This PDF file contains the front matter associated with SPIE Proceedings Volume 9465, including the Title Page, Copyright information, Table of Contents, Introduction (if any), and Conference Committee listing.

NASA has been pursuing flash lidar technology for autonomous, safe landing on solar system bodies and for automated rendezvous and docking. During the final stages of landing, from about 1 km to 500 m above the ground, the flash lidar can generate 3-Dimensional images of the terrain to identify hazardous features such as craters, rocks, and steep slopes. The onboard flight computer can then use the 3-D map of terrain to guide the vehicle to a safe location. As an automated rendezvous and docking sensor, the flash lidar can provide relative range, velocity, and bearing from an approaching spacecraft to another spacecraft or a space station. NASA Langley Research Center has developed and demonstrated a flash lidar sensor system capable of generating 16k pixels range images with 7 cm precision, at a 20 Hz frame rate, from a maximum slant range of 1800 m from the target area. This paper describes the lidar instrument and presents the results of recent flight tests onboard a rocket-propelled free-flyer vehicle (Morpheus) built by NASA Johnson Space Center. The flights were conducted at a simulated lunar terrain site, consisting of realistic hazard features and designated landing areas, built at NASA Kennedy Space Center specifically for this demonstration test. This paper also provides an overview of the plan for continued advancement of the flash lidar technology aimed at enhancing its performance to meet both landing and automated rendezvous and docking applications.

3D LIDARs (Light Detection and Ranging) with 1.5μm nanosecond pulse lasers have been increasingly used in different applications. The main reason for their popularity is that these LIDARs have high performance while at the same time can be made eye-safe. Because the laser hazard effect on eyes or skin at this wavelength region (<1.4μm) is mainly from the thermal effect accumulated from many individual pulses over a period of seconds, scanning can effectively reduce the laser beam hazard effect from the LIDARs. Neptec LIDARs have been used in docking to the International Space Station, military helicopter landing and industrial mining applications. We have incorporated the laser safety requirements in the LIDAR design and conducted laser safety analysis for different operational scenarios. While 1.5μm is normally said to be the eye-safe wavelength, in reality a high performance 3D LIDAR needs high pulse energy, small beam size and high pulse repetition frequency (PRF) to achieve long range, high resolution and high density images. The resulting radiant exposure of its stationary beam could be many times higher than the limit for a Class 1 laser device. Without carefully choosing laser and scanning parameters, including field-of-view, scan speed and pattern, a scanning LIDAR can’t be eye- or skin-safe based only on its wavelength. This paper discusses the laser safety considerations in the design of eye-safe scanning LIDARs, including laser pulse energy, PRF, beam size and scanning parameters in two basic designs of scanning mechanisms, i.e. galvanometer based scanner and Risley prism based scanner. The laser safety is discussed in terms of device classification, nominal ocular hazard distance (NOHD) and safety glasses optical density (OD).

SensUp designs and manufactures electro-optical systems based on laser technology, in particular from fiber lasers. Indeed, that kind of source enables us to get a significant peak power with huge repetition rates at the same time, thus combining some characteristics of the two main technologies on the telemetry field today: laser diodes and solid-state lasers. The OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) fiber Laser RangeFinder (LRF) set out below, aims to fit the SWaP (Size Weight and Power) requirements of military markets, and might turn out to be a real alternative to other technologies usually used in range finding systems.

Over the past 15 years the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lincoln Laboratory (MIT/LL), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and private industry have been developing airborne LiDAR systems based on arrays of Geiger-mode Avalanche Photodiode (GmAPD) detectors capable of detecting a single photon. The extreme sensitivity of GmAPD detectors allows operation of LiDAR sensors at unprecedented altitudes and area collection rates in excess of 1,000 km²/hr. Up until now the primary emphasis of this technology has been limited to defense applications despite the significant benefits of applying this technology to non-military uses such as mapping, monitoring critical infrastructure and disaster relief. This paper briefly describes the operation of GmAPDs, design and operation of a Geiger-mode LiDAR, a comparison of Geiger-mode and traditional linear mode LiDARs, and a description of the first commercial Geiger-mode LiDAR system, the IntelliEarth™ Geospatial Solutions Geiger-mode LiDAR sensor.

