Laser diode based multiple-beam laser spot imaging system for characterization of vehicle dynamics

Abstract

The invention is related to a laser diode based multiple beam laser spot imaging system for characterization of vehicle dynamics. A laser diode based, preferably VCSEL based laser imaging system is utilized to characterize the vehicle dynamics. One or more laser beams are directed to the road surface. A compact imaging system including an imaging matrix sensor such as a CCD or CMOS camera measures locations or separations of individual laser spots. Loading status of vehicles and vehicles' pitch and roll angle can be characterized by analyzing the change of laser spot locations or separations.

Claims

1. An optical vehicle laser sensor system, comprising: a laser device which is configured to generate at least one laser beam, so that said laser beam is directed along a direction toward a reference surface disposed opposite to the laser device to produce a laser spot on the reference surface, an imaging device comprising at least one matrix sensor with a lens, wherein the imaging device is configured to image said laser spot, wherein said imaging device has an optical axis and is arranged so that said laser spot on said reference surface is visible within a field of view of said imaging device, wherein the optical axis of said imaging device and the direction of said laser beam are non-coincident with each other, a detector which is configured to detect a velocity of said optical vehicle laser sensor system relative to said reference surface from a signal of said laser beam which is reflected or scattered back from said reference surface, and a data processing device which is configured to detect a laser spot location within image data retrieved from said imaging device, and to calculate an orientation of said optical vehicle laser sensor system from the laser spot location.

2. The optical vehicle laser sensor system of claim 1, wherein said laser device is configured to generate three spatially separated laser beams, so that the three spatially separated laser beams generate three laser spots on the reference surface placed opposite to the laser device, wherein two pairs of the laser spots are separated along two different lateral directions along the reference surface.

3. The optical vehicle laser sensor system of claim 2, wherein said data processing device is configured to determine lateral distances between the laser spots, and to determine the orientation of said optical vehicle laser sensor system with respect to said reference surface based on said lateral distances.

4. The optical vehicle laser sensor system of claim 3, wherein the data processing device calculates a distance of the laser device to the reference surface from the location of one of the laser spots, or from the distances between the laser spots.

5. The optical vehicle laser sensor system of claim 2, wherein at least two of the three laser beams are directed to the reference surface under different angles than each other with respect to the reference surface.

6. The optical vehicle laser sensor system of claim 1, wherein the detector for detecting the velocity of the optical vehicle laser sensor system relative to the reference surface comprises: a detection device for detecting a self-mixing laser intensity oscillation; and circuitry for determining a frequency or period of the oscillation.

7. The optical vehicle laser sensor system of claim 2, wherein said laser device comprises three laser diodes, each generating one of said three laser beams.

8. The optical vehicle laser sensor system of claim 1, wherein said laser device comprises three vertical cavity surface emitting laser diodes.

9. The optical vehicle laser sensor system of claim 1, further comprising a second laser device laterally offset to the laser device, wherein the laser device and second laser device are spaced apart from each other both along a forward direction and transversally to said forward direction.

10. The optical vehicle laser sensor system of claim 9, wherein said data processing device is configured to determine a first distance of the laser device to said reference surface, and to determine a second distance of the further laser device to said reference surface, and to calculate from said first and second distances a roll angle and a pitch angle of the optical vehicle laser sensor system.

11. The optical vehicle laser sensor system of claim 1, wherein said data processing device is configured to calculate at least one of a pitch angle and a roll angle of the optical vehicle laser sensor system, and to correct a velocity of the optical vehicle laser sensor system measured by said detector based on said pitch angle and roll angle.

12. The optical vehicle laser sensor system of claim 11, wherein said velocity of the optical vehicle laser sensor system is corrected by said data processing device by calculating V.sub.0=M.sub.R.sup.1V, wherein V.sub.0=(V.sub.x0, V.sub.y0, V.sub.z0) denotes the corrected velocity vector and V=(V.sub.x, V.sub.y, V.sub.z) denotes the measured velocity vector, and wherein M.sub.R.sup.1 is the inverse of matrix: $M_R=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}\cos \cos & \sin \sin \cos +\cos \sin & -\cos \sin \cos +\sin \sin \\ -\cos \sin & -\sin \sin \sin +\cos \cos & \cos \sin \sin +\sin \cos \\ \sin & -\cos \sin & \cos \cos \end{array}\right)$ wherein denotes the roll angle of the optical vehicle laser sensor system, the pitch angle of the optical vehicle laser sensor system, and denotes an angle between a forward direction of said laser device and a forward direction of the optical vehicle laser sensor system.

