Patent ID: 11879958
Assignee: HONEYWELL INTERNATIONAL INC.
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G  Y | IPC G

Claim 7:
8. A system comprising:
a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) unit onboard a vehicle and comprising an optical transceiver, the LiDAR unit configured to transmit light into an external interaction air region, and collect scattered portions of the transmitted light from the external interaction air region;
a robotic arm mounted to the vehicle and operatively coupled to the LiDAR unit, the robotic arm operative to move the LiDAR unit into multiple different positions and orientations, wherein the robotic arm has an upper arm section coupled to the LiDAR unit and a lower arm section coupled to a base, wherein the upper arm section is rotatably coupled to the lower arm section, permitting movement of the LiDAR unit between a stowed position in the vehicle and a measurement position;
an umbilical cord coupled to the optical transceiver, wherein the umbilical cord runs along the robotic arm and provides power, optical seeding, cooling, and communication signals to the optical transceiver;
an inertial measurement unit (IMU) deployed on the vehicle and operative to generate inertial data for the vehicle; and
a processor unit onboard the vehicle, the processor unit in operative communication with the IMU and the robotic arm, wherein the processor unit is operative to provide an active stabilization of the LiDAR unit using the IMU, wherein the processor unit is operative to:
(a) receive and process the inertial data from the IMU, the inertial data comprising orientation and velocity measurements of the vehicle in body axes coordinates;
(b) calculate a required position for the robotic arm, based on the inertial data from the IMU, to maintain pointing of the optical transceiver in a direction of interest;
(c) send commands to the robotic arm to move to the calculated required position; and
(d) repeat the previous steps starting at step (a) to provide an adaptive feedback for maintaining the active stabilization of the LiDAR unit.