Advances in Single-Photon Lidar for Autonomous Vehicles: Working Principles, Challenges, and Recent Advances
Advances in Single-Photon Lidar for Autonomous Vehicles: Working Principles, Challenges, and Recent Advances
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DOI：
10.1109/msp.2020.2983772
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发表时间：
2020-07-01
影响因子：
14.9
通讯作者：
Goyal, Vivek K.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Rapp, Joshua;Tachella, Julian;Goyal, Vivek K.
自动驾驶汽车（AV）的安全性和成功取决于其准确绘制地图并真实的实时响应周围环境的能力。最近最有前途的深度测绘技术之一是单光子激光雷达（SPL），它测量单个光子的飞行时间。远距离能力（公里），出色的深度分辨率（厘米），以及低功率（人眼安全）激光源的使用使这种模式成为AV中使用的强有力的候选者。在提供独特机会的同时，单光子探测器的显着灵敏度引入了几个信号处理挑战。光子计数的离散性质和检测设备的特定设计意味着所获取的信号不能被视为在具有加性高斯噪声的线性系统中产生的。此外，尽管数据量很大，但有用的光子检测的数量可能很小，因此需要仔细建模和算法设计以实现实时性能。本文讨论了SPL的主要工作原理，并总结了这种模式的信号处理技术的最新进展，强调了在AV中有前途的应用以及车载激光雷达无法单独通过更好的硬件解决的一些挑战。
The safety and success of autonomous vehicles (AVs) depend on their ability to accurately map and respond to their surroundings in real time. One of the most promising recent technologies for depth mapping is single-photon lidar (SPL), which measures the time of flight of individual photons. The long-range capabilities (kilometers), excellent depth resolution (centimeters), and use of low-power (eye-safe) laser sources renders this modality a strong candidate for use in AVs. While presenting unique opportunities, the remarkable sensitivity of single-photon detectors introduces several signal processing challenges. The discrete nature of photon counting and the particular design of the detection devices means the acquired signals cannot be treated as arising in a linear system with additive Gaussian noise. Moreover, the number of useful photon detections may be small despite a large data volume, thus requiring careful modeling and algorithmic design for real-time performance. This article discusses the main working principles of SPL and summarizes recent advances in signal processing techniques for this modality, highlighting promising applications in AVs as well as a number of challenges for vehicular lidar that cannot be solved by better hardware alone.