Radar is not unfamiliar to many people, but laser radar may not hear much. In recent years, with the exposure of unmanned technologies such as Google and Tesla, laser radar has also attracted wide attention. Lidar, or light detection and measurement, is a system that combines laser, global positioning system (GPS) and inertial navigation system (INS) technologies to obtain data and generate accurate DEMs (Digital Elevation Models). . From the working principle, there is no fundamental difference with microwave radar, but it has the characteristics of high resolution, good concealment, strong anti-active interference capability, low-altitude detection performance, small size, light weight, etc. compared with microwave radar. With the continuous development and popularization of laser technology, the application fields of laser radar are also increasing. It can be seen in the fields of driverless cars, unmanned aircraft, 3D printing, VR/AR and so on.
The application of laser radar in driverless cars is no longer news. Lidars are also known as unmanned eyes. Driverless driving is a very popular technology in recent years. At present, the driverless car is a smart car that senses the road environment through an on-board sensing system, automatically plans the route and controls the vehicle to reach a predetermined target. How does Lidar help identify intersections and directions for cars? The technology used by laser radar is the flight time, which is based on the reentry time after the laser encounters an obstacle, and calculates the relative distance between the target and its own. The astronomy laser pointer beam can accurately measure the relative distance between the edge of the object contour in the field of view and the device. These contour information make up a so-called point cloud and draw a 3D environment map, and the accuracy can reach the centimeter level, thereby improving the measurement accuracy.
Driverless technology is not only useful for cars, but also for future drones. It sounds cool! It is an unmanned aircraft manoeuvred using radio remote control equipment and a self-contained program control device. There is no cockpit on the aircraft, but equipment such as autopilot and program control devices are installed. The personnel on the ground, ships, or remote control stations of the parent aircraft track, locate, remotely control, remotely measure, and digitally transmit data through radar and other equipment. It can be taken off like a normal airplane under a radio remote control or launched off with a booster rocket. It can also be brought into flight by the parent aircraft. In drones, on-board radar is also crucial. Airborne Lidar is an airborne laser detection and ranging system installed on an aircraft that can measure the three-dimensional coordinates of ground objects.
In recent years, 3D printing has attracted much attention. It is a technology based on digital model files, using powdered metals or plastics and other adhesive materials to build objects by layer-by-layer printing. As a leading-edge, leading-edge intelligent manufacturing technology, 3D printing will lead the transformation of traditional production methods and production processes and is expected to become the driving force behind the new round of industrial revolution. In 3D printing, where laser radar is also used, the printed optical components do not require post-processing such as polishing, grinding, and coloring. This technology is mainly based on a mature wide-format industrial inkjet printing device, which is ejected by a UV-cured transparent polymer droplet and then cured by a strong UV lamp integrated in the print head, and finally can be formed into a variety of geometric shapes. , Lidar plays a role in measuring, monitoring and so on.
As the population of large cities continues to grow, the city’s traffic becomes more crowded, which requires that the future traffic is “wisdom”. The rapid development of the Internet of Things, sensors, and artificial intelligence has made this a reality. Information technology, sensor technology, communications technology and other technologies are widely used in the transportation field. Lidars are used in many places. For example, millimeter-wave radars can accurately detect lane-level and millisecond-level data. This detection is microscopic, and it is also real-time and accurate. It can be used for instant light control of signal light controllers. , adaptive control and green wave band control are also the basis for the realization of vehicle networking in the future.
In recent years, environmental issues have attracted widespread attention, and the protection of the marine environment has become a consensus. As an advanced marine exploration and monitoring tool, marine laser radar has become the mainstream. The application of laser radar and marine organisms is mainly reflected in fishery resources survey and marine ecological environment monitoring. The former often uses blue-green pulsed light as the excitation light source. The laser echo signal is extracted to obtain the distribution area and density information of the fish school. The polarization characteristics analysis can be used to identify the fish species; the latter often uses the marine laser fluorescence radar. Through the detection and analysis of the laser-induced target fluorescence and other spectral signals, the species and concentration distribution information of marine plankton, chlorophyll and other substances are obtained.
Lidar as a new technology, in addition to the above-mentioned fields, there is still more space to expand in the future, and the requirements for different scenes are also different. For Lidar, it is somewhat obvious, and its shortcomings are also affected, for example, due to weather conditions. Large, narrow space search. At present, there is still room for improvement in the use of laser radar in driverless vehicles. As the technology matures, the market can be expected in the future.