Variable-Resolution Compact 3D Range Imaging Ladar

There is a need for an Obstacle Avoidance System (OAS) for small unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) to detect fixed obstacles (e.g., trees, buildings, and wires) and proximity to manned aircraft or other UAVs. Small UAVs impose many different constraints, such as flying close to the ground and limited size, weight and power (SWAP) for system components and on-board processing. Therefore, obstacle avoidance sensors and signal processing hardware must be compact, lightweight, and moderate to low cost. CTI proposes to design and develop a novel eyesafe, compact, lightweight, scaleable, dynamically configurable 3D camera for UAV obstacle avoidance with near even trades between field of view (FOV), frame-rates, range-resolution, and range-search interval. This flexible approach allows a single device to be reconfigured “on the fly” for a wide variety of military and commercial applications. The proposed sensor will be capable of providing approximately 200 25 cm range resolution elements over 5 degree field of view with 500 mrad angular resolution. Under the proposed Phase II program, CTI will design, build and demonstrate the breadboard sensor based on the Phase I concept and preliminary design. Field tests will be conducted in the lab and at the Table Mountain Antenna Field test site north of Boulder, CO. The proposed sensor will leverage CTI’s extensive experience in developing flight qualified laser radar systems.