Patent attributes
A laser radar includes: a laser, an optical transmission system, a 1-dimensional array of photo-detectors, an optical reception system, and an electronic control system. The laser emits a wavelength of light, and the optical transmission system shapes the light into a beam, and scans the beam along a fan of transmission light paths toward a target. The photo-detectors are capable of time-of-arrival measurements and are sensitive to the wavelength of light. The optical reception system collects the laser light reflected from the target along a fan of reception light paths. The electronic control system synchronizes the scan of the beam with a respective time-of-arrival measurement from each of the photo-detectors, and analyzes the time-of-arrival measurements. The system is configured for all of the transmission light paths and all of the reception light paths to lie in one plane, with all of the reception light paths intersecting with at least one of the transmission light paths.
