Patent ID: 7089114

Claim:
A vehicle collision avoidance system comprising: a circumferentially rotating pulsed infrared laser beam scanner apparatus including a laser pulsed emitter and an infrared laser sensor for generating a first signal representative of an obstacle scanned, the laser pulsed emitter rotating circumferentially in a horizontal plane and a vertical plane simultaneously, the infrared laser sensor circumferentially rotating synchronously with the laser pulsed emitter in the horizontal plane and receiving a reflected laser beam signal from the obstacle scanned; wherein the laser pulsed emitter is emitting a laser beam signal over a 360° field of view and the infrared laser sensor is receiving the reflected laser beam signal over the 360° field of view; a processing circuit coupled to the circumferentially rotating pulsed infrared laser beam scanner apparatus for processing the first signal and generating a plurality of signals; a processor coupled to the processing circuit for processing the plurality of signals and generating a braking signal; and a braking apparatus responsive to the braking signal.