JPH07218618A - Optical axis adjuster for laser radar - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an optical axis adjuster for laser radar in which one operator can perform the adjusting work efficiently in a limited space without causing any cost increase. CONSTITUTION:A visible laser light 5A reciprocates the distance (10 and several meter) between a laser radar and a corner cube prism 6 three times before impinging on a white board 9. Consequently, the length of optical path exceeds (10 and several meter)X6, i.e., several tens to one hundred meter, which is equal to or longer than the linear distance between a laser radar and an optical detector in conventional optical axis adjusting work. Consequently, the optical axis can be adjusted highly accurately in a space limited by a factor of several number.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a laser radar optical axis adjusting device for adjusting the optical axis of a laser radar device mounted on a vehicle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a laser radar device mounted on a vehicle for measuring an inter-vehicle distance, since the directivity of the laser beam is high, the optical axis of the laser beam is placed horizontally or vertically with respect to the front direction of the vehicle. If it deviates by about 1 °, there is a problem that the laser light does not hit the vehicle ahead about 100 m well and the inter-vehicle distance with the vehicle ahead cannot be accurately detected.

A conventional laser radar optical axis adjusting device capable of adjusting the optical axis of a laser beam with extremely high accuracy when the laser radar device is mounted on a vehicle is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 63-46855. Things are known. In this laser radar optical axis adjustment device, a laser oscillator for emitting a light beam (visible laser light) to the front of the vehicle is mounted on the vehicle, and a laser light detection element for detecting the laser light from the laser radar device is provided. Align the vehicle directly with the board, detect the laser light from the laser radar device that irradiates this board with the laser light detection element, display the irradiation position on the display device, and see the irradiation position display on the display device. On the other hand, the laser optical axis of the laser radar device is adjusted so as to coincide with the front direction of the vehicle. The board is arranged several tens of meters ahead of the vehicle in order to adjust the optical axis of the laser radar device with extremely high accuracy.

[0004]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional laser radar optical axis adjustment device, in order to perform the optical axis adjustment of the laser radar device with extremely high accuracy, the board which is the detector is installed at a distance of 10 m in front of the vehicle. There is a problem that it needs to be placed in a place and a large space is required for adjustment work.

Further, when the display device is provided on the board, the work for adjusting the position of the laser radar device according to an instruction of the worker who is near the board and sees the irradiation position display of the display device. When the display device is arranged near the vehicle as a separate body from the board, only one worker is required, but a cable connecting the display device and the board is required for several tens of meters. However, there is a problem that the cost becomes high.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and its object is to enable highly accurate adjustment in a narrow space and to efficiently perform adjustment work by one operator without increasing the cost. It is an object of the present invention to provide a laser radar optical axis adjustment device that can perform the operation.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the laser radar optical axis adjusting device according to the invention of claim 1 is
A laser radar device mounted on the vehicle so that its position can be adjusted,
An adjusting device body that is detachably mounted, and a visible laser light emitting means that is attached to the adjusting device body and emits visible laser light parallel to the optical axis of the laser light emitted from the laser radar device to the front of the vehicle. A reflection member that is disposed in front of the vehicle and that reflects visible laser light from the visible laser light emitting means toward the vehicle; and a reflective visible laser light from the reflection member that is attached to the adjustment device body. And a light receiving member for receiving light.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a laser radar optical axis adjusting device, wherein the laser radar device is mounted on a vehicle so that its position can be adjusted. Visible laser light emitting means that is mounted and emits visible laser light that is parallel to the optical axis of the laser light emitted from the laser radar device toward the front of the vehicle; and the visible laser light emitting means that is disposed in front of the vehicle. At least one reflecting member that reflects visible laser light toward the vehicle, and at least one reflecting member that is attached to the adjustment device body and that reflects the visible visible laser light from the reflecting member toward the reflecting member. A vehicle-side reflecting member, and a light-receiving member that receives reflected visible laser light that has returned to the vehicle after making at least one round trip between the reflecting member and the vehicle-side reflecting member. It is provided.

[0009]

If the visible laser light reciprocates between the reflecting member and the vehicle side reflecting member before the visible laser light enters the light receiving member as described above, the optical path length of the visible laser light can be shortened. Since the distance between the reflecting member and the vehicle can be shortened without doing so, the space required for highly accurate optical axis adjustment work can be reduced. Further, after the reflecting member is once installed, the operator can adjust the optical axis only by adjusting the mounting position of the laser radar device so that the visible laser light enters the light receiving member.

