SYNTHETIC WAVE LASER RANGING SENSORS AND METHODS

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide systems and methods for measuring a distance to an object with a high precision.SOLUTION: A method for measuring a distance includes: directing light beams from three or more continuous-wave lasers onto a target to generate an interference beam (702); and also frequency-shifting the light beams split off from the lasers to generate local oscillator beams (706). When the interference beam and the local oscillator beams are combined, the method further includes: determining optical phases of heterodynes produced by combining the light beams and the local oscillator beams (714); and determining synthetic phases by taking the difference between the optical phases of the heterodynes (718). The method further includes determining synthetic wavelengths on the basis of the differences between the frequencies of the lasers (716). The method further includes determining a distance to the target on the basis of the synthetic phases and the synthetic wavelengths (720).