The Short-Range, High-Accuracy Compact Pulsed Laser Ranging System

Abstract

A short-range, compact, real-time pulsed laser rangefinder is constructed based on pulsed time-of-flight (ToF) method. In order to reduce timing discrimination error and achieve high ranging accuracy, gray-value distance correction and temperature correction are proposed, and are realized with a field programmable gate array (FPGA) in a real-time application. The ranging performances—such as the maximum ranging distance, the range standard deviation, and the ranging accuracy—are theoretically calculated and experimentally studied. By means of these proposed correction methods, the verification experimental results show that the achievable effective ranging distance can be up to 8.08 m with a ranging accuracy of less than ±11 mm. The improved performance shows that the designed laser rangefinder can satisfy on-line ranging applications with high precision, fast ranging speed, small size, and low implementation cost, and thus has potential in the areas of robotics, manufacturing, and autonomous navigation.

Research on a high-precision phase discrimination system for laser ranging based on FPGA

“…In addition to increasing modulation frequency, proposing or adopting the new phase discrimination algorithm is crucial to improve the precision of phase ranging. The method of spectral analysis phase discrimination is highly suitable for phase laser ranging due to its ease of implementation, strong anti-interference capability, and high-precision [9] . Due to spectrum leakage and fence effect, the traditional FFT method fails to accurately calculate the phase.…”

A laser-ultrasonic based sensor fusion framework for height measurement during the stone crushing process

“…However, due to the principles of ultrasonic ranging, ultrasonic rangefinders are only able to provide small-scale, single point measurements and cannot obtain a complete picture of the material. On the other hand, laser radar is capable of measuring the complete surface data of materials, but is more susceptible to environmental dust interference [9][10][11][12]. Laser radar is widely recognized for its advantages such as high measurement speed, long measurement range, high ranging accuracy, and reasonable cost.…”