Some results from a low light trial in Porton Down UK are described. The purpose was to compare imaging performance for active and passive sensors in the visible, NIR, SWIR, MWIR and LWIR bands concerning detection and identification of humans carrying certain handheld objects and performing associated activities. This paper will concentrate on results from active and passive NIR and SWIR only. Both NIR and SWIR sensors provided passive imagery down to illumination levels between 1-10 lux corresponding to sunset-overcast to moonlight. The active mode gave usable imagery out to 2-3 km at much lower light levels. NIR and SWIR sensor images are compared concerning target to background contrast, cloth recognition and the detection of humans, activities and handheld objects. The target to background contrast was often somewhat better in the SWIR as compared with the NIR wavelength region. The contrast between different types of clothing was in general more discriminative in the NIR vs the SWIR. This was especially true for the active sensing modes. The recognition of large weapons could be done out to 600-1000 m range and handguns out to the 300-600 meter range. We found that activities could be detected and recognized out to 1400 m at least, but depends on the contrast between the person the background.

Discrete return (DR) Laser Detection and Ranging (Ladar) systems provide a series of echoes that reflect from objects in a scene. These can be first, last or multi-echo returns. In contrast, Full-Waveform (FW)-Ladar systems measure the intensity of light reflected from objects continuously over a period of time. In a camflouaged scenario, e.g., objects hidden behind dense foliage, a FW-Ladar penetrates such foliage and returns a sequence of echoes including buried faint echoes. The aim of this paper is to learn local-patterns of co-occurring echoes characterised by their measured spectra. A deviation from such patterns defines an abnormal event in a forest/tree depth profile. As far as the authors know, neither DR or FW-Ladar, along with several spectral measurements, has not been applied to anomaly detection. This work presents an algorithm that allows detection of spectral and temporal anomalies in FW-Multi Spectral Ladar (FW-MSL) data samples. An anomaly is defined as a full waveform temporal and spectral signature that does not conform to a prior expectation, represented using a learnt subspace (dictionary) and set of coefficients that capture co-occurring local-patterns using an overlapping temporal window. A modified optimization scheme is proposed for subspace learning based on stochastic approximations. The objective function is augmented with a discriminative term that represents the subspace's separability properties and supports anomaly characterisation. The algorithm detects several man-made objects and anomalous spectra hidden in a dense clutter of vegetation and also allows tree species classification.

The application of non-line of sight vision and see around a corner has been demonstrated in the recent past on laboratory level with round trip path lengths on the scale of 1 m as well as 10 m. This method uses a computational imaging approach to analyze the scattered information of objects which are hidden from the direct sensors field of view. Recent demonstrator systems were driven at laser wavelengths (800 nm and 532 nm) which are far from the eye-safe shortwave infrared (SWIR) wavelength band i.e. between 1.4 μm and 2 μm. Therefore, the application in public or inhabited areas is difficult with respect to international laser safety conventions. In the present work, the authors evaluate the application of recent eye safe laser sources and sensor devices for non-line of sight sensing and give predictions on range and resolution. Further, the realization of a dual mode concept is studied enabling both, the direct view on a scene and the indirect view on a hidden scene. While recent laser gated viewing sensors have high spatial resolution, their application in non-line of sight imaging suffer from a too low temporal resolution due to minimal sensor gate width of around 150 ns. On the other hand, Geiger-mode single photon counting devices have high temporal resolution, but their spatial resolution is (until now) limited to array sizes of some thousand sensor elements. In this publication the authors present detailed theoretical and experimental evaluations.

