Sub-spot localization for spatial super-resolved LIDAR

Third generation LIDAR full-waveform (FW) based systems collect 1D temporal profiles of laser pulses reflected by the intercepted objects to construct depth profiles along each pulse path. By emitting a series of pulses towards a scene using a predefined scanning pattern, a 3D image containing spatial-depth information can be constructed. Achieving super-resolution to resolve finer spatial details is of great interest because the spatial resolution of a LIDAR system is typically limited by the size of the spot on the target. In this study, we consider the problem of resolving range maps to resolutions smaller than the size of the spot using overlapping spots. This overlap provides the additional information needed to locate multiple objects within a spot using sparse source separation, thus achieving super-resolution.