Patents Assigned to Blackmore Sensors and Analytics Inc.
  • Patent number: 10809381
    Abstract: An apparatus is presented for refractive beam steering in a LIDAR system. The apparatus includes a first scanner that receives a beam transmitted along an optical axis and projects the beam as a plurality of scan lines in a first plane between a first angle and a second angle, wherein the first angle and the second angle are defined with respect to the optical axis; a motor that is coupled to the first scanner; one or more processors that are configured to generate rotation information based on one or more components of a particular waveform and transmit a signal to the motor, the signal causing the motor to rotate the first scanner based on the rotation information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 31, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 20, 2020
    Assignee: BLACKMORE SENSORS & ANALYTICS, INC.
    Inventor: Edward Joseph Angus
  • Patent number: 10422880
    Abstract: Doppler correction of phase-encoded LIDAR includes a code indicating a sequence of phases for a phase-encoded signal, and determining a first Fourier transform of the signal. A laser optical signal is used as a reference and modulated based on the code to produce a transmitted phase-encoded optical signal. A returned optical signal is received in response. The returned optical signal is mixed with the reference. The mixed optical signals are detected to produce an electrical signal. A cross spectrum is determined between in-phase and quadrature components of the electrical signal. A Doppler shift is based on a peak in the cross spectrum. A device is operated based on the Doppler shift. Sometimes a second Fourier transform of the electrical signal and the Doppler frequency shift produce a corrected Fourier transform and then a cross correlation. A range is determined based on a peak in the cross correlation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 3, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 24, 2019
    Assignee: BLACKMORE SENSORS AND ANALYTICS INC.
    Inventors: Stephen C. Crouch, Randy R. Reibel, James Curry, Michelle Milvich, Krishna Rupavatharam
  • Patent number: 10401495
    Abstract: Doppler correction of broadband LIDAR includes mixing, during a first time interval, a returned optical signal with an in-phase version of the transmitted signal to produce a first mixed optical signal that is detected during the first time interval to produce a first electrical signal. During a non-overlapping second time interval the returned optical signal is mixed with a quadrature version of the transmitted signal to produce a second mixed optical signal that is detected during the second time interval to produce a second electrical signal. A complex digital signal uses one of the digitized electrical signals as a real part and a different one as the imaginary part. A signed Doppler frequency shift of the returned optical signal is determined based, at least in part, on a Fourier transform of the complex digital signal. A device is operated based on the Doppler frequency shift.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 10, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2019
    Assignee: Blackmore Sensors and Analytics Inc.
    Inventors: Stephen C. Crouch, Krishna Rupavatharam
  • Patent number: 10036812
    Abstract: Laser 3D imaging techniques include splitting a laser temporally-modulated waveform of bandwidth B and duration D from a laser source into a reference beam and a target beam and directing the target beam onto a target. First data is collected, which indicates amplitude and phase of light relative to the reference beam received at each of a plurality of different times during a duration D at each optical detector of an array of one or more optical detectors perpendicular to the target beam. Steps are repeated for multiple sampling conditions, and the first data for the multiple sampling conditions are synthesized to form one or more synthesized sets. A 3D Fourier transform of each synthesized set forms a digital model of the target for each synthesized set with a down-range resolution based on the bandwidth B.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2018
    Assignees: Blackmore Sensors and Analytics Inc., Montana State University
    Inventors: Stephen C. Crouch, Brant M. Kaylor, Zeb W. Barber, Randy R. Reibel