Optical fiber imaging laser radar

Abstract

We develop an optical fiber imaging laser radar based on the focal plane array detection method using a small number of detectors less than the number of the focal plane array resolution. For the development of this kind of the focal array detection method, we produce the optical fiber dissector, the movable aperture, and the small-number parallel multichannel pulse counter receiver. The optical fiber dissector has one vertical cross section of the 35ϫ35 optical fiber square array for the focal plane at one end and 25 vertical cross sections of the 25 optical fiber bundles for the 25-channel parallel multichannel pulse counter receiver at the other end. Each optical fiber bundle has the 49 optical fibers selected from the 35ϫ35 optical fiber square array with no overlap. The movable aperture has a window of a size 5ϫ5 optical fiber cross section to ensure no crosstalk for the detection of the divergent pulse laser beam. The divergent pulse laser beam is focused on some 5ϫ5 area of the 35ϫ35 optical fiber square array related to its scanning direction. The developed optical fiber imaging laser radar shows high range resolution and no-crosstalk angle resolution. The range resolution is under 15 cm. The angle resolution is 1 pixel. © 2005 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.