Distance-measuring sensor and method for detecting and determining the distance of objects

Abstract

A distance-measuring sensor () is provided for detecting and determining the distance of objects () in a monitored zone comprising a transmitter () for transmitting transmitted pulses; a receiver () for generating a received signal from the transmitted pulses remitted in the monitored zone; a first comparator unit () for digitizing the received signal with reference to a first threshold; and a control and evaluation unit () which is configured to transmit a plurality of transmitted pulses via the transmitter (), to collect the received signals thereupon generated by the receiver () in a histogram and to determine a received time point from the histogram and thus to determine a measured value for the signal transit time from the sensor () to the object (). In this respect, a second comparator unit () is provided for digitizing the received signal with reference to a second threshold, wherein the first comparator unit (), the second comparator unit () and the control and evaluation unit () are configured to acquire three digital states of a respective section of the received signal with reference to the first threshold and to weight the contributions of the section to the histogram in dependence on the digital state.