阅读说明：本技术 一种基于啁啾脉冲的深度感知方法、装置及传感器 (Depth sensing method and device based on chirped pulse and sensor ) 是由 徐永奎 齐伟 陈国卯 于 2021-01-21 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明公开了一种基于啁啾脉冲的深度感知方法、装置及传感器,该方法包括：接收通过恒流驱动的激光光源发射的信号光；对所述信号光进行啁啾调制和时间调制,调制后投射向目标物体；接收由所述目标物体反射的反射信号光,产生光信号,对所述光信号进行时域和频域预处理后解析得到脉冲信号；获取所述脉冲信号,根据所述脉冲信号的数量、频率以及方位信息,计算得到深度信息。本发明通过在传统PTOF方案的基础上引入啁啾调制和解调以获得更高时间分辨率的飞行时间。同时在时域和频域两个维度对信号光进行滤波以减少环境光干扰,提高了系统测距的准确性和稳定性。(The invention discloses a depth perception method, a depth perception device and a depth perception sensor based on chirped pulses, wherein the method comprises the following steps: receiving signal light emitted by a laser light source driven by a constant current; performing chirp modulation and time modulation on the signal light, and projecting the modulated signal light to a target object; receiving reflected signal light reflected by the target object, generating an optical signal, and analyzing the optical signal after time domain and frequency domain preprocessing to obtain a pulse signal; and acquiring the pulse signals, and calculating to obtain depth information according to the number, frequency and direction information of the pulse signals. The invention obtains higher time-of-flight resolution by introducing chirp modulation and demodulation on the basis of the traditional PTOF scheme. Meanwhile, signal light is filtered in two dimensions of a time domain and a frequency domain so as to reduce ambient light interference, and accuracy and stability of system ranging are improved.)

1. A depth perception method based on chirped pulses is characterized by comprising the following steps:

receiving signal light emitted by a laser light source driven by a constant current;

performing chirp modulation and time modulation on the signal light, and projecting the modulated signal light to a target object;

receiving reflected signal light reflected by the target object, generating an optical signal, and analyzing the optical signal after time domain and frequency domain preprocessing to obtain a pulse signal;

and acquiring the pulse signals, and calculating to obtain depth information according to the number, frequency and direction information of the pulse signals.

2. The chirp-based depth perception method according to claim 1, wherein the optical signal comprises a reflected light signal and an ambient light signal, the time domain preprocessing is that when the optical signal exceeds an amplitude threshold, the optical signal generates a rectangular waveform for photon counting, and when the optical signal is below the amplitude threshold, the optical signal cannot generate a rectangular waveform for photon counting, so as to reject the ambient light signal.

3. The chirp-based depth perception method according to claim 1, wherein the frequency domain preprocessing is to generate a sinusoidal demodulation of the received optical signal at an intermediate frequency between a chirp modulation frequency and a reflected optical signal arrival frequency, wherein only the reflected optical signal satisfying the sinusoidal demodulation condition is photon-counted as a valid signal.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the obtaining of the pulse signals and the calculation of the depth information according to the number, frequency and orientation information of the pulse signals comprises:

calculating to obtain first flight time according to the number of the pulse signals;

demodulating according to the chirp frequency of the pulse signal to obtain a second flight time;

fusing the first flight time and the second flight time to obtain accurate optical flight time;

and calculating to obtain the depth information of the reflected light azimuth angle by combining the light flight time and the light speed.

5. A chirp-based depth sensing apparatus, comprising:

the receiving module is used for receiving signal light emitted by the laser light source driven by the constant current;

the modulation module is used for carrying out chirp modulation and time modulation on the signal light and projecting the modulated signal light to a target object;

the analysis module is used for receiving the reflected signal light reflected by the target object, generating an optical signal, preprocessing the optical signal in a time domain and a frequency domain, and then analyzing the optical signal to obtain a pulse signal;

and the depth calculation module is used for acquiring the pulse signals and calculating to obtain depth information according to the number, the frequency and the azimuth information of the pulse signals.

6. The apparatus as claimed in claim 5, wherein the depth calculation module comprises:

the first calculation submodule is used for calculating to obtain first flight time according to the number of the pulse signals;

the demodulation submodule is used for demodulating to obtain second flight time according to the chirp frequency of the pulse signal;

the fusion submodule is used for fusing the first flight time and the second flight time to obtain accurate optical flight time;

and the second calculation submodule is used for calculating and obtaining the depth information of the reflected light azimuth angle by combining the light flight time and the light speed.

