Granted Patent B2

US 12,748,199 · App. 18/778,648 · Granted Sep 29, 2026

Inventors: Jingyuan Linda Zhang (Menlo Park, CA); Caner Onal (Palo Alto, CA)

Assignee: Waymo LLC

G01S7/497B60S1/56G01S17/931G01S2007/4977

Abstract

Claims (55)

1 . A light detection and ranging (lidar) system comprising:

at least one light-emitter device configured to emit light pulses;

at least one detector; and

a controller comprising at least one processor and a memory, wherein the at least one processor executes instructions stored in the memory so as to perform operations, the operations comprising:

causing the at least one light-emitter device to emit at least one light pulse;

receiving, from the at least one detector, information indicative of return light;

determining, based on the received information, at least one bright light return associated with at least one highly reflective object;

classifying a portion of the return light as crosstalk light; and

determining a normalized number of crosstalk returns based on an apparent size of the at least one highly reflective object.

2 . The lidar system of claim 1 , wherein the crosstalk light has a corresponding crosstalk return range that is within a range tolerance with respect to a bright light return range to the at least one highly reflective object.

3 . The lidar system of claim 2 , wherein the range tolerance is within 50 centimeters of the bright light return range.

4 . The lidar system of claim 2 , wherein the range tolerance is between −30 centimeters and +50 centimeters with respect to the bright light return range.

5 . The lidar system of claim 2 , wherein the bright light return range comprises a distance of between 0.1 meter to 200 meters.

6 . The lidar system of claim 1 , further comprising:

at least one optical surface; and

a cleaning system, wherein the operations additionally include:

causing, based on the normalized number of crosstalk returns, the cleaning system to clean the at least one optical surface.

7 . The lidar system of claim 6 , wherein the at least one optical surface comprises: an optical window, an optical lens, or a reflective surface.

8 . The lidar system of claim 6 , wherein the cleaning system comprises at least one of: a compressed gas jet, a fluid jet, or a mechanical wiper.

9 . A method comprising:

receiving information indicative of return light;

determining, from the received information, at least one bright light return associated with at least one highly reflective object;

classifying a portion of the return light as crosstalk light;

determining a normalized number of crosstalk returns based on an apparent size of the at least one highly reflective object; and

adjusting, based on the normalized number of crosstalk returns, at least one of: a cleaning system, an operating mode of a lidar system, or an operating mode of a vehicle.

10 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising:

causing at least one light-emitter device to emit emitted light pulses into an environment, wherein the return light comprises at least a portion of the emitted light pulses that have interacted with objects in the environment.

11 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the crosstalk light has a corresponding crosstalk return range that is within a range tolerance with respect to a bright light return range to the at least one highly reflective object.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the range tolerance is within 50 centimeters of the bright light return range.

13 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the range tolerance is between −30 centimeters and +50 centimeters with respect to the bright light return range.

14 . The method of claim 9 , wherein adjusting, based on the normalized number of crosstalk returns, at least one of: the cleaning system, the operating mode of the lidar system, or the operating mode of the vehicle comprises:

turning on a wiper;

turning on a fluid jet cleaning system;

turning on a compressed gas cleaning system;

changing a spatial resolution of the lidar system;

changing a temporal resolution of the lidar system;

changing a maximum range of the lidar system;

changing a maximum speed of the vehicle;

adjusting a route of the vehicle;

scheduling a vehicle repair; or

scheduling a sensor cleaning appointment.

15 . The method of claim 9 , wherein determining the at least one bright light return comprises:

comparing an amplitude of the return light to a photon threshold, and wherein the at least one bright light return is determined where the amplitude of the return light is greater than the photon threshold.

16 . A method comprising:

receiving point cloud information, wherein the point cloud information comprises spatiotemporal and amplitude information about return light received by a lidar system;

determining, based on the point cloud information, a set of bright light returns from at least one highly reflective object;

classifying a portion of the point cloud information as crosstalk light;

determining a normalized number of crosstalk returns based on an apparent size of the at least one highly reflective object; and

adjusting, based on the normalized number of crosstalk returns, at least one of: a cleaning system, an operating mode of the lidar system, or an operating mode of a vehicle.

17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the crosstalk light has a corresponding crosstalk return range that is within a range tolerance with respect to a bright light return range to the at least one highly reflective object.

18 . The method of claim 17 , wherein the range tolerance is within 50 centimeters of the bright light return range.

19 . The method of claim 17 , wherein the bright light return range comprises a distance of between 0.1 meter to 200 meters.

20 . The method of claim 16 , further comprising:

adjusting a position or an orientation of the lidar system; and

carrying out the other method steps with the adjusted position or the adjusted orientation of the lidar system.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (2)

References Cited (45)