Further, at least one reflection member and at least one vehicle side reflection member are used, and at least one visible laser beam is provided between the reflection member and the vehicle side reflection member before the visible laser light is incident on the light receiving member. If the vehicle is reciprocated, the distance between the reflecting member and the vehicle can be shortened by the number of times of reciprocation, so that the space required for the optical axis adjustment work can be significantly reduced.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a laser radar optical axis adjusting device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a state in which the laser radar device is attached to a vehicle. The laser radar optical axis adjusting device is held by an adjusting device body 3 that is detachably attached to a laser radar device 2 that is positionally attached to the vehicle 1, and holding members 4 and 4 fixed to the adjusting device body 3. Laser light emitted from the laser radar device 2 to the front of the vehicle (for example, a wavelength of 850n
A laser pointer (visible laser light emitting means) 5 for emitting a visible laser light 5A parallel to the optical axis of a near-infrared invisible laser light of about m, and a laser pointer 5 arranged in front of the vehicle.
The corner cube prism (reflecting member) 6 that reflects the visible laser light 5A from the vehicle toward the vehicle 1 is provided.
The corner cube prism 6 is located at a position of several ten meters in front of the adjustment device body 3 mounted on the laser radar device 2.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, mini-prisms (vehicle-side reflecting members) 7 and 8 and white boards (light-receiving members) are provided at predetermined positions on the upper surface of the adjusting device main body 3, in addition to the laser pointer 5. ) 9 is attached.

The mini-prisms 7 and 8 are corner cubes.
The visible laser light 5A reflected by the prism 6 is reflected toward the corner cube prism 6.

The white board 9 is colored white in order to easily distinguish the visible laser light 5A from the wavelength 670 nm (red). The color of the white board 9 is the visible laser light 5
If it is easy to distinguish A from the wavelength of 670 nm (red),
It may be black or another color. As shown in FIG. 5, a circular visible laser light proper irradiation position mark 10 is attached to a predetermined position on the surface of the white board 9. This means that when the visible laser light 5A reflected by the corner cube prism 6 enters the mark 10, the optical axis of the visible laser light 5A is accurately adjusted in the front direction of the vehicle 1.

Next, the optical axis adjusting work using the laser radar optical axis adjusting apparatus of this embodiment will be described.

As a premise of the optical axis adjusting work, when the adjusting device body 3 is mounted on the laser radar device 2, the optical axis of the visible laser light 5A emitted from the laser pointer 5 is the optical axis of the laser light of the laser radar device 2. It must be pre-adjusted to be parallel to. Specifically, adjustment is performed so that the optical axis of the visible laser light 5A and the optical axis of the laser light of the laser radar device 2 are parallel to each other with the housing upper surface 2a of the laser radar device 2 as a reference surface.

When the adjusting device body 3 is mounted on the laser radar device 2, the optical axis of the visible laser light 5A emitted from the laser pointer 5 is parallel to the optical axis of the laser light of the laser radar device 2 by design. The configuration may be as follows.

By doing so, if the optical axis of the visible laser light 5A is accurately adjusted in the direction directly in front of the vehicle 1, at the same time, the optical axis of the laser light of the laser radar device 2 becomes accurate in the direction directly in front of the vehicle 1. The relationship of being well adjusted is established.

In the optical axis adjustment work, first, the vehicle 1 on which the laser radar device 2 is mounted is installed on a substantially horizontal floor or the ground, and then the corner cube prism 6 is placed in front of the vehicle. It is installed at a position of 10 meters or more in front.

Then, the visible laser light 5A emitted from the laser pointer 5 is incident on the corner cube prism 6, and the visible laser light 5A reflected by the prism 6 is incident on the mini prism 7, so that the corner cube is formed.・ Reinstall the prism 6.

After this, the operator of the optical axis adjusting returns to the vehicle 1 from the installation position of the corner cube prism 6, and the laser radar device 2 so that the visible laser light 5A is incident on the proper irradiation position mark 10 of the white board 9. Adjust the mounting position of. That is, the visible laser light 5A emitted from the laser pointer 5 enters the corner cube prism 6,
The visible laser light 5A reflected by the prism 6 enters the mini-prism 7, the visible laser light 5A reflected by the prism 7 again enters the corner cube prism 6, and the visible laser light reflected by the prism 6 The light 5A is incident on the mini-prism 8, the visible laser light 5A reflected by this prism 8 is again incident on the corner cube prism 6, and the visible laser light 5A reflected by this prism 6 is properly irradiated on the white board 9. The mounting position of the laser radar device 2 is adjusted by operating an adjusting mechanism (not shown) so that the laser beam enters the position mark 10.