Backscatter from atmospheric aerosols and molecular nitrogen and oxygen causes “clutter” noise in direct detection ladar applications operating within the atmosphere. The backscatter clutter is more pronounced in multiple pulse, high PRF ladars where pulse-averaging is used to increase operating range. As more and more pulses are added to the wavetrain the backscatter increases. We analyze the imaging of a transmitted Gaussian laser-mode multi-pulse wave-train scatteried off of aerosols and molecules at the focal plane including angular-slew rate resulting from optical tracking, angular lead-angle, and bistatic-optics spatial separation. The defocused backscatter images, from those pulses closest to the receiver, are analyzed using a simple geometrical optics approximation. Methods for estimating the aerosol number density versus altitude and the volume backscatter coefficient of the aerosols are also discussed.

This paper discusses an innovative, compact and eyesafe coherent lidar system developed for wind and wake vortex sensing applications. With an innovative all-fiber and modular transceiver architecture, the wind lidar system has reduced size, weight and power requirements, and provides enhanced performance along with operational elegance. This all-fiber architecture is developed around fiber seed laser coupled to uniquely configured fiber amplifier modules. The innovative features of this lidar system, besides its all fiber architecture, include pulsewidth agility and user programmable 3D hemispherical scanner unit. Operating at a wavelength of 1.5457 microns and with a PRF of up to 20 KHz, the lidar transmitter system is designed as a Class 1 system with dimensions of 30”(W) x 46”(L) x 60”(H). With an operational range exceeding 10 km, the wind lidar is configured to measure wind velocities of greater than 120 m/s with an accuracy of +/- 0.2 m/s and allow range resolution of less than 15 m. The dynamical configuration capability of transmitted pulsewidths from 50 ns to 400 ns allows high resolution wake vortex measurements. The scanner uses innovative liquid metal slip ring and is built using 3D printer technology with light weight nylon. As such, it provides continuous 360 degree azimuth and 180 degree elevation scan angles with an incremental motion of 0.001 degree. The lidar system is air cooled and requires 110 V for its operation. This compact and modular lidar system is anticipated to provide mobility, reliability, and ease of field deployment for wind and wake vortex measurements. Currently, this wind lidar is undergoing validation tests under various atmospheric conditions. Preliminary results of these field measurements of wind characteristics that were recently carried out in Colorado are discussed.

Airborne LIDAR instruments are capable of delivering high density point clouds, but sampling is inherently uneven in both 2D and 3D space due to collection patterns as well as effects like occlusion. Taking full advantage of the detail available when creating 3D models therefore requires that resolution be adaptable to the amount of localized data. Voxel-based modeling of LIDAR has proven advantageous in many situations, but the traditional use of a fixed grid size prevents full realization of the potential resolution. Allowing voxel sizes to vary across the model using spatial subdivision techniques overcomes this limitation. An important part of this process is defining an appropriate limit of resolution for different sections of a model, and we incorporate information gained through tracing of LIDAR pulses to guide this decision process. Real-world data are used to demonstrate our results, and we show how dynamic resolution voxelization of LIDAR allows for both reduced storage requirements as well as improved modeling flexibility.

This paper introduces a new concept that applies computational imaging techniques to laser radar for robotic perception. We observe that nearly all contemporary laser radars for robotic (i.e., autonomous) applications use pixel basis scanning where there is a one-to-one correspondence between world coordinates and the measurements directly produced by the instrument. In such systems this is accomplished through beam scanning and/or the imaging properties of focal-plane optics. While these pixel-basis measurements yield point clouds suitable for straightforward human interpretation, the purpose of robotic perception is the extraction of meaningful features from a scene, making human interpretability and its attendant constraints mostly unnecessary. The imposing size, weight, power and cost of contemporary systems is problematic, and relief from factors that increase these metrics is important to the practicality of robotic systems. We present a system concept free from pixel basis sampling constraints that promotes efficient and adaptable sensing modes. The cornerstone of our approach is agile and arbitrary beam formation that, when combined with a generalized mathematical framework for imaging, is suited to the particular challenges and opportunities of robotic perception systems. Our hardware concept looks toward future systems with optical device technology closely resembling modern electronically-scanned-array radar that may be years away from practicality. We present the design concept and results from a prototype system constructed and tested in a laboratory environment using a combination of developed hardware and surrogate devices for beam formation. The technological status and prognosis for key components in the system is discussed.

