Patent ID: 8786834

Claim:
An optical distance measuring apparatus which emits emission light from a light source to an object and receives reflection light from the object with a light-receiving unit, and performs distance measurement based on the emission light and the reflection light, the light source having an emission light axis and emits the emission light along the emission light axis; and the emission light being irradiated from the optical distance measuring apparatus along an irradiation light axis, comprising: a deflection mechanism provided in an optical path from the light source to the irradiation light axis, wherein the deflection mechanism includes a reflection plane configured to reflect the emission light to incline a direction of the reflected emission light with respect to the emission light axis of the light source, and configured to rotate about two axes intersecting one another so as to change the direction of the reflected emission light to be inclined, wherein the deflection mechanism has an optically conjugate relationship with a predetermined position on the emission light axis or on the irradiation light axis, the predetermined position being closer to the object than the deflection mechanism when viewed from the light source.