I-Corps: Non-mechanical scanning for laser ranging

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一种非相干光探测和测距(LIDAR)系统，该系统使用基于电润湿光学的自适应光学元件的非机械波束控制。拟议的技术可能会使新一代系统能够适应不断变化的条件和目标。该团队将调查地图、农业、能源和环境研究等应用，以及最近自动驾驶汽车、无人机和卫星的自动导航和防撞应用。这些应用都对当今的社会功能至关重要。例如，测量积雪对水电和饮用水估计可能很重要。其他重要应用包括绘制海岸线地图，以及确定农作物和树木的健康状况，以预测产量和火灾风险。与传统的激光雷达系统不同，由于非机械部件，所提出的激光雷达设计具有更长的工作寿命数量级。这个I-Corps项目是基于开发一种非相干光探测和测距(LIDAR)系统，该系统使用带有电润湿光学元件的大角度非机械波束控制。关键的创新使用了自适应电润湿光学，其中液滴的形状可以通过施加的电压来控制。这一现象使电子可调透镜(可变光斑大小和发散度)、棱镜(可变转向)和定制设计的光学表面(可变波前)成为可能。两个透镜，或一个棱镜，可以提供少量的转向(几度)。当这之后是一个微型鱼眼镜头，结果是一个适合激光雷达的光束扫描系统。在典型的棱镜扫描范围为5度的情况下，结果表明，使用具有可调整光斑大小的系统设计和以高达200赫兹的速度产生图案化光束的能力，非机械光束在二维方向上引导通过180度。此外，拟议的技术使用了小型~mm扫描仪(电润湿设备和附加光学设备)、低电耗(典型为MW)、良好的光学质量(可与固定微透镜相媲美)、通过调节光斑大小和角度来匹配不断变化的情况的能力，以及用于跟踪对象的像差补偿和可调光斑大小。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of an incoherent light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system using non-mechanical beam steering with adaptive optical elements based on electrowetting optics. The proposed technology may enable a new generation of systems that are able to adapt to changing conditions and targets. The team will investigate applications such as mapping, agriculture, energy and environmental studies, and more recently, for autonomous navigation and collision avoidance for self-driving cars, drones, and satellites. These applications are all crucial to societal function today. For example, surveying the snow pack can be important for hydroelectric power and drinking water estimates. Other important applications include mapping coastlines as well as determining the health of agricultural crops and trees to predict yields as well as fire risks. Unlike conventional LIDAR systems, the proposed LIDAR design has operational lifetime orders of magnitude longer due to non-mechanical components. This I-Corps project is based on the development of an incoherent light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system using large angle nonmechanical beam steering with electrowetting optical components. The key innovation uses adaptive electrowetting optics, in which the shape of a liquid droplet to be controlled with applied voltage. This phenomenon enables electrically tunable lenses (variable spot size and divergence), prisms (variable steering), and custom-designed optical surfaces (variable wavefront). Two lenses, or a prism, can provide a small amount of steering (few degrees). When this is followed by a miniature fisheye lens, the result is a beam scanning system suitable for LIDAR. With a typical prism scan range of 5o, results have demonstrated nonmechanical beam steering through 180o in two dimensions using a system design with an adjustable spot size and the ability to make patterned beams at speeds of up to 200 Hz. In addition, the proposed technology uses a small ~mm-scale scanner (electrowetting devices and additional optics), low electrical power consumption (mW typical), good optical quality (comparable to fixed microlenses), ability to match a changing situation by tuning spot size and angle, and aberration compensation and adjustable spot size to track an object.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.