Proceedings of the OPTIMESS2007 Workshop 28th-30th May 2007, Leuven, Belgium

Frequency Modulated Coherent Laser Radar Technology

Metris, Newington (VA, USA), Metris, Leuven (BE) tony.slotwinskiksi@metris.com patrick.blanckaert@metris.com ! !
Abstract
a

Tony Slotwinski and Patrick Blanckaert

b

This paper describes the principles of frequency modulated coherent laser radar technology and its application in large scale metrology. Advances in electronics and optoelectronics have made the technique available to an industrial market.

1 Introduction
Bats and porpoises are equipped by nature with ultrasonic radars. Electromagnetic radar originated in 1903 when radio waves reflected from a nearby ship were first measured. Radar is an acronym given to the technique of radio detection and ranging, which was first developed during World War II. In radar, electromagnetic radiation is directed toward a target, and the reflected electromagnetic energy enables calculation of range from, bearing to, and velocity of the target. Lidar (Light detection and ranging) and Ladar (Laser detection and ranging) are terms that are sometimes used to denote the application of light and laser radiation in similar applications. Laser radar is a more commonly used term.

2 Laser Radar
Conceptually, laser radars operate on the same principles as microwave or radio frequency (RF) radars, though at much shorter wavelengths. A laser radar using a common laser diode with a wavelength near 1 micron (m) has a wavelength 3000 times shorter than a 95 GHz millimeter wave radar. The shorter wavelengths of the laser radar enable better lateral and depth resolution. This better resolution makes the laser radar an excellent device for detailed surface mapping or measurement tasks. Typically, laser radars are classed as either time-of-flight (TOF) laser radar, amplitude-modulated (AM) laser radar or frequency-modulated (FM) (or coherent) laser radar.

2.1 Time of flight (TOF) laser radar TOF radar first appeared in 1972 when a team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory built a time-of-flight imaging laser radar for the Mars Rover. This laser radar works by pulsing a high power laser source and gating a counter which measures the transit time to and from the target. Although this is simple in concept, demands on support electronics

are severe since light travels at about 300mm every nanosecond (1 x 10-9 seconds). Measurement to a 0.1mm accuracy would require resolution of the detection and processing of the detector signal at speeds better than 0.3 picoseconds (1 x 10-12 seconds). Commercial TOF systems are available, and offer range-measuring accuracies of 10 to 20mm.

2.2 Amplitude modulated (AM) laser radar AM laser radar was first demonstrated in the mid-1970s. AM laser radar works by modulating the amplitude (intensity) of a laser beam and detecting the phase shift in the return beam by synchronous detection such as is employed by lock-in detectors. Unfortunately, the inability to distinguish between phase shifts modulo 2! makes the design more complicated requiring, for example, multiple tone sinusoidal modulation. AM laser imaging radars measure time of flight and range indirectly by detecting the change in phase between transmitted and received signals. A sinusoidal waveform modulates the laser intensity:

Ii(t) = Amsin(!t)
where ! is the angular frequency,

(1)

! = 2 " f0
and Am is the amplitude of the incident beam. The received signal can be written as:

(2)

yr(t) = Ar(R,#)sin(!(t-$t))
where Ar, the amplitude, is a function of the target range, R, and the diffuse reflectance, #. The transit time is

(3)

$t = 2R/c
where c is the speed of light. The phase shift

(4)

$% = ! $t = 2!R/c
and therefore the range can be determined by measuring the phase shift

(5)

R = $%(c/2!)

(6)

The noise properties of AM laser radars have been studied by Nitzan et al [1]. Their analysis established that range measurement noise increases as the intensity of the returned signal decreases (i.e. reflectivity of the target), and as the range itself increases. This dependence of AM system accuracy on distance and reflectivity has been supported in later studies by Herbert and Krotkov.[2] Several types of errors can be found in scenes acquired with AM laser radars. These relate to two classes of boundary effects. In the first, abrupt changes of depth or step discontinuities produce erroneous range values at the boundary. These erroneous values occur when the light is scattered from both the near and distant surfaces. These processing effects are known as mixed pixels. The second class of boundary phenomena is produced by abrupt changes in reflectance. Cross-talk has been observed in which reflectance details produce spurious ranges. In addition, incorrect ranges will be returned whenever there are low reflectance values. This problem is somewhat generic.

