CN115184900A - Laser radar device and unmanned vehicles - Google Patents

Abstract

The application provides a laser radar device and unmanned vehicles. The application provides a laser radar device includes: the transmitting unit is arranged on the body of the unmanned aerial vehicle and used for transmitting a first laser beam for detection; the reflecting unit is connected with the power device of the unmanned aerial vehicle, rotates along with the rotation of the power device of the unmanned aerial vehicle and is used for deflecting the first laser beam emitted by the emitting unit; and the receiving unit is arranged on the body of the unmanned aerial vehicle and used for receiving the second laser beam returned by the detection target and deflected by the reflecting unit. The power device of the unmanned aerial vehicle is reused, so that the volume and the weight are reduced, the power consumption is reduced, and the detection range of the laser radar can be enlarged; and the reflected laser signals are received to the maximum extent through multiplexing the reflecting mirror surface.

Description

Lidar devices and unmanned aerial vehicles

technical field

The present application relates to the technical field of lidar, and in particular, to a lidar device and an unmanned aerial vehicle.

Background technique

Lidar is a radar system that detects target position, velocity and other characteristic quantities by emitting laser beams. Lidar has a wide range of application prospects in areas such as unmanned driving. Existing lidar devices usually require a separate power device to drive the reflective component to rotate to achieve scanning, resulting in large volume, heavy weight, and high energy consumption.

At present, small unmanned aerial vehicles have been widely used in aerial photography, rescue, surveying and mapping, film and television shooting and other fields due to their small size, high flexibility and equipped with intelligent control devices. However, due to the small size, low carrying capacity and energy supply capacity of small unmanned aerial vehicles, small unmanned aerial vehicles have correspondingly put forward the requirements of light weight, small size and low power consumption for lidar.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In order to solve the problems of high power consumption and complex structure of existing lidar devices for small unmanned aerial vehicles, the present application provides a lidar device, including:

a transmitting unit, which is arranged on the body of the unmanned aerial vehicle and is used for transmitting the first laser beam for detection;

a reflection unit, which is connected with the power unit of the unmanned aerial vehicle, and rotates with the rotation of the power unit of the unmanned aerial vehicle, and is used for deflecting the first laser beam emitted by the transmitting unit; and

The receiving unit is arranged on the body of the unmanned aerial vehicle, and is used for receiving the second laser beam returned by the detection target and deflected by the reflection unit.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the reflection unit is a light-reflecting area on the power device, and the light-reflecting area is consistent with the shape of the power device.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the reflection unit is disposed on the motor shaft and/or the propeller blade of the power device of the unmanned aerial vehicle.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the reflection unit includes:

At least one group of reflecting mirror surfaces, wherein each reflecting mirror surface and the exit direction of the first laser beam emitted by the emitting unit are at different angles.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the number of each group of reflective mirror surfaces in the at least one group of reflective mirror surfaces includes 2, 3 or 4.

According to some embodiments of the present application, when the reflection unit is disposed on the motor shaft of the power device of the unmanned aerial vehicle, the reflection unit further includes:

A reflective unit carrier for encapsulating the group of reflective mirror surfaces.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the material of the reflection unit carrier is light-weight transparent plastic.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the receiving unit and the transmitting unit are arranged on the body of the unmanned aerial vehicle in parallel.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the receiving unit and the transmitting unit are stacked on the body of the unmanned aerial vehicle.

According to another aspect of the present application, an unmanned aerial vehicle is also provided, comprising:

body;

a power device, arranged on the body; and

The above-mentioned laser radar device is connected to the power device.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the reflection unit is disposed on the power device.

In the laser radar device for integration with the unmanned aerial vehicle provided in this application, the emitting mirror of the laser radar device is arranged on the rotation axis of the power device of the unmanned aerial vehicle, and the use of additional power devices is avoided through the multiplexing of the power device. Drive the mirror to rotate, reduce the volume, weight, power consumption, and expand the detection range of the lidar; the transmitting unit and the receiving unit are arranged side by side on the rack of the unmanned aerial vehicle, and the laser beam emitted by the transmitter uses the reflecting mirror surface To achieve the steering function, the laser beam reflected by the environmental obstacles can also be transmitted to the receiving unit through the mirror surface, so that the reflected laser signal can be received to the maximum extent; Compared with traditional lidar, the structure is lighter and more conducive to improving the detection capability of small unmanned aerial vehicles.

Description of drawings

In order to illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application more clearly, the following briefly introduces the accompanying drawings that are used in the description of the embodiments.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a lidar device according to a first exemplary embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2 shows a schematic diagram of a lidar device according to a second exemplary embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 shows a schematic diagram of a light emission circuit of a lidar device according to a second exemplary embodiment of the present application.

