Patent ID: 7733505

Claim:
A system for real-time determination of an attitude angle of a surface and range to the surface, the system comprising: a transmitter for producing an output beam; a scanner for continuously redirecting the output beam produced by said transmitter into a scan pattern towards the surface in order to continuously scatter the redirected output beam in the scan pattern off the surface, said scanner for continuously outputting tangential angle data regarding the redirected output beam; a receiver for continuously receiving a scattered portion of the scattered redirected output beam that is continuously scattered from the surface, said receiver for continuously outputting range data regarding the received scattered portion of the scattered redirected output beam; and a processor for receiving the continuous tangential angle data from said scanner, for receiving the continuous outputted range data from said receiver, and for determining the real-time, continuous, attitude angle of the surface and the continuous, real-time range to the surface by treating a continuous series of range measurements over time as waveforms expressed in range as a function of time, the continuous series of range measurements derived from the redirected output beam and the received scattered portion of the scattered redirected output beam, and by comparing phase and amplitude differences of the waveforms of the redirected output beam and the received scattered portion of the scattered redirected output beam.