13. The optical vehicle laser sensor system of claim 1, further comprising a pulsed power supply for the laser device, wherein said imaging device is synchronized with said pulsed power supply so that images are acquired during a pulse and between two pulses, and wherein said data processing unit subtracts said images acquired during a pulse and between two pulses.

14. The optical vehicle laser sensor system of claim 1, wherein the at least one matrix sensor comprises one of a charge-coupled device and a complementary metal oxide semiconductor sensor.

15. The optical vehicle laser sensor system of claim 2, wherein the orientation of the optical vehicle laser sensor system includes a pitch angle of the optical vehicle laser sensor system and a roll angle of the optical vehicle laser sensor system, wherein the imaging device is configured to image the three laser spots on the reference surface, and wherein the data processing device is configured to calculate the based on the three imaged laser spots, and to correct a velocity measured by the detector based on the orientation of the optical vehicle laser sensor system includes.

16. The optical vehicle laser sensor system of claim 1, wherein the velocity includes a forward velocity of the optical vehicle laser sensor system relative to the reference surface and a lateral velocity of the optical vehicle laser sensor system relative to the reference surface, and wherein the detector is configured to detect the forward velocity of the optical vehicle laser system and the lateral velocity of the optical vehicle laser system from the signal of said laser beam reflected or scattered back from said reference surface.

17. The optical vehicle laser sensor system of claim 16, wherein the orientation of the optical vehicle laser sensor system includes include a slip angle of the optical vehicle laser sensor system, and wherein the data processing device is configured to calculate the slip angle of the optical vehicle laser sensor system from the forward velocity of the optical vehicle laser system and the lateral velocity of the optical vehicle laser system.

18. A system, comprising: a laser device configured to be mounted on a vehicle and disposed above a road surface, wherein the laser device is configured to generate at least three laser beams and to direct each of the three laser beams onto the road surface to produce three laser spots on the road surface, wherein at least two of the three laser beams are non-parallel with each other and at least one of the three laser beams impinges obliquely on the road surface; an imaging device, comprising at least one matrix sensor configured to image the three laser spots on the road surface, the imaging device being arranged such that the three laser spots on the road surface are visible within a field of view of the imaging device; a detector configured to detect a velocity of the vehicle relative to the road surface from a signal of at least one of the laser beams reflected or scattered back from the road surface, and a data processing device configured to calculate values of vehicle dynamics parameters based on locations of the three imaged laser spots on the matrix sensor, wherein the vehicle dynamics parameters are dependent on a pitch angle of the vehicle and a roll angle of the vehicle, the data processing device being further configured to correct the velocity detected by the detector based on the vehicle dynamics parameters which are dependent on the pitch angle and roll angle.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the velocity includes a forward velocity of the vehicle and a lateral velocity of the vehicle, and wherein the detector is configured to detect the forward velocity of the vehicle relative to the road surface and the lateral velocity of the vehicle relative to the road surface from the signal of the at least one of the laser beams reflected or scattered back from the road surface.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the vehicle dynamics parameters include a skip angle of the vehicle, and wherein the data processing device is configured to calculate the skip angle from the forward velocity of the vehicle and the lateral velocity of the vehicle.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) FIG. 1 shows spectral response curves of a CCD-camera and a CMOS camera.

(2) FIG. 2 shows an image of the laser spots on the road surface.

(3) FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment of an optical vehicle laser sensor system.

(4) FIG. 4 depicts a further embodiment with two spatially separated laser devices,

(5) FIG. 5 shows the orientation of a laser beam.