7. A chirped pulse-based depth sensing sensor, comprising:

the active light source emitting device consists of one or more laser light sources, and the laser light sources are driven by constant current and are used for emitting signal light;

the modulation generator is used for carrying out chirp modulation and time modulation on the signal light emitted by the active light source emitting device, and projecting the modulated signal light to a target object;

the photon counting sensor is used for receiving the reflected signal light reflected by the target object, generating an optical signal, preprocessing the optical signal in a time domain and a frequency domain, and analyzing the optical signal to obtain a pulse signal;

and the processor is used for controlling the active light source emitting device, the modulation generator and the photon counting sensor, acquiring the pulse signals, and calculating to obtain depth information according to the quantity, frequency and azimuth information of the pulse signals.

8. The chirp-pulse-based depth perception sensor according to claim 7, wherein the pulse signals are acquired, and depth information is calculated according to the number, frequency and orientation information of the pulse signals, and the method comprises:

calculating to obtain first flight time according to the number of the pulse signals;

demodulating according to the chirp frequency of the pulse signal to obtain a second flight time;

fusing the first flight time and the second flight time to obtain accurate optical flight time;

and calculating to obtain the depth information of the reflected light azimuth angle by combining the light flight time and the light speed.

9. The chirp-based depth perception sensor of claim 7, wherein the optical signal comprises a reflected optical signal and an ambient optical signal, wherein the time-domain pre-processing is implemented by a hardware analog level comparator of the photon counting sensor, wherein the hardware analog level comparator is configured to generate a rectangular waveform for photon counting when the optical signal exceeds an amplitude threshold, and wherein the optical signal is not capable of generating a rectangular waveform for photon counting when the optical signal is below the amplitude threshold, thereby rejecting the ambient optical signal.

10. The chirp-based depth perception sensor of claim 7, wherein the frequency domain preprocessing is to generate a sinusoidal demodulation of the received light signal at an intermediate frequency between a chirp waveform frequency and a reflected light signal arrival frequency, wherein only reflected light signals satisfying the sinusoidal demodulation condition are photon counted as valid signals.

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of sensors, in particular to a depth sensing method and device based on chirped pulses and a sensor.

Background

The depth information acquisition technology is classified into an active mode and a passive mode, wherein the active mode comprises a Time of Flight (TOF) technology, a structured light technology and the like, and the passive mode comprises a binocular stereo imaging technology, a light field imaging technology and the like. The depth information perception technology is widely applied to the fields of machine vision, robots, consumer electronics, security and the like. Different depth perception techniques have distinct advantages in various places, but also have inherent defects due to respective design principles. The lidar technology can detect a long distance because laser energy is focused to a small angle, but the scanning is needed to realize space multipoint ranging, and the larger the number of points scanned, the lower the frame rate. The structured light utilizes the size and the shape projected on an observed object to calculate depth information, the precision of the detection distance of the structured light and the distance form a square degradation relation, the structured light is suitable for depth perception in a close range, is greatly influenced by strong natural light and reflection, and is not suitable for outdoor scenes. The TOF calculates depth information by using the emitted light pulse and the reflected light pulse, and simultaneously senses area array distance information, so that the frame rate is high, the algorithm is simple and easy, and the TOF has certain inhibition capacity on ambient light. Pulsed TOF detection range is limited by pulsed light intensity, whereas CWTOF is susceptible to multi-path reflections affecting detection range inaccuracies. The binocular calculation is complex, greatly affected by the environment and poor in reliability.

At present, the conventional pulse TOF adopts a Geiger mode APD to carry out photon sensing so as to overcome noise brought by signal amplification, and when the reverse bias voltage is higher than the breakdown voltage, the Geiger mode APD outputs a large pulse under single-carrier excitation for photon counting. The typical gain of such lidar receivers is high, but the output pulse voltage/current is independent of the received optical power level in the geiger mode. Since the range information in chirped amplitude modulation lidar is conveyed by modulation of the optical power level, photon counting detectors have not been used as detectors for chirped amplitude modulation lidar.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the invention aims to provide a depth sensing method, a depth sensing device and a depth sensing sensor based on chirped pulses, so as to solve the problems of periodicity existing in continuous wave modulation TOF and insufficient distance measurement accuracy existing in PTOF.

