Autonomous Vehicle Lidar: A Tutorial

The largest high-tech companies and leading automobile manufacturers in the world have unleashed torrents of effort and capital to position themselves for the arrival of autonomous vehicles. What is the fuss about? What is at stake? What are the leading sensor technologies? What is meant by "flash lidar" or "time-of-flight" sensors? With no less than 40 - 50 lidar companies vying to create mainstream automotive sensors, the climate is unique for young scientists and engineers to enter the field. What are the alliances forming between the companies, and how are they shifting? Who are current incumbents in the field? This tutorial text aims to introduce a technical but nonspecialist reader to autonomous vehicle lidar, starting from the fundamental physics of lidar and motivation for its application to autonomous vehicle systems. We will then introduce time of flight design concepts, following the light pathway through the source and transmitter optics to the photodetector. Next two distinct timing methods will be introduced, followed up by a brief discussion of beam steering. After finishing this text, the reader should be prepared to enter into laboratory explorations on the topic.

全球最大的高科技公司和領先的汽車製造商已經投入了大量的努力和資本，以為自動駕駛車輛的到來做好準備。這是什麼原因？有什麼利害關係？哪些是領先的感測器技術？'閃光雷達'或'飛行時間'感測器是什麼意思？至少有40-50家雷達公司競相創造主流汽車感測器，這對年輕的科學家和工程師來說是一個獨特的機會進入這個領域。公司之間正在形成什麼聯盟，它們又是如何轉變的？誰是目前這個領域的主要參與者？本教程旨在向技術但非專業讀者介紹自動駕駛車輛雷達，從雷達的基本物理和其應用於自動駕駛系統的動機開始。然後，我們將介紹飛行時間設計概念，跟隨光線從源頭和發射器光學到光電探測器的路徑。接下來，將介紹兩種不同的計時方法，然後簡要討論光束定位。閱讀完本文後，讀者應該準備好進入有關此主題的實驗室探索。