged in a transmitting bin of the laser radar and used for detecting and judging whether each transmitting channel or laser of the laser radar works normally or not. The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings.

The transmitting unit of a lidar typically includes a plurality of lasers, which can be driven to emit probe beams, each laser corresponding to a certain detection angle or detection field of view, for example. Proper operation of the laser and associated optoelectronic components is essential to ensure high accuracy detection of the lidar. The inventor conceives that a photoelectric sensor for detection can be arranged in a transmitting bin of the laser radar and used for detecting and judging whether each transmitting channel or laser of the laser radar works normally or not. The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 7 shows an embodiment of the lidar 1. The lidar 1 comprises a transmitting unit for generating and emitting a detection laser beam, which is diffusely reflected at an object outside the lidar, and a receiving unit, to which part of the reflected beam is returned, received and processed. Fig. 7 schematically shows a 16-line lidar, i.e. 16 lines of laser beams (each line of laser beams corresponds to one channel of the lidar, and 16 channels) can be emitted in the vertical direction in the figure, namely L1, L2, …, L15 and L16, and are used for detecting the surrounding environment. In the detection process, the laser radar 100 can rotate along the vertical axis thereof, in the rotation process, each channel of the laser radar sequentially emits laser beams according to a certain time interval (for example, 1 microsecond) and detects the laser beams so as to complete line scanning on one vertical view field, and then line scanning of the next vertical view field is performed at a certain angle (for example, 0.1 degree or 0.2 degree) in the horizontal view field direction, so that point cloud is formed by detecting for multiple times in the rotation process, and the condition of the surrounding environment can be sensed.

As shown in fig. 7, lidar 1 includes a housing 210 for housing or supporting the mechanical, optical, and electronic components of lidar 1. The housing has a transmitting chamber 211 and a receiving chamber 212, as shown in fig. 8, wherein the transmitting chamber 211 is used for accommodating a transmitting unit 213 (see fig. 9) of the lidar, such as a laser assembly 2131, a mirror, a laser driving circuit, etc., and the receiving chamber 212 is used for accommodating a receiving unit of the lidar, such as a mirror, a detector array, a signal processing circuit, etc. The transmitting chamber 211 and the receiving chamber 212 are generally isolated from each other to avoid interference between the laser beam emitted by the laser and the echo received by the lidar. It will be readily understood by those skilled in the art that the transmitting chamber and the receiving chamber may be physically separated by one or more partitions to better isolate the transmitting unit from the receiving unit and to avoid cross-talk of light therebetween. The present invention is not limited thereto and the transmitting and receiving compartments may not necessarily be physically separated but may be substantially differentiated by the transmitting and receiving units contained therein, all within the scope of the present invention.

The invention relates primarily to the transmitting bin and transmitting unit of a lidar and therefore the receiving unit and the receiving bin are not described more in the interest of simplicity.

Fig. 9 shows the arrangement of transmitting units 213 in lidar transmit chamber 211. As shown in fig. 9, the transmitting unit 213 disposed in the transmitting chamber 211 of the laser radar includes a laser assembly 2131 and a transmitting lens 2132, and a reflecting mirror may be further disposed between the laser assembly 2131 and the transmitting lens 2132 as needed, so that the laser beam emitted from the transmitting assembly 2131 is reflected one or more times and then enters the transmitting lens 2132. The laser assembly 2131 comprises a plurality of lasers, each laser can be driven independently and emits a laser beam, and the laser assembly 2131 is located on a focal plane of the transmitting lens 2132, so that the laser beam can be modulated and shaped into parallel beams after passing through the transmitting lens 2132 and emitted into a three-dimensional space around the laser radar for detecting a target object.

As shown in fig. 9, a photodetector 214 is disposed in a transmitting chamber 211 of the lidar and is mounted on an inner top wall of the transmitting chamber. As shown in fig. 9, it is mounted, for example, on a substrate 215, the substrate 215 being, for example, a PCB circuit board, which together constitute a detection circuit. In fig. 9, a substrate 215 is connected to an upper cavity plate of the lidar via a flexible flat cable 216, and is used for providing a voltage to the substrate 215 and the photodetector 214 and transmitting a data signal in a single direction or a two-way direction. The launch chamber 211 has an upper cover plate (the top wall of the launch chamber 211) 217 with a locating hole 2171 therein. The substrate 215 also has a positioning hole corresponding to the positioning hole 2171 of the upper cover plate 217, so that the substrate can be fixedly connected with the upper cover plate 217 of the emission chamber through the positioning hole, so that the mounting plane of the photodetector 215 and the light emitting path of the laser assembly 2131 are substantially parallel to each other, and the light sensing surface of the photodetector 215 and the light emitting path of the laser assembly 2131 are parallel or slightly inclined. In addition, in the embodiment of fig. 9, the photodetector 214 is disposed on the base plate 215 and is further connected to the upper deck of the laser radar 1. It is understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited thereto, and the photodetector 214 may be directly disposed on the upper bin plate of the laser radar 1 without disposing the substrate 215, which is within the scope of the present invention.

As shown in fig. 9, when the laser of the laser assembly 2131 is driven to emit light, the direction of the main light path thereof is substantially toward the emitting lens 2132, as indicated by the arrow of the main light path in fig. 9. However, in the actual light emitting process of the laser, the laser does not have strict directivity, and therefore, in addition to the main light path, some stray light is generated, such as a light spot shown in a circular shape in fig. 9, which has a large diffusion area or has a direction deviating from the direction of the main light path to a large extent. Therefore, according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the photodetector 214 is installed outside the main optical path of the laser assembly 2131 and at a position where stray light can be irradiated, so that the normal light emission detection of the laser assembly 2131 is not disturbed, and the stray light of the laser assembly 2131 can be continuously measured to detect the operating state of the detector. For example, when the laser emits light, the photodetector 214 on the substrate 215 can collect stray light outside the main light path emitted by the laser. For a laser, there is a certain corresponding relationship between the stray light and the light beam of the main light path, and this preset relationship can be known through experiments and is related to the type of the laser, the driving voltage, and the specific position of the photodetector 214. When the laser works normally, the corresponding relation is satisfied between the stray light and the light beam of the main light path; when the laser or the driving circuit is in fault, the relationship between the stray light and the light beam of the main light path deviates from the corresponding relationship under the normal working condition, at this time, the waveform of the stray light detected by the photoelectric detector 214 is also abnormal, so that whether the laser is in fault or not can be identified according to the waveform of the stray light detected by the photoelectric detector 214, and optionally, when the fault occurs, specific fault types are identified, such as open circuit of the laser, higher luminous intensity of the laser or lower luminous intensity of the laser, and other fault states. For example, according to one embodiment of the present invention, the light intensity range of the stray light can be preset when the laser is operating normally. During the working process of the laser radar, the light intensity of the stray light is continuously detected, and when the detected light intensity is zero, the laser can be judged to be open-circuited; when the detected light intensity is higher than the preset light intensity range, the light intensity of the laser can be judged to be larger (for example, due to overhigh driving voltage); when the detected light intensity is lower than the preset light intensity range, the light intensity of the laser can be judged to be smaller (for example, due to the fact that the driving voltage is too low). It is readily understood by those skilled in the art that detection based on intensity is only one embodiment of the present invention, and fault detection based on other characteristic parameters of the waveform obtained by detecting stray light may also be performed, all of which are within the scope of the present invention.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the photodetector 214 is, for example, an avalanche diode APD, for receiving stray light of the emission system. FIG. 10 shows a schematic diagram of a detection circuit according to one embodiment of the invention. As shown, the detection circuit includes, in addition to the substrate 215, a data acquisition board on which a high voltage generation circuit is disposed for providing a bias voltage to the photodetector 214. The photodetector 214 senses the stray light of the laser and generates an electrical signal, and the output electrical signal is usually weak, so an amplifier may be further disposed on the substrate 215 for amplifying the electrical signal output by the photodetector 214, and then the amplified electrical signal is provided to a detection control unit (or diagnostic unit) through a receiving circuit (or a reading and sampling circuit) disposed on the data acquisition board. The detection control unit may determine whether the signal sensed by the photodetector 214 is within a normal range according to a preset method, and if the signal is not within the normal range, what kind of malfunction may occur in the laser assembly 2131 of the lidar. Further preferably, a temperature sensor may be further disposed on the substrate 215 to measure a temperature of the substrate 215. A temperature sensor is also coupled to the detection control unit to send the temperature measurement of the substrate 215 to the detection control unit. Taking an avalanche diode (APD) as an example, the photosensitive effect (amplification factor of photocurrent) of the APD as a photoelectric detector is influenced by temperature and negative high voltage, and the negative high voltage is adjusted by collecting the temperature of the environment where the APD is located, so that the amplification factor of the APD on the photocurrent is basically consistent at different temperatures, thus the influence of the temperature on the photosensitive waveform is eliminated in the diagnosis process, and the change of the output waveform of the APD is only the waveform abnormality caused by faults. Meanwhile, when the photoelectric detector is used for carrying out transmitting end diagnosis, the following two aspects can be firstly diagnosed: whether the connector is firm; the output voltage condition of the photoelectric detector when stray light is not detected (for example, in the case of inputting a bias voltage of 1.65V to the photoelectric detector normally, the theoretical output is about 1.65V under the condition of no light sensitivity) is used for checking whether the photoelectric detector has a fault or not, so that fault latency is avoided.

When the laser in the laser assembly 2131 is driven to emit light, the detection control unit can read the electrical signal output by the photodetector 214 and analyze the electrical signal to determine whether the emitting unit is working normally according to the analysis result. It is readily understood by a person skilled in the art that the detection control unit may be integrated into the lidar 1 or may be implemented as a separate component, which is easily implemented under the teachings of the present invention and is within the scope of the present invention. For example, the detection control unit may be a part of the laser radar 1 or a unit module integrated on the upper or lower chamber plate of the laser radar, or may be a separate device disposed outside the laser radar, which may receive the amplified and converted output of the photodetector 214 and perform a diagnostic operation.

In the decision process, for example, the entire link of the transmitting unit can be diagnosed. The transmitting unit includes a plurality of transmitting channels corresponding to the plurality of lasers, and each receiving channel includes a corresponding one of the lasers and a driving circuit. According to one embodiment, by diagnosing the presence or absence of an output for each channel, it is possible to determine whether the channel is operating properly. For example, when the photodetector 214 receives stray light, then the laser of the corresponding channel is emitting a detection laser beam. Then if one of the channels has no output, it can be concluded that the receiving channel has failed.

In addition, the pulse width, amplitude and phase of the laser output signal at the emitting end caused by the fault can be compared with those of the normal output signal by one or more of the parameters of the pulse width, amplitude and phase of the electric signal of the photodetector 214, so as to identify the abnormality of the pulse width, amplitude and phase of the laser output signal at the emitting end. In addition, the waveform of the pulse emitted by the laser can be preset or known, after the photoelectric detector detects the stray light, the detection control unit compares the waveform acquired and processed by the signal with the waveform of the pulse emitted by the laser, and if the two waveforms are the same or approximately consistent, the receiving unit is judged to work normally; otherwise, judging the receiving unit to work abnormally, and sending out an alarm.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, during normal operation of the lidar, the photodetector 214 continuously or periodically measures the stray light parameter, and the detection control unit continuously or periodically performs fault detection and diagnosis based on the output of the detector 214.

Fig. 11 shows another preferred embodiment according to the present invention, in which the photodetectors are arranged at different positions, as described in detail below with reference to fig. 11.

As shown in fig. 11, the substrate 215 is fixed on the inner sidewall 219 above the emission lens 2132 by a corner connector 218, a side surface of the corner connector 218 is flush with a side surface of the inner sidewall 219 above the emission lens 2132, and a top surface of the corner connector 218 is flush with a top surface of the inner sidewall 219. As shown in fig. 11, the side surface of the corner connector 218 has an opening 2181, and the substrate 215 also has an opening corresponding to the opening, so that the substrate 215 and the corner connector 218 can be fixed to the inner sidewall 219 by screws. There are apertures 2182 on the upper surface of the corner connectors 218 and corresponding apertures on the top surface of the interior side walls 219 so that the corner connectors 218 may be secured to the top surface of the interior side 219 by screws. Therefore, the photodetector 214 can be firmly fixed on the inner sidewall 219 by fixing the top and side surfaces of the corner connecting member 218, and the light-sensitive surface of the photodetector 214 and the light-emitting path of the laser assembly 2131 are substantially perpendicular to each other, so that the stray light emitted from the laser assembly 2131 can be collected and measured more conveniently.

In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, at the position of the inner sidewall above the emitting lens 2132, it is possible to try to make the photodetector 214 directly opposite the laser assembly 2131, for example, the central axis of the longitudinal direction of the photodetector 214 is approximately aligned with the bisector of the longitudinal direction of the laser assembly.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the lidar comprises an upper deck (not shown) on which a power interface may be arranged. The outer edge of the upper bin plate close to the receiving bin is provided with a slot, the base plate 215 is connected with the upper bin plate through a flexible flat cable 216, one end of the flexible flat cable 216 is connected with the base plate 215, and the other end of the flexible flat cable is connected with the slot of the upper bin plate through a connector, namely, the flexible flat cable is connected with a power interface on the upper bin plate and used for transmitting power and signals. Compared with other connection modes, the flexible flat cable and the PCB can be integrally processed, and the connection is reliable; the flexible flat cable is flat, occupies small space and is convenient for sealing the receiving bin; the installation is convenient.

The invention also relates to a method for detecting a transmitting unit of a lidar, such as may be implemented on a lidar as described above, and is described in detail below with reference to fig. 12.

As shown in fig. 12, the method 200 for detecting a transmitting unit includes:

step S201: receiving stray light emitted by a laser component of a laser radar through a photoelectric detector positioned in the laser radar;

step S202: and judging whether the laser component works normally or not according to the electric signal output by the photoelectric detector.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the step S202 includes: when the light intensity of the stray light detected by the photoelectric detector is zero, judging that the laser is open-circuited; when the detected light intensity of the stray light is higher than a preset light intensity range, judging that the light intensity of the laser is larger; and when the detected light intensity of the stray light is lower than a preset light intensity range, judging that the light intensity of the laser is smaller.

