THe purpose of this paper is to show to what kind of application laser range-finders can be used inside Autonomous Intelligent Cruise Control systems. Even if laser systems present good performances the safety and technical considerations are very restrictive. As the system is used in the outside, the emitted average output power must respect the rather low level of 1A class. Obstacle detection or collision avoidance require a 200 meters range. Moreover bad weather conditions, like rain or fog, ar disastrous. We have conducted measurements on laser rangefinder using different targets and at different distances. We can infer that except for cooperative targets low power laser rangefinder are not powerful enough for long distance measurement. Radars, like 77 GHz systems, are better adapted to such cases. But in case of short distances measurement, range around 10 meters, with a minimum distance around twenty centimeters, laser rangefinders are really useful with good resolution and rather low cost. Applications can have the following of white lines on the road, the target being easily cooperative, detection of vehicles in the vicinity, that means car convoy traffic control or parking assistance, the target surface being indifferent at short distances.

Date Published: 27 January 1998
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 3207, Intelligent Transportation Systems, (27 January 1998); doi: 10.1117/12.300874

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 3207:
Intelligent Transportation Systems
Marten J. de Vries; Pushkin Kachroo; Kaan Ozbay; Alan C. Chachich, Editor(s)