Valeo Schalter Und Sensoren Gmbh

Daniel Stricker-Shaver

Jochen Schenk

Thomas Schuler

Frank Selbmann

Jan Simon

Felix Mueller

Bernd Bertschinger

Juergen Nies

Christoph Parl

A method for determining a distance of an object with the aid of an optical detection apparatus and such an apparatus are described. A light signal pulse is emitted and reflected at the object, and is received as an echo light signal pulse. The echo light signal pulse is divided upon reception into temporally successive discrete reception time windows and converted into corresponding electrical energy. The end of the respective conversion is in each case assigned as the sampling time to the corresponding time window. The electrical energies of the time windows are compared in each case with a threshold value. As soon as the electrical energy of a first reference reception time window is greater than the threshold value, a linear interpolation of the temporal profile of the discrete electrical reception signal is carried out temporally before the sampling time of the first reference time window.

Method for determining a distance of an object with the aid of an optical detection apparatus and optical detection apparatus

The invention relates to a control circuit () for pulsed control of a light-emitting means (), in particular an LED or a laser diode (), having a switched-mode power supply unit () with a first switch () arranged in a primary circuit of the switched-mode power supply unit (), wherein the switched-mode power supply unit () has a primary-side connector () for connection to a supply voltage, a secondary-side connector () for supplying the light-emitting means () and a switching input () for operating the first switch (), having a storage capacitor () arranged between the secondary-side connector () and a ground (), having a second switch () arranged in a current path () in parallel with the storage capacitor (), wherein the light-emitting means () is positionable in the current path (), and having a control unit () to control the first and the second switch (), wherein the control unit () is designed to operate the first switch () in order to induce at least one charge pulse for charging the storage capacitor () in the secondary circuit and to operate the second switch () in order to discharge the storage capacitor () while generating a light pulse () via the light-emitting means (). The invention also relates to a LiDAR-based environmental sensor, in particular a laser scanner, for use in a vehicle, having an abovementioned control circuit () and a laser diode (). The invention further relates to a method for the pulsed control of a light-emitting means (), in particular an LED or a laser diode (), comprising the steps of providing a storage capacitor () and a current path () that is parallel thereto and in which the light-emitting means () is arranged, of generating at least one charge pulse for charging the storage capacitor (), and of discharging the storage capacitor () via the light-emitting means () while generating a light pulse ().

Control circuit for pulsed control of a light-emitting means

An emitting device () for a scanning optical detection system of a vehicle for monitoring at least one monitoring region () for objects is described, having at least one light source () for generating at least one optical emission signal () and having at least one diffraction unit (), which has a diffractive effect on the at least one emission signal (), for controlling at least one beam direction () of the at least one emission signal (). At least one diffraction unit () which is settable to set the beam directions () associated with the respective signal paths (), is arranged in at least two different signal paths () of one emission signal or various emission signals (). At least one beam alignment unit () is arranged in the respective signal paths () after the at least one diffraction unit () to align the set beam directions () in the at least one monitoring region () while maintaining at least one angle offset between the set beam directions () generated before the at least one beam alignment unit () or to generate at least one angle offset between the set beam directions.

Emitting device for a scanning optical detection system of a vehicle, detection system, driver assistance system, and method for optically scanning a monitoring region

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Bietigheim-Bissingen, Germany

Daniel Stricker-Shaver