According to one aspect of the invention, the photodetector is configured to receive stray light from the laser for each time the laser is driven to emit light.

According to one aspect of the invention, the step of judging whether the laser assembly works normally comprises the following steps: if the waveform of the electric signal corresponds to a preset waveform, judging that the laser component works normally; otherwise, judging that the laser assembly works abnormally. For example, the pulse width, amplitude and phase of the preset normal output signal can be compared to determine whether the laser component is working normally.

The present embodiment further provides a method for controlling a laser radar, including:

receiving stray light emitted by a laser component of a laser radar through a photoelectric detector positioned in the laser radar; and

and judging whether the laser component works normally or not according to the electric signal output by the photoelectric detector.

According to one aspect of this embodiment, the step of determining whether the laser assembly is operating normally includes: when the light intensity of the stray light detected by the photoelectric detector is zero, judging that the laser is open-circuited; when the detected light intensity of the stray light is higher than a preset light intensity range, judging that the light intensity of the laser is larger; and when the detected light intensity of the stray light is lower than a preset light intensity range, judging that the light intensity of the laser is smaller.

This embodiment still provides a laser radar's transmitting element, includes:

a laser assembly disposed in a launch bin of a lidar, the laser assembly comprising a plurality of lasers configured to emit a detection laser beam;

the photoelectric detector is arranged in the transmitting bin and is configured to receive stray light of the laser and convert the stray light into an electric signal; and

and the detection control unit is coupled with the photoelectric detector and is configured to collect and analyze the electric signal of the photoelectric detector and judge whether the laser assembly works normally or not according to an analysis result.

Example 2: transmit end fault diagnosis

Embodiment 2 relates to the detection of the transmitting unit of the lidar, which may be performed, for example, by the first fault diagnosis unit FDU 111, described in detail below. The detection of the transmitting unit of the present embodiment may be part of the above periodic fault detection or self-test operation.

Fig. 13 illustrates one embodiment of a lidar transmitting end assembly 300. As shown in fig. 13, lidar transmitting end assembly 300 includes a power supply unit 301, an energy storage unit 302, a laser 303, and a switching device 304. Wherein the power supply unit 301 may typically receive a lower voltage input, e.g. 12V, and then boost the output voltage by means of a boost circuit, providing a high voltage HV, e.g. up to 60V. The energy storage unit 302 is used for receiving the high voltage HV output by the power supply unit 301, and storing and accumulating electric energy. The laser 303 is, for example, a laser diode LD, and has one end coupled to the switching device 304 and the other end coupled to the energy storage unit 302. According to one implementation of the present invention, the power supply unit 301 supplies power to the energy storage unit 302, the energy storage unit 302 stores electric energy, when the control switch device 304 is closed, the energy storage unit 302 drives the laser 303, the circuit formed by the switch device 304 discharges electricity, current flows through the laser 303, and the laser 303 emits a laser beam. The switching device 304 may be, for example, a GaN switch.

As further shown in fig. 13, lidar transmitting end assembly 300 further includes a driving unit 305, and the driving unit 305 is coupled to a control terminal of the switching device 304, so as to output a control signal for controlling the on/off and the on/off duration of the switching device 304, for example, 30ns, so as to influence the pulse width of the laser beam emitted by laser 303. When the driving unit 305 controls the switching device 304 to be in a conducting state, the switching device 304 provides a discharging circuit for the laser 303, so that the energy storage unit 302 drives the laser 303, current flows through the laser 303, and the laser 303 emits a laser beam. When the driving unit 305 controls the switching device 304 to be in an off state, the discharge circuit is opened, and the laser 303 stops emitting light. The light emission period of the laser 303 can be controlled by controlling the duration of the on-off of the switching device 304.

Fig. 14 shows a schematic diagram of a preferred circuit configuration of lidar transmitting end assembly 300 according to fig. 13. This is described in detail below in conjunction with fig. 14 and 13.

A specific structure of the power supply unit 301 of fig. 13 is shown in fig. 14. As shown in fig. 14, the power supply unit 301 includes a charging inductor 3011, a diode 3012, and a switch 3013 (e.g., a fet). One end of the charging inductor 3011 is connected to an input voltage PSV, for example, an input voltage of 12V, and the other end is connected to the drain of the switch 3013 and the diode 3012, respectively. The gate of the switch 3013 receives the control voltage pulse Vpulse and the source of the switch 3013 is grounded. The power supply unit 301 is coupled to the capacitor 302 (energy storage unit) so that a high voltage HV can be built up thereon, and to the laser 303. The other end of the laser 303 is coupled to the drain of a switching device 304 (shown as a field effect transistor, or a GaN switch), the source of the switching device 304 is grounded, and the gate is coupled to an FPGA as a driving unit 305. Those skilled in the art will readily understand that instead of using FPGA to implement the driving unit 305, DSP and ASIC may be used to implement the driving unit, which are all within the scope of the present invention.

The working principle is basically as follows. The circuit working process is as follows: the energy storage unit 302 charges and stores energy, when the switching device 304 is turned on, the laser is driven by the high voltage HV to emit light and discharge, and the whole laser detection process is circulated and continued.

During charging, the input voltage PSV (e.g. 12v or 5v) is provided, and the control voltage pulse Vpulse controls whether the switch 3013 is turned on and the turn-on time. When the switch 3013 is turned on, the source is grounded to form a loop, so that the charging inductor 3011 is charged under the driving of the input voltage PSV; when the switch 3013 is turned off, the inductor 3011 discharges because it is to maintain the current on it, the diode 3012 is turned on to charge the capacitor 302, the voltage across the charged capacitor 302 is the high voltage HV, the FPGA serving as the driving unit 305 provides the driving signal VDRV to the switching device 304 to turn on, so that the light emitting path is turned on, the current flows through the laser 303, and the laser emits the measurement light. The on-time of the switch 3013 is controlled by adopting pulse signals Vpulse with different duty ratios, so that the control of the high-voltage HV level is realized. By controlling the duty ratio of the drive signal VDRV output by the FPGA 305, the light emission time of the laser 303 can be controlled. In addition, the FPGA 305 may further collect electrical signals of one or more nodes in the lidar transmitting end, and compare waveforms of the electrical signals with preset waveforms, so as to determine whether a fault exists at the lidar transmitting end and a possible fault type, where the specific fault is, for example, a laser short circuit, a laser open circuit, a power supply unit open circuit, or an energy storage element open circuit.

Fig. 15 illustrates a fault diagnosis method 30 according to an embodiment of the invention, such as may be used for fault diagnosis of lidar transmit end assembly 300 of fig. 13 and 14. Described in detail below with reference to fig. 15.

As shown in fig. 15, in step S31, electrical signals of one or more nodes in the lidar transmitting end are collected.

The inventors of the present application have found that it is possible to collect the electrical signal (i.e. the high voltage HV) at the output of the power supply unit 301, i.e. the voltage waveform at the output of the power supply unit (or the voltage waveform at the energy storage unit), because the voltage waveform at the output of the power supply unit may characterize and identify various faults. It is further preferred that the node further comprises an output of the driving unit 305, and the acquired electrical signal comprises a voltage waveform at the output of the driving unit 305.

In step S32, it is determined whether the lidar transmitting end has a fault according to the electrical signal.

After certain processing is performed according to the amplitude and/or waveform of the collected electrical signal, it can be determined whether a fault exists in the laser radar transmitting end assembly 300.

The failure of the lidar transmitting end assembly may include one or more of the following: the laser is short-circuited, the laser is open-circuited, the power supply unit is open-circuited, and the energy storage element is open-circuited. Each fault is reflected in the electrical signal at one or more of the nodes. Therefore, a preset fault waveform or a preset judgment condition can be stored in the memory, and the electric signal is compared with the preset waveform or the preset judgment condition to judge whether the laser radar transmitting end has a fault and the type of the fault.

Fig. 16A to 16E show preset waveforms of various faults corresponding to the electric signals at the output terminal of the power supply unit 301. As shown in fig. 16A, a waveform Q1 represents a waveform in which the laser is short-circuited. When the laser 303 in fig. 13 is short-circuited, the output voltage waveform of the power supply unit 301 quickly drops to zero, so that whether a failure of laser short-circuiting occurs can be determined by the slope of the drop of the electrical signal at the output terminal of the power supply unit 301.

As shown in fig. 16B, the waveform Q2 represents the waveform of the laser open circuit. When the laser 303 in fig. 13 is opened, the electric energy stored in the energy storage unit 302 cannot be discharged through the laser 303, so that the voltage signal at the output terminal of the power supply unit 301 will be relatively smooth or will drop at a small speed, which is reflected in the waveform diagram, and the slope of the drop is relatively small.

As shown in fig. 16C, the waveform Q3 represents a waveform in which the power supply unit is open-circuited. When the power supply unit 301 in fig. 13 is opened or disconnected, the output of the power supply unit 301 will always be kept at a lower level, as shown by the waveform Q3.

The power supply unit comprises a charging inductor, and the fault further comprises a charging inductor open circuit. As shown in fig. 16E, where the waveform Q5 represents the waveform of the open circuit of the charging inductor. A pulse of waveform Q5 that creates a high voltage is completely absent, indicating that an open circuit in the charging inductor may occur.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a calculation may be performed according to the output of the power supply unit 301, such as calculating the amplitude, the falling slope, and the like, and then comparing with a preset threshold, so as to determine whether there is a fault, and a specific fault type. Alternatively, the voltage waveform output by the power supply unit 301 may be compared with preset waveforms, for example, by using an image classification algorithm, to obtain one of the preset waveforms closest to the voltage waveform, so as to determine whether there is a fault and a specific fault type.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the energy storage unit includes a charging capacitor or a charging capacitor bank, and the waveform Q4 represents the waveform of the open circuit of the charging capacitor. When the charging capacitor is opened, the high voltage HV will always remain high, and the laser cannot be driven to discharge the charge on the high voltage HV, and the waveform is shown as the waveform Q4 in fig. 16D.

In addition, those skilled in the art will readily understand that the waveforms corresponding to the various faults shown in fig. 16 are merely illustrative and do not limit the scope of the present invention. Those skilled in the art, having the benefit of the teachings of this disclosure, may configure other various types of fault waveforms within the scope of this invention.

Fig. 17 shows a lidar transmitting end assembly 300' according to an embodiment of the present invention, which also includes a power supply unit 301, an energy storage unit 302, a laser 303, a switching device 304, and a driving unit 305, and is substantially the same as the lidar transmitting end assembly 300 shown in fig. 13, and therefore, the details are not repeated here. In addition, features of the various components and their connections in the embodiment shown in FIG. 14 may be incorporated into FIG. 17 as well, without the need for inventive labor. The differences from lidar transmitting end assembly 300 of fig. 13 will be addressed below.

As shown in fig. 17, lidar transmitting end assembly 300 'further includes a fault diagnosis unit 106, where fault diagnosis unit 106 is configured to collect electrical signals of one or more nodes in lidar transmitting end 300' and determine whether there is a fault in the lidar transmitting end according to the electrical signals.

As described with reference to fig. 13 and 14, the one or more nodes may comprise an output of the power supply unit 301, the electrical signal comprising a voltage waveform at the output of the power supply unit.

Fault diagnosis unit 106 may be configured to implement fault diagnosis method 30 shown in fig. 15, for example, comparing the waveform of the electrical signal with a preset waveform to determine whether a fault exists at the lidar transmitting end and the type of the fault. The failure includes, for example: the laser is short-circuited, the laser is open-circuited, the power supply unit is open-circuited, and the energy storage element is open-circuited.

The energy storage element 302 includes, for example, a charging capacitor or a charging capacitor bank, the power supply unit includes a charging inductor, and the fault further includes an open circuit of the charging inductor.

The invention also relates to a lidar comprising: lidar transmitting end assembly 300 or 300' and a receiving end assembly as described above. Wherein lidar transmitting end assembly 300 or 300' is configured to emit a probe beam. The probe beam is diffusely reflected off an obstacle outside the lidar and a portion of the reflected beam is incident on the receive end assembly as a radar echo. The receiving side subassembly includes, for example, an optical lens and a photosensor. The optical lens converges radar echoes to enable the radar echoes to be incident on the photoelectric sensor. The photoelectric sensor can be an Avalanche Photodiode (APD) or a SiPM, generates an electric signal according to the received light intensity or photon number, and the electric signal is subjected to subsequent circuit and signal processing, amplification, filtering and other processing to generate point cloud data of the laser radar and can represent information such as the distance, the direction, the reflectivity and the like of an obstacle.

According to the technical scheme of the embodiment of the invention, the coverage rate of fault diagnosis is higher, and the detection and diagnosis of the failure of a plurality of devices at the laser receiving end can be met. In addition, the implementation complexity is low. In the design scheme of the embodiment of the invention, signal acquisition can be performed on the output end of the power supply unit, taking 64-line laser radar as an example, only 5 points are generally required to be acquired (which depends on the architecture, but the number of pins of the multi-line laser radar can be reduced by more than 30%), and the implementation complexity is lower than that of the traditional scheme. The implementation cost of the embodiment is low. The circuit acquisition logic has high real-time requirement, even nanosecond level, but can multiplex the high-speed ADC of the laser receiving end for acquisition without additionally increasing an ADC chip. In addition, the diagnosis logic circuit does not influence the normal working circuit, even if the diagnosis circuit is damaged, the diagnosis logic circuit can be identified through FPGA logic, and the robustness is high.

There is provided a fault diagnosis method usable with a lidar transmitting terminal, wherein the lidar transmitting terminal includes a laser and a switching device coupled to one end of the laser, an energy storage unit coupled to the other end of the laser, and a power supply unit supplying power to the energy storage unit, and wherein the fault diagnosis method includes:

collecting electric signals of one or more nodes in the laser radar transmitting end;

and judging whether the laser radar transmitting end has a fault or not according to the electric signal.

The present invention also provides a laser radar comprising:

a lidar transmitting end assembly as described above configured to emit a probe beam; and

and the receiving end component is configured to receive a radar echo formed after the probe beam is reflected on the obstacle.

