A system for an aircraft includes an optical sensor, at least one aircraft sensor, and a controller. The optical sensor is configured to emit a laser outside the aircraft, and the at least one aircraft sensor is configured to sense at least one aircraft condition. The controller is configured to determine a first operational state of the aircraft based upon the at least one aircraft condition and determine a second operational state of the aircraft based on the at least one aircraft condition, and operate the optical sensor to emit the laser at a first intensity during the first operational state and a second intensity during the second operational state, wherein the second intensity is greater than the first intensity.

A transmitter unit for emitting radiation into the surrounding area, including at least one semiconductor laser, which has at least one first emitter possessing a first section and a second section; and at least one control unit for controlling the semiconductor laser. The control unit is configured to apply a first supply variable to the first section of the at least one emitter, and to apply a second supply variable differing from the first supply variable, to the second section of the at least one emitter.

A LiDAR apparatus includes a first substrate, a laser diode on a surface of the substrate for outputting light, a fast axis collimator (FAC) lens receiving the light and generating an at least partially collimated light beam, a polarizing beam splitter optically coupled to the FAC lens, at least a portion of the light beam passing through the polarizing beam splitter to a region being observed by the LiDAR apparatus. An opaque coating on the back side of an aperture element coupled to the polarizing beam splitter is patterned to provide a transparent aperture. At least a portion of light returning to the LiDAR apparatus from the region being observed is directed by the polarizing beam splitter, through the transparent aperture in the opaque coating on the aperture element, through the at least partially reflective optical element to an optical detector mounted on the substrate.

A LiDAR system has a field of view and includes a polarization-based waveguide splitter. The splitter includes a first splitter port, a second splitter port and a common splitter port. A laser is optically coupled to the first splitter port via a single-polarization waveguide. An objective lens optically couples each optical emitter of an array of optical emitters to a respective unique portion of the field of view. An optical switching network is coupled via respective dual-polarization waveguides between the common splitter port and the array of optical emitters. An optical receiver is optically coupled to the second splitter port via a dual-polarization waveguide and is configured to receive light reflected from the field of view. A controller, coupled to the optical switching network, is configured to cause the optical switching network to route light from the laser to a sequence of the optical emitters according to a temporal pattern.

It is intended to promote enhancement of performance of acquiring a depth image. A depth image acquiring apparatus includes a light emitting diode, a TOF sensor, and a filter. The light emitting diode irradiates modulated light toward a detection area becoming an area in which a depth image is to be acquired to detect a distance. The TOF sensor receives incident light into which the light irradiated from the light emitting diode is reflected by an object lying in the detection area to become, thereby outputting a signal used to produce the depth image. The filter passes more light having a wavelength in a predetermined pass bandwidth than light having a wavelength in a pass bandwidth other than the predetermined pass bandwidth of the light made incident toward the TOF sensor. In this case, at least one of the light emitting diode, the TOF sensor, or arrangement of the filter is controlled in accordance with a temperature of the light emitting diode or the TOF sensor. The present technique, for example, can be applied to a system for with international search report acquiring a depth image by using a TOF system.

A light detection and ranging system includes synchronously scanning transmit and receive mirrors that scan a pulsed fanned laser beam in two dimensions. Imaging optics image a receive aperture onto an arrayed receiver that includes a plurality of light sensitive devices. A phase offset may be injected into a scanning trajectory to mitigate effects of interfering light sources.

A non-imaging concentrator is employed in an upside down configuration in which light enters a smaller aperture and exits a larger aperture. The input angle of light rays may be as large as 180 degrees, while the maximum exit angle is limited to the acceptance angle of the non-imaging concentrator. A dichroic filter placed at the larger aperture has a maximum angle of incidence equal to the acceptance angle of the non-imaging concentrator.

An apparatus includes a time-of-flight (TOF) sensor system that has an illuminator operable to emit pulses of light toward an object outside the apparatus. The illuminator is operable in a first mode in which the illuminator emits pulses having a first width and a second mode in which the illuminator emits pulses having a second width longer than the first width. The TOF sensor system further includes a photodetector operable to detect light produced by the illuminator and reflected by the object back toward the apparatus. An electronic control device is operable to control emission of light by the illuminator and is operable to estimate a distance to the object based on a time elapsed between an emission of one or more of the pulses by the illuminator and detection of the reflected light by the photodetector.

A solid-state lidar device comprises a laser generator, an optical lens arrangement having a focal length and providing a rear focal plane, a solid-state sensing array positioned at the rear focal plane of the optical lens arrangement having a first sensor and a second sensor spaced from each other by a first sensor distance and at least one processor. The processor is configured to obtain a measured distance of the target from a pulsed time-of-flight measurement utilizing the laser generator and at least one of the first sensor and the second sensor of the solid-state sensing array and obtain at least one spatial coordinate for the target from the measured distance using a calibration parameter indicative of the ratio of the first sensor distance and the focal length.

A transmission unit for a LIDAR device for emitting collimated beams into a scanning area. The transmission unit includes at least one beam source for generating beams in the form of a beam bundle, the beam source being designed as a surface emitter or an emitter array, and a transmission optical unit including at least one lens. The transmission unit includes a diaphragm including at least one aperture, which is configured to delimit a cross section of the beam bundle of the generated beams in a horizontal direction and/or a vertical direction. The at least one lens of the transmission optical unit is situated downstream from the diaphragm in the emission direction of the beams. A LIDAR device is also described.