Fundamentals of Lidar Systems

  • Overview
  • Course Content
  • Requirements & Materials
Overview

Fundamentals of Lidar Systems

Course Description

Although Light Detection And Ranging (lidar) systems have been around since the invention of the laser, these instruments have seen remarkable development and deployment in the past decade. From their use as part of the sensor suite for autonomous vehicles for navigation, to their use in generating high resolution 3D maps, and to their use as remote sensing instruments to help forecast weather and laser beam propagation, lidar data products provide outstanding situational awareness for their users. This course provides an introduction to the fundamentals and the theory of lidar; their major components and architectures; optical, electrical, mechanical, and system performance analysis; applications in 3D mapping, atmospheric remote sensing, and bathymetry; and lidar data products.

Course Content
  1. Introduction to Lidar
  2. Lidar Applications
  3. Radiometry
  4. The Lidar Equation
  5. Sky background and Signal to Noise
  6. Statistics
  7. Detectors and Detection
  8. Target Detection Statistics
  9. Data Acquisition and Signal Detection
  10. Lasers
  11. Optics
  12. Scanners
  13. Coordinate Transformations
  14. Error Propagation
  15. Atmospheric Optics
  16. Coherent Lidar
  17. Bathymetric Lidar
  18. Atmospheric Lidar
    1. Elastic (aerosol, Rayleigh)
    2. Inelastic (Raman for temperature, water vapor)
  19. Other Types of Lidar
Requirements & Materials

Materials

Student will receive:

  • PDFs of course materials

Who Should Attend

This course is designed for program managers and engineers responsible for overseeing or contributing to programs related to the development, integration, analysis, and/or deployment of a lidar system.

What You Will Learn

  • How a lidar system operates and its major components
  • Example applications of lidar remote sensing systems
  • Characteristics of lidar architectures - optical transmitters, receivers, and detectors used in lidar systems
  • Performance analyses and engineering tradeoffs of lidar systems
  • Fundamentals of signal processing and data product generation (i.e. point cloud processing, atmospheric retrievals – extinction, wind, temperature, water vapor, etc.)
  • Target detection statistics and error propagation
Defense tech professionals attending a short course

How You Will Benefit

  • Become familiar with types of lidar and lidar terminology.
  • Understand the engineering tradeoffs that result in differing levels of lidar performance.
  • Learn how to process and exploit lidar data products.
  • Grow Your Professional Network icon
    Grow Your Professional Network
  • Taught by Experts in the Field icon
    Taught by Experts in the Field

The course schedule was well-structured with a mix of lectures, class discussions, and hands-on exercises led by knowledgeable and engaging instructors.

- Abe Kani
President

TRAIN AT YOUR LOCATION

We enable employers to provide specialized, on-location training on their own timetables. Our world-renowned experts can create unique content that meets your employees' specific needs. We also have the ability to deliver courses via web conferencing or on-demand online videos. For 15 or more students, it is more cost-effective for us to come to you.

  • Save Money
  • Flexible Schedule
  • Group Training
  • Customize Content
  • On-Site Training
  • Earn a Certificate
Learn More

Want to learn more about this course?