According to the technical scheme of the embodiment of the invention, the coverage rate of fault diagnosis is high, all failure scenes of the laser radar receiving end circuit can be covered, and the implementation complexity is low. The traditional diagnosis scheme needs to separately detect a front-end demultiplexer, a transimpedance amplification unit, a rear-end two-stage multiplexer, a driver of an analog-digital converter and the like, and the circuit is complex. In the invention, whether each channel of the laser radar receiving end works normally or not can be detected by providing the test signal to the transimpedance amplification unit, and devices and positions which are possibly faulted can be diagnosed by the output of the analog-to-digital converter. The scheme of the invention does not increase a special detection chip and a complex circuit, thereby having low cost. Meanwhile, the diagnostic logic circuit does not influence the normal working circuit, even if the diagnostic circuit is damaged, the diagnostic circuit can be identified through the logic of a controller (such as FPGA, DSP or ASIC), and the robustness is high

In a second aspect: receiver fault diagnosis

Embodiments of the second aspect may form part of the periodic test or self test described above.

The inventor of the application conceives that in order to monitor the fault of the laser radar receiving end in time, a detection light source can be additionally arranged in the receiving unit of the laser radar, or whether the fault exists in the laser radar receiving end or not can be judged by collecting electric signals of all nodes in the receiving unit, and optionally which fault exists can be judged. As described in detail below.

Example 1: install LED additional and detect light source

Embodiment 1 relates to the detection of the receiving unit of the lidar, which may be performed, for example, by the first fault diagnosis unit FDU 111, described in detail below. The detection of the receiving unit of this embodiment may be part of the above periodic fault detection.

Fig. 18 shows a lidar 1 according to an embodiment of the invention. Described in detail below with reference to fig. 18. The laser radar 1 mainly comprises a transmitting unit 4200 and a receiving unit 4300, wherein the transmitting unit 4200 is configured to generate and emit a detection laser beam, the detection laser beam is diffusely reflected on an object outside the laser radar, a part of a reflected light beam returns to the laser radar 1, the detection laser beam is received and processed by the receiving unit 4300, an optical signal of a radar echo is converted into an electrical signal, further signal processing operations such as amplification, analog-to-digital conversion, and filtering are performed, and finally a point cloud of the laser radar is formed, so that parameters such as a distance, an orientation, and the like of the external object can be identified and characterized.

Lidar 1 comprises a housing (not shown) for housing or supporting the mechanical, optical and electronic components of the lidar 1. The housing has a transmitting compartment and a receiving compartment therein for receiving therein a transmitting unit 4200 and a receiving unit 4300 of the lidar 1, respectively. Although the emitting chamber and the receiving chamber are not shown in fig. 18, it is easily understood by those skilled in the art that the emitting chamber and the receiving chamber can be physically separated by one or more partitions, so as to better separate the emitting unit and the receiving unit and avoid crosstalk of light therebetween. The present invention is not limited thereto and the transmitting chamber and the receiving chamber may not be separated but may be substantially distinguished by the transmitting unit 4200 and the receiving unit 4300 accommodated therein, which are within the scope of the present invention.

The transmitting unit 4200 and the receiving unit 4300 are described below with reference to fig. 18.

The emission unit 4200 includes a laser driving circuit 4201, a laser assembly 4203, an emission end mirror assembly 4208, and an emission lens 4209. Therein, laser assembly 4203 includes one or more lasers, each of which is individually controllable to emit probe pulses. The laser assembly 4203 is coupled to the laser driving circuit 4201, supplied with a driving voltage and emits a pulse signal by the laser driving circuit 4201. Upon receiving the transmit pulse signal, one of the lasers in laser assembly 4203 will be driven to emit a probe beam. An emitting end mirror assembly 4208 and an emitting lens 4209 are disposed in series downstream in the optical path of the laser assembly 4203, wherein the emitting end mirror assembly 4208 is configured to redirect the probe beam by one or more reflections onto the emitting lens 4209. While the transmitting end mirror assembly 4208 is shown in FIG. 18 as including two mirrors, the present invention is not so limited and one or more mirrors may be provided and remain within the scope of the present invention. Transmit lens 4209 is typically positioned on a surface of the housing of lidar 1 and is configured to collimate or otherwise shape the probe beam incident thereon and transmit it to the exterior of the lidar for detection of surrounding obstacles. As will be readily understood by those skilled in the art, it is not described in detail herein.

In the receiving unit 4300, a receiving lens 4301, a receiving-side mirror assembly 4302, and a detection assembly 4303 are provided in this order along the direction of the optical path. Wherein the receiving lens 4301 is generally located on the surface of the housing of the laser radar 1, for example, juxtaposed in the horizontal direction with the transmitting lens 4209, and is used to receive the reflected light beam (or radar echo) from the external obstacle and converge the reflected light beam, and the converged light beam changes its direction by the receiving-end mirror assembly 4302, and is incident on the detection assembly 4303 after undergoing one or more reflections. The detection assembly may include a photosensor 43031 (shown in fig. 21), amplification circuitry, an analog-to-digital converter, and other signal processing circuitry. Wherein the photosensor may comprise, for example, a photodiode, an avalanche photodiode, APD, SiPM, or the like, which may output an electrical signal (e.g., a current signal) depending on the intensity or number of photons of the optical beam incident thereon. The electrical signal is usually weak, so that an amplifying circuit is required to amplify the electrical signal for subsequent signal processing operation. The amplifying circuit, which may be a transimpedance amplifier TIA, for example, is coupled to the output of the photosensor 43031, receives the current signal output by the photosensor 43031, amplifies the current signal, and converts the output voltage signal. The analog-to-digital converter is connected to the amplifying circuit and is used for sampling and converting the amplified analog signal and outputting a digital signal so as to facilitate subsequent operations such as filtering, storage and the like. And will not be described in detail herein.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the detection assembly 4303 comprises a substrate and an APD array detector disposed on a side of the substrate generally facing the receiving lens 4301 or receiving end mirror assembly 4302. The APD array detector is an APD area array detector and consists of area array avalanche photodiodes which are arranged in an NxN mode, wherein M is larger than or equal to 2, and N is larger than or equal to 2. Such as 4 × 4,4 × 8,8 × 8, etc., and specifically, the N × N arrangement depends on the laser arrangement of the laser radar.

As also shown in fig. 18, the transmitting lens 4209 and the receiving lens 4301 are located on the surface of the housing of the laser radar 1, and a light isolation sheet 4127 may be disposed therebetween to further isolate the transmitting lens 4209 from the receiving lens 4301 and reduce crosstalk of light therebetween.

As shown in fig. 19, the laser radar 1 further includes a detection light source 416 and a control unit 43032 (shown in fig. 21, or referred to as a diagnosis unit). Wherein a detection light source 416 is disposed in the receiving chamber and configured to emit a detection light beam that can be received by the photodetector 43031. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the detection light beam emitted by the detection light source 416 may be directly incident on the photodetector 43031, or may be reflected by the receiving end mirror assembly 4302 and incident on the photodetector 43031, and such is within the scope of the present invention.

As shown in fig. 21, the lidar 1 further comprises a control unit 43032, and the control unit 43032 is coupled to the photodetector 43031, and configured to collect an electrical signal of the photodetector 43031 and perform analysis to determine whether the receiving unit 4300 works normally according to an analysis result when the detection light source 416 emits a detection light beam. It will be readily understood by those skilled in the art that the control unit 43032 may be integrated into the detection assembly 4303 of the lidar 1 or may be implemented as a separate device, which is readily implemented under the teachings of the present invention and is within the scope of the present invention. For example, the control unit 43032, which may be part of the processing circuitry of the detection assembly 4303 or a unit module, may receive the amplified, converted output of the photodetector 43031 and perform diagnostic operations.

In the decision process, for example, the entire link of the receiving end may be diagnosed. The receiving unit for example comprises a plurality of receiving channels, each receiving channel comprising a respective said photodetector. According to one embodiment, by diagnosing the presence or absence of an output for each channel, it is possible to determine whether the channel is operating properly. For example, when the detection light beam emitted by the detection light source 416 should theoretically be received by all the photodetectors, then each reception channel should have a corresponding output. Then if one of the channels has no output, it can be concluded that the receiving channel has failed.

In addition, the pulse width, amplitude and phase of the output signal of the receiving end caused by the fault can be identified by comparing one or more of the parameters of the pulse width, amplitude, phase and the like of the output signal of the receiving end with the pulse width, amplitude and phase of the normal output signal. In addition, the waveform of the pulse emitted by the detection light source 416 may be preset or known, after the photodetector detects the light emitted by the detection light source 416, the control unit 43032 compares the waveform after signal acquisition and processing with the waveform of the pulse emitted by the detection light source 416, and if the two waveforms are the same or approximately the same, it determines that the receiving unit is working normally; otherwise, judging the receiving unit to work abnormally, and sending out an alarm.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the control unit 43032 is coupled to the detection light source 416, and configured to control the detection light source 416 to emit light when the lidar is on, perform a self-test of the lidar, and collect electrical signals of one or more nodes in the receiving unit to determine whether the receiving unit is operating normally. And when one or more of the receiving channels fails, an alarm is given to the user.

The receiving unit includes a plurality of receiving channels, each receiving channel including a respective one of the photodetectors. The detection light source may be one or more. In the case where one detection light source is provided, the detection light source is set at a preset position where a detection light beam of the detection light source can be detected by the photodetector corresponding to each reception channel. In this case, the detection light beam emitted by one detection light source can cover the photodetectors of all the receiving channels, so that the light emitted by one detection light source can be received by all the photosensors, thereby achieving the effect of simulating the simultaneous light emission of multiple lasers. The receiving end is provided with a plurality of sampling channels, each sampling channel can work simultaneously, and each sampling channel is respectively responsible for a certain number of photoelectric sensors, so that the detection light source can be continuously driven in a certain period, and the output of all the sampling channels can be identified by switching the photoelectric sensors on each sampling channel in a certain period.

In the case where a plurality of detection light sources are provided, the detection light beams emitted from the plurality of detection light sources may cover the photodetectors of all the reception channels. The number of the detection light sources is determined according to the layout of the photoelectric detectors, the intensity of the detection light sources and the relative position relationship of the photoelectric detectors and the intensity of the detection light sources, and the detection light beams emitted by the plurality of detection light sources can cover the photoelectric detectors of all receiving channels.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the receiving unit includes a plurality of receiving channels, each receiving channel includes a corresponding photodetector, and the control unit is configured to sequentially determine whether each receiving channel is operating normally.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 19, the detection light sources 416 are disposed at opposite upper portions of the inner side wall 412 of the receiving chamber. As shown in fig. 19 and 20, the sensing light source 416 includes an LED light source 4162 and a PCB driving board 4161, and the PCB driving board 4161 is connected to the LED light source 4162 to supply a driving voltage and current to the LED light source 4162. As shown in fig. 19, the detection light source 416 may be disposed on a side surface of the inner sidewall 412 above the receiving lens 301. Or alternatively, the detection light source 416 includes a light emitting device that can cause the photodetector 43031 to sense sufficient light radiation over the lidar operating temperature range. The LED light source has small volume, low power consumption, less heat productivity, less influence on the temperature of the receiving bin, low driving voltage and simple and reliable driving circuit, thereby being an optimal realization mode.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the detection light source 416 is located on the inner side wall above the receiving lens 4301, which is located on the surface of the housing, for focusing the radar echo.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 19, the detection light source 416 is fixed on the inner sidewall 412 above the receiving lens 4301 by a corner connector 417, a side surface of the corner connector 417 is flush with a side surface of the inner sidewall 412 above the receiving lens 4301, and a top surface of the corner connector 417 is flush with a top surface of the inner sidewall 412. As shown in fig. 19 and 20, an opening 4172 is formed on a side surface of the corner connector 417, and a hole 41611 is formed in the PCB driving board 4161 of the light source 416 at a position corresponding thereto, so that the PCB driving board 4161 together with the corner connector 417 can be fixed to the inner sidewall 412 by a screw. An opening 4171 is formed on the upper surface of the corner connector 417 and a corresponding opening is formed on the top surface of the inner side wall 412 so that the corner connector 417 can be fastened to the top surface of the inner side wall 412 by screws. The light source 416 can be securely fixed to the inner sidewall 412 by the top and side surfaces of the corner connector 417 being fixed thereto.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the LED and the photodetector may be aligned as far as possible at the position of the inner side wall above the receiving lens, so that the position of the maximum radiation energy of the light emitted from the LED is irradiated on the photodetector. As shown in fig. 20, according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the central axis of the longitudinal direction of the LED is substantially aligned with the longitudinal bisector of the photodetector array.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the lidar comprises an upper deck (not shown) on which a power interface may be arranged. The outer edge of the upper bin plate close to the receiving bin is provided with a slot, the PCB driving plate 4161 is connected with the upper bin plate through a flexible flat cable 418, one end of the flexible flat cable 418 is connected with the PCB driving plate 4161, and the other end of the flexible flat cable is connected with the slot of the upper bin plate through a connector 419, namely, the flexible flat cable is connected with a power interface on the upper bin plate and used for transmitting power and signals. Compared with other connection modes, the flexible flat cable and the PCB can be integrally processed, and the connection is reliable; the flexible flat cable is flat, occupies small space and is convenient for sealing the receiving bin; the installation is convenient.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the LEDs can also be placed at the position of the upper cover plate of the receiving bin, which is convenient for installation.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the control unit is configured to determine whether the receiving unit is functioning properly by:

if the waveform of the electric signal corresponds to the waveform of the detection light beam, judging that the receiving unit works normally;

otherwise, the receiving unit is judged to be out of work.

