Luminar Technologies, Inc.
Lidar system with range-ambiguity mitigation

Abstract:

In one embodiment, a method includes emitting, by a light source of a lidar system, multiple optical pulses using multiple alternating pulse repetition intervals (PRIs) that include a first PRI and a second PRI, where the first PRI and the second PRI are not equal. The method also includes detecting, by a receiver of the lidar system, multiple input optical pulses and generating, by a processor of the lidar system, multiple pixels. Each pixel of the multiple pixels corresponds to one of the input optical pulses, and each pixel includes a PRI associated with a most recently emitted optical pulse of the multiple optical pulses. The method also includes determining a group of neighboring pixels for a particular pixel of the multiple pixels and determining whether the particular pixel is range-wrapped based at least in part on the PRI associated with each pixel of the group of neighboring pixels.