Patent ID: 11953677
Assignee: AURORA OPERATIONS, INC.
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 8:
9. An autonomous vehicle, comprising:
a LIDAR system comprising:
a laser source that is configured to generate a laser beam;
a preliminary scanner configured to scan the laser beam as a first beam along a first path and as a second beam along a second path, the first path and the second path extend in a beam plane;
a motor;
a first scanner coupled to the motor, the motor configured to rotate the first scanner in a first direction about a rotation axis that extends in the beam plane to deflect the first beam on the first scanner, the first scanner positioned to receive the first beam along the first path from a first side of the rotation axis and towards the rotation axis, the first scanner configured to deflect the first beam in a first scan plane angled relative to the beam plane at a first angle through a first region for detecting objects in a first field near the LIDAR system; and
a second scanner coupled to the motor, the motor configured to rotate the second scanner in a second direction about the rotation axis different than the first direction to deflect the second beam on the second scanner, the second scanner positioned to receive the second beam along the second path from the first side of the rotation axis and towards the rotation axis, the second scanner configured to deflect the second beam in a second scan plane angled relative to the beam plane at a second angle through a second region for detecting objects in a second field far from the LIDAR system relative to the first field, the first region is below the second region relative to the rotation axis and the first region has a greater angular extent in the beam plane than the second region;

a steering system;
a braking system; and
a vehicle controller comprising one or more hardware processors configured to transmit a control signal, based on a return signal corresponding to at least one of the first beam or the second beam, to control at least one of the steering system or the braking system.