The invention also relates to a method 4100 for controlling a lidar as described above, which may be implemented, for example, on a lidar 1 as described above. As shown in fig. 22, the control method 4100 includes:

step S4101: when the photoelectric detection unit does not receive radar echo for ranging, a detection light beam is emitted to a photoelectric detector of the laser radar through a detection light source of the laser radar;

step S4102: and acquiring electric signals of one or more nodes in a receiving unit of the laser radar to judge whether the receiving unit works normally. The plurality of nodes may be located at a plurality of positions in the receiving unit, such as respective positions of an output of the photodetector, an output of the amplifier, an output of the analog-to-digital converter, and the like, and the present invention is not limited to a specific position.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, step S4101 comprises: and controlling the detection light source to emit detection light beams at preset time intervals.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the step S4101 comprises: and when the laser radar is started, the detection light source is controlled to emit a detection light beam.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the receiving unit comprises a plurality of receiving channels, each receiving channel comprising a respective said photodetector, the control method comprising: the step S4101 and the step S4102 are respectively performed for each reception channel.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the step of determining whether the receiving unit is working normally comprises:

otherwise, the receiving unit is judged to be out of work.

The technical scheme of the embodiment of the invention has high diagnosis coverage rate and can cover all failures of the laser radar receiving end circuit. The implementation complexity is low, the scheme cost is low: the scheme does not increase a special detection chip and a complex circuit, so the cost is low. The scheme is reasonable and high, the diagnosis logic circuit does not influence the normal working circuit, even if the diagnosis logic circuit is damaged, the diagnosis logic circuit can be identified through FPGA logic, and the robustness is high.

According to one aspect of the invention, the control unit is coupled with the detection light source and configured to control the detection light source to emit light when the laser radar is powered on, and collect electrical signals of one or more nodes in the receiving unit to judge whether the receiving unit works normally.

According to an aspect of the invention, the receiving unit comprises a plurality of receiving channels, each receiving channel comprising a corresponding photodetector, and the control unit is configured to sequentially determine whether each receiving channel is operating normally.

According to one aspect of the invention, the photodetector is an avalanche photodiode, and the detection light source is disposed at an upper portion of a sidewall of the receiving chamber.

According to an aspect of the present invention, the detection light source includes an LED positioned on a surface of the sidewall and a PCB driving board positioned inside the sidewall, the PCB driving board being connected to the LED.

According to an aspect of the invention, the lidar further comprises a receiving lens on the surface of the housing for focusing the radar echo, wherein the detection light source is located above the receiving lens.

According to one aspect of the invention, the detection light source is fixed on the receiving bin through a corner connector, the side surface of the corner connector is flush with the side surface of the receiving bin, and the top surface of the corner connector is flush with the top surface of the side wall.

According to one aspect of the invention, the control unit is configured to determine whether the receiving unit is operating properly by:

otherwise, the receiving unit is judged to be out of work.

The invention also relates to a control method of the laser radar, which comprises the following steps:

step S101: emitting a detection light beam to a photoelectric detector of the laser radar through a detection light source of the laser radar;

step S102: and acquiring electric signals of one or more nodes in a receiving unit of the laser radar to judge whether the receiving unit works normally.

According to an aspect of the invention, said step S101 comprises: and when the laser radar is started, the detection light source is controlled to emit a detection light beam.

According to an aspect of the invention, the receiving unit comprises a plurality of receiving channels, each receiving channel comprising a respective said photodetector, the control method comprising: the steps S101 and S102 are performed for each reception channel, respectively.

According to an aspect of the present invention, the step of determining whether the receiving unit operates normally comprises:

otherwise, the receiving unit is judged to be out of work.

Example 2: receiver fault diagnosis

Embodiment 2 relates to the detection of the receiving unit of the lidar, which may be performed, for example, by the first fault diagnosis unit FDU 111, described in detail below. The detection of the receiving unit of this embodiment may be part of the above periodic fault detection.

Fig. 23 shows a schematic diagram of a lidar receiving end assembly. As shown, the lidar receiving end assembly includes a photosensor (e.g., avalanche photo diode APD), a transimpedance amplification unit TIA, and an analog-to-digital converter ADC. The photoelectric sensor receives an echo signal of the laser radar and converts the optical signal into an electric signal. Generally, the electrical signal is a current signal and is weak, so that the signal can be amplified and simultaneously converted into a voltage signal by the transimpedance amplification unit TIA. And then, performing analog-to-digital conversion through the analog-to-digital converter ADC to generate a digital signal for subsequent signal processing of the laser radar, such as generating point cloud data, representing one or more of the distance, angle, reflectivity, and other parameters of the obstacle.

Fig. 24 illustrates a method 50 for fault diagnosis that may be used at a lidar receiving end, according to one embodiment of the invention, and is described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

As shown in fig. 24, the fault diagnosis method 50 includes:

in step S51, a test signal is input to the transimpedance amplification unit.

In fig. 23, during the operation of the laser radar, the input signal of the transimpedance amplification unit TIA comes from the photoelectric sensor. In the present invention, as shown in fig. 25, in order to detect whether the receiving end is working normally before the laser radar starts working or in a running gap, instead of outputting an electrical signal of the photoelectric sensor, a test signal is separately input to the transimpedance amplification unit to test whether a link of the receiving end of the laser radar is working normally. According to an embodiment of the invention, when the test signal is input, the photoelectric sensor is shielded so as not to generate signal output, or the signal generated on the photoelectric sensor cannot be provided to the transimpedance amplification unit TIA, so that the test signal and the signal of the photoelectric sensor cannot interfere with each other.

In step S52, it is determined whether the lidar receiving end has a fault according to the output of the analog-to-digital converter.

After the test signal is input in step S51, the transimpedance amplification unit amplifies the test signal as an input signal, and then performs analog-to-digital conversion and output through the analog-to-digital converter ADC. By collecting and analyzing the output of the analog-to-digital converter, whether the link of the laser radar receiving end works normally can be judged.

For example, the output of the analog-to-digital converter ADC may be compared with a preset waveform to determine whether the lidar receiving end has a fault and the type of the fault. Common faults at the receiving end of the laser radar include, for example: the transimpedance amplification unit is open-circuit, short-circuit of a power supply, abnormal amplification of the transimpedance amplification unit and the like.

Further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the test signal comprises a pulsed signal alternating high and low. The PWM waveform in fig. 26 shows the waveform of the test signal according to the present embodiment. The test signal comprises a plurality of continuous square wave pulses, and the amplitudes of the adjacent pulses are different, so that the pulses can be distinguished in odd-even mode, and the accuracy of fault diagnosis can be further improved.

The waveforms of Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4 in fig. 26, respectively, show the waveforms of the analog-to-digital converter ADC output when multiple possible faults occur.

As illustrated by waveform Q1, wherein the absence of a corresponding output pulse in waveform Q1, corresponding to one or more pulses in the test signal, indicates a fault at the receiving end of the lidar, such as an open circuit across the resistive amplifier unit.

As shown in waveform Q2, where the amplitude of the first pulse is too high and the amplitude of the third pulse is clamped to be substantially equal to the amplitude of the second pulse, this also indicates a fault at the receiving end of the lidar, such as a bias voltage fault (e.g., an APD bias voltage that is not stable), resulting in an offset in the output.

As shown in the waveform Q3, in which the respective pulses are in proportion to each other, although normal, each pulse is abnormally amplified compared to the test signal PWM. For example, it is assumed that the normal amplitudes of the high and low pulses output by the ADC are 1 and 0.8, respectively, but the amplitudes of the high and low pulses output at present are 2 and 1.6, respectively, and are amplified by 2 times based on the normal amplitudes, which also indicates that a receiving end of the laser radar has a fault, and a possible fault is, for example, a possible fault of the transimpedance amplification unit.

As shown by waveform Q4, the characterization, if there is a first stage of op-amp, results in the pulses varying in equal proportion, so there is a maximum Max and a minimum Min.

Fig. 27 shows an embodiment of a laser radar receiving end, which includes a demultiplexer De-Mux, a plurality of photosensors APD 1, APD 2, …, APD N, a plurality of transimpedance amplification units TIA 1, TIA 2, …, TIA N, a multiplexer Mux, and an analog-to-digital converter ADC, where the demultiplexer De-Mux is coupled to the plurality of transimpedance amplification units and selectively gates one of the transimpedance amplification units, and the plurality of transimpedance amplification units are coupled to the analog-to-digital converter through the multiplexer. Each photoelectric sensor and the transimpedance amplification unit connected with the photoelectric sensor form a channel.

The demultiplexer De-Mux may output an enable signal to each transimpedance amplification unit in sequence, for example, so as to activate each transimpedance amplification unit in sequence. When one of the transimpedance amplification units is activated, a test signal is provided for the activated transimpedance amplification unit to test whether the channel and the downstream analog-to-digital converter work normally.

Fig. 28 illustrates a lidar receiver assembly 500 according to an embodiment of the invention, described in detail below with reference to fig. 28.

As shown in fig. 28, the laser radar receiving end assembly 500 includes a photoelectric sensor 501, a transimpedance amplification unit 502, an analog-to-digital converter 503, a test signal generation unit 504, and a fault diagnosis unit 505. The photosensor 501 can convert an incident optical signal into an electrical signal, and the transimpedance amplification unit 502 is coupled to the photosensor 501 and configured to amplify the electrical signal output by the photosensor 501. The analog-to-digital converter 503 is coupled to the transimpedance amplification unit 502, and can receive the output of the transimpedance amplification unit and perform analog-to-digital conversion. The test signal generating unit 504 is configured to generate a test signal, and is coupled to the transimpedance amplifying unit 502 and configured to provide the test signal to the transimpedance amplifying unit. As shown in fig. 28, the photosensor 501 and the test signal generation unit 504 may be coupled to the transimpedance amplification unit 502 through a selection switch 506. The selection switch 506 may have, for example, a first position and a second position, when in the first position, it may couple the output signal of the photosensor 501 to the transimpedance amplification unit 502; when in the second position, it may couple the test signal generated by the test signal generation unit 504 to the transimpedance amplification unit 502. The selection switch 506 allows only the output signal of one of the test signal generation unit 504 and the photosensor 501 to be coupled to the transimpedance amplification unit at the same time. Thereby avoiding interference of the test signal with the output signal of the photosensor 501.

The fault diagnosis unit 505 is coupled to the output terminal of the analog-to-digital converter, and is configured to respond to the test signal, and determine whether a fault exists at the lidar receiving terminal according to the output of the analog-to-digital converter. The fault diagnosis unit 505 may, for example, execute the fault diagnosis method 50 as described above to determine whether a fault exists and the location and type of the particular fault. It will be readily appreciated by those skilled in the art that the features described above with reference to fig. 23-27 can all be incorporated into the solution of fig. 28 without the inventive effort, which is within the scope of the present invention.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the fault diagnosis unit 505 is configured to compare the output of the analog-to-digital converter 503 with a preset waveform to determine whether a fault exists at the lidar receiving end and the type of the fault, for example, as described above with reference to fig. 25, and therefore, the details are not repeated here.

Common faults may include one or more of the following: the transimpedance amplification unit is in an open circuit state, the power supply is in a short circuit state, and the transimpedance amplification unit is in an abnormal amplification mode. In addition, the test signal can comprise a high-low alternating pulse signal, so that the fault diagnosis of the laser radar receiving end link can be more accurately carried out.

In addition, the lidar receiving end component may include a plurality of channels, each channel includes a photosensor and a transimpedance amplification unit corresponding to and coupled to the photosensor, the lidar receiving end component further includes a demultiplexer and a multiplexer, the demultiplexer is coupled to the plurality of transimpedance amplification units and selectively gates one of the transimpedance amplification units, and the plurality of transimpedance amplification units are coupled to the analog-to-digital converter through the multiplexer, and a schematic structural diagram of the lidar receiving end component is shown in fig. 27. In this case, the test signal generating unit 504 may sequentially input a test signal to the plurality of transimpedance amplifying units.

In addition, according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the test signal generating unit 504 and the fault diagnosing unit 505 are integrated together to form an integrated controller, for example, implemented by FPGA, DSP or ASIC, as shown in fig. 29, a module for fault diagnosis may be integrated in the test signal generating unit 504, and may be implemented by software, hardware or a combination of software and hardware. The output of the analog-to-digital converter 503 is directly coupled to the test signal generation unit 504 for fault diagnosis by a fault diagnosis module integrated therein. The mode is beneficial to enabling the whole laser radar receiving end assembly to be more compact and have smaller power consumption.

The invention also relates to a laser radar, which comprises a transmitting end component and the laser radar receiving end component, wherein the transmitting end component can transmit the detection beam, and the laser radar receiving end component can receive the radar echo of the detection beam reflected on the obstacle.

The invention provides a fault diagnosis method for a laser radar receiving end, wherein the laser radar receiving end comprises a photoelectric sensor, a transimpedance amplification unit and an analog-to-digital converter, the transimpedance amplification unit can amplify the output of the photoelectric sensor, and the analog-to-digital converter can perform analog-to-digital conversion on the output of the transimpedance amplification unit, wherein the fault diagnosis method comprises the following steps:

inputting a test signal to the transimpedance amplification unit;

and judging whether the laser radar receiving end has a fault or not according to the output of the analog-to-digital converter.

The invention also relates to a laser radar receiving end assembly, comprising:

a photosensor configured to convert an incident optical signal into an electrical signal;

a transimpedance amplification unit coupled to the photosensor and configured to amplify an electrical signal output by the photosensor;

the analog-to-digital converter is coupled with the transimpedance amplification unit and can receive the output of the transimpedance amplification unit and perform analog-to-digital conversion;

a test signal generating unit coupled to the transimpedance amplifying unit and configured to provide a test signal to the transimpedance amplifying unit;

a fault diagnosis unit configured to: and responding to the test signal, and judging whether the laser radar receiving end has a fault according to the output of the analog-to-digital converter.

The invention also relates to a lidar comprising:

a transmitting end assembly configured to transmit a probe beam; and

the laser radar receiving end assembly is configured to receive a radar echo after the probe beam is reflected on the obstacle.

