Optical system design for light detection and ranging sensor with an ultra-wide field-of-view using a micro actuator

摘要

Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensors can measure the three-dimensional environment by irradiating near-infrared light and measuring the flight time of light scattered from objects. As the demand for three-dimensional measurement and imaging technology for future applications in autonomous vehicles increases, this technology has become increasingly important. In this paper, we propose an ultra-wide field-of-view (FOV) optical system for LiDAR sensors that can sequentially scan the beam emitted by a high-power laser through a compact and inexpensive beam steering system using a micro-actuator with a compact size and a fisheye lens. The proposed optical system for LiDAR sensors consists of a micro-actuator mounted focusing lens for beam steering, a fisheye lens with a wide FOV, and a relay lens to combine the intermediate image planes of the two lens systems effectively. We also proposed an optical system without a relay lens to modify the fisheye lens design to achieve a smaller size. To confirm the theoretical feasibility, we designed a practical optical system for LiDAR sensors with a FOV of approximately 176 degrees, which is much higher than the FOVs of other non-rotating LiDAR sensors.