According to a first aspect of the embodiments of the present invention, there is provided a depth sensing method based on chirped pulses, including:

receiving signal light emitted by a laser light source driven by a constant current;

performing chirp modulation and time modulation on the signal light, and projecting the modulated signal light to a target object;

receiving reflected signal light reflected by the target object, generating an optical signal, and analyzing the optical signal after time domain and frequency domain preprocessing to obtain a pulse signal;

and acquiring the pulse signals, and calculating to obtain depth information according to the number, frequency and direction information of the pulse signals.

According to the technical scheme, the invention provides a depth sensing method based on chirped pulses, which is characterized in that signal light emitted by a laser light source is chirped and time-modulated, the modulated signal light is projected to a target object, and a sensor receives reflected signal light reflected by the target object to perform depth analysis. Combining chirped modulation on a conventional PTOF scheme produces a finer time-resolved optical time-of-flight. In addition, the optical signal is preprocessed in two dimensions of a time domain and a frequency domain and then analyzed to obtain a pulse signal, signals which do not meet amplitude constraint and frequency constraint are excluded from statistical calculation, and the capacity of the sensor for resisting ambient light interference is enhanced.

According to a second aspect of the embodiments of the present invention, there is provided a depth sensing apparatus based on chirped pulses, including:

the receiving module is used for receiving signal light emitted by the laser light source driven by the constant current;

the modulation module is used for carrying out chirp modulation and time modulation on the signal light and projecting the modulated signal light to a target object;

the analysis module is used for receiving the reflected signal light reflected by the target object, generating an optical signal, preprocessing the optical signal in a time domain and a frequency domain, and then analyzing the optical signal to obtain a pulse signal;

and the depth calculation module is used for acquiring the pulse signals and calculating to obtain depth information according to the number, the frequency and the azimuth information of the pulse signals.

According to a third aspect of embodiments of the present invention, there is provided a chirp-based depth perception sensor, including:

the active light source emitting device consists of one or more laser light sources, and the laser light sources are driven by constant current and are used for emitting signal light;

the modulation generator is used for carrying out chirp modulation and time modulation on the signal light emitted by the active light source emitting device, and projecting the modulated signal light to a target object;

the photon counting sensor is used for receiving the reflected signal light reflected by the target object, generating an optical signal, preprocessing the optical signal in a time domain and a frequency domain, and analyzing the optical signal to obtain a pulse signal;

and the processor is used for controlling the active light source emitting device, the modulation generator and the photon counting sensor, acquiring the pulse signals, and calculating to obtain depth information according to the quantity, frequency and azimuth information of the pulse signals.

According to the technical scheme, the active light source emitting device comprises one or more laser light sources, and the laser light sources are driven by constant current to ensure that the spectrum is not obviously changed. The light signal emitted by the active light source emitting device is subjected to chirp modulation and time modulation, and then the light signal is projected to a target area according to a preset azimuth angle. After the time-modulated optical signal is reflected by the target object, it is captured by a photon counting sensor for pulse counting, forming the ranging mode of the conventional PTOF scheme. The chirp modulation and the time modulation are combined, the flight time with higher precision is obtained through analog multiplication of the reflected light signal and the chirp waveform, and finer flight time ranging is formed on a PTOF scheme. The processor analyzes and obtains accurate depth information according to the azimuth angles of the projected and returned light signals. In addition, the invention adopts a hardware analog level comparator to realize signal screening. Only optical signals that exceed the amplitude limit will produce a rectangular waveform for photon counting. The photon counting sensor is gated by a square wave sequence, and the gated waveform has the frequency synchronous with the chirp waveform, so that chirp demodulation is realized. The two-step gating screens effective signals in two dimensions of a time domain and a frequency domain, and the anti-noise capability of the system is improved. The embodiment of the invention realizes the high-resolution and rapid depth information acquisition of the PTOF scheme at lower cost, and is suitable for short distance and long distance. The advantages of long measurement distance, high reliability, high spatial resolution of continuous wave modulation TOF and small blind area of the PTOF technology are achieved, and system stability and reliability are good. The spatial depth perception with high precision and wide measurement range is realized while the hardware complexity is not obviously improved.