According to the technical scheme of the embodiment of the invention, the coverage rate of fault diagnosis is high, all failure scenes of the laser radar receiving end circuit can be covered, and the implementation complexity is low. The traditional diagnosis scheme needs to separately detect a front-end demultiplexer, a transimpedance amplification unit, a rear-end two-stage multiplexer, a driver of an analog-digital converter and the like, and the circuit is complex. In the invention, whether each channel of the laser radar receiving end works normally or not can be detected by providing the test signal to the transimpedance amplification unit, and devices and positions which are possibly faulted can be diagnosed by the output of the analog-to-digital converter. The scheme of the invention does not increase a special detection chip and a complex circuit, thereby having low cost. Meanwhile, the diagnostic logic circuit does not influence the normal working circuit, even if the diagnostic circuit is damaged, the diagnostic circuit can be identified through FPGA logic, and the robustness is high

In a third aspect: point cloud rationality determination

The present embodiment relates to detection of point cloud data of a laser radar, which may be performed by, for example, a point cloud rationality diagnosis unit PCR 133 shown in fig. 1B, described in detail below. The point cloud rationality diagnosis of the present embodiment may be part of the periodic fault detection or self-test above.

FIG. 30 illustrates a point cloud rationality diagnostic method 60 that can be used with lidar in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, and is described in detail below with reference to the accompanying figures.

In step S61, point cloud data of the lidar and working parameters of the lidar corresponding to the point cloud data are received.

The lidar is typically rotatable about a vertical axis to acquire 360 degrees of point cloud data in a horizontal plane. Taking 16-line lidar as an example for illustration, it may transmit 16 lines of laser beams (each line of laser beam corresponds to one channel of lidar, and there are 16 channels) in the vertical direction, which is L1, L2, …, L15, and L16, for detecting the surrounding environment.

In the detection process, the laser radar can rotate along the vertical axis of the laser radar, in the rotation process, each channel of the laser radar sequentially emits laser beams according to a certain time interval (for example, 1 microsecond) and detects the laser beams, so that line scanning on one vertical view field is completed, then line scanning of the next vertical view field is performed at a certain angle (for example, 0.1 degree or 0.2 degree) in the horizontal view field direction, and therefore point cloud is formed by detecting for multiple times in the rotation process, and the condition of the surrounding environment can be sensed.

During operation of the lidar, various operating parameters may be adjusted, such as the power or pulse strength of the transmitter may be relatively reduced (relative to the requirement of an expected detection range of up to 200 m) if only an obstacle at a relatively short distance (e.g., 100m) is desired to be detected. For another example, if the detection resolution of the lidar is desired to be high, the lidar may be controlled to rotate 360 degrees at 20HZ, while if the detection resolution is not so high, the laser may be controlled to scan over the horizontal field of view at 10 HZ. For example, most of the existing lidar is multi-line lidar (so-called multi-line, that is, a plurality of emitters are arranged on a vertical view field or a device capable of dividing a single outgoing light beam into a plurality of beams), if the lidar itself has 64 lines, that is, a point cloud of 64 lines on the vertical view field can be realized at most, but according to the detection requirement, the lidar can be controlled to scan only 32 lines. In addition, the lidar can realize 360-degree all-directional scanning of surrounding obstacles through 360-degree rotation, but in some application scenarios, for example, when the lidar is used as a forward-looking radar, it may be desirable for a user that the lidar only provides forward scanning (in the driving direction of the vehicle) within ± 70 degrees, and the lidar can be controlled to detect obstacles only within ± 70 degrees.

In step S62, the point cloud data and the working parameters are input into a neural network, and the neural network is configured to output a judgment result indicating whether the point cloud data is reasonable or not at least according to the point cloud data and the working parameters of the laser radar.

It should be noted that the unreasonable point cloud or the abnormal point cloud indicates that the point cloud data generated after the detection of the laser radar does not correspond to the current working parameters, and indicates that the point cloud data has a certain unreasonable state, and at this time, the laser radar may not work normally or have a fault. Therefore, the neural network can further judge whether the laser radar has faults or works abnormally according to the judgment result whether the point cloud data is reasonable or not.

The neural network is, for example, a neural network or a deep learning module which is trained in advance, and the input end of the neural network receives the point cloud data and the working parameters of the laser radar and can at least identify whether the point cloud data is reasonable or normal.

Preferably, after the point cloud data are identified to be abnormal, specific abnormal conditions of the point cloud data and faults of the corresponding laser radar can be judged. Wherein the neural network comprises one or more of a BP network, a multi-layer neural network, a fuzzy neural network, a wavelet neural network, the invention is not limited to a particular type of neural network.

In another embodiment of the present invention, the point cloud data obtained by the lidar detection may be subjected to a certain pre-processing, and then input into the neural network for subsequent identification processing.

In step S63, it is determined whether the point cloud data is reasonable according to the output of the neural network.

After training, the neural network or the deep learning module can output an indication whether the point cloud data is reasonable or not according to the point cloud data and the working parameters of the laser radar. For example, the laser radar is a 64-line radar, but the working parameter is 40 lines, and after the neural network receives 40 lines of point cloud data obtained by the laser radar, the point cloud data is judged to be reasonable; however, if the point cloud data received by the neural network at this time is 38 lines, it can be determined that the point cloud data is unreasonable or abnormal, and at least some unreasonable situations exist.

For another example, the laser radar can realize 360-degree all-around scanning of surrounding obstacles, but within a certain time period, the controlled working parameters of the laser radar only need to provide scanning within a forward +/-50-degree range, and at this time, if the laser radar is detected, no matter whether the laser radar is input into the neural network, the point cloud data obtained by scanning within a forward +/-90 or forward +/-30 or backward (reverse direction of the vehicle driving direction) ± 50-degree range, the point cloud representing the laser radar at a uniform fixed range is not reasonable, and the whole laser radar may have faults or abnormal working.

According to the output of the neural network, whether the point cloud data is reasonable or not can be judged, and preferably, after the point cloud data is judged to be unreasonable, the fault type and the specific position of the fault of the laser radar can be judged. The fault includes one or more of an optical component fault, a mechanical structure fault, and a circuit fault. After judging whether the laser radar has a fault, and optionally judging the fault type and the specific position of the fault of the laser radar, an alarm or a prompt can be sent to a user of the laser radar.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the point cloud rationality diagnosis method 100 further includes training the neural network to identify abnormal point cloud data, including, for example: and inputting abnormal point cloud data and working parameters of the laser radar corresponding to the abnormal point cloud data generated into the neural network so as to train the neural network to identify the abnormal point cloud data.

For example, according to one embodiment of the invention, the parameter of the lidar comprises, for example, the number of active lines of the lidar at a certain time. A 64-line laser radar will be described as an example. Under normal working conditions, 64 lines need to work simultaneously to detect obstacles, so that in the generated point cloud, if the number of lines is less than 64 lines, the point cloud is abnormal or some fault occurs in the laser radar.

Under some working conditions, a far obstacle does not need to be detected very finely, and only half of the number of lines (32 lines) needs to be used for detection, so that the generated point cloud data only comprises 32 lines, in this case, the point cloud data of 32 lines is normal, and the point cloud data of more or less than 32 lines is abnormal or unreasonable.

According to a further preferred embodiment of the invention, the neural network provides a certain margin for the plausibility determination of the point cloud data. For example, when a 64-line lidar is operating at 64 lines, but one of the lasers fails, resulting in only 63 lines of data in the point cloud. Although the laser radar fault also belongs to the laser radar fault, the deviation between the current state and the normal state is small, so that the point cloud of the laser radar is still credible, and the point cloud can be used as an abnormity and also can be used as a reliable sensor for unmanned driving.

In addition, the neural network is configured to determine whether the subsequent one or more frames of point cloud data are reasonable according to the prior one or more frames of point cloud data. For example, if the point cloud of frame 20 shows an object somewhere, the point cloud of frame 21 also shows the object, and the moving speed and direction of the object can be deduced according to the time interval of frames 20-21, so that it can be predicted that the object should be somewhere in frame 22 or 23, but the point cloud detected in frame 22 or 23 is very different from the prediction, which indicates that the point cloud is abnormal.

When training the neural network, the fault corresponding to the abnormal point cloud data may be input into the neural network to train the neural network to identify the corresponding fault. For example, various faults of the laser radar and abnormal states of the corresponding point clouds of the laser radar can be obtained through statistics in advance, and when abnormal point cloud data and parameters of the corresponding laser radar when the abnormal point cloud data are generated are input into the neural network, the corresponding faults are input into the neural network, so that the neural network can learn and judge fault conditions of the laser radar. The fault may include, for example, one or more of an optical component fault, a mechanical structure fault, and a circuit fault.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the output of the neural network comprises one or more of whether the point cloud is abnormal, a possible fault name and a probability of the lidar. Additionally in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the neural network is configured to output a plurality of faults and corresponding probabilities. For example, a model of a neural network is trained first, so that it can recognize point cloud image forms corresponding to

different faults

1, 2 …, etc. (a mapping relation graph between an abnormal point cloud image and a fault cause is established), and then the neural network is reused in an actual scene, and a fault type, a fault component or a fault cause which may occur to a lidar is further reversely deduced through analysis of a point cloud output by the lidar, for example, in current point cloud data, the probability of fault 1 is 90%, the probability of fault 2 is 40%, the probability of fault 3 is 10%, and all faults with output probabilities higher than a preset value are provided for a user to refer.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the lidar is mounted on a vehicle, and a control unit of the lidar is coupled to an electronic control unit ECU of the vehicle, so that when it is determined that there is a malfunction or an operational abnormality in the lidar, the control unit of the lidar may transmit information of the malfunction to the electronic control unit of the vehicle on which the lidar is mounted. The fault information may include an indication that the lidar is faulty, and/or a specific fault type and fault location. After receiving the failure information, the electronic control unit may make a decision according to the failure information, for example, send an audible and visual prompt to a vehicle driver, or stop an automatic driving state of the vehicle to prompt the vehicle driver to take over a driving operation of the vehicle. It should be noted that the above-mentioned fault information may be whether the point cloud is abnormal, whether the radar works abnormally, whether the radar is faulty, the possible fault types, and the approximate probability.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the electronic control unit, upon receiving the fault information, may decide whether to continue to trust the lidar and continue the autonomous driving state based on the severity of the fault. For example, as previously described, when a 64-line lidar is operating at 64 lines, but one of the lasers fails, resulting in only 63 lines of data in the point cloud. Although the laser radar fault also belongs to the laser radar fault, the point cloud of the laser radar is credible due to the small deviation between the current state and the normal state, and the point cloud can also be used as a reliable sensor for unmanned driving, and the electronic control unit can continue the automatic driving state but can prompt the current state to the operator.

Fig. 31 shows a lidar 600 according to an embodiment of the invention. Described in detail below with reference to fig. 24.

As shown in fig. 31, the laser radar 600 includes a transmitting unit 601, a receiving unit 602, a signal processing unit 603, and a point cloud rationality diagnosis unit 604. The transmitting unit 601 generally includes a plurality of lasers and a transmitting lens, wherein the lasers are configured to emit laser beams, and the laser beams are incident on the transmitting lens, shaped to form probe beams, and emitted into a three-dimensional space around the laser radar. The receiving unit 602 generally includes a receiving lens that receives a reflected beam (or lidar echo) from outside the lidar and focuses it onto a detector, which may include, for example, an APD or SiPM, that converts an optical signal incident thereon into an electrical signal. A signal processing unit 603 is coupled to the receiving unit 602 and configured to generate point cloud data of the lidar from the electrical signal. The signal processing unit 603 may generally include signal processing circuits of various stages, including but not limited to an amplifying circuit (e.g., a transimpedance amplifier), a filtering circuit, an analog-to-digital conversion circuit, and the like, and may calculate parameters such as a distance and an orientation of an obstacle according to the optical signal and other related information, and generate point cloud data.

The point cloud rationality diagnosis unit 604 is coupled to the signal processing unit 603, can receive the point cloud data, and is configured to perform the point cloud rationality diagnosis method 60 as described above, and output result information whether the point cloud data is rational.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the point cloud rationality diagnosis unit 604 is further configured to output fault information of the lidar. On the basis of judging that the point cloud data is unreasonable, the point cloud rationality diagnosis unit 604 may further judge specific fault information of the laser radar according to the point cloud data.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the signal processing unit 603 and the point cloud rationality diagnosis unit 604 may be integrated together, for example, a diagnosis module is integrated inside an FPGA or an ASIC of the signal processing unit 603, so that it is possible to determine whether hardware of the laser radar is in a problem or not, in addition to signal processing. If there is a problem, error information is output. If no problem exists, the point cloud is input to the neural network through the neural network, and whether the fault exists is output. According to one embodiment, the signal processing unit 603 and the point cloud rationality diagnosis unit 604 are both integrated on the lower deck of the lidar.

The invention also relates to a vehicle on which a lidar as described above is mounted.

An Electronic Control Unit (ECU) of the vehicle can be coupled with the laser radar and can receive fault information output by a point cloud rationality diagnosis unit of the laser radar. And a reminding unit, such as a sound reminding unit or a light reminding unit, can be installed on the vehicle, and the reminding unit is coupled with the electronic control unit ECU and can be triggered by the electronic control unit ECU. And when the electronic control unit is configured to receive fault information output by the point cloud rationality diagnosis unit, the reminding unit is triggered to send an alarm to a driver.

In the embodiment of the invention, the neural network is utilized to further reversely deduce the possible faults of the laser radar through the analysis of the point cloud output by the laser radar. Through the technical scheme of the embodiment of the invention, the technical personnel of the laser radar can be assisted to quickly locate the root cause of the failure of the laser radar; in addition, can be integrated to the laser radar to the neural network module, the user is after purchasing the laser radar, is connected the ECU on laser radar and the vehicle, and when using laser radar, the inside neural network module of laser radar can detect the some cloud of laser radar output at any time, appears unusually when discovering some clouds, reminds the customer.

The invention provides a point cloud rationality diagnosis method for a laser radar, which comprises the following steps:

receiving point cloud data of the laser radar and corresponding working parameters of the laser radar when the point cloud data are generated;

inputting the point cloud data and the working parameters of the laser radar into a neural network, wherein the neural network is configured to output whether the point cloud data is reasonable or not at least according to the point cloud data and the working parameters of the laser radar;

and judging whether the point cloud data is reasonable or not according to the output of the neural network.

The invention also relates to a lidar comprising:

a transmitting unit configured to transmit a probe beam to the outside of the laser radar;

a receiving unit configured to receive a reflected light beam from outside the laser radar and convert the reflected light beam into an electric signal;

a signal processing unit coupled with the receiving unit and configured to generate point cloud data of the lidar according to the electrical signal; and

a point cloud rationality diagnosis unit configured to perform the point cloud rationality diagnosis method as described above, and configured to receive the point cloud data and output result information whether the point cloud data is rational.