2.3 Frequency-modulated (FM) (or coherent) laser radar. In coherent, or FM laser radar, the frequency of the laser is modulated, either directly in the case of diode lasers, or by employing an acousto-optical modulator in the case of gas lasers. Typically, the frequency is modulated with either a triangle or saw-tooth wave, resulting in linear modulation. This type of modulation is often referred to as a chirp. The frequency can be expressed as a function of time in the following manner:

f(t) = f0 + ($f/$t)&

(7)

Where f0 is the center frequency of the laser. The modulated beam is focused at the target, where it is scattered and collected by the receiver optics after round trip transit time&. The distance to the target, R, is calculated using the relationship

& = 2R/c
where c is the velocity of light.

(8)

Optical Frequency

RF Frequency

"
Local Oscillator Received Range Signal
Figure 1 Modulated laser optical frequency and heterodyned RF signal of coherent laser radar

Figure 1 depicts the linear frequency modulation, or chirp, together with the corresponding beat frequency which results from combining the outgoing and incoming light signals. The laser base frequency is approximately 200 terahertz. The RF or beat frequency is in the 1 MHz range. If the surface being measured is moving relative to the laser light source, the beat frequencies corresponding to laser upsweeps will be different from the beat frequencies corresponding to the downsweeps, due to Doppler frequency shifting. Measuring the frequency difference between these signals enables a determination of velocity to be made.

The key to FM laser radar is coherent detection. Laser beams can be characterized by both spatial and temporal coherence. For FM radar, temporal coherence is important, and is related to the finite bandwidth of the laser source. Temporal coherence specifies the time interval over which one can reasonably predict the phase of the light wave at a given point in space. This is essential to the concept of optical mixing. Coherent light waves, when combined correctly on an optical detector, produce a beat frequency equal to the difference in the optical frequency (and hence phase) of the incident waves. In an FM laser radar device, a portion of the transmitted beam is split from the incident light wave and forms the local oscillator, which is then mixed with the returned energy. In a coherent laser radar the beat frequency produced will be equal to

Beat frequency = f(t) f(t+&) = ($f/$ t)&

The beat frequency is measured electronically and used to calculate the distance to the target R:

(9)

R = c* Beat frequency/(2($f/$t))

(10)

In early FM devices, the accuracy of range measurement was limited by the linearity of the frequency modulation over the counting interval. For example, if the target is one meter distant, a linearity of one part per thousand is necessary to ensure 1 mm accuracy. Advanced techniques employed in the Metris Laser Radars enable a high degree of linearity. In addition, these techniques can detect and compensate for real time variances from linearity. This enables range measurement with single digit micron precision. The following figure depicts a hardware configuration, as implemented in optical fibers, for the basic elements of the FM system.
Power Tap 90% 10%
Local Oscillator

Diode Laser

Optical Circulato Len Return Signal Path

Target Surface

FO Coupler

Out

Figure 2

Basic fiber optic FMCW coherent laser radar configuration

FM lasers are largely immune to ambient lighting conditions and changes in surface reflectivity because FM laser radars rely only on beat frequency, which is not dependent upon signal amplitude, to calculate range. This enables the FM Coherent system to make reliable measurements with as little as one picowatt of returned laser energy. This corresponds to a nine order-of-magnitude dynamic range of sensitivity.

3. Industrial applications
The laser radar itself offers only a distance measurement along the line of sight of the laser beam. Using a two-axis mounted scan mirror in front of the laser beam, the beam can be steered over 360 degrees in azimuth and +/-45 degrees in elevation. With a maximum laser ranging distance of up to 60m, an impressive measurement volume is obtained. The maximum data rate of 3D coordinates of the Metris laser radar is 1000pts/s. Measurement accuracy specification (3D, 2!) is 16um at 1m, 100um at 10m and 240um at 24m. Compared to laser tracker technology the Metris laser radar offers the following advantages: - contact-less measurement - no specific target required such as a retro-reflecting mirror (so no lost beam anymore) - no climbing risk for an operator to go and probe the measurement points - runs automatically without a permanent operator The complete system is equipped with a user interface where the operator can define the features or surface areas to be digitized with a scan density that is also programmable. The measured data can be inspected afterwards in CAD packages, typically for quality assurance. The current user community is concentrated in the aeronautics industry, but the market is expanding towards more traditional industries like the automotive industry.

Figure 3

Overview of the complete laser radar system

Figure 4

Detail of the laser head

References
[1] Nitzan, D., Brain, A.E. and Duda, R.O. (1977), The measurement and use of registered reflectance and range data in scene analysis. Proc. IEEE, 65, 206-220. [2] Herbert, M. and Krotkov, E. (1992), 3D measurements from imaging laser radars: How good are they? Image and Vision Computing, 10, 170-178. [4] Metris website, """#$%&'()#*+$ [3] Estler W. T., et al., Large Scale Metrology an update, CIRP Annals - January 01, 2002