Investigation on the occurrence of mutual interference between pulsed terrestrial LIDAR scanners

LIDAR scanners are essential components of intelligent vehicles capable of autonomous travel. Mutual interference between LIDAR scanners has not been regarded as a problem yet. Mutual interference was identified as a problem of increased importance because of the appearance of safety functions and the increasing rate of vehicles equipped with LIDAR scanner. This paper will show the probability that any LIDAR scanner is probably interfered mutually by considering spatial and temporal overlaps. It will present three types of experiments and their results are showed, according to the arrangement of two LIDAR scanners.