In this article we present a new large aperture 1D-MEMS scanner module especially designed for laser radar systems. The scanner module has a resonance frequency of 250 Hz and optical scan range of 60°. It comprises of two separate scanning channels: (a) a single scanning mirror of the collimated transmitted beam oscillates parallel to (b) a scanning mirror array of the receiver optics. The receiver optics use a synchronized array of 2 x 7 identical mirror elements, each with 2.51x 9.51 mm² per single mirror element, resulting in a total aperture of 334 mm² and filling factor of 80 %. We discuss in detail the system integration of the MEMS components including packaging and synchronized operation of all scanner elements to guaranty a large aperture of the LIDAR receiver optics. In addition the paper includes a conceptual discussion of optical design and expected S/N ratio and measurement range of final LIDAR system. It will be shown that the presented new concept of MEMS based LIDAR system can realize also high accuracy of the distance measurement similar to state of the art TOF-LIDAR scanners enabling a new generation of miniaturized, robust and potentially cost efficient LIDAR systems due to the MEMS technology
We present a system concept for a scanning laser radar employing a newly developed MEMS mirror array. The array solution permits large reception apertures while preserving outstanding reliability, high scanning speed, compact size and small system weight. We show first results using a single-mirror prototype
This article reports design and measurement results of a novel 3D laser measurement system delivered to SBST, Singapore, in February 2003. According to our knowledge, it is the first fast laser scanning system worldwide using optical fibers to separate the laser scanner from the temperature sensitive measurement electronics. Together with an angle encoder triggered measurement electronics the result is a simple and robust scan hardware, because no temperature control is needed since all sensitive parts can be mounted inside of the vehicle. The second feature of the system is an automatic alignment of the 3D laser scanner data with the rails. Therefore no additional information about the position of the vehicle towards the rails or about the track is necessary. The rail detection algorithm is executed in real time on a dual Pentium computer. The overall measurement accuracy under normal environment conditions is 3 to 10 mm standard deviation for distances up to 10 m
We improve the accuracy of distance measurements with synthetic-wavelength interferometry by referencing the spectral spacing of the free-running light sources to a high-precision radio-frequency oscillator. In addition, we increase the unambiguity range with a time-of-flight technique. Distances to scattering technical surfaces can be measured with micrometer accuracy and an unambiguity range of 1.17 m. The measurement rate amounts to 300 Hz.
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