The invention also relates to a vehicle comprising a lidar as described above.

In the embodiment of the invention, the neural network is utilized to further reversely deduce the possible faults of the laser radar through the analysis of the point cloud output by the laser radar. Through the technical scheme of the embodiment of the invention, the technical personnel of the laser radar can be assisted to quickly locate the root cause of the failure of the laser radar; in addition, can be integrated to laser radar to the neural network module, after the customer buys laser radar, be connected laser radar with the ECU on the vehicle, when using laser radar, the inside neural network module of laser radar can detect the cloud of the point of laser radar output at any time, appears unusually when discovering the cloud of point, reminds the customer, and then can control the vehicle and carry out corresponding operation of traveling in order to deal with possible trouble or unusual to laser radar's security performance can be improved.

In a fourth aspect: power supply anomaly detection

The present embodiment relates to detection of a power supply abnormality of the laser radar, and may be performed by, for example, a second failure diagnosis unit, which is described in detail below. The detection of the power supply abnormality of the present embodiment may be part of the above periodic fault detection or self-test.

With the continuous improvement of vehicle safety standards and automatic driving technologies, advanced assistant driving systems (ADAS) are rapidly popularized, and the industry is advancing to the L3 level automatic driving stage (namely, conditional automatic driving). Whether ADAS or autonomous driving, to achieve accurate sensing of the 360 ° environment around the vehicle, the vehicle will be equipped with various sensors, including millimeter wave RADAR (RADAR), laser RADAR (LIDAR), Camera (Camera), Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), and the like.

The LIDAR emits laser pulses rapidly (typically up to 150000 pulses per second), with the laser signal reflecting back to the LIDAR sensor after reaching the obstruction. LIDAR determines the distance between a sensor and an obstacle by measuring the time interval between the emission and return of a laser signal, and it can also detect the exact size of a target object. Additionally, LIDAR is also commonly used for high-resolution mapping.

In applications such as the advanced driver assistance systems described above, power is typically supplied to the LIDAR via a vehicle (e.g., an onboard power supply). In such an in-vehicle LIDAR application, a power supply abnormality occurs when the vehicle supplies power to the LIDAR as an external power source, resulting in poor user experience. In addition, in the case where a power supply abnormality occurs, the user generally considers that the LIDAR has a failure, not the external power supply abnormality.

Therefore, a solution capable of determining that the malfunction of the LIDAR is caused by the power supply malfunction of the external power supply and recording the information related to the power supply malfunction of the external power supply to help verify the cause of the malfunction of the LIDAR is needed.

Fig. 32 illustrates a power anomaly monitoring system 700 for a LIDAR in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. It is within the scope of the present invention that the power anomaly monitoring system 700 for a LIDAR of an embodiment of the present invention may be integrated with the LIDAR system or configured as a stand-alone system.

As shown in fig. 32, the power supply abnormality monitoring system 700 includes a storage unit 710, a power supply monitoring unit 720, and a control unit 730. The power monitoring unit 720 is coupled with a power input of the LIDAR and monitors whether the power input is normal.

In particular, the power input to the LIDAR is from an external power supply source of the LIDAR, which may provide power for functions such as operation of the LIDAR, communication with external devices, and the like. Typically, the supply input of the LIDAR provides a voltage of 12V or 48V. In some applications of the present invention (e.g., LIDAR is used in a vehicle, for example as a functional unit/module implementing an advanced driver assistance system), the power input to the LIDAR is from an onboard power source, e.g., the vehicle provides a 5V or 12V power input to the LIDAR. Or alternatively, the LIDAR itself has a battery to provide power input to the components on the LIDAR. In this case, the power supply monitoring unit 720 may detect whether the power supply input from the secondary battery is normal.

The power supply monitoring unit 720 in the present invention is coupled to the power supply input of the LIDAR and monitors whether the power supply input is normal, wherein "monitoring whether the power supply input is normal" refers to monitoring/judging/determining whether a certain physical characteristic of the power supply input meets (or does not meet) a predetermined requirement. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the physical characteristic is voltage, in which case "monitoring whether the power supply input is normal" means monitoring/judging/determining whether the voltage of the power supply input meets (or does not meet) a predetermined requirement. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, "monitoring whether the power supply input is normal" refers to monitoring whether the voltage of the power supply input is below a predetermined threshold, in which case the power supply monitoring unit 710 may be implemented or implemented to include a voltage comparator to monitor/judge/determine whether the voltage of the power supply input is below the predetermined threshold.

In other embodiments, embodiments of the invention may monitor other physical characteristics of the power input (e.g., current) to determine whether the power input is normal. In particular, in a preferred embodiment of the invention, if a certain physical characteristic (voltage, current, etc.) of the power supply input is less than a predetermined threshold, it is determined that an abnormal condition of the power supply input is occurring (or an abnormal event of the power supply input is monitored). In other embodiments of the present invention, if a physical characteristic (voltage, current, etc.) of the power input is greater than a predetermined threshold, the power input is monitored for abnormalities (or an abnormal event of the power input is monitored). It is noted that a certain physical characteristic of the power supply input includes not only voltage, current, etc., but also derivative characteristics characterizing these physical characteristics, such as jitter, frequency fluctuations, etc. of the voltage. For example, when the fluctuation amplitude of the voltage or current of the power supply input exceeds a certain threshold value, it is determined that an abnormal condition of the power supply input occurs. The present invention contemplates monitoring any physical characteristic of the power input and characterizing the physical specific derivative characteristics. Accordingly, the present invention contemplates that other devices/mechanisms/modules may be provided in power supply monitoring unit 720 that monitor/compare the corresponding characteristics.

The power supply monitoring unit 720 is coupled to the control unit 730, and the control unit 730 is configured to record information related to an abnormal event in the storage unit 710 in response to the power supply monitoring unit 720 monitoring the abnormal event of the power supply input.

In some embodiments, the control unit 730 is implemented as part of a LIDAR module (e.g., an FPGA). In other embodiments, the control unit 730 is implemented as a separate unit/module. In general, the control unit 730 may be implemented as any control unit performing a control function, such as a processor, a microprocessor, a controller, a microcontroller, a logic device (e.g., a programmable logic device such as an FPGA), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), and so forth.

As described above, an "abnormal event" of a power input may refer to some/or some physical specification of the power input meeting/not meeting a predetermined requirement. The control unit 730 is configured to record information related to an abnormal event to the storage unit 710 in response to the power supply monitoring unit 720 monitoring the abnormal event of the power supply input. The abnormal event related information may include one or more of information indicating an abnormal event occurred (e.g., an abnormal event flag), information of what abnormal event occurred (e.g., a category of the abnormal event), an attribute of the abnormal event (e.g., a magnitude of a physical quantity (voltage, current)), and a time at which the abnormal event occurred (e.g., a time stamp). The storage unit 710 may include any non-volatile memory/device (e.g., various types of memories, flash memories, etc.) that records/stores information related to the abnormal event.

Fig. 33 illustrates a LIDAR system 70 that includes the aforementioned power anomaly monitoring system 700 (shown in phantom in fig. 33), according to one embodiment of the invention, described in detail below with reference to fig. 33.

As shown in fig. 33, the LIDAR system 70 includes a boost circuit 71, a LIDAR power management module 72, and an FPGA, where the boost circuit 71 is connectable to an external power source, such as an on-board power source of the vehicle, external to the LIDAR itself. When the vehicle is started, the vehicle power supply automatically provides a power supply input, such as a 5V voltage input, to the boost circuit 71. The boost circuit 71 comprises, for example, an LTO booster which receives a supply input and converts it to a high voltage, for example 60V, which is required to drive the lidar. The LIDAR power management module 72 is coupled to the boost circuit 71 and receives the high voltage for providing electrical power to components of the LIDAR system 70 that require electrical power, such as to various unit components in the power supply anomaly detection system 700, as shown in fig. 33, and to an external network/peripheral 73 (described below).

The LIDAR system 70 may also include an ethernet/peripheral 73, such as an ethernet interface/peripheral interface, for transmitting the LIDAR point cloud data to an external controller (not shown) or accepting control signal inputs from the external controller.

As shown in fig. 33, the LIDAR system 70 includes a central controller, for example, implemented by an FPGA, which integrates the power supply monitoring unit 720 and the control unit 730 in the power supply abnormality monitoring system 700. The FPGA, in addition to being coupled to the storage unit 710 for writing therein the information related to the abnormal event, is also coupled to the power supply input side, i.e., to the input terminal of the voltage boost circuit 71, so that it can monitor whether the power supply input is normal (e.g., whether equal to 12V or lower than 12V, specifically, lower than 12V indicates the occurrence of undervoltage, and more specifically, when the power supply input voltage is 0V, indicates the occurrence of power down/power off). When the power supply monitoring unit 720 integrated with the FPGA monitors an abnormal event (for example, lower than 12V) of the power supply input, the control unit 730 integrated with the FPGA records information related to the abnormal event to the storage unit 710. In addition, the central controller shown in fig. 33 may be implemented by other types of electronic devices, such as a digital signal processor DSP or an application specific integrated circuit ASIC, which are all within the scope of the present invention.

In addition, as shown in fig. 33, the power supply abnormality monitoring system 700 may further include an energy storage device 740 (or an auxiliary power supply unit), and the energy storage device 740 is coupled to and may be controlled by the FPGA and the LIDAR power management module 72. The FPGA may enable the energy storage device 740 to power the LIDAR in response to its monitoring for an abnormal event of the power input. For example, when the FPGA monitors an abnormal event of the power supply input, the FPGA will send a start instruction to the energy storage device 740 at this time, start the energy storage device 740, and provide the standby power to the LIDAR power management module 72.

In some embodiments, the FPGA also controls the power management module of the LIDAR to stop supplying power to the ethernet/peripherals 73 of the LIDAR system in response to its monitoring for an anomalous event of the power supply input. That is, in this case, the control unit 730 also controls the power management module (not shown) of the LIDAR to supply power only to the core module/unit of the LIDAR to ensure its basic function while stopping power supply to the non-core module/unit of the LIDAR (e.g., the network communication module and/or the peripheral) in response to the power monitoring unit 720 monitoring the abnormal event of the power supply input. Fig. 33 also shows that the inertial measurement unit IMU is connected to the FPGA of the LIDAR system 70 for assisting in implementing the functions of the advanced driver assistance system.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the schematic diagrams of the power supply anomaly monitoring system 700 for a LIDAR and the LIDAR system shown in fig. 32 and 33 are only block diagrams of portions of structures relevant to the present solution and do not constitute a definition of the devices/units/modules to which the present solution applies, and that the devices/units/modules of a particular system may include more or fewer devices/units/modules than shown in the figures, or may combine certain devices/units/modules, or have different device/unit/module arrangements.

The energy storage device shown in fig. 33 may be any type of energy storage device, such as a capacitor, a battery (e.g., a button cell), a battery pack, or the like. In other embodiments, the auxiliary power supply unit may be another external power supply source. "enabling the auxiliary power unit to power the LIDAR" may include disabling the power input of the LIDAR to power the LIDAR with the auxiliary power unit, or not disabling the power input of the LIDAR to power the LIDAR with the auxiliary power unit as an auxiliary. As regards the auxiliary power supply unit/energy storage device, it may be located outside the LIDAR, for example with the vehicle itself or an energy storage device of a driving assistance device provided in the vehicle (e.g. a button cell), for example, typically in a tachograph, which button cell may be connected to the LIDAR (instead of or in addition to the external power supply). Or the energy storage device can be a capacitor, and the capacitor is additionally arranged to serve as the energy storage device so as to provide electric power for the LIDAR system when the power supply input is abnormal.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the power anomaly monitoring system 700 for a LIDAR further includes a diagnostic unit (not shown). The diagnostic unit may be configured to provide a diagnostic report based on the information related to the abnormal event recorded by the storage unit 710. The diagnostic unit may be provided as a stand-alone unit or as part of the control unit 730. In particular, the diagnostic unit may derive a diagnostic report comprising the recorded information related to the abnormal event in response to a user request, so that the user may review the diagnostic report to rule out/determine the cause of the fault.

According to another aspect of the present invention, as shown in fig. 34, the present invention further provides a power anomaly monitoring method 800 for a LIDAR. The power supply abnormality monitoring method 800 includes:

s810: monitoring whether a power supply input of the LIDAR is normal; and

s820: in response to an abnormal event in which the power supply input is monitored, information related to the abnormal event is recorded.

The power supply abnormality monitoring method 800 may be implemented by the power supply abnormality monitoring system 700 as described above, for example. The abnormal event of the power supply input may include an undervoltage or a power failure of the voltage of the power supply input. The method may further comprise: an auxiliary power unit is provided and enabled to power the LIDAR in response to monitoring an anomalous event of the power input. The method may also include controlling a power management module of the LIDAR to stop providing power to a network communication module and/or a peripheral of the LIDAR in response to monitoring for an anomalous event of the power input. The auxiliary power unit may be provided inside and/or outside the LIDAR. The auxiliary power unit may comprise a battery and/or a capacitor. The method may further comprise: a diagnostic report is provided based on the information related to the abnormal event recorded by the storage unit. The diagnostic system of the present invention can store and record all data related to faults or abnormal events, so that each item of data (such as continuous detection data of the same component) can be subjected to statistical analysis, and the result of the statistical analysis is used for adjusting a threshold value or predicting the failure time of a certain component or the failure time of the system according to the change trend of the test data.

Yet another aspect of the invention provides a computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program which, when executed by a processor, implements the method of any of the above. For example, the computer program, when executed by a processor, is capable of instructing the processor and/or the respective component to carry out the steps of: monitoring whether a power supply input of the LIDAR is normal; and recording information related to the abnormal event in response to the abnormal event of the power supply input being monitored. Additionally, it should be understood that the various units in the above-described power anomaly monitoring system 700 for LIDAR may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, and combinations thereof. The units can be embedded in a hardware form or independent from a processor in the computer device, and can also be stored in a memory in the computer device in a software form, so that the processor can call and execute operations corresponding to the units.

