Dual-Mode LRF/LRL

Range finding and active imaging is an increasingly valuable and important mission for tactical and strategic ISR platforms.  The range finding and imaging tasks are sufficiently different that they are often accomplished by two different sensing systems.  However, combining the two modalities into a single system offers great benefits in terms of SWAP, cost, and overall system complexity.  To that end, Areté proposes a low-SWaP dual-mode, Laser Range Finder (LRF) and Long-Range Lidar (LRL) for ranging and 3-D imaging with dynamic resolution from high-speed aerial platforms. The system will be operable as an LRF, with a vanishing FOR (no scanning) and lower laser PRFs to provide precise range-to-target.  When operating as an LRL, the resolution and Field of Regard (FOR) for the sensor will be dynamically configurable, enabling warfighters to obtain accurate 3D-views of adversarial terrain, facilities, equipment, or targets from long-ranges. The proposed system is based on Areté’s active beam expander technology (ABEX) which provides compact high-precision laser scanning and pointing control.  Scanning will be adaptively controlled for platform motion compensation, and geolocated point cloud data will be obtained with corrections for measured pointing errors.