Drawings

For a better understanding, the invention will be explained in more detail in the following description with reference to the drawings. It is to be understood that the invention is not limited to this exemplary embodiment, but that specified features may also be combined and/or modified as convenient, without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the claims. In the drawings:

fig. 1 is a flow chart illustrating a chirp-based depth perception method according to an example embodiment.

Figure 2 is an example of a time-amplitude and time-frequency plot of several chirps shown in accordance with an illustrative embodiment.

Fig. 3 is a flowchart illustrating step S104 according to an exemplary embodiment.

Fig. 4 is an example of a chirped PTOF depth ranging schematic shown in accordance with an example embodiment.

Fig. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a chirped pulse-based depth sensing apparatus according to an example embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a depth calculation module in accordance with an exemplary embodiment.

Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating a structure of a chirped pulse-based depth sensing sensor according to an exemplary embodiment.

The reference numerals in the figures are: 1 is an active light source emitting device, 2 is a modulation generator, and 3 is a scanning galvanometer; 4 is a photon counting sensor; 5 is a target object; and 6, a processor.

Detailed Description

Reference will now be made in detail to the exemplary embodiments, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. When the following description refers to the accompanying drawings, like numbers in different drawings represent the same or similar elements unless otherwise indicated. The embodiments described in the following exemplary embodiments do not represent all embodiments consistent with the present application. Rather, they are merely examples of apparatus and methods consistent with certain aspects of the present application, as detailed in the appended claims.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the application. As used in this application and the appended claims, the singular forms "a", "an", and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It should also be understood that the term "and/or" as used herein refers to and encompasses any and all possible combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

Fig. 1 is a flow chart illustrating a chirp-based depth perception method according to an example embodiment. Referring to fig. 1, the method may include:

step S101, emitting signal light by a laser light source driven by a constant current;

step S102, performing chirp modulation and time modulation on the signal light, and projecting the modulated signal light to a target object;

step S103, receiving reflected signal light reflected by the target object, generating an optical signal, performing time domain and frequency domain preprocessing on the optical signal, and analyzing to obtain a pulse signal;

and step S104, acquiring the pulse signals, and calculating to obtain depth information according to the number, frequency and direction information of the pulse signals.

According to the technical scheme, the invention provides a depth sensing method based on chirped pulses, which is characterized in that signal light emitted by a laser light source is chirped and time-modulated, the modulated signal light is projected to a target object, and a sensor receives reflected signal light reflected by the target object to perform depth analysis. Combining chirped modulation on a conventional PTOF scheme produces a finer time-resolved optical time-of-flight. In addition, the optical signal is preprocessed in two dimensions of a time domain and a frequency domain and then analyzed to obtain a pulse signal, signals which do not meet amplitude constraint and frequency constraint are excluded from statistical calculation, and the capacity of the sensor for resisting ambient light interference is enhanced.

In this embodiment, the optical signal includes a reflected light signal and an ambient light signal, the time domain preprocessing is performed such that when the optical signal exceeds an amplitude threshold, the optical signal generates a rectangular waveform for photon counting, and when the optical signal is lower than the amplitude threshold, the optical signal cannot generate a rectangular waveform for photon counting, so as to reject the ambient light signal. The intensity of the optical signal reflected by the target object is generally greater than the ambient light signal intensity in the target direction and within the viewing distance, and thus there is a significant difference between the two in the amplitude of the photoelectrically converted electrical signal. The invention can avoid most of ambient light interference signals by setting a reasonable threshold value.

In this embodiment, the frequency domain preprocessing is to generate sinusoidal demodulation of the received optical signal at an intermediate frequency between the chirp modulation frequency and the arrival frequency of the reflected optical signal, wherein only the reflected optical signal satisfying the sinusoidal demodulation condition is photon-counted as a valid signal.

The plane wave equation can be expressed as:

wherein the content of the first and second substances,rin the form of a position vector, the position vector,tis the time of day or the like,E(r,t) Is the vector of the electric field and is,A(r,t) As the amount of intensity,is the central frequency of the electric field,in order to be the phase position,Kis a spatial propagator with a size equal to；

Then the transient frequencyCan be expressed as:

for a gaussian pulse packet, its intensity at a spatial z position over time t can be expressed as:

for up-chirp and down-chirp packets, their electric vectors can be expressed as:

the sinusoidal demodulation must therefore be at the center frequencyThe light signal reflected by the object can be effectively analyzed nearby.

