Development of the high angular resolution 360° LiDAR based on scanning MEMS mirror

Abstract

Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) using various operational principles has been applied in many fields, e.g., robotics navigation, autonomous vehicles, unmanned aerial flyers, land surveying, etc. The multichannel LiDAR system is of great importance in the field of autonomous driving due to its larger field of view (FoV). However, the number of transceivers limits the vertical angular resolution of multichannel LiDAR systems and makes them costly. On the other hand, the emergence of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) mirrors may provide a highly promising solution to a low-cost, high angular resolution LiDAR system. We have demonstrated a MEMS mirror-based 360° LiDAR system with high angular resolution and will present the detailed design process and obtained experimental results in this paper. With the combination of the MEMS mirror and a rotation platform for the LiDAR system, a 360° × 8.6° (horizontal × vertical) FoV was achieved. Compared with existing commercial multichannel 360° LiDAR systems, our system has 13.8 times better angular resolution than the Velodyne HDL-64 LiDAR sensor. The experimental results verified an excellent performance of 0.07° × 0.027° (horizontal × vertical) angular resolution, which enhances the panoramic scanning and imaging capability of the LiDAR system, potentially providing more accurate 3D scanning applications in areas such as autonomous vehicles, indoor surveying, indoor robotics navigation, etc.

Recent advancements in physical and chemical MEMS sensors

“…9A). 77 The distance to the object can be measured by inverse calculation of the distance from the time of flight until the reflected light retuns from the object (Fig. 9B).…”

Investigation of angular resolution requirements for LiDAR systems

“…Niclass et al 11 achieve an angular resolution of 0.17° × 0.17° with a FOV of 45° × 11° in their research, using 2D MEMS mirrors and multiple laser diodes. Yang et al 12 combine the rotation stage in spin LiDAR systems with a MEMs mirror, achieving a 360° horizontal FOV with a fine angular resolution of 0.07° × 0.027°. Thakur 13 indicates that the requirement of the angular resolution is not well defined in initial stage for scanning LiDAR systems, varying the from the 0.3° to 30°.…”

Theoretical modeling and experimental investigation of in-phase resonant MEMS mirrors with cascaded structures

“…With the advances in micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technology, torsional scanning micromirror shows excellent potential for optical imaging applications, including confocal microscopy, laser projection, and light detection and ranging (LiDAR) systems for the automotive industry [1][2][3][4]. Comb-actuated MEMS scanning mirrors of resonant type receive much attention thanks to their compactness, * Author to whom any correspondence should be addressed.…”