(6) FIG. 6 shows a further embodiment of an optical vehicle laser sensor system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

(7) The optical vehicle laser sensor system for detection of vehicle dynamics parameters according to the invention is based on a laser device which generates three spatially separated laser beams directed onto the road surface, so that three laterally separated laser spots on the road surface are produced. An imaging device with a matrix sensor images the laser spots. The speed of the vehicle is determined from Doppler-induced self-mixing laser intensity oscillations. The laser sensor system further comprises a data processing device for calculating lateral distances between the imaged laser spots, and determining the orientation of the optical vehicle laser sensor system with respect to the road surface, or the vehicle's orientation with respect to the road, respectively.

(8) A VCSEL emitting in the infrared spectral region between 800 and 1000 nanometers wavelength is particularly preferred as laser diode. Although VCSEL beams of self-mixing ground speed sensors are in this case invisible for human eyes, they can nevertheless be readily imaged with conventional CCD or CMOS camera, as can be seen in FIG. 1. The dotted line shows the spectral response of a CMOS sensor and the continuous line is the spectral response of a CCD sensor. As indicated in FIG. 1, typical wavelength of a near-infrared VCSEL (for example: 0.86 m, indicated by the dashed vertical line) is within the spectral response ranges of both CCD and CMOS sensors.

(9) Assuming as an exemplary embodiment that all VCSELs of the laser device are focused at the road surface with a numerical aperture of about 0.02, the radius of VCSEL focus at road surface is about 26 nm. An optical power of only 1 mW from a typical VCSEL can produce a power density at road surface of 4.7 MW/m.sup.2. In contrast, maximum irradiation of full sun is only 1 kW/m.sup.2. Thus, even at presence of high ambient light, brightness of VCSEL focus spot is at least three orders of magnitude higher than that of background. Therefore, the VCSEL focus spots can be visualized with very high contrast even with low cost CCD or CMOS cameras, which is verified in FIG. 2, showing a color inverted image of the three laser spots 10, 11, 12 on the road taken with a low-cost matrix-camera.

(10) FIG. 3 shows a first embodiment of an optical vehicle laser sensor system 1. The laser device 3 is mounted on a vehicle at a distance Z above the road surface 2. The laser device emits three laterally separated laser beams 30, 31, 32. The laser beams are emitted non-parallel so that an angle is included both between beams 30, 31 and beams 31, 32. Due to these angles, not only the imaged spot positions but also their mutual distances vary if the laser device is tilted with respect to the road surface 2 or displaced vertically thereto along direction Z.

(11) Furthermore, as the laser beams hit the road surface 2 under an oblique angle, Doppler induced phase shifts for a movement in lateral direction along the road surface are induced into the reflected light so that the laser intensity of the laser diodes can be evaluated to extract self-mixing oscillations and determine the vehicle velocity therefrom.

(12) A camera 4 is placed nearby the laser beams 30, 31, 32 so that the laser spots on the road surface 2 lie within the camera's field of view 40.

(13) If for example, the vehicle tilts about its main heading direction or forward direction 13, the distance Y between the spots of beams 31 and 32 will change. The angle of rotation about this direction is referred to as the roll angle . On the other hand, a tilt of the vehicle body about an axis 14 extending vertical to direction 13 and parallel to the road surface 2 alters the position and mutual lateral distance of the spots of laser beams 30 and 31. The angle of rotation about this axis 14 is referred to as the pitch angle.

(14) If the distance of the laser device to the road surface 2 decreases, the mutual distances between all spots will decrease as well, and vice versa. Thus, the distance to the road can be calculated from the mutual distances X and Y of the laser spots as well.

(15) The configuration of a further embodiment of an optical vehicle laser sensor system is illustrated in FIG. 4. According to this embodiment, a first laser device 3 and a second laser device 5 are employed, which are arranged laterally offset at two different positions on the vehicle. Separate cameras 4, 6 are provided for each laser device 3, 5. Specifically, the laser devices 3 and 5 are spaced apart both along the forward direction 13 by a distance b and transversally thereto along axis 14 by a distance a.

