Abstract: A combined radar and lighting unit includes a laser radar apparatus, a lighting device, and a controller. The laser radar apparatus is mounted to a vehicle, emits laser light toward an outside of the vehicle, and detects reflected light. The lighting device is mounted to the vehicle and emits visible light toward the outside of the vehicle. The controller controls the lighting device to cause the lighting device to alternately operate in a first emission mode to perform emission of the visible light, and in a second emission mode to stop emission of the visible light or reduce a quantity of the visible light. The controller controls the laser radar apparatus to interrupt the measurement of the distance while the lighting device is operating in the first emission mode, and executes the measurement of the distance while the lighting device is operating in the second emission mode.

Abstract: An optical scanner includes a light receiving unit, a reference light irradiating unit, and a light-receiving-side correcting unit. The light receiving unit includes an optical phased array that implements scanning by a light beam by individually controlling phases of a plurality of branched lights using a scanning phase amount. The reference light irradiating unit generates reference light and irradiate the reference light onto the light receiving unit. The light-receiving-side correcting unit estimates a phase shift amount that occurs in the plurality of branched lights as a result of distortion of a substrate on which the light receiving unit is mounted from a detection result of the light receiving unit onto which the reference light is incident, and sets a phase adjustment amount to be applied to the plurality of branched lights such that the estimated phase shift amount decreases.

Abstract: An optical scanner includes a light source, an optical phased array, a monitoring light receiving unit, and a signal processing unit. The optical phased array implements scanning by a light beam by individually controlling phases of a plurality of branched lights into which light supplied from the light source is branched, using a scanning phase amount, and radiating light from an antenna array that has a plurality of antenna elements. The monitoring light receiving unit receives light radiated from the optical phased array. The signal processing unit detects characteristics of the light beam from a detection result of the monitoring light receiving unit and generate a phase adjustment amount for correcting the scanning phase amount such that a detection value of the characteristics coincides with a design value prepared in advance.

Abstract: A LIDAR device performs an emission process of emitting the laser light to surroundings of a vehicle. The emission process includes a scanning process and a resolution adjustment process. The scanning process includes a process of scanning with the laser light a predefined direction that is one of vertical and horizontal directions. A plurality of emission directions include, as four directions, a first direction and a second direction adjacent to each other in the predefined direction, and a third direction and a fourth direction adjacent to each other in the predefined direction. The resolution adjustment process includes a process of making an angle difference between the third and fourth directions less than an angle difference between the first and second directions, and a variably setting process of variably setting the angle difference between the third and fourth directions according to a state variable of the vehicle, as an input.

Abstract: An optical scanner includes a substrate, an optical phased array, a shape sensor, a deviation calculation unit, and a control unit. The optical phased array includes an antenna array having a plurality of antenna elements. The deviation calculation unit calculates an amount of positional deviation of each antenna element based on an amount of deformation of the substrate detected by the shape sensor, and calculates an amount of phase deviation of light emitted from each antenna element. The control unit corrects the phase of light emitted from each antenna element based on the amount of phase deviation calculated by the deviation calculation unit, and controls the phase of the antenna element so that the antenna array emits the light in a target direction.

Abstract: A combined radar and lighting unit includes a laser radar apparatus, a lighting device, and a controller. The laser radar apparatus is mounted to a vehicle, emits laser light toward an outside of the vehicle, and detects reflected light. The lighting device is mounted to the vehicle and emits visible light toward the outside of the vehicle. The controller controls the lighting device to cause the lighting device to alternately operate in a first emission mode to perform emission of the visible light, and in a second emission mode to stop emission of the visible light or reduce a quantity of the visible light. The controller controls the laser radar apparatus to interrupt the measurement of the distance while the lighting device is operating in the first emission mode, and executes the measurement of the distance while the lighting device is operating in the second emission mode.

Abstract: An object recognition apparatus performs a sweep of a scanned region by transmitting scanning wave beams at respective scan angles and successive timings, derives a received-wave signal strength value and reflection location corresponding to each scan wave beam during the sweep, and assigns a set of mutually adjacent reflection locations as a segment. A corresponding range value of the segment is calculated, expressing an estimated distance of a detected object. A threshold value is derived in accordance with the segment range, a region of the segment in which the signal strength values exceed the threshold value is extracted, and the width of the extracted region is designated as the width of the detected object.

Abstract: An object recognition apparatus performs a sweep of a scanned region by transmitting scanning wave beams at respective scan angles and successive timings, derives a received-wave signal strength value and reflection location corresponding to each scan wave beam during the sweep, and assigns a set of mutually adjacent reflection locations as a segment. A corresponding range value of the segment is calculated, expressing an estimated distance of a detected object. A threshold value is derived in accordance with the segment range, a region of the segment in which the signal strength values exceed the threshold value is extracted, and the width of the extracted region is designated as the width of the detected object.