Photon-counting Geiger-mode lidar detector arrays provide a promising approach for producing three-dimensional (3D) video at full motion video (FMV) data rates, resolution, and image size from long ranges. However, coincidence processing required to filter raw photon counts is computationally expensive, generally requiring significant size, weight, and power (SWaP) and also time. In this paper, we describe a laboratory test-bed developed to assess the feasibility of low-SWaP, real-time processing for 3D FMV based on Geiger-mode lidar. First, we examine a design based on field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) and demonstrate proof-of-concept results. Then we examine a design based on a first-of-its-kind embedded graphical processing unit (GPU) and compare performance with the FPGA. Results indicate feasibility of real-time Geiger-mode lidar processing for 3D FMV and also suggest utility for real-time onboard processing for mapping lidar systems.

The project called High-Speed On-Board Data Processing for Science Instruments (HOPS) has been funded by NASA Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) Advanced Information Systems Technology (AIST) program since April, 2012. The HOPS team recently completed two flight campaigns during the summer of 2014 on two different aircrafts with two different science instruments. The first flight campaign was in July, 2014 based at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) in Hampton, VA on the NASA’s HU-25 aircraft. The science instrument that flew with HOPS was Active Sensing of CO2 Emissions over Nights, Days, and Seasons (ASCENDS) CarbonHawk Experiment Simulator (ACES) funded by NASA’s Instrument Incubator Program (IIP). The second campaign was in August, 2014 based at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC) in Palmdale, CA on the NASA’s DC-8 aircraft. HOPS flew with the Multifunctional Fiber Laser Lidar (MFLL) instrument developed by Excelis Inc. The goal of the campaigns was to perform an end-to-end demonstration of the capabilities of the HOPS prototype system (HOPS COTS) while running the most computationally intensive part of the ASCENDS algorithm real-time on-board. The comparison of the two flight campaigns and the results of the functionality tests of the HOPS COTS are presented in this paper.

Textured digital elevation models (TDEMs) have valuable use in precision agriculture, situational awareness, and disaster response. However, scientific-quality models are expensive to obtain using conventional aircraft-based methods. The cost of creating an accurate textured terrain model can be reduced by using a low-cost (<$20k) UAV system fitted with ladar and electro-optical (EO) sensors. A texel camera fuses calibrated ladar and EO data upon simultaneous capture, creating a texel image. This eliminates the problem of fusing the data in a post-processing step and enables both 2D- and 3D-image registration techniques to be used. This paper describes formation of TDEMs using simulated data from a small UAV gathering swaths of texel images of the terrain below. Being a low-cost UAV, only a coarse knowledge of position and attitude is known, and thus both 2D- and 3D-image registration techniques must be used to register adjacent swaths of texel imagery to create a TDEM. The process of creating an aggregate texel image (a TDEM) from many smaller texel image swaths is described. The algorithm is seeded with the rough estimate of position and attitude of each capture. Details such as the required amount of texel image overlap, registration models, simulated flight patterns (level and turbulent), and texture image formation are presented. In addition, examples of such TDEMs are shown and analyzed for accuracy.

The ability to create 3D models, using registered texel images (fused ladar and digital imagery), is an important topic in remote sensing. These models are automatically generated by matching multiple texel images into a single common reference frame. However, rendering a sequence of independently registered texel images often provides challenges. Although accurately registered, the model textures are often incorrectly overlapped and interwoven when using standard rendering techniques. Consequently, corrections must be done after all the primitives have been rendered, by determining the best texture for any viewable fragment in the model. Determining the best texture is difficult, as each texel image remains independent after registration. The depth data is not merged to form a single 3D mesh, thus eliminating the possibility of generating a fused texture atlas. It is therefore necessary to determine which textures are overlapping and how to best combine them dynamically during the render process. The best texture for a particular pixel can be defined using 3D geometric criteria, in conjunction with a real-time, view-dependent ranking algorithm. As a result, overlapping texture fragments can now be hidden, exposed, or blended according to their computed measure of reliability.