(16) The VCSEL focus spot separations X between laser beams 30, 31 and 50, 51 are proportional to the height of the respective laser devices 3, 5 relative to the road surface 2:

(17) $\frac{X_0}{X^{}}=\frac{Z_0}{Z_0+Z}$

(18) where Z.sub.0 and X.sub.0 denote the mounting height of VCSELs in a static, non-loaded vehicle and the corresponding VCSEL focus spot separations at the road surface, respectively. Actual laser spot separations at presence of vehicle dynamics are denoted as X.sub.1 and X.sub.2. Change of height of laser devices 3, 5, induced either by pitch/roll and/or loading is denoted as Z.sub.1, Z.sub.2. Considering a typical 4.5 m long vehicle with a chassis height of 15 cm (Z.sub.0), a pitch angle of 1 degree can produce a change of height Z of 4 cm, which corresponds to 26% relative change in X. Therefore, a low cost CCD or CMOS camera with less than 20000 Pixel, such as, e.g., only 10 K pixel will be sufficient for many applications.

(19) As shown in another embodiment in FIG. 6, change of vehicle height Z can also be derived from the laser spot location which is captured by a CMOS or CCD camera 4.

(20) The laser beam impinges to the road surface under an oblique angle with respect to the road surface normal. This causes a shift of the location of laser spot 12 in dependence of a height shift Z, which can be expressed by:

(21) $\frac{Y}{Y_0}=\frac{Z}{Z_0}$

(22) In this relation, Y.sub.0 denotes the separation between a laser ground speed sensor 3 and a camera system 4. Y indicates the distance between laser spot 12 and the central optical axis 41 of camera 4. For simplicity, the laser beam of sensor 3 which is mounted in an unloaded, static vehicle is focused at road surface and crosses the central optical axis of camera 4. Accordingly, vehicle dynamics parameter can already be obtained by monitoring a single laser beam. If the laser beam also has a component in x-direction.

(23) Of course, the monitoring of laser spot position shifts in addition or alternative to a relative measurement of their mutual distance can be applied to a multi-beam device as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 as well. Furthermore, a shift in position is even observed in case that laser beam 30 and optical axis of the camera 4 are non-coincident but parallel. This is due to the fact that the magnification factor of the camera depends on the distance.

(24) With an arrangement using two laser devices 3, 5 as shown in FIG. 4, the vehicles' pitch () and roll () angles can be derived from change of VCSEL mounting height (Z) at the different positions of the laser devices:

(25) $=\frac{Z_1-Z_2}{a}$$=\frac{Z_1-Z_2}{b}$

(26) Thus, instead of utilizing inertial or angular sensor to characterize vehicle dynamics, the multi-beam laser imaging system provides an effective alternative to monitor vehicles' pitch/roll movement and loading conditions. Particularly, in combination with a laser ground speed sensor, the accuracy and reliability of vehicle's ground speed and slip angle measurement can be significantly improved, as is elucidated in more detail in the following. For the purpose to improve accuracy of ground speed and slip angle measurement, the data processing device calculates the pitch angle and roll angle, as explained above and then corrects the velocities (i.e. the values of the velocity vector) measured by the detector based on the calculated pitch angle and roll angle.

(27) The vehicle's ground speed or velocity vector V.sub.0=(Vx, Vy, Vz) is derived from the Doppler frequency vector (f.sub.1, f.sub.2, f.sub.3), e.g., measured by a photodiode which is integrated to each VCSEL. The frequencies f.sub.1, f.sub.2, f.sub.3 are the frequencies of the self-mixing oscillations of the respective laser intensities. The relation of the frequencies f.sub.1, f.sub.2, f.sub.3 and the velocities Vx, Vy, Vz (i.e. the cartesian components of the velocity vector) is given by:

(28) $\left(\begin{array}{c}{f}_1\\ f_2\\ f_3\end{array}\right)=\frac{2}{}\left(\begin{array}{ccc}\sin {}_1\cos {}_1& \sin {}_1\sin {}_1& \cos {}_1\\ \sin {}_2\cos {}_2& \sin {}_2\sin {}_2& \cos {}_2\\ \sin {}_3\cos {}_3& \sin {}_3\sin {}_3& \cos {}_3\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{c}{V}_x\\ V_y\\ V_z\end{array}\right)$

(29) In this matrix equation, the angles .sub.1, .sub.2, .sub.3, denote the polar angles of the three laser beams measured with respect to the perpendicular of the road surface. The angles .sub.1, .sub.2, .sub.3, denote the azimuthal angles of the beams measured with respect to direction 14 perpendicular to the forward direction 13. The orientation of these angles with respect to the forward direction 13 and direction 14 is shown in FIG. 5 for one of the laser beams (i.e beam 30).