Detailed ways

Example embodiments will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. Example embodiments, however, can be embodied in various forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this application will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the concept of example embodiments to those skilled in the art. The same reference numerals in the drawings denote the same or similar parts, and thus their repeated descriptions will be omitted.

The described features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. In the following description, numerous specific details are provided in order to give a thorough understanding of the embodiments of the present disclosure. However, one skilled in the art will appreciate that the technical solutions of the present disclosure may be practiced without one or more of these specific details, or with other manners, components, materials, devices or operations, and the like. In these instances, well-known structures, methods, devices, implementations, materials, or operations are not shown or described in detail.

The flowcharts shown in the figures are only exemplary illustrations and do not necessarily include all contents and operations/steps, nor do they have to be performed in the order described. For example, some operations/steps can be decomposed, and some operations/steps can be combined or partially combined, so the actual execution order may be changed according to the actual situation.

The terms "first", "second" and the like in the description and claims of the present application and the above drawings are used to distinguish different objects, rather than to describe a specific order. Furthermore, the terms "comprising" and "having" and any variations thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process, method, system, product or device comprising a series of steps or units is not limited to the listed steps or units, but optionally also includes unlisted steps or units, or optionally also includes For other steps or units inherent to these processes, methods, products or devices.

The inventors found that the existing Flash-type lidar system requires very high transmit power, resulting in a very limited detection distance under the same power consumption, and cannot be applied to detection scenarios under low power consumption constraints. The traditional mechanical rotating lidar has a complex structure; there are high-speed moving parts, and the motor needs to drive the high-speed rotating parts to drive the mirror to rotate to achieve the purpose of scanning; therefore, there are problems of heavy structural weight and high power consumption; moreover, the mechanical The transmission and reception of multi-line lidars in rotating lidars require manual adjustment and alignment, which is bulky and difficult to apply to detection scenarios under the constraints of small size and low power consumption of small unmanned aerial vehicles. For small UAVs, excessive load and power consumption seriously affect the endurance and detection capabilities of UAVs.

In order to solve the problems of high power consumption and complex structure of the existing laser radar device for small unmanned aerial vehicles, the present application provides a laser radar device combined with the structure of the unmanned aerial vehicle, which combines the The reflector is arranged on the power unit of the unmanned aerial vehicle. Through the multiplexing of the power unit, the use of additional power units to drive the reflector to rotate can be avoided, and the detection range of the lidar can also be expanded; the transmitting unit and the receiving unit are arranged in parallel or stacked on the On the frame of the human aircraft, the laser beam emitted by the transmitter realizes the steering function with the help of the reflective mirror surface, and the laser beam reflected by the environmental obstacles can also be transmitted to the receiving unit through the reflective mirror surface, so as to effectively receive the reflected laser signal; Setting at least one set of reflectors can realize multi-angle detection. Compared with traditional laser radar, the structure is lighter and more conducive to improving the detection capability of small unmanned aerial vehicles.

The specific embodiments according to the present application will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic plan view of a lidar device according to a first exemplary embodiment of the present application.

Referring to FIG. 1 , the present application provides a lidar device 1000 for integration with an unmanned aerial vehicle 2000 . The unmanned aerial vehicle 2000 includes a body (not shown in the figure) and a power device 2200 . The body is used to carry and connect various other components. For example, the body can be a structured frame, which supports the entire aircraft in structure and dissipates the vibration of the motor, thereby reducing the influence of the motor on the control device, etc., Keep the whole structure of the aircraft stable and reliable during flight. The power device 2200 is installed on the body. Referring to Figure 1, the power plant 2200 may be a set of motor driven propellers. Wherein, the motor may be a brushed hollow cup motor or a brushless hollow cup motor, which is not limited in this application, as long as it can provide flying power for the unmanned aerial vehicle.

The lidar device 1000 includes a transmitting unit 1100 , a reflecting unit 1200 and a receiving unit 1300 . The transmitting unit 1100 is used for transmitting the first laser beam for detection; the receiving unit 1300 is used for receiving the second laser beam returned by the detection target. The reflection unit 1300 is used for deflecting the first laser beam emitted by the emitting unit 1100, so as to realize the guidance of the first laser beam.

The emitting unit 1100 may be composed of 1-4 sets of laser emitting circuits. The main components of the laser emission circuit include power supply, vertical cavity surface laser transmitter (VCSEL) or edge emitting laser (EEL), energy storage capacitor, gate driver, switch tube, PCB board, etc. The laser surface is attached with a microlens to realize laser collimation. After the PCB board is fixed, the emitting unit 1100 can emit a collimated laser beam in a predetermined direction.

The receiving unit 1300 may include a certain number of laser receiving circuits. The main components of the laser receiving circuit include lenses, single-photon avalanche diodes, multi-threshold comparators, and time-to-digital converters. The laser receiving circuit can receive the return light within a certain angle range. Multiple laser receiving circuits are arranged adjacently to cover different return light directions. The specific number of laser receiving circuits can be determined by the size of the designed field of view.