The present embodiment chirps and modulates the signal light emitted from the active light source according to the dispersion delay.

The signal light radiated by the laser can be approximated to a plane wave, and the plane wave is spread according to fourier, and can be expressed as:

beta (omega) can be from the center frequencyAnd (3) into taylor terms:

wherein the content of the first and second substances,is the inverse of the group velocity and,is the group velocity dispersion term.

According to Maxwell's equation:

wherein the content of the first and second substances,，，

b is magnetic induction, H is magnetic field intensity, j is current density, p is electric polarization vector, epsilon is electric permittivity, and chi⁽¹⁾ ，χ⁽²⁾ ，χ⁽³⁾The electric polarization coefficient of each step;

in case of the following approximation:

comprises the following steps:

where c is the speed of light and μ is the permeability, then, substituting into the Taylor expansion,

is provided with。

The dispersion medium adopted in the embodiment is a uniform linear dispersion medium which generates linear chirp waves, and the principle is as follows:

for non-chirp wave packetAfter the length of propagation Z in the dispersive medium:

wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the pulse phase term can be expressed as:。

figure 2 is an example of a time-amplitude and time-frequency plot of several chirps shown in accordance with an example embodiment 1.

In this embodiment, step S104 is to acquire the pulse signals, and calculate depth information according to the number, frequency, and orientation information of the pulse signals, and fig. 3 is a flowchart of step S104 according to an exemplary embodiment. This step may include the following sub-steps:

step S1041, calculating to obtain a first flight time according to the number of the pulse signals; and calculating to obtain the first flight time with lower precision according to the ratio of the number of the transmitted and returned pulses.

Step S1042, demodulating to obtain a second flight time according to the chirp frequency of the pulse signal; as shown in fig. 4, by measuring the frequency difference Δ ω from the debug signal of the return optical signal:

wherein the content of the first and second substances,and thus the second time of flight Δ can be calculatedt。

Step S1043, fusing the first flight time and the second flight time to obtain accurate optical flight time; specifically, according to the light flight time obtained by two times of calculation, data supplement is carried out on the low order of the first flight time according to the second flight time, and the high-resolution light flight time is obtained.

And step S1044, calculating depth information of the azimuth angle of the reflected light by combining the flight time of the light and the speed of the light. Specifically, half of the product of the light time-of-flight and the light speed may be approximated as an azimuthal depth value, and the projection of the corresponding depth value in three dimensions may result in world coordinates.

Corresponding to the foregoing embodiments of a depth sensing method based on chirped pulses, the present application also provides embodiments of a depth sensing apparatus based on chirped pulses.

Fig. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a chirp-based depth sensing apparatus according to an example embodiment. Referring to fig. 5, the apparatus includes:

a receiving module 21 for receiving signal light emitted by a laser light source driven by a constant current;

the modulation module 22 is used for performing chirp modulation and time modulation on the signal light, and projecting the modulated signal light to a target object;

the analysis module 23 is configured to receive the reflected signal light reflected by the target object, generate an optical signal, perform time domain and frequency domain preprocessing on the optical signal, and analyze the optical signal to obtain a pulse signal;

and the depth calculation module 24 is configured to acquire the pulse signals, and calculate depth information according to the number, frequency, and azimuth information of the pulse signals.

Further, FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a depth calculation module in accordance with an exemplary embodiment; the depth calculation module 24 may include the following sub-modules:

the first calculating submodule 241 is configured to calculate a first flight time according to the number of the pulse signals;

the demodulation sub-module 242 is configured to demodulate, according to the chirp frequency of the pulse signal, to obtain a second flight time;

a fusion submodule 243, configured to fuse the first flight time and the second flight time to obtain an accurate optical flight time;

and a second calculating submodule 244, configured to calculate depth information of the reflected light azimuth by combining the light flight time and the light speed.

With regard to the apparatus in the above-described embodiment, the specific manner in which each module performs the operation has been described in detail in the embodiment related to the method, and will not be elaborated here.

For the device embodiments, since they substantially correspond to the method embodiments, reference may be made to the partial description of the method embodiments for relevant points. The above-described embodiments of the apparatus are merely illustrative, and the units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the modules can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the scheme of the application. One of ordinary skill in the art can understand and implement it without inventive effort.

Correspondingly, the present application also provides an electronic device, comprising: a processor; a memory for storing processor-executable instructions; wherein the processor is configured to perform the steps S101-S104 described above.