In an embodiment, a computer device is provided, comprising a memory and a processor, the memory having stored thereon a computer program operable on the processor, the processor implementing the steps of the method in any of the above embodiments when executing the computer program. The computer device may be a server or a vehicle-mounted terminal. The computer device includes a processor, a memory, a network interface, and a database connected by a system bus. Wherein the processor of the computer device is configured to provide computing and control capabilities. The memory of the computer device includes a non-volatile storage medium and an internal memory. The non-volatile storage medium stores an operating system, a computer program, and a database. The internal memory provides an environment for the operation of an operating system and computer programs in the non-volatile storage medium. The network interface of the computer device is used for communicating with an external terminal through a network connection. The computer program is executed by a processor to implement the vehicle driving assist method of the invention.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that all or part of the steps in implementing the methods according to the above embodiments of the present invention may be instructed to be performed by the relevant hardware by a computer program, which may be stored in a non-volatile computer-readable storage medium, and which, when executed, may include the steps of the above embodiments of the methods. Any reference to memory, storage, database, or other medium used in the embodiments provided herein may include non-volatile and/or volatile memory, among others. Non-volatile memory can include read-only memory (ROM), Programmable ROM (PROM), Electrically Programmable ROM (EPROM), Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM (EEPROM), or flash memory. Volatile memory can include Random Access Memory (RAM) or external cache memory.

According to a first aspect, the present invention proposes a power anomaly monitoring system for a LIDAR, the power anomaly monitoring system comprising: a storage unit; a power monitoring unit coupled with a power input of a LIDAR and configured to monitor whether the power input is normal; and the control unit is used for responding to the abnormal event of the power supply input monitored by the power supply monitoring unit and recording information related to the abnormal event to the storage unit.

According to a second aspect, the present invention proposes a LIDAR system comprising a power supply anomaly monitoring system according to the first aspect of the present invention.

According to a third aspect, the present invention provides a power supply abnormality monitoring method for a LIDAR, the power supply abnormality monitoring method comprising: monitoring whether a power supply input of the LIDAR is normal; and recording information related to the abnormal event in response to monitoring the abnormal event of the power supply input.

According to a fourth aspect of the invention, there is provided a computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program which, when executed by a processor, implements the method according to the third aspect of the invention.

By utilizing the scheme of the invention, the abnormal event of the power supply input of the LIDAR can be monitored and the information related to the abnormal event can be recorded, thereby providing objective basis for subsequent troubleshooting. Further, in accordance with some preferred embodiments of the present invention, in response to monitoring an abnormal event of the power input, a countermeasure is also initiated to ensure that the LIDAR is operating properly (or functioning properly). The invention provides objective reference information for searching system faults, and is beneficial to quickly determining fault sources; and the invention also improves the user experience.

In a fifth aspect: code wheel detection

Photoelectric encoders are widely used in various angle measurement and control schemes. A light source (e.g., a light emitting diode), an encoder disk, and a photosensor are typically included on the optical encoder. Wherein the code wheel typically has a uniform arrangement of small holes. The light beam emitted by the light source passes through the small hole on the coding disc and irradiates the photoelectric sensor to generate an electric pulse signal. The data processing device can determine the rotating speed and the current angular orientation of the code disc according to the pulse signals of the photoelectric sensor. There are typically zero degree positions on the code wheel, as shown in FIG. 35, which are used as references for the angular orientation of the code wheel. However, if the zero-degree position is greasy or worn out, the angle measurement is inaccurate after the zero-degree position cannot play a role in marking.

Laser radar systems are widely used in the field of unmanned driving, and include a laser emitting system and a detecting and receiving system, wherein laser emitted is reflected after encountering a target and is received by the detecting system, and the distance of the corresponding target point can be measured by measuring the round-trip time of the laser (such as a time flight method), and when the whole target area is scanned and detected, three-dimensional imaging can be finally realized. The mechanical lidar is a product with a motor or other components capable of driving the motor to rotate, and can detect surrounding objects through 360-degree rotation. In order to locate the angle of rotation of the lidar in real time, an encoder disc is used to measure the angle to determine the transmitting direction and the receiving direction of the laser. FIG. 35 illustrates a code wheel that generally has a zero degree position for determining the angular orientation of the code wheel. However, in the actual operation process, after oil stains or abrasion appear at the zero-degree position of the encoding disc, the quality of the point cloud of the laser radar is rapidly reduced, and the safety performance of the lidar is reduced.

With respect to the conventional code wheel shown in fig. 35, the present invention provides an improved code wheel, which has a first zero degree mark and a second zero degree mark separated by a predetermined angle, wherein the appearance of the first zero degree mark is different from that of the second zero degree mark, so that the first zero degree mark can be supplemented or replaced to read the rotation angle of the code wheel for positioning. The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings.

As shown in fig. 36, the encoder disc 91 according to the embodiment of the present invention includes a substantially circular disc body 911, and a plurality of encoder holes 912 are uniformly distributed on an edge of the disc body 911. The number, the interval, and the width of the code holes 912 may be set according to actual conditions, for example, according to the diameter of the code disc, the required measurement accuracy, and other parameters, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. The plate 911 is further provided with a first zero degree mark 913 and a second zero degree mark 914 which are separated by a predetermined angle, which is known. The first zero degree mark 913 serves as a starting point or reference point for the measurement in the angle measurement for measuring the angle of the other code holes and the current angular orientation of the code disc 91. Wherein the appearance of the first zero degree marking 913 is different from the appearance of the second zero degree marking 914, such that in case the first zero degree marking 913 is e.g. soiled or worn, the position of the first zero degree marking 913 may be derived from the second zero degree marking 914 and/or may be directly used for deriving the angular orientation of the code disc 91.

As will be readily understood by those skilled in the art, the code holes 912 may be configured to allow the light beam to pass therethrough, while the portions between adjacent code holes 912 do not allow the light beam to pass therethrough. The light source and the photosensor are respectively disposed on both sides of the code wheel 91 on the circumference of the code hole 912, for example. When light is incident on the photosensor, the photosensor will generate a pulse. Thus, when the code wheel 91 rotates around the axis of its center, the light beam emitted by the light source is continuously blocked, transmitted, blocked and transmitted by the code wheel, thereby generating a pulse sequence on the photosensor. The data processing device can obtain the rotation speed of the encoder disk 91 and the current angular positioning parameters according to the pulse sequence, which is not described herein again.

As shown in fig. 36, according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the first zero degree mark 913 includes, for example, a wide occlusion region between two encoding holes 912. In the present invention, a "wide occlusion region" refers to a region that is not apertured that has a width that exceeds the spacing between normal code apertures 912 and thus can be used to identify a zero degree position. In fig. 36, the first zero degree marker 913 is located between two code holes 912, and the wide occlusion region of the first zero degree marker 913 is significantly wider than the spacing region between the code holes 912 in other positions. Thus, when the first zero degree marker 913 passes the light source and the photosensor, the light beam is blocked for a significantly longer period of time, and thus a pulse cannot be generated on the photosensor during that period of time. The description will be given by taking fig. 37 as an example. In fig. 37, P1, P2, P3, P4, and P5 denote pulse sequences generated by the code holes 912. The period of the pulse sequence is T, which is predetermined depending on the rotational speed of the code wheel 91 and the distribution density of the code holes 912. When the pulse generated on the photosensor is not detected at the time T1-T2 and the length of T1-T2 is longer than the period T, it can be determined that the first zero degree flag 913 is detected when the position of the code wheel is the zero degree position, i.e., the initial position thereof.

However, if the first zero degree mark 913 is contaminated or for other reasons, a "false" pulse is also generated at the time t1-t2, and the position of the first zero degree mark 913 cannot be identified, so that the zero degree position of the code wheel 91 cannot be located. In this case, positioning may be performed according to the second zero degree flag 914, according to the present invention.

As shown in fig. 36, the second identifier 914 includes a first point a and a second point b, wherein there are wide occlusion regions at the first point a and the second point b, respectively, and the two wide occlusion regions may be spaced apart by one code hole 912. The wide occlusion regions at the first and second points a, b are for example the same as the wide occlusion region identified by the first zero degree. The scope of the invention is not limited thereto and may be different.

As shown in FIG. 38, during rotation of the code wheel 91, when a particular pulse pattern is detected, it can be determined 914 that the code wheel 91 is currently rotated to the second zero degree position. As shown in FIG. 38, P1, P2 and P4, P5 are all pulse sequences generated by a normal code hole 912. The pulse P3 has a significantly long period of time (T1-T2 and T3-T4) on both sides thereof, in which the pulse generated on the photosensor is not detected and which is longer than the period T, and it can be determined that the current position of the code wheel 91 is the second zero degree position. Or more precisely, the position of the code disc corresponding to the pulse P3 is taken as the second zero degree position.

Since the first zero degree mark 913 and the second zero degree mark 914 are separated by a preset angle, the position of the first zero degree mark 913 can be obtained by recognizing the second zero degree mark 914, or the code wheel 91 can be angularly positioned directly by the second zero degree mark 914. These are all within the scope of the present invention.

The first point a and the second point b are shown in fig. 36 as being spaced apart by 1 code hole 912, but the present invention is not limited thereto, and the first point a and the second point b may be spaced apart by 1 to 5 code holes 912, which is within the protection scope of the present invention. Compared with the scheme shown in fig. 35, the present embodiment further adds a second zero degree position, specifically including a point a and a point b, where an included angle between the point a and the point b is α, which is generally a relatively small value. Point a and point b together form a zero degree position 2, which serves as another identification position.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the second zero-degree indicator 914 and the first zero-degree indicator 913 may be separated by 90 degrees, for example, the second point b and the first zero-degree indicator 913 are separated by 90 degrees, that is, the angle formed by the connection line between the second point b and the first zero-degree indicator and the circle center is 90 degrees.

In the embodiment of fig. 36, wide occlusion regions are provided between the encoding holes 912, thereby changing the normal pulse sequence pattern to enable recognition of the first zero degree mark and the second zero degree mark. Fig. 39 shows another embodiment according to the present invention, wherein the first zero degree marking 913 comprises a first zero degree aperture having a width different from the width of the code holes 912; the second zero degree mark 914 includes a second zero degree cut-out having a width different from the width of the code hole 912 and different from the width of the first zero degree cut-out. Thus, during rotation of the code disc 91, in addition to the normal pulse generated by the code aperture 912, two distinct pulses are generated, generated by the first and second zero degree apertures, respectively, the width of the pulses being dependent on the width of the first and second zero degree apertures, respectively. According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the width of the first zero degree aperture is greater than the width of the second zero degree aperture, which is greater than the width of the code hole 13. Therefore, when a maximum of one pulse width is detected during the rotation of the code wheel 91, it can be determined that the code wheel 91 is currently rotated to the zero degree position. If for any reason the first zero degree marking is not identifiable, the position of the first zero degree marking 913 and/or the angular orientation of the code disc 91 may be obtained directly by means of a second zero degree opening identifying the second zero degree marking 914.

In the embodiment of fig. 39, the openings with different widths are respectively arranged at the positions of the first zero degree mark and the second zero degree mark. Alternatively, the first zero degree indicator 913 and the second zero degree indicator 914 may each include a wide occlusion region located between two code holes, wherein the width of the wide occlusion region of the second zero degree indicator is different from the width of the wide occlusion region of the first zero degree indicator. So that the positions of the first zero degree mark and the second zero degree mark can be recognized according to the length of the time period during which no pulse is generated.

Various ways of implementing the first zero degree flag and the second zero degree flag may be devised by those skilled in the art in light of the teachings and teachings of the present invention. In the above embodiments, the first zero degree mark and the second zero degree mark are disposed on the same circumference as the code hole, and those skilled in the art may also conceive that the first zero degree mark and the second zero degree mark are disposed on different circumferences from the code hole.

Another aspect of the invention is directed to an optical-to-electrical encoder, as shown in fig. 40. Described in detail below with reference to fig. 40.

Fig. 40 shows a transmissive photoelectric encoder 920, wherein the photoelectric encoder 920 includes an encoder disc 91 and an encoder, and the encoder includes a light source 922 and a photoelectric code reader 923, which are respectively disposed on two sides of the encoder disc 91. The light source 922 emits a light beam toward the code wheel 91, for example, a light beam with high collimation and directivity. The encoding disk 91 rotates around the axis of the center of the encoding disk, and the light source 922 is located on the circumference of the encoding holes 912 of the encoding disk 91, so that as the encoding disk 91 rotates, the light beam emitted by the light source 922 periodically passes through the encoding holes 912 and is blocked by the areas between the encoding holes 912. On the side of the code disc 91 opposite to said light source 922 is an electro-optical code reader 923 comprising a photo-sensor, e.g. a photodiode or an avalanche photodiode. When the light beam from the light source 922 passes through the encoding holes 912 of the encoding disk 91, the light beam irradiates the photoelectric sensor of the photoelectric code reader 923 to generate a pulse; when the light beam of the light source 922 is interrupted by the code wheel 91, the photosensor does not generate a pulse. In addition, the optoelectronic code reader 923 may also include, for example, signal processing circuitry that accepts pulses from the photosensors to determine the angular orientation of the code wheel 91. It will be readily understood by those skilled in the art that the signal processing circuit and the photosensor may be integrated together or may be separate circuit components, and such are within the scope of the present invention.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the optoelectronic code reader 923 is configured to: when the first zero-degree identification is detected, determining that the coding disc is at a zero-degree position; and when the first zero-degree identification cannot be detected, detecting the second zero-degree identification, and determining the position of the first zero-degree identification and/or determining the angle orientation of the coding disc according to a preset angle between the first zero-degree identification and the second zero-degree identification.

