Systems and methods for clock-skew search to improve depth accuracy in geiger mode lidar

Abstract

Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and computer program products to improve the accuracy of range measurements of a lidar system. The methods comprise: obtaining, by a processor, results produced by photodetectors of the lidar system in response to light pulses arriving at the photodetectors over time; introducing a clock drift into a clock of the lidar system, the clock drift being modeled by an analytical function; assigning, by the processor, the results to bins based on associated times at which the light pulses arrived at the photodetectors as specified by the clock; building, by the processor, a histogram using the results which have been assigned to the bins; performing, by the processor, fitting operations to fit the histogram to the analytical function a derived function of the analytical function; and identifying, by the processor, a peak of the histogram based on results of the fitting operations.