The urban forest is becoming increasingly important in the contexts of urban green space, carbon sequestration and offsets, and socio-economic impacts. This has led to a recent increase in attention being paid to urban environmental management. Tree biomass, specifically, is a vital indicator of carbon storage and has a direct impact on urban forest health and carbon sequestration. As an alternative to expensive and time-consuming field surveys, remote sensing has been used extensively in measuring dynamics of vegetation and estimating biomass. Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) has proven especially useful to characterize the three dimensional (3D) structure of forests. In urban contexts however, information is frequently required at the individual tree level, necessitating the proper delineation of tree crowns. Yet, crown delineation is challenging for urban trees where a wide range of stress factors and cultural influences affect growth. In this paper high resolution LiDAR data were used to infer biomass based on individual tree attributes. A multi-tiered delineation algorithm was designed to extract individual tree-crowns. At first, dominant tree segments were obtained by applying watershed segmentation on the crown height model (CHM). Next, prominent tree top positions within each segment were identified via a regional maximum transformation and the crown boundary was estimated for each of the tree tops. Finally, undetected trees were identified using a best-fitting circle approach. After tree delineation, individual tree attributes were used to estimate tree biomass and the results were validated with associated field mensuration data. Results indicate that the overall tree detection accuracy is nearly 80%, and the estimated biomass model has an adjusted-R² of 0.5.

A Monte Carlo ray tracing simulation of LiDAR propagation has been expanded to 3 dimensions, and makes use of the high-fidelity tree voxel model VoxLAD for realistic simulation of a single tree canopy. The VoxLAD model uses terrestrial LiDAR scanner data to determine Leaf Area Density (LAD) measurements for small volume voxels (~5 – 20 cm side length). The LAD measurement, along with material surface normal orientation information, is used within the Monte Carlo LiDAR propagation model to determine the probability of LiDAR energy being absorbed, transmitted or reflected at each voxel location, and the direction of scattering should an interaction occur. The high spatial fidelity of the VoxLAD models enables simulation of small-footprint LiDAR systems. Results are presented demonstrating incorporation of the VoxLAD model for realistic tree canopy simulation, and the full-waveform simulation capability of the Monte Carlo LiDAR code.

Full-waveform LiDAR data from an AHAB Chiroptera I system with 515 nm and 1032 nm lasers (~10 pts/m²), single-photon sensitive data from the Sigma Space HRQLS system with a 532 nm laser (~19 pts/m²), and discrete analog data from an Optech Orion C200 system (~88 pts/m²) were collected from aerial platforms over Monterey, CA, USA in fall 2012 and fall 2013. The study area contains residential neighborhoods, forested regions, inland lakes, and the Pacific Ocean near-shore environment. Significant ground truth in the form of GPS measurements and terrestrial LiDAR scans enable the LiDAR data to be compared in terms of measurement precision and degree of tree canopy penetration, as well as comparisons of derived raster products.

We evaluate the accuracy of 3 analytic approaches for computing the mean irradiance of beams propagated through atmospheric turbulence. The 3 approaches, representing major classes available in the literature, are the Markov approach, a modified Markov approach, and the Rytov Method. Accuracy is ultimately determined by comparison to results from a numerical solution of turbulent beam propagation. Of the 3 analytic offerings, the Markov approach yielded the most accurate and most generally applicable result.

In this paper, we use a non-Kolmogorov power spectrum with an effective anisotropic parameter to include the effect of anisotropy at different scales. By using the spectrum, we theoretically analyze the effect of anisotropy on turbulence parameters such as long-term beam spread and scintillation for laser beams propagating along vertical paths. Although our results are valid only for the case of anisotropy along the direction of propagation, they are of interest for applications such as astronomy, vertical directed energy and vertical laser communications links.