In order to meet the requirements of small load and low power consumption of the small unmanned aerial vehicle, in the lidar device provided by the present application, the transmitting unit 1100 and the receiving unit 1300 are arranged on the body of the unmanned aerial vehicle 2000 . The reflection unit 1200 is coaxially disposed with the power device 2200 of the UAV, and rotates with the rotation of the power device 2200 . For example, the reflection unit 1200 is disposed on the motor shaft of the power device 2200 of the UAV 2000, and the rotation of the motor drives the reflection unit 1200 to rotate, thereby directing the first laser beam emitted by the emission unit 1100 to the target orientation. According to some embodiments of the present application, the reflective unit 1200 may be a reflective area on the rotating shaft of the motor, and the reflective area is consistent with the shape of the rotating shaft of the motor. For example, the rotating shaft of the motor is cylindrical, and the shape of the launching unit can be semi-circular, fan-shaped, or the like. By arranging the reflection unit 1200 on the power device 2200 of the unmanned aerial vehicle 2000, the rotation mechanism of the lidar is cancelled; through the multiplexing of the power device, the load of the unmanned aerial vehicle and the power consumption are reduced.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the reflecting unit 1200 may be at least one group of reflecting mirror surfaces 1210 disposed around the rotating shaft of the power device 2200 . The number of each set of mirror surfaces is determined by the number of propeller blades on the power device 2200. For example, when the number of blades is 2, 3, or 4, the number of mirror surfaces 1210 corresponds to 2, 3 one or four, but the present application is not limited to this. Each mirror surface 1210 forms a different angle with the outgoing direction of the first laser beam emitted by the emitting unit 1100 , that is, each reflective mirror surface 1210 forms a different inclination angle with the laser axis of the emitting unit 1100 . By adjusting the included angle between the reflecting mirror surface 1210 and the optical path of the emitted first laser beam, the detection range of the laser radar can be expanded. It is only necessary that the four reflecting mirror surfaces do not block each other, which is not limited in this application.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the receiving unit 1300 may be disposed on the body 2100 of the unmanned aerial vehicle 2000 in parallel or stacked with the transmitting unit 1100 . For example, the receiving unit 1300 and the transmitting unit 1100 may be disposed on the cantilever connecting the body and the power device by means of bonding. Referring to FIG. 1 , the receiving unit 1300 and the transmitting unit 1100 can be arranged adjacent to the left and right on the same horizontal plane, or can be arranged adjacent to the front and rear on the same horizontal plane, and can also be arranged adjacent to each other by stacking up and down. At this time, the second laser beam reflected by the detection target can also be deflected by a set of reflecting mirror surfaces 1210 and then transmitted to the receiving unit 1300 ; By arranging the transmitting units 1100 in parallel or stacking together with the receiving units 1300, the multiplexing of the reflecting units 1200 is realized, which further reduces the size and weight, reduces the power consumption, and also ensures that the returned second laser beam can pass the reflection to the greatest extent. The reflection of the mirror surface is received, which is conducive to more effective reception of echo signals and environmental detection.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the reflection unit 1200 of the lidar device 1000 may further include a reflection unit carrier 1220 for encapsulating the set of reflection mirror surfaces 1210 , for example, the reflection unit carrier 1220 may be made of light-weight transparent plastic A set of reflective mirror surfaces 1210 are encapsulated inside the cylinder, so as to effectively protect the reflective mirror surfaces and reduce the impact of the mirror on the resistance of the unmanned aerial vehicle under the condition of high rotation speed. Using lightweight transparent plastic as the material can reduce the weight and the load of the unmanned aerial vehicle while ensuring the deflection of the laser beam.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic diagram of a lidar device according to a second exemplary embodiment of the present application.

Referring to FIG. 2 , according to the second embodiment of the present application, the unmanned aerial vehicle includes a body 2100 and four power units 2200 . The body 2100 includes a cantilever 2210 connected to the power device 2200 . Each power unit 2200 is a set of motor-driven propellers, including two blades 2210 . According to example embodiments of the present application,

The reflection unit 1200 is disposed on the paddle 2210 . According to some embodiments of the present application, the reflection unit 1200 may be a reflective area on the paddle 2210, and the reflective area is consistent with the shape of the paddle. Each reflecting unit 1200 may include a group of reflecting mirror surfaces. The number of each set of reflecting mirrors is determined by the number of blades 2210. For example, when the number of blades is 2, 3, or 4, the number of reflecting mirrors 1210 corresponds to 2, 3, or 4, but this The application is not limited to this. In order to effectively protect the mirror surface and reduce the resistance of the mirror to the UAV under the condition of high rotation speed, and reduce the weight as much as possible, the blade 2210 can be made of transparent material, and the mirror surface can be arranged inside the blade 2210. The transmitting unit 1100 and the receiving unit (not shown in the figure) may be disposed on the cantilever 2110 connected to each power device 2200 . The paddle 2210 rotates under the driving of the motor, thereby driving the reflection unit 1200 to rotate, so as to deflect and guide the first laser beam emitted by the emission unit 1100 .

