Optical range finder for 1.5-10-m distances.

A time of flight method is suggested for measuring distances in large manipulator range-finding applications. Light pulses of a SH laser diode are used. Special attention was paid to reducing the pulse amplitude variations in the transit time measurement. Preliminary results with a prototype have proved the method to be highly usable in measuring position, orientation, and shape of the objects within a 1.5–10-m range. The resolution of the distance measurement is ±1 mm with a measuring time of 10 msec.