We present a frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar capable of measuring atmospheric turbulence profiles within the Earth’s surface layer. Due to the low cost and easily automated design, a number of units may be built and deployed to sites of interest around the world. Each unit would be capable of collecting turbulence strength, as a function of altitude, with a range of about 50 meters above the antenna plane. Such data is valuable to developers of directed energy, laser communications, imaging, and other optical systems, where good engineering design is based on an understanding of the details of the turbulence in which those systems will have to operate. The radar is based on the MIT “coffee can” design^1,2. It is FCC compliant, operating in the 2.4 GHz instrumentation, science, and medical (ISM) band with less than 1 watt effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP). It is expected to cost less than $1000 per unit and is built from commercial off the shelf parts, along with easily constructed horn antennas. Major modifications to the design in ^1,2 are the inclusion of horn antennas for directivity, and a straight forward processing software change that increases integration times to the order of tens of seconds to a minute. Here, a prototype system is described and preliminary data is presented.

A time-lapse imaging experiment was conducted to monitor the effects of the atmosphere over some period of time. A tripod-mounted digital camera captured images of a distant building every minute. Correlation techniques were used to calculate the position shifts between the images. Two factors causing shifts between the images are: atmospheric turbulence, causing the images to move randomly and quickly, plus changes in the average refractive index gradient along the path which cause the images to move vertically, more slowly and perhaps in noticeable correlation with solar heating and other weather conditions. A technique for estimating the path-averaged C ²_n from the random component of the image motion is presented here. The technique uses a derived set of weighting functions that depend on the size of the imaging aperture and the patch size in the image whose motion is being tracked. Since this technique is phase based, it can be applied to strong turbulence paths where traditional irradiance based techniques suffer from saturation effects.

We present simulation results that show circularly polarized light persists through scattering environments better than linearly polarized light. Specifically, we show persistence is enhanced through many scattering events in an environment with a size parameter representative of advection fog at infrared wavelengths. Utilizing polarization tracking Monte Carlo simulations we show a larger persistence benefit for circular polarization versus linear polarization for both forward and backscattered photons. We show the evolution of the incident polarization states after various scattering events which highlight the mechanism leading to circular polarization’s superior persistence.

Atmospheric turbulence causes the receive signal intensity on free space optical (FSO) communication links to vary over time. Scintillation fades can stymie connectivity for milliseconds at a time. To approach the information-theoretic limits of communication in such time-varying channels, it necessary to either code across extremely long blocks of data – thereby inducing unacceptable delays – or to vary the code rate according to the instantaneous channel conditions. We describe the design, laboratory testing, and over-the-air testing of an FSO modem that employs a protocol with adaptive coded modulation (ACM) and hybrid automatic repeat request. For links with fixed throughput, this protocol provides a 10dB reduction in the required received signal-to-noise ratio (SNR); for links with fixed range, this protocol provides the greater than a 3x increase in throughput. Independent U.S. Government tests demonstrate that our protocol effectively adapts the code rate to match the instantaneous channel conditions. The modem is able to provide throughputs in excess of 850 Mbps on links with ranges greater than 15 kilometers.

A free space optical communication link with simulated atmospheric turbulence investigation using un-cooled Mid-Wave Infrared (MWIR) system. Uncooled pulsed Quantum Cascade Laser was used as transmitter and photoelectromagnetic detector as receiver. For high photon efficiency and to eliminate QCL thermal effects signal was modulated at 32-ary Pulse Position Modulation (PPM) scheme. Concept enables extremely small and atmospheric propagation efficient optical communication system.

The aero optics effects caused by high speed flight may have a serious impact on the performance of space laser communication systems. In the field of space laser communication technology engineering and its practical application, this is a research problem that is highly significant. For the complex flow field that is generated by the interaction between the aircraft surface and air, the aero optics effects are usually divided into two parts, namely, laminar flow and turbulent flow. This paper discusses the principle of how the aero optics effect causes the image of the space laser communication optical system to blur and leads to a dispersed spot. The research focuses on the additional focal length (AFL) effect caused by the laminar flow field, a simulation analysis of the relationship between the flight altitude, speed, window shape and the system performance, and provides solutions to the defocus phenomenon that has been observed in airborne tests. Finally it is hoped that the paper can provide a solution that effectively compensates for the AFL effect on laser communication optical systems, and improves the communication between aircrafts.