FIG. 3 shows a schematic diagram of a light emission circuit of a lidar device according to a second exemplary embodiment of the present application.

As shown in FIG. 3 , each emitting unit 1100 emits a first laser beam to the corresponding reflecting unit, and the direction of the first laser beam changes after being emitted by the reflecting unit. The reflection angle of the reflection unit that rotates with the blade changes continuously, forming the scanning field of view of the lidar. The direction of the receiving line is opposite to that of the transmitting line, which is not repeated here.

According to another aspect of the present application, an unmanned aerial vehicle is also provided. The unmanned aerial vehicle includes: a body, a power device and the above-mentioned laser radar device. Wherein, the power device is arranged on the body; the transmitting unit of the laser radar device is arranged on the body of the unmanned aerial vehicle; the reflection unit of the laser radar device is arranged on the power device and connected, and can be arranged on the motor The rotating shaft can also be arranged on the blade, which rotates with the rotation of the power device; the receiving unit of the laser radar device and the transmitting unit are arranged on the body in parallel or stacked.

In the laser radar device integrated with the unmanned aerial vehicle provided by the present application, the reflector of the laser radar device is arranged on the power device of the unmanned aircraft, and the use of an additional power device to drive the reflector to rotate is avoided through the multiplexing of the power device. The volume and weight are reduced, the power consumption is reduced, and the detection range of the lidar can be expanded; the transmitting unit and the receiving unit are arranged side by side on the rack of the unmanned aerial vehicle, and the laser beam emitted by the transmitter realizes the steering function with the help of the reflective mirror. The laser beam reflected by environmental obstacles can also be transmitted to the receiving unit through the mirror surface, so that the reflected laser signal can be received to the maximum extent; in addition, by setting up a set of mirrors, multi-angle detection can be realized, which is similar to traditional lidar. The structure is lighter and more conducive to improving the detection capability of small unmanned aerial vehicles.

The embodiments of the present application are described in detail above, and specific examples are used herein to illustrate the principles and implementations of the present application. The descriptions of the above embodiments are only used to help understand the methods and core ideas of the present application. Meanwhile, any changes or deformations made by those skilled in the art based on the ideas of the present application and the specific embodiments and application scope of the present application fall within the protection scope of the present application. In conclusion, the content of this specification should not be construed as a limitation on the present application.

Claims (10)

1. a laser radar device, is characterized in that, comprises: a transmitting unit, which is arranged on the body of the unmanned aerial vehicle and is used for transmitting the first laser beam for detection; a reflection unit, connected with the power device of the unmanned aerial vehicle, and rotated with the rotation of the power device of the unmanned aerial vehicle, for deflecting the first laser beam emitted by the transmitting unit; and The receiving unit is arranged on the body of the unmanned aerial vehicle, and is used for receiving the second laser beam returned by the detection target and deflected by the reflection unit. 2 . The lidar device according to claim 1 , wherein the reflection unit is a light-reflecting area on the power device, and the shape of the light-reflecting area is the same as that of the power device. 3 . 3 . The laser radar device according to claim 2 , wherein the reflection unit is arranged on the motor shaft and/or the propeller blade of the power device of the unmanned aerial vehicle. 4 . 4. The lidar device according to claim 3, wherein the reflection unit comprises: At least one group of reflecting mirror surfaces, wherein each reflecting mirror surface and the exit direction of the first laser beam emitted by the emitting unit are at different angles. 5 . The lidar device according to claim 4 , wherein the number of each group of reflecting mirror surfaces in the at least one group of reflecting mirror surfaces includes 2, 3 or 4. 6 . 6 . The lidar device according to claim 3 , wherein when the reflection unit is arranged on the motor shaft of the power device of the unmanned aerial vehicle, the reflection unit further comprises: 6 . The reflection unit carrier is used to encapsulate the group of reflection mirror surfaces, and the material of the reflection unit carrier is light-weight transparent plastic. 7 . The laser radar device according to claim 1 , wherein the receiving unit and the transmitting unit are arranged on the body of the unmanned aerial vehicle in parallel. 8 . 8 . The lidar device according to claim 1 , wherein the receiving unit and the transmitting unit are stacked on the body of the unmanned aerial vehicle. 9 . 9. An unmanned aerial vehicle, characterized in that, comprising: body; a power device, arranged on the body; and The lidar device according to any one of claims 1 to 8, which is connected to the power device. 10 . The unmanned aerial vehicle according to claim 9 , wherein the reflection unit is arranged on the power device. 11 .

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