Laser Rangefinder Applications

Laser rangefinder is a kind of equipment to measure the distance of the target, through the detection of the return signal of the emitted laser to achieve the determination of the target distance information. The series products have mature technology and stable performance, and can test a variety of static and dynamic targets, and can be applied on a variety of platforms.

Application areas.

Electricity, water conservancy, communication, environment, construction, geology, police, fire fighting, demolition, navigation, railroad, agriculture, forestry, real estate, leisure/outdoor, anti-terrorism/military

Main application directions.

In steel mills and rolling mills for process monitoring

Measurement of material and liquid levels

Positioning systems for trucks, loading and handling equipment

Measurement of parts that cannot be reached by human hands, such as tanks, pipes, containers, etc.

Positioning and monitoring systems for vehicles and ships

Position control of lifting and installation equipment

Measurement of inaccessible objects

Positioning of distance, position, liquid level, material level, production line billet transfer

XY positioning of traveling cranes

Elevator operation measurement

Positioning of large workpieces for assembly

Position monitoring of moving objects

Inventory management of large shelves

Geometric measurement of oversized objects

Automatic target distance control

Contact network measurement of electrified railroad

Railroad building limit measurement and water level measurement of rivers, lakes and seas, etc.

Specific application examples.

1.Scouting and positioning

Laser ranging technology can quickly and accurately measure the distance to the target, and is widely used in reconnaissance measurement and weapons fire control systems.

2.Precision strike

Commonly used contains semi-active laser guidance, active laser guidance, driving beam guidance, near bomb fuze number and so on at that time, has the advantages of high guidance accuracy, strong anti-interference ability, simple structure, low cost and so on.

3.Optoelectronic countermeasures

Optical countermeasures are a branch of modern electronic warfare and occupy an important position in future warfare. The use of optoelectronic devices or equipment through the action of light waves, intercept, identify the opponent optoelectronic radiation source information, weaken or even destroy the effectiveness of its optoelectronic equipment technical measures.

4.Anti-terrorism and riot control

The use of new laser and ranging technology used in the field of anti-riot, laser dazzling non-blinding, to achieve the effect of riot control

5.Topographic mapping

LIDAR technology is used for battlefield reconnaissance to obtain battlefield terrain information, which can produce very high resolution geometric images, distance images, velocity images, etc.

6.Car Collision Detector

In general, most of the existing car collision prevention system laser distance sensor uses laser beam to identify the distance between the target car in front or in the back situation in a non-contact way, when the car distance is less than the predetermined safety distance, the car collision prevention system to the car for emergency braking, or the driver to send an alarm, or comprehensive target car speed, distance, car braking distance, response time etc. to make instant judgment and response to car driving, which can reduce a lot of driving accidents. The advantages are even more obvious when used on highways.

7.Traffic flow monitoring and car profile drawing

This way of use is generally fixed to the gantry of the highway or important intersection, laser emission and reception vertical ground down, aligned with the middle of a lane, when there is vehicle traffic, the laser distance measurement sensor can output the measured distance value change in real time, and then depict the outline of the measured car. This measurement method generally uses a small laser beam dispersion angle, the range of measurement is generally less than 30 meters, and requires a relatively high laser ranging rate, generally requires a few hundred hertz can be. This can achieve very good results for monitoring in important road sections, can distinguish various car models, the sampling rate of the body scan can reach 10 cm a point, and the traffic limit height, limit length, etc. can be real-time output results. As Figure 3.

When there is no vehicle coming, the laser range sensor measures a distance constant, which is the distance from the rangefinder to the ground. When a vehicle passes under the rangefinder, the distance value changes, and when the distance value returns to the constant again it is considered that a vehicle has passed, according to this way we can monitor the traffic flow through some road sections. Nowadays, the commonly used method is the statistical averaging of the traffic flow over a period of time, with a large estimation component, and the method of video statistics still has many difficulties of realistic application, therefore, the laser ranging statistics method provides a feasible solution for the traffic flow statistics.