According to the laser radar optical axis adjusting apparatus of this embodiment, the visible laser light 5A is 3 (10 m) from the laser radar apparatus 2 to the corner cube prism 6.
Since it reciprocates, the optical path length becomes 10 m × 6, that is, several 10 to 100 m or more, which is equal to or longer than the linear distance from the laser radar device to the light detecting means in the conventional optical axis adjusting work. Therefore, a wide space is not required for high-precision optical axis adjustment work, and the optical axis can be adjusted in a space that is a fraction of the conventional space.

Further, after the corner cube prism 6 is once installed, the operator can see the visible laser light 5 at the position on the vehicle side.
Since it suffices to adjust the mounting position of the laser radar device 2 so that A enters the proper irradiation position mark 10 of the white board 9, the optical axis adjustment work can be efficiently performed by one operator.

Further, the infrared laser light detecting device, the display device and the cable used in the conventional laser radar optical axis adjusting device are unnecessary, and the cost can be reduced.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, the corner cube prism 6 is used as the reflecting member, but a right angled three-sided mirror may be used instead.

In the above-described embodiment, the case where one large corner cube prism 6 is used as the reflecting member and the two mini-prisms 7 and 8 are used as the vehicle-side reflecting members have been described. Alternatively, two small corner cube prisms may be used as the reflecting member, and one large prism may be used as the vehicle-side reflecting member.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, one large corner cube prism 6 is used as the reflecting member, and two mini prisms 7 and 8 are used as the vehicle side reflecting member.
Although the case where the visible laser light is reciprocated between the reflection member and the vehicle-side reflection member three times has been described, the number of reciprocations may be three or more reciprocations by appropriately increasing the number of the reflection members and the vehicle-side reflection member. The distance between the reflecting member and the vehicle can be shortened in proportion to the number of round trips.

[0029]

As described above, according to the laser radar optical axis adjusting device of the present invention, the space required for the work of highly accurate optical axis adjustment can be reduced to half or less as compared with the conventional example. Once the reflecting member is installed, the worker only needs to adjust the mounting position of the laser radar device so that the visible laser light is incident on the light receiving member, so that the optical axis adjustment work can be performed efficiently by one worker. It can be carried out. Further, since the infrared laser light detection device installed on the reflecting member and the display device installed on the vehicle side are not required, a cable for the display device is not required and cost can be reduced.

At least one reflection member and at least one vehicle-side reflection member are used, and at least one visible laser beam is provided between the reflection member and the vehicle-side reflection member before the visible laser light is incident on the light-receiving member. If the vehicle is reciprocated, the distance between the reflecting member and the vehicle can be shortened by the number of times of reciprocation, so that the space required for the optical axis adjustment work can be significantly reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a laser radar optical axis adjusting device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a state in which a laser radar device is attached to a vehicle.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a main body of the adjusting device.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a state in which the adjustment device body is mounted on the laser radar device.

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing a white board.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Vehicle 2 Laser Radar Device 3 Adjustment Device Main Body 5 Laser Pointer 5A Visible Laser Light 6 Corner Cube Prism 7,8 Mini Prism 9 White Board

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A laser radar device mounted on a vehicle so that its position can be adjusted, a main body of the adjusting device detachably mounted on the laser radar device, and a laser radar device mounted on the main body of the adjusting device and emitted from the laser radar device toward the front of the vehicle. Visible laser light emitting means for emitting visible laser light having an optical axis parallel to the optical axis of the laser light, and the visible laser light from the visible laser light emitting means arranged in front of the vehicle is reflected toward the vehicle. A laser radar optical axis adjusting device, comprising: a reflecting member which is provided with the adjusting device body; and a light receiving member which is attached to the adjusting device main body and receives the reflected visible laser light from the reflecting member. 2. A laser radar device mounted on a vehicle so that its position can be adjusted, and an adjustment device body detachably attached to the laser radar device, and the adjustment device body is attached to the laser radar device and emits from the laser radar device forward of the vehicle. Visible laser light emitting means for emitting visible laser light having an optical axis parallel to the optical axis of the laser light, and the visible laser light from the visible laser light emitting means arranged in front of the vehicle is reflected toward the vehicle. At least one reflecting member, at least one vehicle-side reflecting member that is attached to the adjustment device body and that reflects the visible visible laser light from the reflecting member toward the reflecting member, the reflecting member, and the And a light receiving member for receiving the reflected visible laser light returning to the vehicle at least one round trip with respect to the vehicle side reflecting member. Da optical axis adjusting device.