In addition, fig. 40 shows that the light source 922 and the photoelectric code reader 923 are respectively located on two sides of the encoding disk 91, but the present invention is not limited thereto, and those skilled in the art may conceive to place the two on the same side of the encoding disk 91. As shown in FIG. 41, a reflective electro-optical encoding device 930 is illustrated in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. The photoelectric encoder 930 includes an encoder disc 91 and a first encoder and a second encoder. The first encoder and the second encoder are both reflective encoders, for example. Taking as an example the first encoder, which includes the light source 932 and the optoelectronic code reader 933, are respectively disposed on the same side of the code wheel 91 as described above, for example, on the lower side of the code wheel 91 shown in fig. 41. As shown in fig. 41, when the light beam emitted from the light source 932 passes through the code holes 912 of the code wheel 91, the irradiation of the light beam is not received at the photoelectric code reader 933, and thus no pulse is generated; when the pulse emitted from the light source 932 is reflected by the portion between the code holes 912, the reflected light beam may be irradiated onto the optical code reader 933, thereby generating a pulse. In addition to the first encoder, the optoelectronic coding device comprises a second encoder, which is structurally for example identical to the first encoder, and which likewise comprises a similar light source 932 'and an optoelectronic code reader 933', but is arranged at a different position of said code disc, preferably diametrically opposite one another. Further according to an embodiment of the invention, a second encoder may also be arranged on the other side of the code wheel, i.e. the upper side in fig. 35. Alternatively, the first encoder and the second encoder may be different types of encoders, such as a transmissive encoder and a reflective encoder, which are all within the scope of the present invention.

The invention also relates to a lidar comprising a code wheel

photoelectric coding device

920 or 930 as described above. By including the photoelectric encoder in the laser radar, the photoelectric encoder can ensure that the photoelectric encoder can be replaced by the second zero-degree position even if the first zero-degree position of the photoelectric encoder is oil-polluted or abraded and cannot be identified in the rotation process of the laser radar, and the point cloud quality of the laser radar is basically not influenced, so that the safety of the lidar is improved. The laser radar can be a rotary mechanical radar, for example, a rotor of the laser radar rotates around the axis of the laser radar, the axis of the center of a circle of the coding disc coincides with the axis of the laser radar, and the photoelectric encoder is arranged at the bottom of the laser radar and rotates along with the rotor of the laser radar so as to be used for detecting the rotation angle of the laser radar.

Fig. 42 shows that the lidar 910 comprises an optoelectronic coding device 930 as shown in fig. 41, i.e. comprises a code disc 91, a first encoder and a second encoder. In addition, the lidar further comprises a control unit 92, wherein the control unit 92 is coupled with the first encoder and the second encoder, so that a first encoding signal output by the first encoder and a second encoding signal output by the second encoder can be received, and various diagnoses and operations can be performed according to the first encoding signal and the second encoding signal.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the control unit 92 may determine whether the first encoder and the second encoder malfunction according to the first encoding signal and the second encoding signal, respectively. For example, when using the code wheel 91 of the present invention comprising two zero degree marks, both the first and second encoded signals should comprise signals corresponding to the two zero degree marks. If the control unit finds a signal corresponding to two zero degree flags in the first encoded signal and does not find a signal corresponding to two zero degree flags in the second encoded signal, it may be determined that a fault has occurred in the second encoder. And vice versa.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the control unit 92 may perform diagnostics of the code wheel. For example, as described above, if the code wheel 91 of the present invention includes two zero degree marks, if the control unit finds no signal corresponding to two zero degree marks in the first and second code signals, or only finds a signal corresponding to one zero degree mark, it indicates that the code wheel 91 may malfunction.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the control unit 92 may perform a rotational speed diagnostic. The control unit 92 may calculate the rotation speed of the encoder disc based on the first encoding signal or the second encoding signal. The coding disc usually has a preset rotating speed, and the preset rotating speed is compared with the calculated rotating speed to judge whether the coding disc rotates at the preset rotating speed. When the two have deviation or the deviation is higher than a certain range, an alarm is given.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the control unit 92 may perform the failure detection of the code wheel after diagnosing and confirming that the encoder is not failed, and perform the rotational speed diagnosis of the motor again after confirming that the code wheel is not failed.

As can be seen from the embodiment shown in fig. 42, the lidar in the embodiment of the present invention employs a code disc having a double zero degree position and a double encoder, and from the perspective of a single device, no matter the code disc or the encoder, when a certain abnormality occurs in one of them, an alternative device may also exist. In addition, the control unit is matched to detect faults according to output signals of the double encoders and the coded disc, so that the lidar in the application can provide a safe and reliable angle test and speed measurement scheme.

The invention also relates to a method 940 for angular orientation using a code wheel as described above, as shown in fig. 43, the method 940 comprising:

at step S941: detecting the first zero degree mark to determine a zero degree position of the code disc;

in step S942: when the first zero degree mark cannot be detected, detecting the second zero degree mark; and

in step S943: and determining the position of the first zero-degree mark and/or determining the angular orientation of the code disc according to a preset angle between the first zero-degree mark and the second zero-degree mark.

According to the technical scheme of the embodiment of the invention, after the zero-degree position of the code wheel has oil stain or abrasion and other problems, the code wheel can be adopted to accurately measure the angle; the starting work is not influenced after zero-degree dirt; when the non-zero dirt causes interference signals, the signal measuring system of the rotor can still work, and therefore the robustness is high.

The invention provides a coding disc which comprises a disc body in a roughly circular shape, wherein a plurality of coding holes are uniformly distributed on the edge of the disc body, a first zero-degree mark and a second zero-degree mark which are separated by a preset angle are additionally arranged on the disc body, and the appearance of the first zero-degree mark is different from that of the second zero-degree mark.

The present invention also provides an optoelectronic encoding device comprising:

the coding disc can rotate around the axis of the circle center of the coding disc;

a first encoder, the first encoder comprising:

the first light source emits light beams which can penetrate through the coding holes on the coding disc or be blocked by parts among the coding holes;

a first opto-electronic code reader configured to receive a light beam from the first light source to determine the angular orientation of the code wheel.

The present invention also provides a method for angular orientation using a code wheel as described above, comprising:

detecting the first zero degree mark to determine a zero degree position of the code disc;

when the first zero degree mark cannot be detected, detecting the second zero degree mark; and

and determining the position of the first zero-degree identifier according to a preset angle between the first zero-degree identifier and the second zero-degree identifier, and/or carrying out angle positioning on the coding disc.

The invention also provides a laser radar which comprises the photoelectric coding device, wherein the axis of the center of the coding disc is coincident with the axis of the laser radar, and the photoelectric coding device is arranged at the bottom of the laser radar and rotates along with the rotor of the laser radar so as to be used for detecting the rotation angle of the laser radar.

The above describes the overall architecture of a lidar diagnostic system as well as a diagnostic unit according to various aspects of the invention and various specific embodiments. The person skilled in the art will readily understand that the above aspects, as well as the solutions in the various embodiments, can be freely combined without inventive effort, all falling within the scope of the present invention.

Finally, it should be noted that: although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that changes may be made in the embodiments and/or equivalents thereof without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Any modification, equivalent replacement, or improvement made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A condition detecting apparatus usable with a laser radar, comprising:

2. The state detection device according to claim 1, wherein the laser radar includes an upper deck and a lower deck, and the fault diagnosis unit includes:

a first failure diagnosis unit configured to perform failure diagnosis on a component of the laser radar mounted on or connected to the upper deck, and output a first failure diagnosis signal when it is diagnosed that a failure exists; and

a second failure diagnosis unit configured to perform failure diagnosis on a component of the laser radar mounted on or connected to the lower deck, and output a second failure diagnosis signal when it is diagnosed that a failure exists;

wherein the diagnostic management unit is in communication with the first and second fault diagnosis units to receive the first and second fault diagnosis signals and is configured to determine a status of the lidar based on the first and second fault diagnosis signals.

3. The status detecting apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the lidar includes a transmitting unit, a receiving unit, and a point cloud generating unit, which are disposed on the upper deck, wherein the transmitting unit is configured to transmit a detection laser beam to an outside of the lidar, the receiving unit is configured to receive an echo of the detection laser beam reflected on a target and convert the echo into an electrical signal, the point cloud generating unit is configured to generate point cloud data of the lidar according to the electrical signal, wherein the diagnosis managing unit is coupled to the point cloud generating unit and configured to receive the point cloud data corresponding to the first failure diagnosis signal when the first failure diagnosis signal is received.

4. The state detection apparatus according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the lidar includes a motor, a power supply, an encoder, and a communication part provided on the lower deck, and the state of the lidar includes: initialization state, normal state, degraded state, shutdown state,

in the initialization state, the laser radar performs self-checking operation and motor starting operation;

in the normal state, the first fault diagnosis unit and the second fault diagnosis unit carry out periodic detection;

in the degradation state, the first fault diagnosis unit and the second fault diagnosis unit carry out periodic detection and record at least part of data of the laser radar;

in the shutdown state, the lidar is powered off and at least part of the data of the lidar is recorded.

5. The state detection device according to claim 4, wherein the failure of the lidar includes a preset primary failure and a secondary failure; wherein the diagnosis management unit switches the state of the lidar to a degraded state when the first fault diagnosis unit or the second fault diagnosis unit detects a primary fault; and when the first fault diagnosis unit or the second fault diagnosis unit detects a secondary fault, the diagnosis management unit switches the state of the laser radar to a shutdown state.

6. The state detection device according to claim 5, wherein the diagnosis management unit switches the state of the lidar from the degraded state to the normal state when the first and second failure diagnosis units do not detect a failure in the degraded state.

7. The state detection device of claim 4, wherein the self-test operation comprises: self-checking of a power supply and a clock of the laser radar; self-checking the upper bin plate and the lower bin plate; internal power supply self-checking; the self-checking of the transmitting unit and the receiving unit,

wherein the motor starting operation is performed after the self-checking operation is successful,

when the self-checking is successful in the initialization stage and the motor is started successfully, the diagnosis management unit switches the state of the laser radar from the initialization state to a normal state;

if the self-checking of the power supply and the clock fails or the self-checking of the upper bin plate and the lower bin plate fails, the diagnosis management unit switches the state of the laser radar from an initialization state to a shutdown state;

and if the motor starting operation fails, the diagnosis management unit switches the state of the laser radar from an initialization state to a shutdown state.

8. The state detection device according to claim 5, further comprising a first cache, a second cache, and a failure memory, wherein the first failure diagnosis unit triggers caching of failure data to the first cache when it is determined that a failure exists;

when judging that the fault exists, the second fault diagnosis unit triggers the at least fault data to be cached to the second cache;

the failure memory is coupled to the first cache and the second cache and configured to receive the failure data.

9. The status detecting device according to claim 8, wherein the diagnosis management unit communicates with the failure memory, and can output the failure data stored in the failure memory according to an external request.

10. A state detection apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising a point cloud rationality diagnosis unit configured to receive the point cloud data and output result information of whether the point cloud data is rational, the diagnosis management unit communicating with the point cloud rationality diagnosis unit and receiving the result information of whether the point cloud data is rational from the point cloud rationality diagnosis unit.

11. A lidar comprising: a condition sensing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 10.

12. The lidar of claim 11, further comprising an upper tray and a lower tray, on which components of the lidar are mounted or attached, respectively, wherein the upper tray and the lower tray are implemented by an FPGA and/or a microcontroller.

13. A status detection method of a laser radar includes:

14. The status detecting method according to claim 12, wherein the lidar includes an upper deck and a lower deck, and the failure diagnosing unit includes a first failure diagnosing unit and a second failure diagnosing unit, wherein the step of performing failure diagnosis of the parts of the lidar by the failure diagnosing unit and outputting a failure diagnosing signal when it is diagnosed that a failure exists includes:

performing fault diagnosis on a component of the laser radar mounted on or connected to the upper deck through a first fault diagnosis unit, and outputting a first fault diagnosis signal when it is diagnosed that a fault exists; and

performing fault diagnosis on a component of the laser radar mounted on or connected to the lower deck through a second fault diagnosis unit, and outputting a second fault diagnosis signal when it is diagnosed that a fault exists;

wherein the step of receiving the fault diagnosis signal by the diagnosis management unit and determining the state of the lidar according to the fault diagnosis signal comprises: and receiving the first fault diagnosis signal and the second fault diagnosis signal through a diagnosis management unit, and determining the state of the laser radar according to the first fault diagnosis signal and the second fault diagnosis signal.

15. The status detection method according to claim 14, wherein the lidar includes a transmission unit, a reception unit, and a point cloud generation unit, which are provided on the upper deck, wherein the transmission unit is configured to transmit a probe laser beam to an outside of the lidar, the reception unit is configured to receive an echo of the probe laser beam reflected on a target and convert the echo into an electric signal, and the point cloud generation unit is configured to generate point cloud data of the lidar based on the electric signal, wherein the status detection method further comprises: when the first fault diagnosis signal is received, point cloud data corresponding to the first fault diagnosis signal is received.

16. The state detection method according to claim 14 or 15, wherein the lidar includes a motor, a power supply, an encoder, and a communication part provided on the lower deck, and the state of the lidar includes: the method comprises an initialization state, a normal state, a degradation state and a shutdown state, wherein the state detection method comprises the following steps:

17. The condition detecting method according to claim 16, wherein the failure of the lidar includes a primary failure and a secondary failure; wherein the state detection method further comprises:

and when the first fault diagnosis unit or the second fault diagnosis unit detects a secondary fault, switching the state of the laser radar to a shutdown state through the diagnosis management unit.

18. The status detection method according to claim 17, further comprising: when the first and second failure diagnosis units do not detect a failure in the degradation stage, the diagnosis management unit switches the state of the lidar from a degraded state to a normal state.

19. The status detection method according to claim 16, wherein the self-test operation comprises: self-checking of a power supply and a clock of the laser radar; self-checking the upper bin plate and the lower bin plate; internal power supply self-checking; the transmitting unit and the receiving unit perform self-checking, wherein the motor starting operation is performed after the self-checking operation is successful,

the state detection method further includes:

20. The status detection method according to claim 17, further comprising: when the first fault diagnosis unit judges that the fault exists, the fault data is cached to a first cache;

21. The status detection method according to claim 20, further comprising: outputting, by the diagnosis management unit, the failure data stored in the failure memory when an external request is received.

22. A status detection method according to any one of claims 13-15, further comprising: judging whether the point cloud data is reasonable or not through a point cloud rationality diagnosis unit and outputting result information;