8. Vehicle Pedestrian Violation Monitoring

Since the laser range sensor beam is not a substantial obstacle, it does not hinder the normal operation of traffic when using laser range sensor to monitor the road surface. Therefore, in some road sections where parking is prohibited or pedestrian vehicle traffic is forbidden, a laser beam is used to parallel the road at a certain height for fixed emission or at a certain angle for scanning, and when a vehicle is illegally parked and runs a red light or a pedestrian illegally crosses a guardrail, etc., the laser distance measurement distance value changes and an alarm or warning can be given. This application beam is not necessary too wide, but generally requires a long distance measurement to ensure a certain road length of protection distance. The intelligent traffic violation monitoring system composed in this way will be greatly used in the traffic Internet of Things.

9.Laser speed sensor

Laser distance measurement sensor is one of the earliest forms of laser distance measurement technology in the field of traffic management, and it is gradually gaining popularity in practical applications because of its excellent performance. Laser range sensor is using the principle of laser distance measurement, is the measured object twice with a specific time interval of laser distance measurement, obtain the distance change of the measured object during this time interval, so as to get the movement speed of the measured object. Laser speed meter is divided into fixed and mobile two, fixed generally fixed in the roadside or gantry, to a relatively small angle to meet the incoming traffic, generally through the license plate reflection for measurement, measurement accuracy is relatively high, can reach ± 1 km / h, speed range up to 250 km / h, distance range in this application do not have to be too long, generally 80 to 100 meters can be. Mobile laser speed meter has higher operational requirements, the general beam divergence angle should be greater than 3 mrad, in view of the principle of laser speed measurement, the laser beam must be aimed perpendicular to the plane of the laser beam reflection point, and because the vehicle is in a mobile state, the vehicle plane is not large, and speed measurement takes a certain amount of time, can only be used as a temporary speed measurement, forensic applications. Laser distance sensor because the beam divergence angle is small, easy to speed forensics, unlike the radar Doppler speedometer, in the multi-lane measurement can not be sure of the specific speeding vehicles, and because the laser speed sensor is emitted near-infrared light waves, can not be radar detectors, electronic dogs, etc. probe side, and not easily disturbed by urban radar clutter. In view of the above advantages of laser distance measurement sensor, the application in intelligent transportation will become more and more popular.As shown in Figure 2.

10.Measuring the width of the boxes on the conveyor belt

Two dispersive transmission time laser distance sensors are used, mounted face-to-face on both sides of the conveyor. This information is sent to the PLC, which subtracts L1 and L2 from the total distance between the two laser sensors to calculate the width of the box W.

11. Use on port terminals

Laser distance sensors are used to measure the distance from ship to ship and the relative speed from ship to ship. It is used to detect the relative distance and speed from a ship to a dock or to another ship while a ship is moving. The ship adjusts the speed and course of the ship’s travel according to the digital signal output from the laser range sensor.If you use the head, you can measure the distance of the object in a certain angle range, and you can know the distance and relative speed of the object in that angle.

12.Use at train stations

Using a laser distance sensor, the distance from the train to the platform and the relative speed from train to train to the platform can be measured.

 13.Use on oil rigs

Using the laser distance sensor, you can measure the distance and relative speed from the rover to the top of the tower, to prevent the occurrence of “up to hit the bottom” accidents.

14.Protection of hydroforming dies

The robot places a pre-formed tube into the lower die of the hydraulic forming machine, and the operator must ensure that it is placed in the correct position each time. Before the upper die is dropped, a dispersion sensor measures the distance to the critical section of the tube, which ensures that the die is in the correct position before it closes.

15、Two-axis crane positioning

Two reflector-type sensors are used to face the reflector mount, which is mounted on two moving units of the overhead crane. One unit moves back and forth and the other moves left and right. As the crane drives the plate carrier rollers, the two sensors monitor the distance from each to the reflector, enabling continuous tracking of the precise position of the crane through the PLC.