Accordingly, the present application also provides a terminal comprising a memory, and one or more programs, wherein the one or more programs are stored in the memory, and the one or more programs configured to be executed by the one or more processors include operations for performing steps S101-S104.

Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating a structure of a chirped pulse-based depth sensing sensor according to an exemplary embodiment. Referring to fig. 7, the depth perception sensor may include:

the active light source emitting device 1 is composed of one or more laser light sources, and the laser light sources are driven by constant currents and used for emitting signal light;

the modulation generator 2 is used for carrying out chirp modulation and time modulation on the signal light emitted by the active light source emitting device, and projecting the modulated signal light to a target object 5;

the photon counting sensor 4 is used for receiving the reflected signal light reflected by the target object, generating an optical signal, preprocessing the optical signal in a time domain and a frequency domain, and analyzing the optical signal to obtain a pulse signal;

and the processor 6 is used for controlling the active light source emitting device, the modulation generator and the photon counting sensor, acquiring the pulse signals, and calculating to obtain depth information according to the number, frequency and direction information of the pulse signals.

Without the modulation generator 2, the system is a simple Ptof scheme depth perception sensor, which can achieve low precision depth perception. Under the modulation of the modulation generator 2, the laser light emitted by the laser light is linearly chirped and modulated. The photon perception sensor can calculate and obtain subdivision time delay through frequency difference of perception reference signals and echo photon flow signals, and calculates and obtains more accurate flight time on signal time delay of PTOF feedback.

Because the laser collimation is very good, only the single-point depth information perception of a specific direction can be realized without spatial modulation. In order to enlarge the space depth perception range, a scanning galvanometer 3 may be further included, the scanning galvanometer 3 is arranged behind the modulation generator 2, and the scanning galvanometer 3 can be used for reflecting the modulated signal light and then projecting the signal light to a target object 5. The scanning galvanometer 3 can be replaced by an optical diffusion sheet and is matched with an imaging lens to realize a space depth perception function.

In this example, obtaining the pulse signals, and calculating depth information according to the number, frequency, and orientation information of the pulse signals includes:

calculating to obtain first flight time according to the number of the pulse signals;

demodulating according to the chirp frequency of the pulse signal to obtain a second flight time;

fusing the first flight time and the second flight time to obtain accurate optical flight time;

and calculating to obtain the depth information of the reflected light azimuth angle by combining the light flight time and the light speed.

It should be noted that, when the scanning galvanometer 3 is not arranged, the azimuth angle of the reflected light here is the direction in which the laser is directly irradiated, and when the scanning galvanometer 3 is arranged, the azimuth information of the emitted and reflected light can be acquired according to the angle information of the scanning galvanometer 3.

In this example, the optical signal includes a reflected light signal and an ambient light signal, the time domain preprocessing is implemented by a hardware analog level comparator of the photon counting sensor, the hardware analog level comparator is used for generating a rectangular waveform for photon counting when the optical signal exceeds an amplitude threshold, and the optical signal cannot generate the rectangular waveform for photon counting when the optical signal is lower than the amplitude threshold, so as to reject the ambient light signal.

In this example, the frequency domain preprocessing is to generate sinusoidal demodulation of the received optical signal at an intermediate frequency between the chirp waveform frequency and the reflected optical signal arrival frequency, wherein only the reflected optical signal satisfying the sinusoidal demodulation condition is photon-counted as a valid signal.

In this example, the photon counting sensor 4 is gated by a sequence of square waves, the gated waveform having a frequency synchronized with the chirp waveform, enabling analog multiplication of the time-modulated photon stream with the chirp waveform. And obtaining the time delay relative to the mixed reference signal according to the time-frequency difference values of different return wave packets.

In this example, an optical filter may be further installed in front of the photon counting sensor 4, and both the bandwidth and the central wavelength of the optical filter are related to the emission spectrum of the laser light source, so as to achieve maximum transmission of the reflected signal light and ambient light shielding. The constant current driving of the laser light source can ensure that the spectrum of the laser light source does not change obviously, and the constant current driving of the laser light source can effectively block photon signals in a non-laser frequency spectrum by matching with the optical filter.

The above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention and is not intended to limit the present invention, and various modifications and changes may be made by those skilled in the art. Any modification, equivalent replacement, or improvement made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the protection scope of the present invention.