RANGE CALIBRATION FOR LIDAR SYSTEMS
A system comprises an interface and an optical network. The interface is configured to receive a pulse of light emitted by a lidar device and the optical network is configured to provide a particular temporal delay of one or more different temporal delays to the received pulse of light. The system is configured to direct the temporal delayed pulse to the lidar device.
1 . A system, comprising:
an interface configured to receive a pulse of light emitted by a lidar device; and
an optical network configured to provide a particular temporal delay of one or more different temporal delays to the received pulse of light;
wherein the system is configured to direct the temporal delayed pulse to the lidar device.
2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the temporal delayed pulse is directed to the lidar device as a free-space pulse of light.
3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the optical network includes one or more optical fibers having different lengths corresponding to the different temporal delays, and a member of the one or more optical fibers is selectable to select a desired temporal delay among the different temporal delays.
4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the interface includes an input optical collimator and an output optical collimator.
5 . The system of claim 4 , wherein the input optical collimator or the output optical collimator is mounted to a servo mount.
6 . The system of claim 5 , wherein the servo mount is configurable in at least two orthogonal directions.
7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the optical network includes a variable optical attenuator.
8 . The system of claim 7 , wherein the variable optical attenuator is configured to apply a particular amount of optical attenuation to the received pulse of light.
9 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the optical network includes two or more optical switches, wherein each of the two or more optical switches is optically connected to a single fiber delay line of a plurality of fiber delay lines.
10 . The system of claim 9 , wherein a first fiber delay line of the plurality of fiber delay lines has an optical delay that is at least twice as long as an optical delay of a second fiber delay line of the plurality of fiber delay lines.
11 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the optical network includes a fiber tap configured to send a portion of the received pulse of light to a monitoring module.
12 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the monitoring module includes an oscilloscope configured to measure the received pulse of light.
13 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising a compute unit, wherein the compute unit is configured to select the particular temporal delay of the one or more different temporal delays.
14 . The system of claim 13 , wherein the particular temporal delay is selected by providing a corresponding distance measurement.
15 . The system of claim 13 , wherein the compute unit is further configured to select a particular attenuation to apply to the received pulse of light.
16 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
an optical platform, wherein the lidar device is mounted to the optical platform; and
a thermal control unit, wherein the thermal control unit is configured to modify an operational temperature of the lidar device.
17 . A method comprising:
sending instructions to a lidar device to scan a scene, wherein the lidar device is mounted to a calibration system;
receiving at an interface a pulse of light emitted by the lidar device;
inserting using an optical network a particular temporal delay of one or more different temporal delays to generate a temporal delayed pulse; and
directing the temporal delayed pulse to the lidar device.
18 . The method of claim 17 , further comprising:
applying a particular amount of optical attenuation to the received pulse of light.
19 . The method of claim 17 , further comprising:
determining one or more distance correction parameters based on a distance measurement determined by the lidar device, wherein the distance measurement is based on the pulse of light emitted by the lidar device and the temporal delayed pulse.
20 . A system, comprising:
an interface configured to receive a pulse of light emitted by a lidar device; and
an optical network configured to attenuate the received pulse of light and provide a temporal delay to the received pulse of light;
wherein the system is configured to direct the attenuated and temporal delayed received pulse of light to the lidar device.