(30) At presence of vehicle dynamics, the measured speed vector V=(V.sub.x, V.sub.y, V.sub.z) can be corrected with a rotation matrix M.sub.R in order to derive the true vehicle ground speed V.sub.0=(V.sub.x0, V.sub.y0, V.sub.z0) according to the equation
V.sub.0=M.sub.R.sup.1V, where M.sub.R is a matrix:

(31) $M_R=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}\cos \cos & \sin \sin \cos +\cos \sin & -\cos \sin \cos +\sin \sin \\ -\cos \sin & -\sin \sin \sin +\cos \cos & \cos \sin \sin +\sin \cos \\ \sin & -\cos \sin & \cos \cos \end{array}\right)$

(32) Accordingly, to obtain the corrected vector V.sub.0, the measured vector is multiplied with the inverse of the matrix M.sub.R. In the above equations, denotes the roll angle and the pitch angle. denotes the angle between the reference orientation of the laser device, or its forward direction, respectively, and vehicle's forward direction. This angle may, e.g., occur due to mounting inaccuracies of the laser device.

(33) The angle may be determined in a calibration procedure. In particular, if multiple beams are used and a determination of the transversal or lateral speed can be obtained from the self-mixing signals of the respective laser diodes, the angle can be obtained from the remaining lateral speed if the vehicle is moving straight ahead. In this case, the angle can be calculated according to the relation =arctan(V.sub.x/V.sub.y), wherein V.sub.y denotes the forward speed and V.sub.x the transversal speed in a dynamic state without transversal acceleration.

(34) Besides ground speed, the body slip angle of a vehicle is another critical parameter relevant to vehicle dynamics control. The relationship between measured () and real (.sub.0) vehicle's body slip angle can be approximated by the data processing device according to following equation:

(35) $=\frac{\cos {}_0+\sin \sin -\cos \sin \left(\frac{V_{z0}}{V_{y0}}\right)}{\cos }$

(36) Again, denotes the roll angle, denotes the pitch angle and. denotes the angle between the reference orientation of the laser device, or its forward direction, respectively, and vehicle's forward direction. V.sub.z0 and V.sub.y0 denote the corrected vertical and forward velocities. These velocities may be corrected according to the above matrix equation. The body slip angle is the angle between the vehicle's actual heading (or forward) direction and its longitudinal axis. This angle is measured similarly to angle according to the relation =arctan(V.sub.x/V.sub.y), wherein V.sub.y denotes the forward speed and V.sub.x the transversal speed. In difference to angle (I), the body slip angle typically occurs during a transversal acceleration, e.g. while driving a turn, while angle occurs due to a misalignment of the laser device and the vehicle's longitudinal axis. Thus, according to a refinement of the invention, the measured body slip angle, e.g. measured by comparison of the forward and lateral velocities is corrected using the above equation.

(37) Once the pitch and roll angles are known from the multi-spot laser imaging system, systematic errors of SMI ground speed sensor can be corrected with the rotation matrix M.sub.R. Thus, the absolute measurement accuracy of ground speed and slip angle can be greatly improved.

(38) Besides accuracy improvement, the optical vehicle laser sensor system can improve the reliability of a ground speed sensor. Output power of individual VCSEL, focus quality of each sensing beam and reflectance of road surface are continuously analyzed by measuring the brightness or contrast ratio of each VCSEL focal spots.

(39) An abnormal reduction in contrast ratio may indicate VCSEL failure, out-of-focus sensing beam, severe contaminations to a sensor exit window or presence of very low reflectance road surface. An early detection of such events is particularly advantageous for an optical sensor (e.g. SMI ground speed sensor) which can be used for vehicle stability control and is exposed directly to the harsh environment.

(40) Without requiring conventional inertial or angular sensor, VCSEL based multiple-beam laser spot imaging system is able to measure vehicles' roll, pitch angle and loading status. The system can be used for vehicle dynamics control, headlamp automatic leveling and advanced suspension systems. Particularly, in combination with a multi-beam self-mixing ground speed sensor, both the accuracy and the reliability of vehicles' ground speed and slip angle measurements can be greatly improved.